Marketing Lessons From My Salon Didi

didi

/ˈdiːdiː/

Noun INDIAN

Older sister. 

The power of having an MBA degree is ginormous. It’s like a status symbol for many in Indian society, just like IITians, Engineering, or a yogi (oops!). MBA and startups rock in the same cradle. 

Got one, start one. However, the “real” marketing tips and tricks are stored in premier B-Schools, but with your local service providers, a.k.a your kiranas (local grocery shopkeepers), salon didi (women who work in salons in India), doodhwala (milkman), etc. 

Talk or deal with any one of them, and you will – either be giving in to their demands or buying a hoard of products from them. 

Read on and share if you can relate to these instances. 

Courtesy my genes; I have to visit the salon every third-week. And it’s the same place (I dunno why, but I end up there. It’s some kinda magic they use I guess :P) 

It doesn’t matter whether you carry lump some in cash or not – thanks to eWallet, you need to get hypnotized as their customer. 

SELL THE PROBLEM. NOT THE SOLUTION 

If you’ve watched the Bollywood movie “Made in China,” you’d then come across the infamous dialogue, “who is a customer?” “the customer is a C*&^$*ya!” And that’s exactly what I become when I am at the salon. 

I wish I could tell my salon didi the same thing that one of my best friends (Girl you know it’s you!) had spewed on her ex, “Kya mere maathe pe likha hai, aao c$%^& banao?” (English translation: Is F*c%er written on my forehead!) 

Sell the problem. And precisely that my salon didi resorted to. Better than AI technology and faster than Mentalist, she would instantly read my thoughts (more like entering my insecure soul) and scout through all my physical problems. 

A simple service of getting my eyebrows done will propel the salon didi (funny, I never asked for her name) to analyze above and beyond my eyebrows. And once locked in, she will barge you with every single imperfection visible on my face – 

And from my face, she happens to move slyly on my head – counting every strand, as if it skimming through a stack of fresh cash. 

Emerging bout of dandruff

Rough hair, which she can feel on her hands (supposedly and also feel sorry for) 

Now that she scanned through all my problem areas (which in all honesty does not need heightened services or products to resolve them) – she shared it all, in a concerning tone (as if it hurts her … almost kills … to see me in my present condition). 

BE CONSISTENT. PERSUASIVE UNTIL YOUR CUSTOMER GIVES IN

Consistency and persuasiveness are crucial to selling any product or service. And my salon didi has doused herself with these two attributes, so much so that you’re in her clutches now. 

She will continue to talk about your problems and her products as THE solution, meticulously through her lips, while tightly pinching the thread and like an expert working on my eyebrows (MAD SKILLS: LEVEL 1) 

And throughout the painful experience of getting your eyebrows done and legs waxed, you’re on the verge of enduring no more – And the mix of pain with your imperfections, perfectly highlighted by the salon didi better than the highlights she did on my hair. 

I ultimately gave in and moved out with a bagful of conditioners, shampoos, toners, and creams (which btw are stacked and not yet used because I DIDN’T … NEVER .. NEEDED THEM in the first place)!