How to build a SALES focused team

Building a sales-focused team isn't about teaching better sales scripts—it's about building confidence.

In this episode, Nic and Tess unpack one of the biggest reasons salon teams struggle to sell, recommend premium services, or confidently charge their prices. The answer isn't a lack of skill. It's often a team's relationship with money, self-worth, and the beliefs they've developed over time.

They explore how money mindset influences sales conversations, why people-pleasing can lead to undercharging, and how salon owners can coach their teams through these challenges with curiosity instead of judgment.

If you want a team that confidently recommends what's best for clients, charges appropriately, and contributes to a thriving salon business, this episode is for you.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• 💰 Why money mindset has a direct impact on your team's sales performance
• 🧠 How limiting beliefs stop stylists from confidently recommending premium services
• ❤️ The connection between people-pleasing and undercharging clients
• 🔍 How to uncover the real reason your team avoids selling or upgrading treatments
• 🗣️ Coaching strategies that build confidence instead of creating shame
• 🚀 Practical steps to help your team confidently charge their worth and create a stronger sales culture

To follow our journey:
Instagram @aheadhair_
@the_conscious_salon

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:52

This episode of the Conscious Zellen podcast is brought to you by CPR Hair.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Welcome back to another episode of the Conscious Zellen potty. Yay.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Tess. Love that shirt, mate. Honestly. Good, isn't it? It's so good.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

It's one of the um it's another one that I want us to have matching, which I know you love.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Blue's not your colour.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Pink is, though.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Pink's not usually your colour.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

I don't you're like not my self-esteem in the toilet.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Um okay, yeah, go for it. You can have it. Or you can borrow this one anytime. And it's quite a thick material, which I love. Like it feels like a really premium t-shirt. I do.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

I just remembered that we're in a podcast, which is an auditory experience for most people. Yep, if you're watching on YouTube, you're welcome. And if you're listening, it's a site for um get onto the YouTube, actually.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

You'll see it there. If you're listening, like I'd Google really stereotypical mum tees, and you'll be able to find this t-shirt

Sponsor And Shirt Banter

SPEAKER_01 1:50

somewhere. So, Tess, I want to talk about something today that has come up a lot. And I was actually, I actually heard it from uh one of our girlfriends the other day, and she was talking about her team members feeling uncomfortable charging premium prices in a salon environment, and we were unpacking it a little bit. We were at an industry event and we started to unpack it. And I said to her, This is a great, this is a great piece of content for the podcast. It's always my line is I'm gonna go and spill the beans of this on the potty.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

So she was basically saying to us that her team members were undercutting, not undercutting, but like downgrading clients, downgrading clients, um, or not feeling comfortable to upgrade clients. Um, and we we were unpacking it quite a bit. And I the first thing that I asked this girlfriend was tell me a little bit about this team member. Tell me about what

Why Premium Pricing Feels Uncomfortable

SPEAKER_01 2:48

their characteristics are, tell me what you know about the way that they grew up, tell me what you know about their family dynamic. And she was sort of looking at me like, what does that have to do with the way that she's charging? And and I said to her, so much of the work that we do with team members is around money mindset. And this is something that we've done really openly with our team in terms of our uh self-development, our team development program, our life ahead program in our salon. And we really, like when we started deep diving into self-development, we really brought that into our team and wanted to share that with our team. And a lot of people I get that they're um not that comfortable peeling back that layer with their team members, and so be it. But we really encourage the salon owners that come into our world to share self-development with their teams. So one of the biggest and most transformative, I guess, things that we have deep dived in, deep dove into, whatever, deep dived into in our self-development journey has been money mindset and the mindset that we have around holding money, attracting money, retaining money, making money, spending money, all of those things. And it's been money, money, money. Money, money, money. And it's been, well, it's really interesting because as business owners and as female business owners, often we have fucking terrible relationships with money. We have underlying um feelings towards money, feelings about greed, feelings about um being inadequate with money, feelings about not being responsible enough to hold money. There's so many things worthy, there's so many things that societal beliefs come into with this in terms of women holding money, women making money, women spending money. And this is something that when we unpack it with our team, often what we can see playing out is things that are underlying for them. So while we're not advocating for you to go into your team after hearing one podcast episode about money mindset and thinking that you're going to change your team's whole upbringing and try to be a therapist, we are absolutely not saying that. But what we want to do is we want to open up the conversation and just invite a different perspective that may be playing out within your team using this example. So we started to unpack what this team member, how this team member had grown up and what she had seen growing up from what this salon owner knew about her. And in that moment, I stopped my girlfriend and I said, Stop. We don't have an issue with this team member thinking that your salon prices are too expensive. What we do have an issue with is that this person doesn't feel worthy to charge this amount. This person doesn't think that they're good enough to charge this amount that you are wanting to charge the clients. Do you think that she's good enough? And the salon owner said, Absolutely, she's incredible. Her skill set's amazing. It it's absolutely worthy of that. And then we really switched her thinking into you don't you don't have a problem with the team member not being able to say a price at the front desk. You have a problem with that team member actually feeling like they deserve to charge that amount with the skill set that they have. So there's a whole, whole different shift in terms of the mindset around that. She was going into that, prepared to teach technical skill of how we could make this person better or how we could create content to show that this person's skill set is at a more superior level. What we actually needed to train in was how that team member can heal or um work on or feel better about the way that they actually charge and the worthiness that they have. What do you think about this? How have you seen this play out?

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Yeah, I mean, I think this is something that plays out a lot, you know, even from my own experience with this of For a long time I used to have the running belief that I was bad with money, I didn't know how to hold it, respect it, and like it would like mum would say it'd burn a hole in my pocket. I'd get it and spend it. And you know, I'd also started working when I was like 15. I was working full-time. So I had a lot a lot of, you know, I mean, you know, I was earning about five dollars an hour, but you know, at that time I was I was working full-time. Well, you were the only person that would have been getting several hundred dollars in a paycheck exchange. Yeah. Yeah. So I think with this, what I have really found with the belief system, when we first started our salon, I remember us setting our prices and then just knocking $10 off. And our motto at the time was um hair and beauty, like what was it affordable?

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Advanced affordable treatments.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Yeah. And that was one of the things. And I remember saying to clients, like, you know, you just don't need

Worthiness Behind The Price Conversation

SPEAKER_00 7:24

to charge an arm and a leg. Now I had no fucking idea because I hadn't done any costing profits, any understanding of what was happening. We just did the old, we'll just do a quick gauge of what everyone on average is spending and take $10 off and everyone will come and see us. And there were, we do get a huge influx of clients, but we weren't profitable, we weren't making any money. And the types of clients that we were working on were not ones that uh that would constantly keep pushing on that thing of not being worthy. Keep feeling like I was greedy if I was charging them full price, or you know, so I'd do things like um a full head of foils, but only charge them half because I'd feel like, oh, this way I'll keep them, and if I keep them happy, they'll keep coming back to me. And this is something that as we start talking about money, people's true like beliefs and systems and things that they've learned and experienced with will start rising to the surface. So whether that is not being worthy of it or not being able to hold it, or whether it is things that they've watched with their parents playing out that has impacted how they show up. I think this is something that everyone will have a different money story and money um experience. I am yet to come across someone that's had a like ironclad money mindset from the jump. I don't feel like as individuals or as human beings that's possible. I'm happy to be proven wrong, but I'm yet to meet that person. But one of the things that we can really see from this is really two ways that this can go. We can coach and we can support and we can give phrasing and we can give um role-playing and we can do all of the work on it. If that doesn't change, there can be a belief that's playing out that they're not acknowledging. Or there can be almost a decision of like, I can't do that. So then we need to also have a potential opportunity to have a conversation of saying, I see where you're at, however, this is not sustainable for the business. And this is something that we also see play out with salon owners and their teams when they're bringing this sort of stuff in. Mindset's one thing, but behavior and continuous of like staying in that and not moving through it and not trying or even like being open to trying something different, that's gonna be a problem for you. And I think with when you're bringing this in when you said to this salon owner what's her like relationship with money, what did she see growing up, what do you know about her dynamic with money? You can really tell pretty quickly about whether it's a belief that's playing out that they're wanting to um shift on it, or if it's a almost like a a a conscious um decision with it of being like this this is this is my limit, this is where I'm at, and this is it's not moving on that.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Absolutely. I think the other thing to note as well is that we are an industry that is made up of mostly empathetic people. So so many empaths go into the hair and beauty industry because they want to go that you know, you go into an industry that is about serving other people. You have to have a level of um people pleasing tendencies in that, in that that that's that's the job, a lot of it is pleasing people. So even those people pleasing tendencies thinking if if it's if the bill is not as big for a client, maybe she'll like me more. Maybe they will connect with me more, maybe they'll request me again, maybe they'll think I did a better job. It can just come down to that that little insecurity of not feeling worthy of charging that.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

So I want to give some practical advice because I think a lot of salon owners will hear this and be like, oh shit, that's what's happening in my team. Well, that's maybe what I'm doing when I get to the register with a client and checking a client out. It's certainly what Tess and I both did in the treatment room once upon a time. So one

Empathy And People Pleasing In Salons

SPEAKER_01 11:12

thing that I really want to, I want to give you guys three tips. If this is happening with your team or if it's happening with you, I want you to start by first and foremost getting curious. So if it's happening with a team member and you can see it playing out, I want you to sit that team member down and actually ask them the question. I want you to point out the behavior. I've noticed that you are giving treatments for for free, or I notice that you're reducing treatment costs. Tell me a little bit about what's happening there. And I want you to really meet them with no judgment. Tell me about what's happening there. Tell me about this situation. We actually had this in one of our group containers recently when a client came in and

Three Steps To Change Charging Habits

SPEAKER_01 11:52

said, you know, my team member is not charging, and I'm now hearing about they're giving treatments away or, you know, doing really advanced treatments and not charging for them. And I said, you know, this may go against any other advice that you would ever have. But what I'm hearing here is people pleasing tendencies that your team member is having to try and get clients to like her more. And and this salon owner was was definitely concerned that there was, you know, theft and there was this and that. And I could see other people in the community were also saying, you know, that's not cool, and whatever. And I said, I really want to bring a different perspective in for you. And I want you to hear this perspective that perhaps your team member has, while it's still not okay, and we're gonna correct the behavior, that person has people-pleasing tendencies that we have to address here. So I think first and foremost, you're gonna get really curious around it. If it's your own behavior, I want you to sit with a pen and paper and actually write down what am I, what do I notice with myself when I get there? When, at what point during the transaction with the client do I start to get anxious? What feelings come up for me? Is it fear? Is it fear of the client abandoning me? Is it the fear of disappointing or upsetting the client? Is it fear of a client thinking that they were ripped off? What is it that comes up? What's the actual feeling and try to name that feeling? The next thing I would love you guys to do is I want you to deep dive into money mindset. So this is not a one and done thing. I work on my money mindset literally every single day. And as someone who has three businesses and holds a lot of money responsibility for a lot of people, I work on my money mindset every single day. So a couple of things that I can recommend, you know, is heaps of different money mindset podcasts. But if you're a book reader or if you're an audiobook girly, good with money. It is written by a millennial woman for millennial women to help you to heal your relationship with money. As I said, if you don't read, just get the audiobook and listen to it. But binge it. I have read it seven times and I like probably more than seven times, and I get something different out of it every single time I read it. I love it. It completely changed my relationship with money. I think a third thing that you can do is to educate yourself as much as possible on money and what your relationship with money can do. And you can pass this information on to your team as well. Do you want to throw something in there of what you want to recommend?

SPEAKER_00 14:19

I think the most important thing with this is working out when you start getting curious with someone and you start breaking this down. For me, the most defining moment was when I was actually able to identify why I believed that I wasn't good at money. Was it something that was told to me? Was it something that I'd heard? Was it something I'd created with myself? Why did I keep going back to that? And I think the biggest exploration that you can do with someone that's open, like people have to be open to do it. There will be people in your team who just will not be open to doing that. There will be people who will always do a, you know, half head of foils and then just chuck a couple down the bottom just to get the client through. That client will not have a full head of foils for years because she's always getting just those couple down the bottom. God. Yeah. This is something that I feel when we actually start identifying, getting curious, like we can change what we acknowledge. So if we are actually getting curious about not just the belief, but why that's come up, why that is happening. Like for me, a large amount of it was not just what I was telling myself,

Finding The Origin Of Money Beliefs

SPEAKER_00 15:17

but because I would have different inputs of people telling me that, like, God, you spend a lot of money. And that started building up, or like that's burning a hole in your pocket and X, Y, and Z. I started truly believing, well, it's like literally that thing of like, well, may as well like go with it anyway. Like I once had a boyfriend that used to say that I was fat, and I was like, I'll show you fat. I gained 30 kilos because I was like, well, he thinks I'm fat anyway, so I may as well fucking eat what I want and sit on the couch. And I was laughing now. Totally. Bitch. But I think with this, it is, it can be like if you find the evidence as to why you believe or feel, why your team member is behaving or doing the thing that it is, nine times out of ten when we do this with teams and other people's teams, when we actually sit with people and get them to identify why they feel what they feel about themselves or why this story is playing out for them, it will come up from something they've either seen from someone else, like like witnessed it, they've had told to them, or they just have this inner belief of I'm not worthy, I'm not enough, I'm not, X, Y, and Z. When they identify that, they can heal it. If we keep sitting in the unknown of it or the like ignoring of it and just like, this is how I'm gonna be, that then becomes a choice. I think it's paramount for people to identify if this is playing out, get curious about what's coming up, as you said. Like ask questions, but find the reason that this is happening, find where this has come from. Because if we find that like start point, we can go back to it and start unlearning it or doing differently. It's a process, it's gonna be hard. You're gonna have to work at it. But that's where I believe true change can happen is identifying the reason as to why that behavior or belief is playing out.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Absolutely. Amazing. Thank you guys so much for listening to another episode of the Conscious Helen Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Love you guys, stay conscious.