Trying to build your color business during the holiday season? Try these tricks to keep clients coming back and entice new customers into your chair.

1. Partner up. If your salon is departmentalized, ask the stylists to talk up color to clients who’ve never tried it before. Offer to come over and do a free consultation with a client as she’s finishing up her cut. Even if the client decides not to spring for color right away, you’ve planted the seed in her head.

2. The Gift of Color. Clients always think of giving spa gift certificates as holiday presents, but what about highlights for the new year? Create a sign for your station that says, “Ask me About the Gift of Color.” Let clients know they can purchase a gift certificate for a friend, daughter, mom or any other special person in their life who could use professional color. They get to give a unique gift and you get a new client.

3. Create a Look Book. Pull some of your favorite celebrity hair color from magazines, add photos of your own work and update regularly. This will be a visual tool that will help you have productive conversations with wishy-washy clients.

4. New Year’s Sparkle. For that client who always sticks to the same shade of brown, entice her to try something new by giving her a few free-of-charge foils around her face. It’ll add a little sparkle to her basic brunette and encourage her to make an appointment for a full head of highlights in the new year.

5. Teen Time. Do you have a teen clientele? Try a few, fun clip-in highlights for the holidays. A little streak of red may lead to major change down the road.

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