“Listen to your team.” The 4 lessons Trinny Woodall's learnt since becoming her own boss.
Many women will remember Trinny Woodall giving women makeovers with her partner in fashion crime, Susannah back in the early ’00s.
Their hit television show and books, What Not to Wear, not only transformed the way women looked but also, more importantly, how they felt.
These days, Trinny owns and operates Trinny London, an all-online makeup company. And again, through it, aims to help women be their best self every day.
In these recent, crazy COVID-19 times, Trinny sat down with Mia Freedman to explain how Trinny London has adjusted to this global pandemic and to share the four most important lessons that she has learnt since becoming the boss of a fast-passed beauty company.
1. Know how to talk to the customer.
Trinny explains that the most important thing for running and operating a business in 2020 is to know your customer, and specifically, how to talk to them.
“I know how to talk to women and have a social media platform, but not in a sales-y way. I talk about many things and I talk about Trinny London and there is this give and take,” she begins.
“I’ve always felt that if you can talk to somebody enough about why something is going to be a benefit in their life, they will overcome many things to get in their life. So that I do have a fundamental belief of.”
And when speaking to the customer it’s not about selling the product, it’s about making the customer realise they want it.
“It’s like the golden circle of Apple. Apple didn’t try and sell us a computer, they sold us a way of life. I don’t do this ruthlessly, I do this because it’s how I feel. I want a woman as a result of listening to me to feel better about herself,” Trinny continues.
“If I can do that and they understand my passion, then, when I talk about my makeup with passion, they get that too.
“It’s trust.”
2. Trust is extremely important.
When growing a customer base, Trinny believes trust is one of the most important tools.
“A super fan will know that I will talk about Trinny London but I’m going to give them advice that’s unbiased. I don’t have a deal on or affiliate link.
“There is that honesty. And I think honesty brings trust. You go to brands you trust online, you trust them telling you the story and you trust that story is right for you.”
3. Listen to your team.
Although Trinny runs the company, she knows that it is important to listen to everyone involved in getting the product out there.
“My CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) always says to me, ‘You don’t understand how much your team is affected by what you say. You need to really understand that so it works positively not negatively,” Trinny explains.
“There are egos in businesses and it’s about managing those egos.
“So I made a New Year’s resolution on January 1st, where I don’t want to have conversations where I say, ‘I wish you had.’ Because, how is that helping anyone? So now I do, ‘Next time, will you please consider the following… ‘”
4. Know your role in the business.
Although listening to your team is extremely important, Trinny knows that when it comes to the customer, trust your guts.
“Your role is always evolving, but I’ve always had two defining roles. One role is being the face of the brand and then there is me running the business, being the founder and the CEO. But then I have my management team. And those three people know a lot more than I do about those subjects, but I know a lot more about what the customer needs than all of them put together,” she shares.
“So I need to listen to my knowledge of those women and how they will react. And not be swayed by a marketing guy saying why we should be doing something.”
Feature image: Instagram/@trinnylondon
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