Retail Training

The retail segment of your spa or practice is one of the least understood or properly planned “profit centers”. Profit centers are “businesses within the business” that can produce additional revenue.

We can help you identify different retail profiles, how to motivate your staff, how to work with vendors and how to introduce and sell products within the medspa.

First and foremost, retailing should be a key component to your business plan. When executed properly, it will supplement your income in a major way. So don’t think of retailing as an after-thought.

Your staff will respond to “selling” by how important it is to you. Don’t expect them to get excited about promoting products if you don’t make retailing an expectation of their job.  If you demonstrate enthusiasm and build a reward structure to demonstrate your commitment to it, they will respond positively.

Here is a breakdown of the most important fundamentals of retailing:

Product selection: Make sure to carry a nice variety of products to accommodate all of your patients. That means you should offer moderate to luxury price ranges

Product Training: It is mandatory that each and every staff member receive vendor training and products to try on themselves

Bundling: Bundle products with services to move more items. Don’t expect patients to come to the conclusion that they need sunblock, skin lightening serum and mineral makeup with an IPL treatment. Make it easy for them to make the right decision

Sales Goals: Each staff member must have clearly defined sales goals and repercussion for not implementing and rewards for implementing

It is important to know that the majority of employees will be motivated by cold hard cash (commissions and bonuses). In addition, they are motivated by free products, preferred schedules, and free treatments.  Fpr more on how to motivate your staff, click here.

The Heart of Your Business: the Front Desk

The Heart of Your Business: the Front Desk by Jennifer Devlin, Medspa Marketing Institute

Here are just a few quick words on the important of a well-trained reception / front desk staff for spas and medspas.

Your front desk staff can make or break your business. If not properly trained to close a sale, you can watch your marketing dollars go right out of the window. They will be using the most important tool in your business, the telephone – so leave nothing to chance and set up phone etiquette standards.

Develop a phone script system for all aspects of your business:

• Script how your staff will answer phones
• Script how your staff will handle walk ins
• Script how your staff will confirm appointments
• Script how your staff will book promotions

Instead of hiring young college coeds (that may look beautiful) for minimum wage, hire the best you can afford. In fact, you could go so far as to hire professional telemarketers and station them in a separate room away from the front desk to close/upsell/confirm appointments.

By doing so, you will boost the number of appointments that you book significantly.

The Medspa Marketing Institute offers affordable in-spa training of your staff and front desk and can develop effective phone scripts for you.  Please contact us for more information.

Are You Committing These Retail Sins?

Are You Committing These Medspa Retail Sins?

By: Jennifer Devlin, Marketing Goddess, www.MedspaMarketingInstitute.com

They say time is money and that phrase couldn’t be more true when it comes to spending quality time on retailing.  Here is a universal truth about spa owners/spa directors: Most of them don’t spend quality time with their vendors and that’s a shame because your vendors can and should be your partner. They can provide displays, schematics, employee incentives and bundling ideas and, if they are really good partners, they will help you move dead stock by either creating a unique promotion or doing a stock balance return. However, if they don’t hear from you, they will assume you are doing fine. I have said it before and I will say it again, choose your vendors not only by the reputation of the products they sell, but (almost more importantly) by the service they provide.

1. Schedule a monthly conference call with each one of your vendors: Find out what is new, what press they have been mentioned in, what promotions they are offering, schedule an event in your spa, schedule training for new hires, create an monthly employee incentive and most importantly- share your sales figures with your vendor (for their products only).
2. Reports: The information is in the data and you should have at your fingertips all the necessary information which will give you a clear cut picture of your retail business. An accurate report will provide you with how much you have sold by vendor, your top sellers and your slow movers. Your monthly orders should reflect these reports and you should never be out of stock on a top seller. Likewise, if you have merchandise that has been sitting on your shelf for three months, it’s time for a sale.
3. Create retail product bundles by price: Generally speaking, people don’t like to make decisions, and if they do, they are afraid to make the wrong decision, so make it easy for them – create retail product bundles by price and lifestyle and then feature them prominently in your spa.
4. Use celebrity power to boost sales: If you have a variety of merchandise, find out from your vendors which celebrities use their products and then boast about it! People love to use what celebrities use.  Many times a vendor will create shelf-talkers featuring magazines covers and excerpts which you can then use in your merchandising efforts.
5. Tie in services to retail bundles: Every single service you offer should have a suggested retail component, especially packages. For example, a fathers day promo should include (or at least suggest) a shaving cream and SPF moisturizer. You can either include the cost of the bundle with your service and present it as a free gift or offer it as an add on for a price break.
6. Change visual displays at least once per week: This is a staple in most high-end department stores. Referred to as a “floor change”, they understand that people respond differently to different things. You have to keep your retail area fresh and relevant, especially if you have the same patients coming through every 4 weeks.
7. Appoint a designated person to handle retail: This includes speaking with vendors, writing orders, checking in orders, etc. Too many cooks in the kitchen – and things get lost in translation. It also makes it difficult to for the vendor to communicate if they have to repeat the same story to several different people. If you have a lot of different vendors, spread the responsibility over several employees.

Great retail doesn’t just happen. I wish I could tell you that placing pretty boxes of merchandise on a shelf and then forgetting about them would make you rich,  but it won’t. It takes focus, attention and planning, but when it  takes off, it can be a silent selling machine, providing a constant flow of residual income.

Medspa Success = Expectations… What Are Yours?

Medspa Success=Expectations, Question Is, What Are YOUR Expectations?

by Jennifer Devlin, Marketing Goddess, Medspa Marketing Institute

Anytime I am asked about evaluating a medspa’s retail business, I first ask a series of detailed questions of the owner. I also ask the same questions of the staff in casual conversation. I do this to demonstrate that more often times than not, an owner thinks she is on the same page with her employees, but they are miles apart in terms of expectations.

Setting expectations functions like a road map to get you where you want to go. Without it, your staff is just blindly selling without a strategy in mind and their results will be mixed; some good selling days and some not-so-good selling days. Wouldn’t you like to have a flourishing retail business with consistent results?

The following is a list of the exact same questions I use during a Retail Sales Analysis to determine a retail diagnosis. I can tell immediately what is wrong with a medspa’s retail plan by analyzing this data. The answers will be revealing and will help you develop your own road map to success. If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you need to – because it can mean the difference between having a 25% sales to service ratio or a 1% sales to service ratio.

By the way, a sales to service ratio is the percentage of product you sell in comparison to services. A 25% sales to service ratio means that for every $100 you sell in services, you should be selling $25 worth of products.

The great thing about retailing, is that when it is done strategically, you can realize massive profits without having a price increase or hiring another employee. It really is like igniting a silent selling machine!

1. Do you have retail goals in place for each employee or department? If so, what are they (by month, week and day)?
2. Are these goals posted somewhere visible in your spa?
3. What are the consequences for not meeting the goals?
4. Who is in charge of reinforcing the expectations?
5. What is your current sales to service ratio for the spa? For each individual?
6. How is your patient database compiled and segmented?
7. Do you keep a log of all their purchases (both retail products and services)?
8. How are retail purchases followed up? (For example, do you send a thank you note, do you phone the patient a couple of days later to ask if she has any questions about product usage?)
9. How do you handle product returns?
10. What is your average monthly total services?
11. What is your average monthly total product sales?
12. What is the average number of patients that visit your medspa?
13. How is your retail introduced to your patients? (For example, do you use the products in your back bar? Are samples provided? Do you have a large retail display area? Are they mentioned in your newsletters or marketing campaigns?)
14. Has each and every employee received vendor training?
15. Do you provide continuing education for your employees?
16. Are your vendors present for quarterly training updates?
17. How often do you do a merchandise display change?
18. Is all of your vendor training information located in one area of the spa?
19. Do you have specific “product of the week” specials?
20. Do you take monthly inventory of your retail merchandise?
21. Do you know what your par levels should be for your retail merchandise?
22. Are you overstocked on any merchandise and if so, do you know how to quickly liquidate that merchandise?

In my future posts, I will be discussing vendor and employee training strategies, which will provide you with easy strategies and tactics to increase your retail business.

The Easiest Way to Increase Your Medspa Profits by at Least 33%

The Easiest Way to Increase Your Medspa Profits by at Least 33%

by Jennifer Devlin, Marketing Goddess, Medspa Marketing Institute

Marketing statistics tell us that 33% of people will buy anything that is put in front of them ? the question is ?are you putting something in front of every one of your patients??

Take a cue from the biggest players in the retail, QVC and Estee Lauder. They don?t assume that their customers know what to do, they make it easy for them to say yes by eliminating the decision making. Allow me to explain.

Most people are afraid to make the wrong decision so they make no decision. Both Estee Lauder and QVC bundle products together to solve a certain problem. If a customer wants to get rid of wrinkles for example, she can purchase a bundle of products that have targeted items to give her results.

When do you introduce products to your patients? Is it an afterthought when they are on the way out the door, or do you introduce products during the consultation phase? Do you present them almost apologetically or do you prescribe them as law?

If product sales intimidate you or your staff is less than enthusiastic about sales, use these easy-to-implement tips and watch your profits soar:

1. Bundle products to services. For every service you offer, make a bundle of 3 products to support that service. (Example: For an IPL service, create a bundle of sun block, lightening gel and mineral makeup)
2. Don?t assume patients will read directions: Create your own internal medspa prescription pad that has easy to read instructions. Vendor brochures tend to be overwhelming especially useful if you are bundling different vendor products together
3. Introduce products in advance of the actual service: During your initial consultation get the patient on board with compliance. Educate her about why she needs to be compliant with her home care and then prescribe what you would recommend (it all comes down to results ? she will get better, faster results when she is using appropriate products)
4. Absorb the price of the bundle with the service: If you have amazing products that you know will make a difference in a patient?s treatment, why not include them in the total cost of a series? You can always use travel sizes if the cost for full size products is prohibitive. The idea is to get your patient hooked on the product
5. Match back bar products to retail products: If you offer high end products for sale, you must also be using them for services too. People want to be able to feel, touch and smell the product. They also want to see a difference for themselves

Remember, your patients have to buy their products from somewhere; it might as well be from your medpsa! If you introduce each and every patient to products this way, you will see an immediate increase in sales as well as establish yourself as a one-stop place to shop.