We recently welcomed Tamara Shaw to the Vita-sol team as the Business Growth Manager. Tamara will be helping to strategise and grow your clinic through careful prescription and retail articulation.

Tamara shares three actionable things that you can do within your business right now to improve your retail sales and re-ignite the passion you have as a skin therapist.

1. You must have brand representation within your business. 

As an example when we look at the brand Vita-sol we know that it's internal nutritional support that is formulated to sit alongside your current skincare ranges and clinic treatments. 

So in saying that you will have your treatment menus displayed and your skincare displayed, Vita-sol should be displayed and represented as well. 

The thinking is similar to when you are out at a party on a Saturday night, and there's a big lovely platter in front of you, abundant with delicacies, it's full to the brim and you eat from it. However, if there's one little piece of cheese, or one little cracker or strawberry that's been sitting there for hours, then you're a little bit more hesitant to actually pick it up and eat it. 

It's exactly the same for your retail products, your menu and also your Vita-sol. If you've only got one or two products sitting there, the client looks at it and thinks, why is it the last one sitting there on the shelf? Is there something wrong with it? We know that there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, but it's just a psychological thought that we have. Abundance breeds abundance.

So your brand representation needs to be full, and looking fabulous. This comes down to everything from cleaning your shelves, having testers for clients to touch and feel, wiping down the products if they've been sitting there for a little while.

When you walk into a business and everything is just beautifully laid out it's initiates an internal appreciation, and you just feel good about that product already, it builds trust in your mind. Does your retail space entice you as a business owner? Or as a consumer?

2. Look at your customer journey. Many business owners and therapist have not actually been through their own customer journey. Because as business owners and therapists, if we have a treatment at work we just say "Oh, don't worry about doing a consultation, I'll just jump on the bed" or "Oh, don't worry about putting on the headband, just grab the cleanser". We don't actually experience the entire customer journey from the minute the client walks in the doors all the way through to when the client walks out the door. 

Going through the customer journey and understanding what the key points are is going to help you to further improve, build and grow your clinic.

When you do have the understanding of every talking and touch point it will be easy for you to implement Vita-sol as you would a topical skincare brand as it will begin from the very first consultation. You will delve deeper into their lifestyle and their eating habits, you will notice how their skin looks during the consultation and start thinking about the nutrients that their skin could benefit from.

Following on from the skin analysis will come through to the prescription of products and treatments to support your clients skin.This is when you'll be giving a shot of the recommended Vita-sol product. Now, this is not a taste tester like if we are offering someone a flavored lolly as a client may think "oh I really love the taste of beetroot, give me the beetroot tasting one". Vita-sol will help to support your clients skin from within and further enhance the other treatments and products that you prescribe to them.

3. Changing your language can really help to boost the positive thoughts of your clients to build trust and also to help with compliance when recommending homecare.

When we talk about a product we often use the words, "this is the Vita-sol Infinity powder and what I'd like you to do is, mix two teaspoons into water each day", compare it to "Mary, this is your infinity powder. What you're going to do when you get home this afternoon, and you're in your kitchen is I'd love you to leave the Infinity powder on your bench to start with. And every single morning, what you're going to grab a glass from your cupboard, pop in some cold water and add two teaspoons of your Infinity powder, mix it in and then drink it". 

What does the second style of language do? It helps your client to visualise using the product in their day to day life, it gives them ownership and allows them to see themselves implementing their product into their lifestyle 

So the recap on three things you can implement today:

The first is to have a look at your #shelfie. Take one if you haven't already and upload it onto your and Instagram and all of your socials and your Facebook, have a look at the brand representation. 

The second one is to have a look at your customer journey. When you're less fully booked in the coming weeks go through your customer journey with your therapists. Think about your customer touch points and where and how to implement Vita-sol in different ways along the customer journey so that you can start creating a consistent message. And the third is to start practicing using different language. Include "your", "you" when speaking with clients to help create a visual for them of using products at home. Also practice using words that imply a group mentality as well, examples include, "what most of our clients do", or "what our clients find really beneficial", or "our clients have found great results in mixing three powders together". 

It can be difficult to break habits, so when you start using these techniques, it can be a little bit tricky at first. But practice makes perfect and progress is better than perfection!

If you would love to book a strategy session to further discuss how you can further build your business please book a meeting with our Vita-sol Business Growth Manger, Tamara Shaw here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/t-shaw