Educational Impact
How important is advanced education to you? On a scale of one to 10, I would like to believe that DERMASCOPE readers’ answers would be a whopping 10. Those of us who are more seasoned in the industry and are masters of our domain know without a shadow of a doubt that our knowledge is an intricate part of our success formulation.
Take time to investigate all that is available for you to expand your knowledge in treatments offered to your clients. The more you comprehend the What, How and Why’s of what you do, the better you will come across as an expert. You are not limited to what your state offers in terms of education. Take a good look to other states, countries and continents and sign-up for what seems interesting to you. We can learn so much from each other across the globe. Grab a flight and spread your wings! It is a tax write off – just go for it!

Mastered Skills Impact
Build your confidence by building your skills. Take time to learn and to advance the modalities you perform every day. The better your skills, the better the results will be. The better the results, the happier the client is. The happier the client is, the more confident you become. The more confident you become, the more the client is inclined to listen to your suggestions. The more the client listens to your suggestions, the more they are likely to follow them and to purchase retail. The more they purchase retail, the better their results become. The better their results, the more profit you make (or commission). The more profit you make, the better the business. The better the business, well … you get the drift. It becomes yet another full circle!
Encourage all new practitioners to return for ongoing education from skills improvement, product knowledge, treatment efficiencies, et cetera. From all my personal travels across the globe, the most common words I hear is that practitioners always take away something new – something fresh; they always pick up new tricks that help them to master their skills. That is what ongoing classes should provide you … more confidence!

Consultation Impact
Consulting with your client can be informal at the treatment table or formal in a private consulting room. In either case, it is your chance to evaluate their hair and skin condition and the goals they would like to achieve.
With professional treatments, you can offer a variety of options to help them reach their goals. Consultation time is a perfect opportunity for you to express your thoughts on reaching their goals and what it will take to do so. If you have done your homework on product knowledge, you will be able to make suggestions with absolute confidence. Your client will sense this and be more inclined to trust your advice – your suggestions.

Assessing Client Needs

• How quickly do they want results?
• Which body parts do they want treated?
• What is the condition of their skin?
• Consider & recognize their desired results?
• Do they suffer from acne, psoriasis, or eczema? Consider what products will help with their skin conditions.
• Do they have the budget to commit to a new regime? If the client cannot afford to come in for additional services then showing them how to use the take home products will allow them to reach their goals.
• Do they have the time to commit to a new regime? The client may not have time at home but has the income to come in to have the extra services/treatments done in the salon/spa.

Your job is to extract this information from the client in order to make your educated and educating recommendations/suggestions.

Business Profitability Combo Impact
Happy customers are clients that come in regularly for their sugaring services and who use at home skin care regimes suggested by you to upkeep their skin’s condition. A practitioner who advanced her/his skills in order to offer better care to individual clients’ skin issues is profitable. They combine their acquired products knowledge of what works best for which skin condition and perform their advanced skills to remedy individual skin care needs.
Moreover, practitioners that regularly check in on their client’s goals to see which ones are being met and which ones need to be tweaked are more successful than those who do not and generally have a committed, loyal clientele. Satisfied happy clients recommend friends and family! Never underestimate the power of word of mouth.
At the end of the day, ask yourself if you did all that you could to help your clients and in turn help your business. If you answered yes … good for you! Keep up the great work as it must be making you feel happy! If you answered no, then I suggest you ask yourself a few questions and be very honest.

• Did I engage with my client or was I just going through the motion of the treatment?
• Did I mention anything about her/his skin – good, bad or indifferent?
• Did I make the decision for them that they would likely not buy anything today?

You should easily see the reason(s) for what stopped you from offering your suggestions; not engaging with the client is a sure way to keep your retail sales low or non-existing.

Examples:
The client has an appointment for an eyebrow treatment. Why not add on the upper lip as a freebie? Chances are the next time the client will want to upkeep that upper lip. If you are treating the legs and working on the upper thigh, give the client a free basic bikini to enjoy. If you are treating the bikini, offer the underarms for free. I had many clients say that they shaved a couple of days before when I offered this. My comment … no worries! I will get the hair out for you. Now that impressed them and in turn they got the underarms sugared at every treatment session afterwards – and paid for it.
Sampling works because the next visit the client will want to keep that area smooth and hairless as part of their regular services. Sampling also works for other related treatments such as simple salt glows and mud wraps. Why not do a quick salt glow on the client’s arms and then wrap it up with a mud wrap and let it do its work while you go on with the hair removal treatment. When you wash the mud off, the arms will look and feels amazing. What I like to do is actually treat one arm rather than two to show the difference. Then it is easy for me to recommend that they take home the salt and mud and continue to use it in the simple manner that I just did. And they can do this all over their body for optimum skin results. Bottom line: the proof is in the pudding! So, take time to let your client experience something outside their pre-booked services.

How to Pull it All Together!
When you return from educational classes back to your salon/spa, you will have fresh ideas to share with your clients and improved techniques to perform on them. As consumers, we all appreciate it when our technicians care enough about their jobs and about us to keep improving and in turn improving us.
But it does not stop there, nor does it initially begin here. Remember when I asked if you are happy doing what you do? It stems from that point because if you do not enjoy removing hair, repairing damaged skin, taking care of your clients with true satisfaction, et cetera … you may very well be in the wrong business.
The power of suggestion is very easy when the power of belief is in you. Utilize all of the tools available to you and merge it with your ongoing belief in what you do and what you can achieve for your clients and for yourself as a practitioner and possibly an owner.
Assessing each client that walks through your business door will help you to reach their individual goals. And, engaging with a client by giving them 100 percent attention can be very influential. It lets the client know you are confident and you care about their individual needs. Demonstrating passion for the well-being of a client is a sure way to build a trusting relationship.
So the next time you allow your brain to tell you that “this client cannot afford that – or – this client would never go for this – or – this client cannot …” STOP your brain. Utilize your gifts, your skills, your tools, and formulate your best advice and suggestions that will deal with and improve your client’s skin and hair issues. Look at them in the eyes, touch their skin and begin to explain why you are recommending, what they can expect, and how it will work. Share your knowledge and educate your customer. You will be surprised at the results of your suggestions. In the end, they will be pleasantly surprised at their results too!
I am personally guilty of being over-confident and not giving an option to some past clients whereby they had to purchase some items that I KNEW without a shadow of a doubt would help to clear up some issues. What I did convince them of is that I would refund them if there were no improvements within the first month. I have never had to exercise that promise! Everything stems from my abilities to provide results. I believe!

Lina Kennedy, president of Alexandria Professional headquartered in Welland, Ontario Canada. 800-957-8427, www.alexandriaprofessional.com