The art of upselling is a skill to be developed and nurtured. It is a soft technique where the seller persuades the client to buy a more expensive product instead or add on a product or service to make the sale more profitable. It is, in essence, taking the person from one price point to another with the client seeing the direct benefit of paying more. Cross-selling and upselling do have differences; specifically, upselling is an upgrade, while cross-selling is the addition of a related product or service. While technically different, it is easier to group them both together under the banner of upselling in the cosmetic industry.

The skill of upselling is a delicate balancing act, as no one enjoys being sold to in an aggressive manner. The spa is an ideal environment to perfect this soft persuasion of a beneficial upsell. The relationship with the client has already been established and there is an element of trust. According to the book “Marketing Metrics,” the probability of selling to a new client is 5% to 20%, whereas selling to an existing client is as high as 60% to 70%. Another benefit is that it is an educated sell to an existing client who is already in the environment looking for self-improvement and beauty advice. This is much easier than a cold sale to a new person. The takeaway point is if the upsell is done with the client’s benefit at heart, it is so much easier because the approach is more genuine. (Relationships are key and clients in a spa environment are the most important relationship.)

A restaurant or fast food outlet is an ideal example of a place to experience an effective and subtle upsell. When placing an order, you most often hear these familiar questions: “Do you want fries with that? Any sides? A starter?” This is classic upselling.

Factors to consider when upselling

Tailor the Upsell to the Client

Whether they have bought from you in the past or not, the data you collect from clients can shed some light on their purchasing habits. If they have been consistently looking for the latest and greatest (like a newly released procedure or serum) they are likely looking for quality over value. It would make more sense to recommend other newer or higher-end products rather than low-cost alternatives. The same applies if someone is always looking for a deal; here, a two-for-one or a sale item could be the nugget. Understand the individual client.

Make the Upsell Relevant to the Client’s Original Purchase

If they buy an eye serum, try to get them to pre-purchase an eye treatment (with a percentage off the full price) or add an eyelash enhancement serum.

Discount the Upsell

This will accentuate the value proposition even more.

Take Advantage of Opportune Times

Make the upsell directly at the time of the original purchase. It is possible to sell future services at the same time as a single product purchase. Again, discount the future service so the value is there. The other option is to offer a repeat discounted purchase of the same product, like a membership renewal. Build repeat sales by offering the same product to be shipped out to the client every two months at a discount with free shipping. You can also offer a treatment every four weeks at a discounted price when purchased in a pack of multiples.

Another effective time to upsell clients is when they have achieved a milestone. After they have been a paying customer for a period of time (10 facials, for example), consider offering them a special discount on a service or product as a recognition for their loyalty. This goes a long way to build a deeper relationship. This is similar to the coffee shop loyalty programs where the 10^th cup is free. The difference here is that it is just a discounted service or product.

Solve a Problem

If the client buys makeup, they might also need a makeup remover. If a client buys a face wash, they might make good use of a mechanical face wash tool.

Eliminate Risk

Have samples, free returns for products not opened, and reviews of products and services.

USE ONLINE TOOLS

There are also many great upselling opportunities if the spa has an online store. Most e-commerce platforms have either built-in upselling features or plug-in apps that can be added to upsell intelligently and automatically. These apps will typically offer a cross-sell on the shopper’s cart page, which uses data from past shoppers to suggest items which are frequently purchased together. The example of purchasing both makeup and makeup remover applies just the same in the digital world. Upselling apps can also be programmed manually to offer specific items when the cart reaches a certain dollar amount.

There are also e-commerce apps that encourage clients to add more to their cart in order to reach a free shipping threshold.

Upselling is an easy way to increase your average order value and, like any tool, it must be used intelligently. Sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer puts upselling into perspective when he describes it as helping a client win: “Tell me how I win. When I win, you win.” Loyal clients are worth keeping and should be rewarded for being regular and consistent, rather than annoyed and driven away. Never sell to an angry or upset client.

In the end, even though it has been proven to be easier to sell to existing clients, only sell to them when upselling will help them improve and reach new, beneficial goals.

A fundamental altruist, Dr. Janine Ellenberger has incorporated compassion, improving the well-being of others, and innovation in all of her ventures. The daily practice of caring for patients (highlighted that diagnosis is just the beginning) and that patient education is integral in the management of all health issues. As medical director to Dermaconcepts USA, an international speaker, and guest lecturer at Canyon Ranch, (the power of knowledge in overcoming health obstacles was reinforced.) She is the founder and CEO of GR8 Skincare, a skin care company integrating the best of science and nature in one product line. gr8skn.com

The extra lip scrub or head massage may not seem like much, but add-on services play an essential role in increasing spa revenue, as well as improving the overall guest experience a client receives. While most spas offer enhancements, many are not maximizing the percentage of clients who purchase additional services. The missed opportunity for added revenue through add-on services can be attributed to multiple factors, including the types of enhancements offered, marketing tactics, and the language staff use to present the add-on treatments.

To explore add-on treatments and how they can boost revenue for your spa business, let’s start with discussing the trending enhancement treatments which target our current types of clients.

TOP FIVE TRENDING ENHANCEMENTS

Flash Beauty Treatments: With their busy lives, clients can be in a hurry and seek treatments for instant gratification. Offering quick, waterless, miniature facials allows the client to experience multiple skin care products they wouldn’t have encountered without receiving a full facial. They can also be performed virtually anywhere, including at a cosmetic station or in a retail space, and offer a fast way to provide incredible looking skin without a lot of time or significant financial commitments.

Deluxe Scalp Treatments: Perform a deluxe scalp treatment with warmed oil you also carry in the retail area of the spa. Take the scalp treatment to the next level with a steam capsule over the hair to infuse the ingredients further into the scalp and follicles. This service can be added to virtually any service, including massage, aesthetic, and salon services.

Age Management Hand Treatment or Hydrating Foot Treatment: This service can also be added onto virtually any service by simply:

• Applying a sugar scrub to the hands or feet
• Removing with a hot towel
• Applying a mask or wrap to the hands or feet and wrapping in warm mitts
• Removing with a hot towel and applying an antiaging body lotion or oil

Back Treatments: For massage therapists and aestheticians, this is an excellent opportunity to extend the benefits of a facial to the body, treating body breakouts, sun damage, and dryness. The treatment can be as simple as performing exfoliation or scrub, applying a purifying mask, and finishing with a body lotion application. A perfect time to feature this treatment would be during swimsuit season or throughout the holidays.

Eye and Lip Treatments: Considering most consumers are concerned with aging around the eyes and lips, it makes sense to keep this as a staple offering on the menu. Elevate these services with a microcurrent device, jade rollers, and cold globes, as well as advanced Hungarian massage techniques, to provide an instant lift. Incorporating these additional modalities into the treatment ensures the client feels they are receiving a service they could never perform themselves.

Many of the products utilized for these add-on treatments should also be carried in retail, as an additional goal of providing add-on treatments is to increase retail sales.

TOP 5 MARKETING TIPS

How you feature, promote, and market the enhancement services have a huge impact on sales success. Here are some savvy marketing tips to help your spa raise awareness of these add-on services.

Menu Incorporation

Rather than integrating enhancement services permanently on the menu, creating menu inserts offers flexibility in changing add-on services seasonally or as new add-on treatment opportunities evolve. It also stops the client before they have the chance to look at the full menu and puts the enhancement services first in their mind.

Smart Verbiage

Using the terms “treatment elevations” or “spa enhancements” when you categorize the add-on services in your menu sounds much better to the consumer instead of add-ons. The term add-on can sound like spending more money to clients, while the term “enhancement” or “elevation” can be perceived as increasing the results and service, presenting more value.

Create Points of Interruption

Points of interruption are intentional areas throughout the spa dedicated to catching the client’s eye with marketing pieces. These interrupt the “autopilot” many clients are in while perusing the spa space and could be anything from a feature table, menu insert, or poster to a 360-degree tester table or before and after pictures. Being intentional with these points of interruption is essential to driving your message home to the client. A client needs to see a marketing piece five times throughout the spa before they remember the service you are trying to sell.

Offer Limited or Seasonal Promotions

When offering a new enhancement service, doing so as a promotion for a limited time only creates a sense of urgency and can be used to encourage the client to book the service. For example, if your spa generally has fewer facials scheduled throughout March, you can leverage an enhancement as a gift for booking a facial during that time. Always remember to present the dollar value of what they are getting for free, so the client knows the value of the enhancement they are receiving.

Be Consistent and Educate More Than You Sell

Consistently feature add-on services you are trying to promote throughout your client contact channels. The type of content you create can make or break the promotion’s success, so taking a traditional, “sell, sell, sell” approach can be off-putting to clients, causing them to skip over your social media posts or ignore promotional e-mails you send. A good rule of thumb is to have 80% of your content focused on educating the consumer on a specific skin care topic and only 20% of the content dedicated to the actual promotion of the enhancement. The education creates the need for the service and the client sees the value in purchasing the add-on service offered.

In summary, the key to success in offering add-on treatments lives in five key areas:

1. Offering enhancements which are appealing to your current market
2. Consistency in promoting the add-ons across all channels that reach the client, such as social media, e-mail, and print collateral such as posters
3. Smart verbiage used by the staff and throughout the marketing and promotional materials you create to sell the enhancements
4. Offering enhancement services in all categories of your business (salon, massage, nail, and skin services)
5. Grabbing the attention of the client with five points of interruption throughout the spa, as well as enticing them with limited time and seasonal promotions

Focusing on these areas will go a long way towards helping to maximize the percentage of clients who purchase add-on services.

Brian Goodwin is an international educator for Eminence Organic Skin Care and began his education in cosmetology at the prestigious school, Paul Mitchell. Originally intending to do hair while he figured out a career path in music, Goodwin quickly discovered aesthetics was his passion. Since this realization, he has become a master medical aesthetician, master herbalist, and consultant working in the industry for 14 years, providing educational trainings around the world.

With thoughtful communication methods, attention, and dedication, you can offer clients unparalleled service, while increasing your salary each step of the way.

When communicating with clients, it is important to exude confidence. Confidence comes when we know our craft and have honed our skills. Confidence is expressed with concise and effective communication. When you take the knowledge you have acquired and condense the information into easily understood verbiage, you can convey your messages clearly every time.

Let's talk about how long waxing has been around. Depending on the sources, it is suggested that waxing originated in Egypt in 1150 B.C. though some say as early as 3000 B.C. I am going to say it is safe to assume that if a process has existed thorough that many centuries, it can be considered a “tried and true method.” Fads will come and go, but waxing is here to last. Let’s talk about why.

METHOD

Waxing is relatively inexpensive and when performed well, it is pain-free. Part of what is necessary to perform waxing services like a professional is to expedite the service. By this I mean not counting to 10 or pulling slowly.

Many think moving slowly equals being gentle, however the most advanced approach is to move swiftly with a delicate touch. This doesn’t leave time for the client to build up anticipation, resulting in their nerves being on high alert.  Having said this, I am not condoning jumping into a service without a thorough consultation. It is important to guide the client on the steps you will be taking before you initiate the service. This way they know what to expect.

Moving swiftly and holding the skin will allow the wax to pull out individual hairs and not break hair off at the root – resulting in immediate hair growth at minimum and in worse case scenarios, painful and unsightly ingrown hairs.

This leads to my next topic. Informing clients what to expect both in the service and when they leave the spa is of the utmost importance.

There are three different phases of hair growth. Clients have asked how long it has been since shaving or waxing upon booking in order to achieve longevity. Having enough hair growth equals longer lasting smooth skin. If you book your own appointments the responsibility falls on you. If not, the front desk staff should be well-trained on the appropriate verbiage to use when receiving waxing requests.

Because there are three stages of hair growth, any person looking to get waxed will need a minimum of two weeks hair growth after shaving, ideally three. Three to four weeks growth post-waxing service, in order to have all three stages long enough to be pulled by the hair bulb. The hair bulb sits at the base of the hair follicle. If the hair breaks off at the epidermis because it is too short, the client will feel the prickliness of those pesky hairs immediately.

When a client is well educated, they will understand why you may be making certain timeline requirements and it also becomes very apparent to them that they are in good hands with well-trained and knowledgeable experts.

When clients get a high level of quality in our services, they feel complete trust knowing the results of their service will be achieved with excellence and they will look forward to taking your recommendations seriously.

The recommendations that pair well are always going to be associated to the last service you provided or the next service you will be providing for the client.

For example, say a client comes in for a facial. The natural recommendation will be suggesting an eyebrow shaping. When a person is taking time to take care of their face, they are showing interest in the appearance of their skin and overall look of their face. Besides a well-managed skin care routine with both facials and at-home care, regular eyebrow maintenance is key for improving the overall look of every individuals main focal point.

When you are seeing someone for a bikini wax the obvious next choice is to offer a partial or full Brazilian waxing. We are past the days of receiving these services just for a beach vacation or a romantic partner. These services have been an integral part of what many consider necessary grooming.

Use each service as a building block to the next.  With a half leg wax, why not get a full? With any wax, why not try the underarms? You really can’t go wrong. This is a topic where less is more – less hair that is – except with eyebrow shaping. Leave those babies full and your clients will be coming back for that youthful look over and over.

Leah Simon-Clarke is a licensed aesthetician and consultant. In the 20 years Simon-Clarke has spent in the industry, her success has been driven by honing her skills in customer service, service innovation, marketing, and public relations. Find Simon-Clarke through Twitter @LeahSimonClarke or Linkedin by name.

Laser-based treatments can be some of the most transformative treatments for a client, but also some of the riskiest, as improper application can result in blistering, delayed healing, infection, and even scarring. If your scope of practice includes light-energy devices, you need to know how light energy is absorbed by the skin. Skin of color requires additional consideration when performing laser treatments.

UNDERSTANDING WAVELENGTH

Lasers are wavelengths of light that convert to energy and can be precisely controlled through technology. The light waves travel cohesively in one direction and penetrate to a specific depth in the skin. Each laser has a specific chromophore or target that they are attracted to. There are five relevant chromophores: water, melanin, fat, hemoglobin, and a foreign substance, such as tattoo ink.

Typically, the longer the wavelength, the deeper it travels in the skin. Concerning laser wavelengths common for hair removal, a laser that is 810 nanometers travels deeper than one that is 755 nanometers, and a laser that is 1064 nanometers travels deepest. This trend is constant until 1300 nanometers, when the energy shifts and begins to penetrate less deeply.

An intense pulsed light device (sometimes called an IPL or photofacial) uses light energy in a similar way to a laser but has more risks associated with it. Rather than using a single wavelength from the visible light spectrum, an intense pulsed light device uses filters to block wavelengths in the spectrum that are not needed for the treatment. Despite the filters, additional wavelengths can still pass through into the client’s skin. Since these renegade wavelengths don’t travel uniformly, they may affect parts of the skin you did not intend to target.

The challenge during a laser or intense pulsed light treatment session when the chromophore is melanin is that the light doesn’t know if it should target the melanin in the skin or the melanin in a hair follicle. Additionally, when laser energy travels into the skin, not all of the energy is absorbed. Some of the energy scatters into the surrounding tissue. This creates a riskier situation for a client with skin of color, as resulting heat can create post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.

Since longer wavelengths have less scatter, the gold standard for laser hair removal is the 1064 nd:yag long-pulse laser. The light energy penetrates to the bulb of the hair follicle in a pulse that is one-thousandth of a second. This is enough time to destroy the follicle’s ability to grow hair if the treatment is done while the hair is in its anagen, or growth, phase.

TREATING SKIN TONES

Skin of color frequently has to deal with pseudofolliculitis barbae, or curved hair follicles that can cause hair to grow back into the skin. If dead skin cells, sebum, and dirt collect over the top of the hair follicles, clients can experience simulated folliculitis, or inflammation of the hair follicle. There are many recommended skin care treatments to reduce pseudofolliculitis barbae, but laser hair removal with a 1064 nd:yag long-pulse laser is currently the best solution.

Melasma is a hormonal pigmentation disorder. Melasma requires a combination approach to keep it under control. Treatments that include tyrosinase inhibitors, sun protectant factor products, chemical peels, and the use of Q-switch lasers have all improved outcomes for clients with melasma. The laser pulse lengths appropriate for hair removal are far too slow for treating melasma. Instead, use a Q-switched laser that delivers energy in billionths or trillionths of a second.

Timing is extremely important in any laser treatment, but especially when treating skin of color. If the pulse is too slow, the heat from the pulse will dissipate into the tissue and can cause inflammation or increased melanocyte production as the body tries to protect itself. Q-switch timing is so incredibly fast that melanin is shattered into tiny fragments for the body to absorb and the heat produced cools quickly enough that the surrounding tissue does not have time to absorb the energy.

BENEFITS OF TREATMENT

Laser skin rejuvenation for improving fine lines, texture, and pore size is best achieved with a fractional laser rather than a full on skin resurfacing laser. The fractional approach creates a controlled injury in small segments or channels of the skin, leaving the skin surrounding it uninjured. The risks of post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation and keloid scar formation are greatly reduced with a fractional treatment.

For the best outcome, your client needs to have a treatment plan that includes a series of sessions – conditioning the skin by starting with conservative settings. Gradually increase the strength or intensity as their skin increases tolerance. Homecare that includes melanocyte inhibiting products will help to prevent post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.

Advances in skin care technology have created amazing opportunities for laser technicians to offer transformative skin rejuvenation treatments without the risk of a surgical procedure. With the right light-based treatment using optimal settings, clients with skin of color can achieve their skin care goals without complications. Skin of color can enjoy the benefits of the new technology with a conservative, mindful approach.

A technician, educator, mentor, and business owner, Mary Nielsen has been at the forefront in medical aesthetics since its infancy in the early 1990s. She is currently vice chair and industry expert on the Oregon Board of Certified Advanced Estheticians. She is the author of “Fearless Beauties,” along with other aesthetic texts. She is the executive director of an aesthetic school, the founder of Fearless Beauties, and the creator of Cascade Aesthetic Alliance and Skintelligent Resources.