You purchased body contouring equipment – now what? How do you bring it up to clients in a non-offensive manner?
Non-Invasive body contouring is one of the beauty and wellness industry’s most rapidly growing categories. It currently is a 6.1 Billion dollar industry and is expected to grow to a 9.1 Billion dollar industry by 2024. Body Contouring is evolving quickly, both in terms of technology available to offer treatments and in the number of clients seeking treatment. When starting out there is a bit of a learning curve in how to properly communicate with clients when discussing body contouring. Here are some tips to help you get comfortable with these topics and deliver the message in an effective way. It all begins with Education.
Invest in Education and Quality Body Contouring Equipment
Often I hear Esthy’s or Body Contouring Specialists complain about how expensive a course is or how expensive a certain device is. Thinking of education and devices to help your business grow as simply a cost is not the best way of looking at it. Your education and experience is the only thing nobody can take from you. Read that last sentence again – Investing in classes and courses and other continuing education will never be a waste of money or time. This is an investment in yourself.
I would say the same regarding investing in quality body contouring equipment. It is extremely important that you purchase from a reputable company that offers customer support and a warranty. This will ensure that you not only get a quality and functional piece of equipment but that you also get the support that you need should anything go wrong. Having someone to call and respond to you within 1-2 business days is not too much to ask of a company that you are investing thousands of dollars with.
Contribution by Elizabeth Camacho
Co-Founder, Sales and Education Director of DermaJEM, Elizabeth began her career in beauty while in college at Florida State University. She began working in makeup with MAC cosmetics and, after she graduated, moved back home to Miami and continued her career in the makeup industry with private clients, print, and fashion shows.
After getting her esthetics license, her career took her into professional spa product sales and training, spending the majority of her time making connections with other estheticians and business owners, helping them to grow their knowledge in both the business of owning a spa and in new treatment training. Finding a passion for empowering others with the tools and focus to grow their own businesses into thriving local and destination spas.
Learn The Tech Of Your Body Contouring Equipment
This means study and understand the science behind what you are doing. Go beyond what you are taught in school or class and make sure you are an expert. Your clients are essentially putting their health in your hands. It is your responsibility to make sure that you have trained enough on the body contouring equipment to offer these treatments safely and that you have taken the time to really understand what these treatments do in the body. Learn the answers to questions your clients will ask like:
How does this exactly contour the body?
Are we reducing the size of the fat cell or are we actually killing the fat cell?
What other modalities are ideal to be used in conjunction with this?
What should the post care be like for best results?
Making sure you understand the basic science of the body contouring equipment. This will help you give your clients clear concise explanations on treatments in a professional manner.
For example, if you have a client that has been treated with cavitation before and you are offering treatments with direct contact cryotherapy, like the IceSculpt from DermaJEM, it is important you explain the difference between the two by saying something like “Cavitation works by using sound waves to help rupture the lining of the fat cell allowing for triglycerides to leak out, thus reducing the size of the fat cell. Where direct contact cryotherapy is using a combination of warm and sub-zero temperatures to crystalize those cells, causing apoptosis which is fat cell death. Essentially, with cavitation we are reducing the size of the fat cells but we are not eliminating or killing them where with direct contact cryo we are actually causing the fat cell to die.”
By giving your client the actual science of how the two processes work and explaining to them how they are different shows your client that you are the expert and that you have truly studied and understand how these treatments work in the body.
Get comfortable being uncomfortable
Bringing up the subject of body contouring to a client that has not necessarily expressed interest can be awkward. The last thing that you want to do is to make your client feel as if you are pointing out flaws they did not know they had. We are in the business of helping people feel better about themselves and the first step is for them to open up to you and tell you what they want to fix. The more comfortable you make them feel the more likely they are to open up.
The best way to go about avoiding your client feeling uncomfortable is to make sure that your intake form is thorough and ask the right open-ended questions which will help you touch on all these subjects during your consultation. That is where your client will be the most open to receive your recommendations. Intake forms also serve to help you determine if that client is a candidate for treatment.
Open-Ended Questions
What other areas of concern do you have?
What treatments, if any, have you done to address these concerns in the past?
Were you satisfied with the results? How well did they work for you?
This line of questioning will allow your client to freely express any other areas that they are wanting to work on. It will also allow you to get a clearer picture of what they have done in the past and how well it worked for them. It will give you the opportunity to dig in deeper into why they were or weren’t satisfied with the treatment they received previously.
Additionally, it will give your client the comfort that only comes when someone feels heard. Nobody wants to be treated like just another number. People want to feel like they matter to you and that you are listening to them and their concerns. This will make them much more open to your suggestions once you are at that portion of the consultation.
Even if your client doesn’t book all the recommended services right after the consultation you have planted the seed. Which will make the topic much less taboo to bring up later.
Starting a body contouring conversation does not have to be difficult or awkward. But it does take skill and finesse. Following these tips will help you get the most of the time that you have with your client and will make sure if nothing else your client leaves informed and with the knowledge needed to make an educated and informed decision.