MEMBER PERSPECTIVES
“... we ensure all team members are well-educated and informed on product offerings.”
— ANDREA DUNHAM n Manager of Spa Operations Miraj Hammam Spa by caudalie Paris n Shangri La Hotel n Toronto, canada factor in sales success. Your employees aren’ t going to be able to sell something they know nothing about, and they aren’ t going to want to sell something they don’ t believe in.
“ In conjunction with our brand partner Caudalie, we ensure that all team members are well-educated and informed on product offerings,” says Dunham.
When choosing resource partners and retail products for your spa, keep in mind their educational offerings, or ask if they’ d be willing to work with your staff if they don’ t already have an educational program in place.“ It is very important for our vendors to partner with us and come into the spa on a regular basis to train and retrain our staff,” McWhorter points out.“ We believe in continual education and have internal trainers as well.”
Your staff’ s continuous training should involve product and treatment knowledge but be sure to squeeze in some practical and business training as well. Most service providers in your spa aren’ t natural sellers, so giving them more confidence through education has worked wonders for many spa managers.
“ Our team is not only trained on product knowledge, but also on how to sell without the‘ pushy’ approach,” adds Dunham.“ After a relaxing spa experience the last thing a guest wants to feel is pressured to buy! All staff members complete a training session on retail sales techniques upon hiring to ensure they understand that our spa takes an education-based approached to sales. We have always instructed our staff to avoid the‘ hard sell.’ We are here to help our guests with their skin care and body care needs. If there is a product that we think will genuinely assist the guest with their goals, we educate them by making the appropriate recommendations. We never sell for the sake of selling!”
Education can give your staff members the motivation to sell, but it also gives them confidence— something they should already have in spades considering your guests already think of them as experts. Many spa directors have already figured out that half of selling is confidence, so make sure your service providers know how much they’ re knowledge and expertise
The Spa at Woodside ' s retail space focuses on exclusive products that can ' t be sold online.
mean to your guests. Caroline Perdomo, director of spa and retail at The Spa at Woodside in Westwood, Kansas, promotes her staff’ s expertise outside of the treatment room.“ We recommend products promoted by our professionals in the retail area and run product-of-the-month incentives that entice customers to buy based on our staff’ s product recommendations.”
Implementing Sales Strategies It’ s not enough to motivate your staff to sell, you must give them the tools to be successful at it. Education is a great way to start, but there are several strategies your fellow ISPA members have implemented that have worked well( plus several more throughout this issue of Pulse!).
“ Our spa holds to the value of our retail products, including safe and healthy ingredients,” notes Perdomo.“ We try to carry exclusive products not sold online and promote to our customers to not buy online either. It’ s important to instill a sense of exclusivity to your retail area so your customers are more inclined to make a retail purchase with you.”
Exclusivity is a great way to entice a sale, but it can also be a great strategy for spa retailers who do sell products sold online.
28 PULSE ■ May 2018