Is Your Spa Decision Maker a Solution Blocker?
I had an interesting conversation with a colleague recently about how difficult it is to convince senior management to add retail training to their budget. I’ve heard this story more times than I can say. Most often the decision maker is male, over 65 with a background in hospitality but not spa.
Because therapists traditionally have been poor at moving product and spa retail hasn’t generated serious income they don’t see the value of investing in training. Money is limited and they don’t want to make a poor decision on something that appears to be an obvious loss. You’re attempting to show them something new and they believe they already know it all.
This quote from Thomas Szasz comes to mind-
“Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily.”
Tell your decision maker this: retail training for therapists based upon their learning style has never existed before. They don’t know about it. It’s non-traditional and proven to work! Product training has always been around. It’s not the same. Obviously product education and treatment protocols are necessary, but it doesn’t create sales momentum and never has. If it worked, spas wouldn’t continue to struggle. It’s time to do something different.
As Rupert Schmid, Co-President of preeminent skin care line Biologique Recherche stated,
“The goal is to influence what the woman is using in her bathroom”.
That’s accomplished with specific training built around understanding the power of engagement. Engaging people are influential. Therapists, who are great listeners simply need to break out of their quietness and learn how to respond and interact more.
If your team had been trained in October, Black Friday and Cyber Monday would be the start of a brilliant retail season for your spa. It’s too late for that but if you schedule in January 2019, you’ll have a stellar year.
Just ask our clients.
Linda Harding-Bond
