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Med Spa CEO
3 Communication Secrets to Skyrocket Your MedSpa Sales and Client Results
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Are your consultations as effective as they could be? In this episode, I share three powerful communication secrets that will help you and your team transform into expert communicators so that you can ultimately ensure even better results for your...
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So where can you, in your consult process for you and your team members, start using metaphors and analogies and stories to help convey, to shift away from that complicated jargon that is going to repel them and to make it so that it is an easier yes, because at the end of the day, a confused mind will not buy. So it is our job as providers to become communication experts. Welcome to the MedSpa CEO podcast, where I teach you how to grow and scale your med, spa or aesthetic practice so that you can have the income and impact you know you were meant for without overwhelm, stress or feeling like you have to sacrifice your personal life and happiness to do so. It's totally possible for you and your business. Plus, simpler than you think. Keep listening to find out how. All right, my friends, welcome back to another episode of the podcast. I am absolutely thrilled you are joining me today. It is December. I can't even believe it's December. Toward the end of 2024. And today's topic is one of those topics that is gonna really change how you think about what makes an exceptional experience for your patients and clients. Because today we're talking about three communication secrets that will not only help you skyrocket your revenue, but also help you skyrocket your client and patient results as well too. And when I think about skyrocketing sales, I always at the center of that with any of you that I work with is that this idea that the more obsessed we become with getting client and patient results, the more we will by default skyrocket our revenue. And it's one of those things where everybody can get on board with that. Whether you feel like some of your team members sometimes have a hard time getting on board, they're like, selling is slimy and all of that jazz. I always challenge the team members when I'm coaching team members inside of msa. I'm like, selling is not slimy. Especially when we are selling people on what it is going to take to get them the most exceptional results that they are looking for. And so we're gonna dive into just three, really of the principles. I recently had a coaching series that we hosted inside of msa, but also for those of you who purchased five figure consults, which if you're interested in five figure consults, if you're interested in forever changing how you and your team actually show up and lead the conversation with a client or a patient and move and shift your practice to an annual consult system that helps you and your team members be able to more simply and with ease, be able to sell premium high ticket solutions and to increase your average patient visit value, but also to increase the lifetime customer value as well too. Then you should like what are you even doing? You need to grab five figure consults. You can go to heathertravine.com consult to learn more. But I digress for just a moment. But the backbone our CARES consult process. So that is one of the core parts of five figure consults is the CARES process. And behind that process is about a dozen different communication theories and just strategies that we know is really, really solid from the communication and psychology research. And when I was in grad school and I was working on my master's thesis, there was two different big research studies that I did. One was more of an observation collection of observations and one was where I actually did research with real humans and did a study of text management in PowerPoint presentations and effectiveness for the learner. Really, really exciting title as most master's thesis are. But what I learned during that research was what are the different mechanisms that actually help folks learn more, that actually help persuade people more. And so many of you have heard this story, but I'm gonna share it through just a different le so when I first got into the industry, I actually worked at a plastic surgeon's office. So I worked in an aesthetic clinic that was attached to a plastic surgeon's office. Many of you know, and that plastic surgeon, there was four surgeons actually at this office. But one of them was the medical director at where I went to aesthetic school. And so it was a one year externship. I was doing my laser hours there so that I could finish my laser certification. And it was a big practice. There were four surgeons, there were lots of NPs and PAs, whole team of estheticians. And they were so thoughtful with their surgery patients. And what I mean by this is that they had a very dialed in, well thought out systematic experience for all of those patients. The Aesthetic Clinic, not so much the Aesthetic Clinic. They hadn't really taken the same amount of time to actually put those communication flow like an intentional game plan as much for the Aesthetic Clinic. The Aesthetic Clinic, basically they opened with the idea like we have all of these surgery patients. Why not take that flow of customers and have them go to an aesthetic clinic, because we have them already there. And so which was brilliant at the time. This is, you know, many, many years ago. And so they had opened up the Aesthetic Clinic and not put the same type of thoughtfulness into the experience when it comes to actually having an intentional game Plan for what it looked like for a patient to actually see an esthetician, a laser tech, or what have you. So it was all haphazard, the experience. It was very provider dependent. And what I mean by that, you could see an esthetician or an injector who did it one way, or you could see an esthetician injector who did it a different way. Some people were doing customized treatment plans. Some people were just delivering on whatever was booked. There was no rhyme or reason. It was just based on what that individual provider wanted to do. Now, they had invested a lot, actually into having amazing technology, a beautiful office, great products, and in fact, for any of you that have sold out, skincare, my program on how you can really 2-3x your skincare sales, you will know, because I share about this in, in that program that they like over a dozen skincare product lines as well, so they had spared no expense. And actually the technology and who they hired and all of that jazz. But when it came to actually what the experience, what the communication flow is going to be like, it was just like a free for all. Okay, so that was my first experience. The second place I worked, as many of you know, I helped a family practitioner who was new to business ownership. She was not new to being a clinician. She'd been in family practice for 16 years and then worked in urgent care and then started doing aesthetics in other practices for the last few years. But she was new to launching her own practice. And so she hired me. And of course, one of the reasons she hired me is I had this sales and marketing background. She liked that I had my master's in communication. And she knew that that was going to be a very useful skill set to have in our small team because there was only three of us and then eventually four of us, initially that first year or two. And so we knew because of how invested she was in this practice that we were going to have to maximize and optimize the revenue for every single patient that we saw. She had borrowed like a million dollars to launch the practice. And we were starting from scratch. We didn't have, you know, a plastic surgery side of a patient list to pluck from. We were starting from scratch. And so we were so intentional about what was the consult process going to be like, what was our offering going to be, how were we going to make sure. We also knew that we wanted really truly to be a med spa that people drove far and wide for because of the exceptional results that we got for our patient. We wanted to be a totally results driven practice. And we also knew that we wanted to serve more mature women and more mature women for facial rejuvenation, which is what we focused on. We sold, revenue wise, so much more per patient than the previous clinic that I worked at. Now I'm just talking about the aesthetic clinic itself, not the surgery side. The reason why is because we were so incredibly intentional and thoughtful with our communication and our entire experience for folks, okay? So that was critical. That is how we had a way higher average patient visit value. And we had a way higher lifetime customer value as well too. And it's just because we were better communicators. And so today I'm gonna share with you just three communication secrets that will help you and your team members be better communicators so that you can ultimately create even better results for your patients. You can get more patients that are saying yes to higher ticket premium things. That is going to help them get more outstanding results so that you have even better results to show in your marketing, so that we can help you increase your average patient visit value and your lifetime patient visit value, lifetime client value as well too. So communication secret number one, and the problem that many of you have, my beautiful, brilliant providers, is that nothing will push people away from your offers more than complicated jargon, okay? And I know it comes from such a good place. Some of you want to teach and to educate and to really actually blow your clients or patients away with all of the amazing technology and products and the science behind what they do. But research shows that when salespeople use more complicated explanations, it actually lowers sales. And the reason why is because the customer, your patient or client in this circumstance is actually we make more decisions from our emotions. We actually make more decisions because of the dopamine that we experience right before we're about to to buy something. And so when you are using complicated education and verbiage to try to compel a client or patient, it actually does the exact opposite. It ends up repelling them because it's too much. Most of you are underestimating the cognitive overload that most of your patients are coming to you with, right? Take me for example. I'm a 46 year old mother of three. I own my own business. I'm all in with my aesthetic provider. I want you to tell me what to do. I want to get great natural results. I invest about, you know, five figures probably in aesthetic treatments every year. And I'm all in with my provider. I'm going to share. I saw an esthetician this is a couple years ago, and I have this rule for myself being what I do, you know, and being in this industry that whatever an esthetician is recommending that I use skincare, product wise, I'm gonna say yes to. Okay. It's just a little rule that I have that esthetician I saw at the time didn't know I had as a rule. And so I asked her like, hey, I have some hyperpigmentation and uneven skin tone, and these are sort of my problems that I'm looking to solve. And so she could help me come up with skincare product line that would be a good fit for me. And so told her that I'm pretty much out of everything, which was true at the time. They didn't have skin care systems, if you will, which is what I recommend y'all have is a skin care system. But she spent a lot of time giving me a long list of products that were just suggestions, by the way, what she recommended. And then she spent, you know, a pretty decent amount of time. It wasn't even that long. Probably wasn't that long in her mind, kind of over explaining the science behind it and the certain things that do this and do this. And what I would have told her is that one you need to shift from giving me the laundry list to just telling me, hey, here is our XYZ brightening skincare system. Here is our get your glow skincare system. Because then I'm only having to decide on one thing, that system that is going to help me get my results as opposed to making me feel like I have to decide between the 13 different things that she had listed out for me. The second thing was, is that I don't care about the science. I care that the science has evidence behind it. And I already trust that if I've come to you that you're an expert, that you've already done that due diligence for me. I don't need you to prove to me that, that this science, you know, that this is XYZ because of xyz. What I need for you to just tell me is that this product is awesome because it does this. It's gonna help lighten those dark spots that you have sold. Right? So what can you do instead of to still kind of illustrate so that your patient can actually understand the benefits of something and its you can use. Here's one tip that we teach and use with our clients when we're helping them put together and map out their consult processes is that instead of using Complicated explanations start using metaphors and analogies. Metaphors, analogies and stories will act like a cognitive bridge from that complicated jargon that you're using, that new information that to you, you feel like is secondhand nature. Because you're so entrenched in the industry, you don't even realize that it is over the person's head or a little bit too complicated and jargony because you're so used to the vernacular that we use in the aesthetics industry. So when you use a metaphor or analogy, it acts like a cognitive bridge so that you can take what might be sort of a complicated topic and actually associate it to something that your patient or client already understands. So an example would be, let's say you have an ultimate contour type of a package, okay? And it has, you know, traditional filler, hyaluronic acid and sculptra in it. And you want to explain and help convey to them how filler and Sculptra can actually work together. Instead of getting into the weeds of the science of how those two things work, you could use a garden analogy, okay? And say that the filler is going to be like the pre purchased blossoms that you get to plant in your garden right away that are going to give you immediate beauty and results. And then the sculptra is like the seeds, okay? And we're going to plant the seeds around those blossoms that you've already pre purchased. And those take more time, but they fill in so much more naturally in the areas that we can actually put the pre purchased blossoms, okay? That analogy or metaphor actually acts like what we call a cognitive bridge. And it helps your folks actually understand how those two things work together in a way that is going to be really, really easy for them to comprehend. And There are also seven. Research shows that they're 77 times more likely to actually remember what you've taught them. Okay? There's like a classic Stanford study that you are 77 times more likely to remember something when there's a narrative or a metaphor and analogy tied to it. So another example could be when you're trying to sell a patient or a client on the fact that you are a practice that does long term, holistic game plans with your patients, okay? And trying to convey to them that for all of our clients in msa, and if you have five figure consults, you will know that we believe in annual consult processes. We want all of our patients and clients to actually be on an annual plan, which means that once a year your consult, you should have a consult that is like a. A wellness. Similarly to how. See, I'm going to use the metaphor right now to convey this as an example. Similarly to how your primary care doctor has a well check or a physical every year. We actually have the equivalent to a well check or a physical in our annual XYZ consult. You can even name the consult and give it a sexy name, so it even is more enticing and exciting for your patient. Okay, so we move you to the annual consult process. But actually explaining to them why a comprehensive combination modality where we're having some packages, maybe ongoing xyz, explaining that to them. An analogy you could use is similarly to how if you were to go out and build muscle, if you really wanted to go out and build muscle, you would have a combination approach to it. You would have a nutritional game plan. You would likely have a weightlifting game plan. You would likely need to take some sort of supplements potentially as well, too. And similarly to how you would do that to build muscle is the same way we look at helping you have a good, holistic, you know, comprehensive approach to helping you achieve your aesthetic goals. Okay, so where can you, in your consult process for you and your team members, start using metaphors and analogies and stories to help convey, to shift away from that complicated jargon that is going to repel them and to make it so that it is an easier. Yes, because at the end of the day, a confused mind will not buy. So it is our job as providers to become communication experts. This is why sometimes it is not the most skilled providers that actually sell the most or the most successful. And we know this in other industries as well, too. It's not always the most skilled service providers that are the most successful. It is the best marketers, the best communicators, oftentimes that are the most successful. And that is because they have this understanding about some of these communication secrets that we're talking about today. The next communication secret stems from a problem that most of you aren't aware of that is happening in the background. Okay, so 95% of your client or patient's decisions, and this is just 95% of the decisions we make as humans, actually comes from the subconscious mind. 80 to 95%, depending on which study you're looking at, of our actions, are actually taken from the subconscious mind. It's crazy to think about. It's another reason why complicated jargon doesn't work. It actually takes too much cognitive load. Okay. And so that's why when we're communicating with patients, we have to remember that, we need to know that we have to actually think about the subconscious mind of the person in front of us as well too. Because the logical part of our brain, the conscious part of our decision making and our action taking, the conscious part, takes so much cognitive load, which is why our brains want to be efficient. So so much of our, your clients or patients are actually now we think we're making it all from logical and rational decision making, but we're not. And so with our communication, we want to, in our consults, in our conversations, we actually want to appeal to emotions and familiarity when we're persuading. So this is why we want to keep it simple and relatable. This is why we just shared that we want to use stories and metaphors to actually tap into those emotions because we're emotional buyers. Yes, there's a certain amount of logical reasoning that we will use as well, but it's actually a smaller percentage just because that's how our human brains work. And so the other thing you want to make sure that you are having consistently happening in every single consult, with every single client and patient, no matter what's being recommended or what have you, is that you have visuals on hand. Okay, so communication secret number two is that we want to make sure that we are tapping into emotions. So we already talked about how metaphors and analogies help with that. But the other thing we want to do is make sure we have really, really great visuals. Now what I've found has happened for many of you is that you have really great visuals in the form of before and after pictures and what have you, but you're not using them consistently in your face to face communications. You're using them in other communications, right? You might have them in displayed, you might even have a screen in the waiting area where the before and after pictures are rotating through. Or maybe you have one of those digital photo frames where the before and after pictures are rolling through. That's all great. You can still have that. You might be using the before and afters in your email, in your social media. All good. All things I want you to continue to do. But many of you are not consistently using them in every single face to face conversation, in every single consult. So the secret is you want to consistently have on hand whether this is now old school wise. I got into this industry before we even had smartphones. Actually, I think the iPhone had just come out. So smartphones had just launched, but they did not have the photography and video capability that they do now. So it wasn't a thing that we would have used our smartphone. And so getting consistent before and afters. Most of you know you should be doing this, okay? But actually making sure that you have a simple way for every single provider in your office to easily show those before and afters with every single conversation they have with somebody. So we used an old school photo album back in the day because that's what was simplest for us. Okay. But for many of you, it may be a photo album, a lookbook. It might be that every single provider has a folder on their phone where they have different before and afters. Okay? And then this is one of those things where I like my clients to look at their signature menu items that we've helped them put together, and then to make sure that they have strategically thought through certain before and afters that are going to be connected to each of those signature offers as well, too. And if you really want a 1, 2 dynamic punch to really, really exponentially sell more, you're gonna use a metaphor and analogy. You're gonna use a visual image to really tap into those emotions. And then if you can actually share a story with the visual image as well, I mean, it's going to be bonkers because we are story creatures. And if we believe that Sally got these great, natural, gorgeous results that are exactly the type of results that I'm looking to get, we are so much more likely to say yes because we can actually aspirationally see that it is possible for us as well, too. All right, the third and final communication secret that I'm going to share with you today that will help you and your team members skyrocket sales and, of course, skyrocket the client and patient results you get is this idea of how are you going to be able to ensure that you and every single person on your team is enthusiastic about the recommendations that they're making. Lack of passion and enthusiasm is a total sales killer. And when we start working with a new practice where they're like, we have, like, let's say six providers and two of them sell really, really well and four of them don't. And usually when they come to us, they still have their generic menu that we're helping them recreate into a signature menu of unique offers, and then we're helping them revamp their cares consult process that we use to make sure that they have a really, really clear roadmap for every single team member on what they're going to actually be walking patients through. So there's that consistent, reliable delivery as well, too. But the Reason why there's this disparity between team members isn't because they have an awesome structure to their menu and clarity on that. Isn't because they've really thought through what the communication is going to be like with every single patient or client. It is because those two team members are more passionate and enthusiastic about whatever it is that you guys specialize in. And they are able to sell more simply on the back of their passion and enthusiasm. So the solution is wait for it to actually invest in ensuring that you and your team members are more enthusiastic and passionate about your offers. Is like a born again Christian. As an example. They are like the best salespeople for Jesus. Right? Because of enthusiasm and passion. It's not because they actually know are more theologically knowledgeable. No, they are able to evangelize better sometimes than somebody who's been a Christian forever because of that passion and enthusiasm. And you see this with teachers, teachers who are enthusiastic about what they teach naturally project. And actually that enthusiasm is contagious. And then their students become more enthusiastic about the subject matter that they teach. In fact, I remember Mrs. Haycraft in third grade, okay, Mrs. Haycraft was my teacher in third grade. And she was obsessed with wolves, okay? Saving wolves because wolves were becoming endangered and trees. I barely remember anything else I learned in third grade, except for about wolves and trees. Because she was so passionate. It was just something she was passionate enthusiastic about. And she transferred that enthusiasm to me where I became more interested. I mean, if you'd asked me as a third grader before that about trees and wolves, I wouldn't have been that enthusiastic about it. But her enthusiasm about it was contagious. And all of us in her class loved me. Some Mrs. Haycraft became enthusiastic and passionate about it as well. And sales really is a traitor transference of that enthusiasm. Research shows that salespeople who are more enthusiastic about what they're selling naturally have higher sales. It's not because they're more technically even proficient and knowing about what they're selling as well too. So how to become more enthusiastic about your recommendations and offers and solutions? Okay, so this requires, especially if you are like my client example where you have like 16 members, two are knocking it out of the park, four are like the sales are kind of dismal, I always say. That's why when we put together your offers, it's a collaborative process of really taking what you all think you are excellent at getting results with. Right? Who are the type of people, what are the type of problems that you know, you can get outstanding results from. That's why asking these questions are so critical when we're helping you put together your signature menu is because I want you all to be enthusiastic. And enthusiasm also comes from certainty on what you are recommending is actually going to deliver the outstanding outcomes that you are saying are going that the person in front of you is going to be able to achieve as well too. So we want to have certainty, we want to have clarity, and we want to have belief in those things as well too. And so if you're an msa, we have something that I call the Irresistible Offer Questionnaire. And on the surface of this is something that I recommend everybody does to actually create really compelling marketing. So that is one piece of it. But really the other secret behind this Irresistible Offer Questionnaire is that it actually helps sell you on your offer as well too. Now, a byproduct of that is it's going to help you actually create the copy that will become the captions and maybe the video script, if you will, for you talking about it in a way that's going to be compelling in your marketing. But by the very nature of you going through and really asking yourself questions like, what about this offer is so irresistible? Okay, what about it? Whenever I'm coaching a team member and they are having resistance, let's say to selling a five or $10,000 package because they're really in their head and they're having the energy is like deflating because they're in their head about how expensive this package is. We will go through and unpack. Do you believe that this is what is going to help your patient actually achieve outstanding results? And nine times out of 10, they do believe it, but we just have to shift them to not focusing on the fact of the price and focusing on those outstanding results as well too. And so this is an incredible time for you to actually sit down with your team members and ask them what are their thoughts beliefs that they have around your offers as well too. And then the other big piece of this is actually having a really clear structure to your menu so that your team members actually know what should be recommended to whom and when. Because if we're confused at all as the person recommending it as the provider, whether it's the esthetician, injector, clinician, what have you, that's actually making the recommendations. If we're confused at all and we're giving like a lot of options, this is a really clear example of knowing that a team member is confused so much to be recommended to whom is, and when is that they're, they're actually giving the patient a lot of options which you don't want to do. Then that confusion is going to be projected to the patient. And as we know, a confused mind won't buy. And so we have to make sure that we are getting really clear on our communication, really clear on our offers to give our team members a fighting chance to become more enthusiastic as well too. So those are the secrets to becoming more enthusiastic or some quick tips that you can have to really make the shift right now. It usually isn't a problem with, you know, it's not because you didn't invest in that new laser. It's not because you don't have the latest and greatest technology. Because I have worked with practices, you know, I always think about this injector. She was an NP that I was working with. She was a solo NP at the time. She was just getting ready to open up her big, brand new, beautiful practice. And when she was solo, she only had tox and filler and she only worked two days a week. And she was doing between 120 and $150,000 a month just with toxin filler. And it was because she became such a master at it as well. She had a certain type of mature woman that she really specialized in as well too. But it's because she was enthusiastic and she was a master and she knew how to effectively communicate, how she could help people with that. But that all to say that the results you're able to achieve with your clients and the results you're able to achieve from a revenue standpoint likely don't have to do with the fact that you don't have enough technology, that you don't have that new sexy product that just dropped or that new sexy, you know, piece, that new laser energy or light device that is just gonna blow everybody's mind. Because I have worked with so many practices that have over invested in technology that still have this, this uneven salesness, this uneven revenue amount across providers as well too. All right, so if you're really in the position right now where for 2025, you know that you want to really invest in yourself and your team to be able to become not just good, okay, so, so communicators, but really, really excellent communicators so that you can become a practice that is even more results driven because you are getting more outstanding outcomes for your patients and clients, because you have more patients and clients, quite frankly, that are committing to bigger things. And so that you can also skyrocket your sales. And you want help with this. You want us to help you coach your team and for us to work directly with you in helping you make over your menu, makeover, your consult process, then you should really consider joining us inside of the Med Spa Advantage. In fact, we have some outstanding things happening at the start of the year. We're doing a live implementation of it as a group inside of MSA as well too. And we are actually closing the doors for the year on December 20th. Okay. And I don't know when we'll open the doors again, but we will be closing the doors. So if you want to get in before then so that you can really go rocking and rolling into 2025, then go over to heatherterveen.com to learn more. And then if you know that you want to just get the consult process that I talked about so that you can actually create an incredible communication system for your practice that's going to help improve revenue, improve results for your patients, you will want to go over to heathertraveen.com consult to learn more about our five figure consult system over there. With that being said, my friend, that is what I have for you today. I will see you next week. Hey, if you're enjoying this podcast and you're a boutique results driven med spa owner who is looking to drive more sales profitably each month without hustling yourself into the ground to do so, then you should consider applying to join us inside of the MedSpa Advantage. It's the only program designed to help you grow your revenue and profit while gaining back more time so that you don't feel scattered and drained while running and growing your business each month. To learn more about whether or not you're a fit for joining us, you can head over to heatherterveen.com apply to apply to get on a call with us to learn more. That's heatherturveen.com apply to learn more.