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Unable to make it to our Back to Basics tanning training webinar? Not to worry! This blog covers all of the topics presented during this sales and tanning training session. We’ll cover everything related to a back to basics tanning tanning programme including:
Understanding the tanning process is an essential part of being a tanning consultant. Knowing how the skin tans as well as how to identify different skin types should be second nature, to ensure you are providing the best advice and recommendations not only for minutes spent tanning, but also for product recommendations.
UV rays cause tanning, by affecting the melanin in your skin. UVB rays bring melanin to the skin’s surface in a clear form. This is released by melanocytes, deeper in the skin. UVA rays then activate and oxidise your melanin, turning it brown. This is a 2-day process, which is why we recommend new tanners leave at least 48 hours in between tanning sessions; it gives you time to see how their skin naturally reacts to UV before they use your equipment again.
When recommending minutes spent tanning to your clients, recognising their skin type is essential. We and the Sunbed Association follow the Fitzpatrick scale, but this could also be considered to follow the ‘Fair’ (Types 1 – 2), ‘Medium’ (Types 3 – 4), ‘Dark’ (Types 5 – 6), and ‘Sensitive’ scale. What must be considered, is the fairer the skin, the less melanin, and the longer it will take for a client to tan. The fairer the skin, the more susceptible the client is to overexposure too. Therefore, we always recommend starting with a lower number of minutes and building up time gradually, to avoid overexposure and burning.
The way you speak to your clients matters. It will also affect whether they trust your guidance and advice, or believe you are just looking to make a sale. With this in mind, Juli recommends following Sandler’s Success Triangle during the tanning training session.
This triangle explains that all three elements, attitude, behaviour, and technique should be in balance with one another. If you are lacking in one of these areas, you won’t achieve the success you’re hoping for, especially when consulting new customers who are looking to know an example of best practice and comprehensive knowledge and guidance.
Ensuring that you are offering a positive, welcoming approach to your clients, means they are much more likely to be open to conversation with you. Clients are your mirror, ensure that what you are projecting is what you want to receive!
Your perception, beliefs, and outlook about yourself, your organisation, and the marketplace have a huge impact on how you sell and what you are willing to do to succeed in sales. Ensure that what you are saying is honest, and relevant – clients can tell if you’re not interested in helping them, and it won’t help you! Project your true, authentic self and go into consulting with an open and positive mindset.
Your strategies, tactics, and personal presence all impact how you consult and pitch to clients. It can have a dramatic effect on your overall success and affect your attitude over time. By this, we mean to ensure that the way you are starting your conversations and opening the floor to discussion, and also your tanning knowledge is essential. Without a confident approach and a basis of good knowledge, this can tarnish your ability to provide a convincing service.
Following this tanning training session’s sales cycles sets you up easily for a consultative sales technique that ensures the best experience for your clients and a higher likelihood of sales.
When your client first enters your salon, you have three seconds to make a good first impression. This accounts for salon cleanliness and appearance, as well as your approach. Have you greeted them and acknowledged their presence? Even if with a customer, just thanking someone for coming in and saying you’ll be with them in a second, adds a level of reassurance to their visit. Appearance, stance, and activity, are all key elements here to consider, as a busy staff member is a much more welcoming sight than someone slumped on a chair in the corner on their phone. Being proud of your establishment will help elicit a sense of reassurance from your clients when they choose your salon.
Another thing to consider is how you communicate with clients. Did you know that the words you say only contribute to 7% of what impacts your customer? 38% of the impact is affected by the tone of voice, and 55% is dictated by your body language!
When first speaking to your clients, it is important to follow to key points:
– 20% of your time should be spent talking, and 80% listening.
– Asking insightful questions is essential to providing the best service.
By insightful questions, we mean ones that are open-ended that can’t be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’. We have found that on average, many salon staff will ask ‘do you want bronzer or non-bronzer’. This is not only a poor question as it doesn’t open to conversation, but it also doesn’t provide an opportunity to understand client needs or provide clients with any guidance or insight into tanning lotions, which can be alienating.
Instead, we recommend asking “What tanning lotion are you using today?”, followed by “why” or “why not”.
This allows you to see what products they have brought into your salon, if they are appropriate, if it’s something that hasn’t changed for a while which could be slowing their tan development, or if they’re not using a tanning lotion at all. This allows you to open the conversation further, to help educate and promote relevant products for that individual.
Other questions that we recommend are:
How dark do you want to be?
How long until the date you are tanning for?
What is your tanning goal?
Anything that uses a ‘who’, ‘where’, ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘when’, or ‘how’ starter!
This is where you start match-making your clients to your lotion supply. Asking open-ended questions encourages clients to share details with you; holidays, dates, events, how they tan naturally… Understanding every morsel of information they give you will help you to recognise what their needs are, not only for tanning but also skincare.
Make sure to look at your client too: Do they have tattoos? Are they a more mature tanner? Are they male? These are all indicators that product recommendations should be catered to address added value aspects of products, such as hydrating ingredients, tattoo technology, and colour-boosting technologies.
Although educating the customer may seem surplus to requirements, adding a snippet of education to your conversation, establishes you as the tanning expert, and can also help to build rapport and trust further. The more your client trusts you, the more likely they are to take your advice! This education can be anything about tanning tips, skincare, ingredients in lotion… anything that is relevant to the client and promotes best tanning practices.
This is where you can advise on what products may be best for them. This is where you explain why this is a valuable product, which can be done using multiple techniques;
By establishing the features of a product, and how this benefits the customer, you establish added value for the purchase. During times of financial difficulty, this is essential, as it helps to justify a purchase further.
During this training session, Juli provides different examples of how to justify a product recommendation:
Each tanning lotion has multiple features and benefits, that can apply to different tanners. For example, Party Animal has the following features and benefits:
Natural colour-boosters
Stimulates melanin faster for deeper tan development
Tattoo Technology
Protects tattoos from fading and blurring, and also provides deeper hydration for longer-lasting tan results and vibrant tattoos
Desert Plant Extracts
Rich in antioxidants to protect skin from signs of ageing
Natural oils
Deep hydration for longer-lasting tan results and anti-ageing properties
Primer technology
Fills in fine lines and wrinkles for a powder matte finish and blurring effect
After Tan Odours
PH balancing to fight bacteria that can make you smell after tanning
A tanner with tattoos may not be interested in the plant extracts, in the same way, that a mature tanner may be keen on primer technology and natural oils, but not tattoo technology. That doesn’t mean that this lotion isn’t suitable for only one of these clients, but that by listening to them and their requirements, you will understand what features apply correctly.
Cost per session is a way of financially justifying the cost of a bottle over a sachet as a long-term investment. This is more financially viable for your client, and also demonstrates a commitment to tanning at your establishment.
Cost per session can be worked out for each product as:
Size of bottle / 15ml = Tans per bottle
Tans per bottle / retail price of bottle = cost per tanning session
For example:
For a bottle of Hot!*, this would be:
250ml / 15ml = 17 tans
£44.00 / 17 tans = £2.60
When you consider that a sachet of Hot!* is £5.30, if you were to purchase 17 sachets, this would cost you £90.10*, versus a bottle at £44.00*, giving you a saving of £46.10*.
The three-bottle sale provides tanners with three different recommendations. All of these should be similar in some way and differ in pricing. For example, Dark Tanning Accelerator, Rapid Tanning Intensifier, and Hot!. By providing three options at different price points, you can accommodate all financial situations and empower clients by giving them choice.
Explaining the difference by promoting features and benefits and establishing that as a rule of thumb for Australian Gold, the more a lotion costs, the more skincare has been added. The more skincare, the better the skin condition, and the better your skin condition the deeper and longer lasting your tan shall be is a great way of establishing value for higher-priced products.
During this tanning training session, Juli gives the following analogy:
“Imagine you are travelling from your location to somewhere two hours away. Your entry level product, such as Dark Tanning Accelerator, is the equivalent of walking. This will get you from A to B. However, it will take you a while to get there. Your middle product, like Rapid Tanning Intensifier, is a bike. It will get you from A to B faster than walking. Finally, your premium product, such as Hot! is a car. A to B is reached fastest and also most easily via this method of transport aka tanning lotion.”
This has been suggested as a sales model, especially with new clients in mind. Ultimately, this establishes the value of using multiple products during your tanning session. It starts by recommending a facial tanning lotion, to establish its necessity from day one. After this, you would follow with a body tanning lotion. Finally, you could recommend any upsells, such as leg lotions, TanShots, or Hemp Nations that you deem appropriate. However, the overall purpose of this is to increase conversion to a two-bottle sale and explain the importance of using a different lotion for the face versus the body from as early on as possible.
Trying to do this at a later date can lead to reluctance and questions: “I’ve been doing this like this for so long, why are you only now telling me that something is essential when I’ve been tanning like this for 6 months already and been fine?”
Finally, when closing the deal, don’t be pushy. This can turn people off from purchasing. Ensure that your clients feel that they are in control and have a good understanding of what they want. Don’t be scared to discuss money. Ultimately, when initially visiting a salon, a client has already accepted they are coming in to purchase, and discussing money is part of this. And don’t forget… customer service is key! Make sure that you are doing what is right for that individual, and not just recommending something ‘because it’s on special offer’ and is easy to sell. Is what you are recommending the right fit for that individual and will it help them achieve the best results?
*as priced in 2022
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