Pushy therapist (product sales) turning some clients off- advice?

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riva

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
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Location
London
Hi all,

I have a good therapist who's very good in product sales. The problem is that her approach suits some clients and is turning others off. We lost a therapist recently and when we tried to book our existing clients with this pushy therapist, they said no. These are good, long term and valuable clients. When we asked for an honest reason as we are keen to improve the business- they all pretty much said something along the lines of she pushes so hard for sales that they feel embarrassed to not buy anything. One direct quote: "we were walking up the stairs and she hadn't even seen my skin and was already recommending 10 different products". No doubt an exaggeration and figure of speech but it was embarrassing to hear. I also recently witnessed her completely missing the cues from a client who came in for a skin consult and had started fidgeting and adjusting her watch etc when it was obvious how she was being 'sold' to. Naturally she left without a booking.

There are other times that people absolutely love her selling as its very confident, she is very knowledgeable and that's what they need- a guiding hand.

I brought it up with her yesterday. Now she is concerned about selling and its shaken her confidence. I did say that we will manage this together to perhaps see how we can train her in understanding cues etc. or perhaps stick to max 3 products? We have no targets in the business and I'd rather lose a product sale than come across as pushy. She gets a 10% commission on products and she makes £150-300 products only with working only 2/week in a not fully booked set up. That's how good she is.

Been on amazon for a quick look at books I could read but thought that it will be interesting to get an opinion here as well. Any thoughts? Recommendations etc?
 
Sounds like she's got a 'one size fits all' approach to retailing.
Could you try some role play exercises with her?
Get her to act out the different types of customer with you as the therapist. Make it fun and have a laugh whilst you do it. If there are other staff, make it a team building session rather than focus just on her. See what she can learn from the others and vice-versa.
 
Discretion is not something you can teach people.
Sadly this comes with maturity and I hope for your salon and therapist sake it comes quickly .
 
You sound like a good manager. I hated working in one place where they basically told us to be pushy with sales in a way that was similar to the way that you describe your therapists technique. Perhaps she's been encouraged that sales are the be all and end all by previous employers.
 

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