Everyone knows Peak Season 2025 is coming, but how many tanning salon owners are preparing for it? The Salon Doctor has your prescription for peak success!
Every tanning salon owner looks forward to peak season. During this time, there’s a high demand for indoor tanning services, making peak season your most profitable time. Preparing for this time is the best and only way to maximize your peak season profits. Here are the most important things you need to have in place to make the most of Peak Season 2025:
- Refine your EFT pricing to attract and retain loyal tanners during Peak Season 2025.
- Develop sales incentives to motivate your staff to sell more EFTs.
- Make sure your sales team is ready to run operations smoothly when it matters most.
- Finalize your marketing strategy before Peak Season 2025 arrives.
I’ll break each one down and supplement each point with testimonials from a tanning salon owner who made this strategy work for her business in 2024.
EFT Pricing For Peak Season 2025: Profitable Rates Without Lost Customers
Some tanning salon owners panic whenever the subject of raising EFT prices comes up. While it’s understandable that no business owner wants to offend their loyal clients, inflation demands price increases for owners to sustain a viable salon.
Truthfully, selecting prices that seem comfortable with tanners can seem frustrating because it’s part science and part magic. Here are some overall tips for raising your EFT pricing without creating sticker shock:
- What are the current spending level averages for your tanners and current EFT members? How does your EFT pricing compare to what your competitors are doing?
- Are you effectively marketing your EFT memberships? Are you creating memorable events to help increase sales?
- What incentives do you offer to get your sales staff pumped up to sell, sell, sell?
Your pricing strategy has to satisfy customers, your topline sales needs, and the ultimate question your employees ask unconsciously: “What’s in it for me?”
Too many salon owners focus on what they’re paying their employees when they look at the percentage-to-gross sales they spend on payroll. Concentrate your efforts on inspiring your staff to sell with bigger EFT bonuses, and your high payroll percentages will vanish.
Salon Owner Transforms EFT Pricing Into An $8,000/Month Revenue Stream
I had the honor of consulting Beth and Ryan of Southern Exposure Tanning & Salon in Nampa, Idaho. They recently purchased a tanning salon to house Beth’s nail business but decided to continue offering tanning. They called The Salon Doctor for help, and we first looked at the salon’s existing EFT program.
Beth explained, “I’ve worked both ends of the retail, and I’ve learned that you must price top-quality products correctly if you want to sell them and be profitable. We worked with John to research our memberships and our competitors’. We discovered that our Amethyst membership was our top seller, so we focused on that.”
I worked with Beth and Ryan to establish the best pricing strategy for this membership. We also created a variety of incentives, such as waiving the enrollment fee and offering tanning lotion discounts to members.
“We went from earning $600 a month to $8,000 per month in just two months,” Beth added.
EFT Pricing Made Easy: Strategies To Convert Tanners Into Members
I knew Beth, Ryan, and their staff understood the new EFT pricing strategies inside and out. Sometimes, tanners need a little help breaking all of this down regarding what they get with each membership level and the savings they provide. We found a straightforward, inexpensive way to help the salon team bridge that gap with customers.
Beth recalled, “John put us in touch with his graphic designer to create a detailed but easy-to-understand pricing sheet. It breaks down our memberships and everything that comes with each level.”
When I followed up with Beth and Ryan, they told me the pricing sheet was a big help in getting new EFT purchases and upgrades. I encourage all salon owners to do something like this because seeing is believing from a customer’s perspective.
Turn Special Events into Profit Machines: Smart Marketing for Salons
Generally, I don’t recommend lowering your EFT prices once you finalize them, but there are exceptions. The catch to reducing prices for specials is doing everything you can to incentivize tanners to stay in your EFT program instead of opting out for whatever reason.
To provide Beth and Ryan with more marketing ideas at Southern Exposure, we came up with an interesting twist on the concept of an EFT sale.
Beth explained, “For our Spring Fling event, we reduced the cost of our Amethyst membership by $30 and offered incentives, but there was a catch. We told customers they couldn’t cancel their membership and return at that low price ever again.”
This “catch” Beth mentioned was an excellent incentive to get tanners to stay in their Spring Fling memberships. “Once they knew they could never get this great deal again was all it took!” she added.
From 30-Second Interactions To Sales: Training Your Staff For Peak Season
I mentioned this above for peak season preparation, which is crucial to maximize profits. The problem is that most tanning salons are afflicted with the “30-Second Syndrome.”
You can upsell each time a tanner comes into your salon. You don’t have those opportunities when your average client interaction is afflicted with the 30-Second Syndrome, which looks like this:
- A client walks into a tanning salon and stops at the counter.
- The salon employee asks for the tanner’s name – Miss Smith – and pulls her up on the salon’s software system.
- The employee sees Miss Smith tanned for 10 minutes in bed number five during her last visit.
- Without even looking Miss Smith in the eyes, the employee says, “Okay. Bed number five is ready.”
I gave the employees at Southern Exposure some sales training before they launched the Spring Fling promotion. Beth says this helped her team leverage the special and grow the salon’s EFT memberships.
She was also happy with the Bonus Bucks program. “Tanners enjoy using the in-store money, which incentivizes them to stay on our EFT membership programs,” she added.
Essential Peak Season 2025 Resources Every Tanning Salon Owner Needs
As a tanning salon business consultant, I want to help every salon owner have a successful peak season. That’s why I’m happy to share my experiences in the pages of IST Magazine. This is an excellent source for owners looking for business tips to increase revenue and more.
I look forward to sharing more information about peak season prep tips, human resources management for salon owners, and more. See you next month!
