Tanner traffic’s slowing down, and selling those bottles of expensive lotion has gotten a lot more difficult since the rush to be golden for Spring Break and graduation is over. Kids are back to school and moms are too busy to tan – there are fewer guests to whom you can pitch your upgrade beds … so what do you do?
Think about focusing on sales of smaller-ticket items this month, with the goal of selling more items to more tanners for less money per tanner. Let’s try pushing the lowly eye protection sale! Start with a plastic baggie. Yep, go to the grocery store and spend $3 for 100 snack-sized zipper-seal bags. When a guest walks in, offer her a complimentary snack baggie to keep her goggles in. Your guests will need to show you their eyewear before they are allowed to tan – do they even have eyewear? You’ll be able to explain how goggles get dirty in a woman’s purse or guy’s gym bag, and how a baggie keeps them clean. I like to suggest you also offer a rubber band to attach the baggie to their lotion bottle. As you take their goggles to put them in the baggie, you can mention your special eye protection sale, and how it’s important to replace your goggles at least once a year.
Have you seen the new goggle styles in fun colors and animal prints? Order a few from your distributor. I’d display the fun, neon-colored styles in a bright, shallow plastic bowl from the Dollar Store, maybe placed near some fun, summery jewelry or sunglasses you also have on sale. This type of eyewear sale is going to be an impulse buy – it’s a quick, easy and fun.
Now, you’ve offered the free baggies for a couple of weeks, so let’s change it up. One of my favorite salons offers an eyewear trade-in week, when guests get 40 percent off new goggles if they trade in their old pair. It’s a great way to discuss why eye protection is important and why you need to avoid touching the parts of the goggles that will touch your eye area (think about your toothbrush: you don’t touch the bristles, right?).
Offering FREE eye protection is another fresh option. A salon chain I visit frequently puts a tiny note on their front door that reads “Free eyewear for taking our eyewear test.” To take the ten-second test, the guest simply looks at three photos to determine whether they’ve lost their color vision. Then, you give the guest a quick eyewear education and a free pair of disposables that costs you about 20 cents. You can mix it up by asking one of nine questions that often surprises tanners and opens the door to explaining why eye protection is NOT optional.
May your end-of-summer sales be visionary!
If you’d like the photos & list of eye protection questions to enliven your sales, email your address to Brenda@WinkEase.com & mention “IST End-of-Summer Sales.”
