Francis Acunzo, CEO at Acara Partners, describes the essential tips needed to succeed with initial client consultations at your medical aesthetic practice:
You have marketed and communicated the expertise and unique selling points of your medial aesthetic practice, and now a potential client is visiting for their initial consultation. What are the most important business practices you should use to help your potential patient to feel comfortable and allow you to close a sale? Read below for a compilation of the most crucial tips from Acara Partners’ experts in medical aesthetic sales and consultations:
• At the beginning of the consultation, always give a brief background on your medical team and the passion behind your practice. Keep it short and interesting; remember, the client wants to know about your expertise. Share your wonderful story.
• Listen to the client’s concerns and take notes. Typically, the first area of concern the client verbalizes is their top priority.
• Ask more questions during the consultation to allow the client to “open up” about themselves.
Examples could be:
– when were you thinking of having the procedure/injection done?
– what made you decide to do something about your skin now?
– do you have an upcoming social event that you’d like to look great for?
– are you flexible with the downtime the procedure may require?
These questions (or some of your own based on the way the consult is going) will help you uncover what the client wants. Make the consult a fun, informative session. Be yourself, and the sales will follow.
Be very careful not to give “technical information overload.” Not only does it increase the amount of time the consultation will take, but most clients will also feel lost in all that information. If a client wants to know the technical aspects of the recommended treatment, they will ask.
• Some clients will have a laundry list of things they are interested in learning about. Remember to listen and take notes. We do not want to overwhelm them with pricing (many items may add up to tens of thousands of dollars) when it comes time to review the quote sheet. For a new client, sometimes “slow and steady” will win the race, especially if the client has never had cosmetic work. Make it doable, and they will return.
• Listen for and pick up cues such as “looks like I’m going to need to refinance my house to afford this.” This is the perfect time to review CareCredit with the client. A typical script would be something like:
“Are you familiar with CareCredit? Let me explain how it works. CareCredit is a company that offers financing to clients interested in managing out of pocket expenses for cosmetic procedures. You will be given a line of credit based on your credit history. Once you’ve been qualified for a line of credit, you can use some of it or all of it. We offer 6 and 12 months interest-free financing as well as all of the extended payment options. Let’s take a look at the chart to see what your monthly payment would be.”
• Be sure the client knows that they can get as creative as they wish when it comes to payment. They can pay a portion of the procedure using CareCredit, a portion of it using another credit card or cash.
Think about putting together a clean, simple PowerPoint presentation to show before and after photographs. This allows the person doing the consultation to stay in control and focus on the individual’s specific areas of concern.
The consultation process is one of the most important steps to building a loyal and steady client base. These are just some of the best practices needed to insure success and growth in your practice. If you have any further questions, please contact me or one of the medical aesthetic consulting experts here at Acara Partners.