Selling point

Increasing your clinic’s revenue with skincare sales is easier than you might think and well worth doing beyond lockdown. Dr Nina Bal shares her experience and advice

My top reasons for choosing a skincare brand for the clinic and for my patients is the science behind the brand. The formulas, ingredients and certainly the percentage of active ingredients are all key for me. Next, I’d say training. My favourite brands all offer amazing training, empowering you in knowing the products and how best to use them in order to sell as effectively as possible. Lastly, it comes down to personal preference. I would never sell products that I haven’t tried and liked myself; I personally test everything I stock in clinic. It doesn’t necessarily mean that if I like certain products my clients will too, but it does mean I am very honest about my suggestions.

I don’t buy a brand’s full range, but instead cherry-pick the best products from various brands. Most skincare brands have certain strengths, which means they will have some brilliant products and then some not-so-brilliant to support the heroes. Very rarely do I recommend a whole brand to one patient; I tend to mix and match.

MONEY MAKER

Lockdown has forced a lot us clinic owners to rethink skincare as a revenue channel and focus on really making money from it rather than just having it there as an adjunct.

My big tip for making more money from skincare is to talk about it with every single patient you see for aesthetics. Don’t assume that they are happy with what they already use or won’t be interested. Initially, due to my medical background, I didn’t feel comfortable “selling” skincare to every patient, but then I realised that they benefit so much from good skincare and it really helps the results of the treatments they invest so much in with you. If they’re not interested – and in my experience it’s actually very rare that they’re not – that’s OK, but most of the time patients really thank me for further helping them achieve their aesthetic goals, as I explain that good skin will help improve the results of injectables, for example.

ADVISE, DON’T SELL

When it comes to creating a homecare plan for clients, first check if they have a budget in mind. I know from a clinical point of view we need every step in a skincare regime, but in reality, not every client wants or is able to start that way because of their budget. So, I suggest you explain why they should be using medical-grade skincare and check with them if they have a budget in mind before giving them options.

You could say: “I can either create a complete plan of about six products for you – from cleanser to hydrator and SPF to supplements – which is approximately £500 (for example), or I can create a routine with three or four products that are essential to use every day, which is around £300.” You can also give a third option of choosing one or two hero products to start with for the client’s skin condition or concerns, at a cheaper price point still. This way, you don’t overwhelm them, which might mean you get a better success rate when you start out with skincare, encouraging you to continue retailing.

Once you see the satisfaction from patients and get used to the extra income, upselling just happens. Patients who I start on small homecare plans trust me, and this makes it easy to add to their plan. When they start to see results, they want more. It’s like going to the gym – when you start to see definition and changes in your body, you want to go more often, so you increase your regime, and it’s the same for the skin. If I leave off an eye product, for example, from a plan, nine times out of ten the patient comes back to get one.

PASSIVE INCOME

I use skincare-retailing platform Get Harley, and I make so much more money through skincare since joining. I started in the summer or 2019 and have made £200,000 from skincare sales to date. I can choose individual products from a great selection of clinical brands without having to worry about actually placing orders with different suppliers.

One thing practitioners starting out with skincare should know is that if you buy from brands directly, there is often a minimum amount you have to spend; usually around £1,500. For some people, investing in this inventory can be too much pressure. Get Harley funds the opening minimums and enables me to be objective in picking brands without having to worry about cash flow.

“Lockdown has forced a lot us clinic owners to rethink skincare as a revenue channel”

I can create a bespoke plan of medicalgrade skincare for patients all online through the platform, something that 90% of all my patients ask for. Get Harley takes a 20% commission from all product sales but looks after everything from that point, including posting the products to clients’ homes, sending them reminders to re-purchase before they run out and then handling these repeat replenishments.

There is an option for clients to purchase straight away or buy later through their personalised online plan, which gets emailed to them. 50-60% of my patients buy straight away, while the rest want to finish the products they are currently using or just don’t want to spend the extra money at that time, but often buy later. 80% of my patients re-buy. Most start by spending about £100 but they all graduate to at least £300.

Get Harley is really effective at getting patients to repurchase, allowing the skincare arm of my business to grow and giving me a passive income stream while I can focus on the treatment side of things.

When a patient indicates that they’d like to repurchase a product, the system asks me for approval. This way, I can check in on my patients in minimal time and make sure they’re sticking to their part of our treatment plan. If they want something new, it asks me for my recommendation for that patient before selling them the additional product to make sure it’s right for them.