Esthetician Podcast; Business tips for Beauty professionals

069: Stop Drop-Shipping: How Estheticians Can Sell More Retail Without Extra Clients

• Kari Jo

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Are you an esthetician who believes you need more space to sell retail effectively? It's time to confront that limiting belief head-on. Four walls is all you need to transform your business through strategic retail sales.

Throughout my career coaching estheticians nationwide, I've discovered that retail consistently represents the biggest blind spot for most practitioners. Many of my clients are fully booked with loyal customers who trust their expertise, yet they barely sell any products. The excuses range from "I don't have enough space" to subtle indications they don't fully believe in their product lines. When you don't stock products in your treatment room, you're unconsciously signaling to clients that you don't back these recommendations enough to invest in them yourself.

Drop shipping is particularly problematic. When clients leave without products in hand, they often experience immediate buyer's remorse and question their purchase. Contrast this with clients who walk out holding their new skincare items – they have a tangible reminder of their decision and the positive emotions attached to it. People buy based on feelings, not features, which is why the physical handoff matters tremendously.

You don't need to start with massive inventory. I began with a $3,000 opening order, but you can start with a single shelf featuring your top three sellers. To manage inventory effectively, try my sticker method: mark new products with dated stickers and discount any that haven't sold after six months. This keeps your inventory (and money) moving instead of stagnating on shelves.

The potential is remarkable – one lash artist in my company sold $1,500 in retail in a single week without performing a single facial! She earned 20% commission while my company earned 30%, creating significant additional income without booking extra appointments. Ready to implement these strategies? Join my Fearless Prosperity Mastermind for just $97 and learn the systems that will help you break through the survival phase and build your esthetician empire. What retail opportunity will you seize today?

To learn more about coaching please visit: https://www.karijopatterson.com

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Links You May Want to Check out:

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Check out Kari Jo’s courses here https://esthelaunchacademy.com

Kari Jo Patterson:

Welcome to the Esthetician Podcast, where passion meets prosperity. Your host, Kari Jo Patterson, transformed from a solo esthetician into a successful business owner, achieving ultimate time and financial freedom by the age of 38. Kari is the author of Fearless Prosperity, empowering estheticians to build their empire and achieve financial freedom, and the creator of the Empire Growth System for Estheticheticians. Get ready for some empire building wisdom Now. Welcome your host, Kari Jo Patterson.

Kari Jo Patterson:

You have four walls so you need to get over it. Listen, you don't need a massive spot in order to sell retail, but what you probably do need is you need a mindset shift. But what you probably do need is you need a mindset shift. So, listen, if you've been telling yourself I can't sell products out of my space because I just don't have enough space, I'm just going to tell you right now. I'm here to call it out and call it what it is that's a lie. You have four walls. You can display product. You can carry product.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Okay, this episode is for every solo esthetician, every spa owner, anyone who has a tiny suite. Let me tell you you are leaving money on the table. Don't do that. So, as you guys know, I coach estheticians and I coach them from all over the country, and one of the first things that I do when they sign up with me for coaching is I give them this document and I wish that they have to track their numbers. They got to show it to me every week because I teach them how to read it and read their numbers and build their business around their numbers and what they're showing them. And do you want to know what?

Kari Jo Patterson:

One of the biggest blind spots are that I see all the time it's retail, right, my clients. They're all booked out, getting amazing results. Their clients trust them, but they are barely selling products. And here's the thing. It's not because they're lazy, what is it? I don't know, guys, I don't know. Most of them are like, well, I drop shit. Oh, we're going to get into that today, we're going to get into that.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Here's the worst part, guys. Some of you guys aren't carrying your product line, because I'm just going to call it like I see it and it's because you don't even believe in your products that you are carrying enough to literally carry it. That is the biggest problem that I see is you're like that's so expensive. Well, yeah, if you don't believe in that product and you think it's too expensive, you just talked yourself why you shouldn't buy it, right? But if you use the product, you love the product and you don't care what the price is, then it would be really easy to sell it, right? So you have to believe in what it is that you are ultimately selling. I feel like when you do not carry your product line, whatever it is, even if you're carrying different things from different things, and you don't carry it in-house. I feel like it's sending a direct message to your clients that's saying hey, listen, I don't back this product line enough to carry it because I'm not sure if I can even sell it, so why should you? That's what I feel like it says.

Kari Jo Patterson:

So okay, first we're going to go over some of the main things that we say to ourselves. The first one is I don't have enough space. Guys, I want you to know. You have four walls in your treatment room. You even have a door. You could even get a little door hanger to go over your door. Right, you can put shelves on any of your walls and display it. See, when you are putting your product line out, you are basically saying I believe in my product enough to carry it because I know I can sell it. When you don't have it on there, you're literally saying to everybody like, yeah, I don't know if I believe in that product line, but if you, if you, if you, if I sold you enough, I'll drop ship it to you. No, it's not a good idea.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Okay, here's the other thing. You do not have to start big. I'm just going to tell you when I opened my business I did I? Well, I say I started a bit, but I started begging for being brand new, which is I did an opening order and I think my opening order for all of my product it was $3,000. In truth, I didn't even know that there was another way, and I'm not like one of those people that like to rig things and be like I'll just buy this and I'll just buy this and I'll just do that. I don't do that Like I just I don't know. That was never a thing for me. So I did do the opening order and I got a lot of product. Now, honestly, did I need to, or was I able to sell all of that product? No, but I do have a secret for what to do if you don't sell the product. But you don't have to start with the $3,000 either. You can start with a shelf and buy your top products.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Okay, here's the reason why I am avidly against drop shipping. Instead of them walking out with a product in their hand. And the number one reason why is because when a client walks out without the product in their hand, I'm going to tell you what happens in their mind is immediately immediately, regret is going to creep into their mind they're going to start being like after they leave. They're going to be like did I need that product? Do I really need that product? Was that a good idea? Maybe I shouldn't have done that. Right, if they have a product and they buy something, when they walk out they might still be like should I have bought that? And then they look at the product and they're like, yeah, I should have bought that. Like they have something right.

Kari Jo Patterson:

So if they're not walking out and they don't have anything, the lasting impression that you're leaving them with when you're drop shipping to them is regret. That's the feeling that you're leaving them with. That is not what you want. You want them to feel taken care of. So that is why it's so important Buying product. It's an emotional thing, it's a feeling. People buy because of feelings, not because of what it does they do, of the feeling, and so you want to be able to give them something. Right then if you I want you to.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Here's the thing is I was telling you like there are ways. I'm going to tell you how. How to you know? You're scared of investing in this big amount of back bar, because what if you can't sell it? And, and let me tell you, inventory is not scary if you treat it like money. I don't know how you treat your money, but with my money I want to keep it moving. I don't know if you guys have heard how the rich do their money. All you're basically doing is moving their money all the time, never let your money sit. It's like moving from here to here to there, not spending moving.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Okay, you want to treat your inventory like that? Okay, how I do that is when I opened my and I got my first order, which was $3,000, I think it was. I put stickers on all of my bottles on the bottom. I put stickers on all of my bottles on the bottom and what happened was, in six months, I would go through my inventory and any, because I am repurchasing things after people buy them. So, oh, here's the other thing. When someone buys inventory, I feel like this needs to be another episode of how to do this.

Kari Jo Patterson:

But basically, whatever someone spent, I always replace it. If that makes sense. Okay, there's more to it, but just basically, if someone buys the cleanser, obviously you got to replace the cleanser that month, right? So you're only keeping 50% of the money and you're replenishing the product that was bought, okay. Anyways, what I do is I put stickers on the bottom of my bottles and at the bottom of my bottles. In six months, if there are any bottles that have the stickers on them, then they get moved, and what you do is you discount them at like 50% off. Right, so you might not make a profit on that product, right, but you'll for sure make your money because people are going to buy a product that's 50% off and so you can reinvent it into products that are selling, versus keeping product on your shelf that are not selling. Does that make sense? You want to get your money back and you want to reinvest it? Okay. And the last thing is is you've got to know your top three sellers. So find out what your top sellers are and order more of that, even if right now, this is what you need to do. If you won't carry the whole entire line or opening order of whatever the opening order is for your brand, you need to at least carry your top sellers on your shelf so that, when you are selling them, people can walk out with it.

Kari Jo Patterson:

You guys, I literally had. I want to give you guys a little example of retail in my company. This is a bonus. This is my truth bomb for you. Okay, I had this lash artist in my company and she sold in one week $1,500 in retail. She was a lash artist. It wasn't even a facial. She wasn't even doing facials on people to sell them like products and talking about. She was doing lashes and that's what she was able to do. She didn't see more people, she just trusted the process, she believed in the product and so she was easily able to talk about it and sell it. She ended up earning 20% on the products, because once I did a threshold on my pay scale for products, you sell more, you get more. Right, she earned 20%. My company earned another 30%. Guys, we didn't have to see more clients at all, but we both earned money from doing nothing.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Okay, here's the thing. If you are sitting in the survival phase and you are wondering how to grow your business, your team or how to figure out how to sell without it feeling salesy, then what I have for you is my mastermind. That is where my mastermind is for those people stuck in that survival zone and they need to learn the skills to get out of it. It is $97 and I don't think it's going to stay $97 for very long, because I do give a lot of value to it. So, if you want to get in now, you guys, we are talking about systems that are going to help grow your product cells, help build your consistency and how to get you out of that phase. It's super affordable and it's high value, and it's your next step. So make sure to tap the link in the show notes and join my mastermind today. All right, I'll talk to you guys next time on another Esthetician Podcast.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Bye guys, Thank you for listening to the Esthetician Podcast with Kari Jo Patterson. Each week, Kari brings you real-world lessons on how to grow your empire. To learn more about Kari fearless prosperity mastermind group, one-on-one VIP coaching opportunities and more visit www. karijopatterson. com See you next week for more insights and strategies on the Esthetician Podcast.

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