Effective Product Sales for Estheticians

In this episode, Brittany Hagemann discusses the importance of building a strong business foundation as an esthetician. She emphasizes the need for a clear offer or niche, ideal clients, and effective product sales. Hagemann explains that overcomplicating a business by offering too many services can hinder success. She also shares insights from Crystal Hefner's memoir, highlighting the importance of focusing on the essential aspects of a business rather than just its appearance. Hagemann provides guidance on how to articulate and market your business to attract ideal clients and increase revenue.

Takeaways

Building a strong business foundation as an esthetician is crucial for success.
Having a clear offer or niche helps attract ideal clients and focus marketing efforts.
Overcomplicating a business by offering too many services can hinder growth and profitability.
Understanding the needs and desires of ideal clients is essential for effective product sales.
Focusing on the essential aspects of a business, rather than just its appearance, is key to long-term success.

Brittany Hagemann (00:01.134)
You're listening to the Estheticians Earning More podcast with Brittany Higginman, episode number 152.

Hello, happy Monday. How are you? I hope you're doing great. I either am currently recovering from going to Sweden to see Taylor Swift or I'm on a plane ride home right now. Hopefully I'm recovering at home, but who knows? I'm gonna be flying standby for the part of my trip. So I'm obviously recording this in advance so that you can have a podcast today while I've been off gallivanting around Sweden.

Anyways, today I wanted to talk about something that I really focus on with each of my Estish and clients and something that you can think about when it comes to building your business and some things that even you may want to focus on before you hire a coach, myself or someone else to kind of help you get things moving in a direction to set you up for success. So I'd like to talk about it like a...

a really strong business foundation. And I have a lot of thoughts on this. So hopefully this is going to be as organized as possible. I have notes, but I sometimes could just go all over the place. And I think about sometimes we as business owners overcomplicate our business. We add a lot of different elements to it.

to make money and by doing all of those things, we're not actually making money. So I'm going to give you some examples. So this, one of the ways that this.

Brittany Hagemann (01:46.286)
So I'm gonna give you some examples. One of the ways that this...

Brittany Hagemann (02:01.006)
So I'm going to give you some examples. So a way that this can look is by having a ton of different services that you provide. So you're waxing or sugaring and sugaring. You are doing facials. You're doing acne. You're doing skin pen or, you know, micro -needling, micro -blading. Yeah, micro -blading eyebrows. You're doing lash lifts. You're doing lash tints. You're doing lashes. Like you are literally doing everything. You're the one stop shop.

for anyone who needs esthetician services. And you've heard me say this before, if you've listened to the podcast, you know how I feel about this, but we've been taught, especially in the esthetician school, and if you talk to people just in the world, they're like, you should offer everything so they can come to you for brows and a facial and whatever, right? And so then you're like, you're leaving money on the table, so they have to go to multiple places. And that is true. But...

What you may not be realizing and people who give you that advice may not also be realizing is it's very expensive to have a lot of things that you're maintaining back bar and products and things like that. And it's harder to sell yourself and market yourself as a solo aesthetician business. If you own a spa with multiple people working for you, do it, my friend. Like...

have offer all of it. Like I am not here to say don't do that. It's a totally different business plan from a solo entrepreneur, solo esthetician, which most people listening to this podcast are. And so what ends up happening is we've now completely overcomplicated your business in that you don't really know where to focus. You don't really know how to market. You have a few brow clients. You have a few facial clients.

You have a few lash lift clients. You have a few this, a few that. They don't actually all overlap. Maybe one or two of them do more than one service of different, you know, one does lash lift and one does a facial. Obviously that does happen, but from talking to a lot of estheticians, I've seen that as not the case. That is not the case. And so you actually end up having to get more people who all want different things and nothing.

Brittany Hagemann (04:23.694)
is more confusing when you're marketing than not having a clear offer that you're selling. I think that's where a lot of people kind of get tripped up on in marketing is because they don't know how to say what it is that they do. And if you do a lot of things, it's really hard to say that. Be like, this is what I do. Because you do that and this and that and this and this. And so then you want to make sure, like I recently did a...

podcast with Olivia Murray, I think it was episode 150. And like she did that. She was like doing this and this and this and this and this and this because she didn't want to say no to money. But when she stepped into just doing the services she really loved and was passionate about, she made literally more than double what she'd been making after a few months of working towards that, obviously, right? It wasn't overnight. So we really, the two like foundations,

to having a strong business foundation is to have very clear offer that you do for your clients, like a niche. It doesn't have to be just acne or just age management or lashes or whatever, but it has to be specific enough that people are like, that's me. I fall into that category.

So that is the first thing because when you can do that, you can market and find your ideal people who come regularly and do the things they're supposed to do. But if you're just trying to grab anybody who's interested in these services, a lot of the times they're not the ideal clients. Of course, sometimes they are, or sometimes people just get really lucky and it's like not a thing for them. But again, what I found from working with estheticians is that

Yes, they may have a lot of clients, but they're not great clients. They show up late, they cancel last minute, they don't tip, they only want a discount. If you're only running a discount, it's the only reason they're gonna come in. And so you're just treading water so hard to keep afloat in your business. And it is exhausting. And I'm not to say you're not gonna still have those clients, even if you do everything that I teach you. Of course you are, those people just are in the world.

Brittany Hagemann (06:50.19)
but you'll have less of them. It'll be an easier experience working with someone who is there for what you want and wants to pay all the things. So again, the first thing is having that strong offer niche that you can tell anyone about, this is what we do, this is how we do all the things to attract the second part, the ideal client, and then sell them products that they love and will continue to buy. These three elements,

If you don't have one, if not all three of these elements, it's usually why your business isn't doing well. It's why you aren't making money. It is why you are not growing your business. Because you're either having a bunch of people coming in, doing a bunch of different services, so you don't have a really strong niche, or maybe that too, as you have clients, but they're not your ideal client, they're not people who...

ever want to buy product or come regularly. They're just random people that you see every whenever they come, right? And when they come, they're always talking about they don't have any money and they can't afford to and all the things, right? Not a great client to have. And then they're not buying product. no, they're going to, unless it's on sale, they can get on Amazon or Sephora or wherever they think that is a better place. That's where they're going to buy products from. They're not going to like, they don't want to shop from an aesthetician. They want to go and like buy it from a pretty store.

So you can see how it's not working. I recently, so you know I like to read if you follow me. I recently read Crystal Hefner's memoir. So Hugh Hefner's Last Wife. I am not at all a Hugh Hefner Playboy fan at all. I've always found it a perk, like just, well, not for me. Like I don't, I'm not interested. I don't care.

But I was interested in this memoir because she talked about like, she's like spilling all the secrets, which I was like, okay, tell me. And it was actually a really interesting memoir. And it was definitely gross in so many ways, but that was the majority of the book, thank God, because if it had been really gross things again and again, I couldn't have read that. But one of the things that she talks about is after a few years of living in the Playboy Mansion and all these things, she got really, really sick.

Brittany Hagemann (09:14.606)
and was seen doctor after doctor after doctor and she did a couple of things wrong with her. But one of the things that was wrong was that the house, like the vents, the like vents and filtration in the house was like covered in like black mold, which you probably know is extremely toxic, especially to breathe. So they had to come have someone come in and clean out all of this mold. But from the world's perspective, I mean, I...

Maybe you're like me that this is not something you ever really paid attention to. I didn't really even know. I don't even know what the Playboy Mansion looked like. I've never seen any of the shows. I don't really have a visual of what it looked like. She described it in the book, but it was like this perfect place, like an adult playground is how she described it. It was just like perfect, but there was mold in the vents. It was like literally poisoning people. There were so many things that weren't being taken care of.

in the mansion so that it would look really good, but they're missing that foundation of what they really need to do to keep people, the staff, and everyone who lived and worked in the mansion healthy. And I thought about that from a business perspective. A lot of times we are focusing on what the business looks like and what our family and our friends and...

former coworkers and acquaintances and random people on the internet think about our business. We want it to look a certain way. That is like the main priority. And we think if it looks a certain way, then we will get the money and the people will come.

Brittany Hagemann (11:02.094)
And don't get me wrong, I'm not like saying that aesthetics and branding and design aren't super important and can't really make or break someone's experience for sure.

But you can have the cutest Instagram, the cutest room, absolutely adorable. Someone comes in for their service. You never see them again. So it doesn't necessarily have to be like, that does not guarantee a successful business. For me, that's like the cherry on top. That's like what makes it even more fun and exciting.

But if you haven't set up your business in a way that a client can come and be like, this is what I'm gonna get from them, this is how often I should come, this is my part in it, this is the products I'm gonna buy, this is this, this is that.

Brittany Hagemann (11:55.854)
then you're gonna continue to get those type of clients. You're gonna continue to get the clients that just are looking for an eyebrow wax or just looking for a lash lift or just a facial once a year. And again, there's nothing wrong with those clients. Of course, they're out there and they are looking for services and they are gonna fill your books for sure. But when you're looking for that consistent income,

those are not the people you want to be attracting and focusing on, right? Because you just, we don't know when they're coming back. They don't know either, right? They don't really have, it's like not that big of a thing for them. Like I do get my eyebrows waxed, but it's like whenever, like every few months, I don't really have a lot of eyebrow hair. I will pluck most of it myself. It's not that big of a priority for me.

I actually didn't get my eyebrows waxed for a really long time and was really happy I had my bangs to cover my eyebrows. And then one of my clients does brows as her specialty and I would always be like, don't look at my brows. But you don't want a client like me as a brow client. I'm not a great brow client. You want someone who is like, they want their brows to look amazing all of the time. They want to be, you know.

Full, beautiful brows. They're willing to spend the money on all the products. They love it. It makes them so excited. They love getting their brows done. That is the person that you want.

Brittany Hagemann (13:33.486)
And what happens is you get clients like me, if you do browse, who, you know, I will come and I'll tip and I'm pleasant, easy to please, but then you won't see me in three to six months. And then you're like, my business isn't growing. I don't have enough clients. Yes. Because you're focusing on the wrong thing. You're not focusing on...

What would someone who really cared about their brows be wanting, thinking, needing to come in? Do they even know that I do, like, when people come on my Instagram page or my website or whatever, TikTok, Facebook, whatever you use, would they know that's what I do? Would they know how to book with me really easily?

Like, why would someone be nervous to go to a new brow person? Like, what are their fears? You're really spending time in that world versus it has to be beautifully branded. All the fonts have to look a certain way. Not to say, again, that's not great. And I'm just going to give a ton of information about brows that

No one really understands unless you're an aesthetician.

Brittany Hagemann (15:06.83)
Ahem.

Brittany Hagemann (15:27.726)
When you have a business, when there isn't a clear focus, and you're not clear on what kind of clients you want, and you're not clear on the products that your clients need to get the results they want, it's really hard to make money. It's really hard to make money. Because you're probably not selling that much product. You're probably just...

like Olivia was saying, just helped anyone who was willing to need a service. And I think that all business owners or most business owners go through that phase when they first open their business. And so if you're in that phase, don't be discouraged by this. Don't make it mean you're doing anything wrong. This is just what it is when you first start out. But if you want to grow, if you want to go beyond just whoever can come in for a service,

you have to get clear on those three things.

Brittany Hagemann (16:29.166)
And the better you get at articulating what it is, who you do it for, and what they need to do, like products and home care to get success, the more money you're gonna make, for sure. It's a very simple focus. We're not focusing on what aesthetician influencers are doing or talking about in their stories. We're not looking at trends.

of what people, other asceticians are doing. We're really thinking about what you see your clients needing to get better results.

Brittany Hagemann (17:13.198)
and then articulated that really well to them. I think that a lot of people, and you may be listening to this podcast, you're like, yes, I know, I know what my specialty is, I know what kind of client I want, and I have the products that I love and I wanna sell them, but it's not working. Great, okay, so you figured that part out. You figured out the basis of the foundation, but now you have to build on that.

Again, like we're building a house, the foundation, if it's a really solid foundation, that's great, but if you don't put on the house, it's just like a slab of...

I don't even know what it is. What is the foundation? Is it just concrete? I don't know. I actually have no idea what this is. The foundation isn't a house. This is why I usually don't do house metaphors. But if we're not going to build on that and be crystal clear on how we're going to do that once we get those things identified, you're just going to be in panic mode all the time trying to worry about making money.

versus having a very clear plan on how to execute that. How do market your business to that ideal clientele? How do identify someone as an ideal client? How to talk to people about your business and how to get people to use products that they love and keep using them.

Brittany Hagemann (18:37.614)
But if you don't have those three things, if you try to just like, I'm gonna niche down, but like not really have products that reflect that, that's not gonna work. Or like, everyone loves this line, so I'm gonna buy this product line, but I really don't have anyone who's interested in it, who's like a good fit for this. And I have no idea how to talk about this line to people. You just spent thousands of dollars in products just sitting on your shelf that you're not gonna sell. Happens all the time.

Or maybe you have products and you have the niche. So those are the two things. Like you know you're doing acne, you know you're doing DMK, you know you're doing GlideMed, what, I don't know, all the things. You know you're doing sugarine, right? So those are the two things you have. But the people that come in are just random people that are not reliable clients.

Brittany Hagemann (19:41.23)
So then how do you get the ideal client? Well, if we go back to the foundation, if you are clear on these three things, what that client looks like, not just physically, but like what they need, why they're looking for that service essentially, like what they're looking for, what they need, what they need help with.

Brittany Hagemann (20:03.502)
what the business is, what they do to get results, what you do to get results. If you know that frontwards and backwards, it's basically a business plan. It's like, you know, how, it's how I work with my clients to kind of map out what they're doing. If you know that frontwards and backwards, when you go out into the world, when you talk to your current clients, when you talk to friends and acquaintances, talking about your business is just gonna be second nature for you.

when you're on Instagram is going to be second nature or whatever platforms you use social media wise. And then when you start doing that consistently, people will pay attention, you will get referrals, you get people coming in the door. But if you don't have that clear vision, that clear foundation, and you go out in the world or you're on Instagram or in a Facebook group or,

who knows how you, whenever you interact with the world and you're like.

Being an esthetician is great because you love it and you never work a day of your life. What? You know, like those random esthetician posts that people do? What? Who? What are you talking about? That's great for an esthetician community, but you're an esthetician community Facebook group, but what? What does that have to do with someone who wants their lashes? Right?

Or like you're out in the world and you're like, I'm an esthetician. And someone's like, great, what do you do? And I do, and you get this long list and they're like, okay. And like, where do, okay, how do I book, okay, do you have a website? And it's like, you don't really know to say at that point, do you book them? Do you tell them about your website? What do you do? How do you know if this person is even a person that would be?

Brittany Hagemann (22:03.694)
because what if they don't even know they want something, but they don't even know what it's like, how? How? Like how does it work, right? Versus like having that for lack of a better word, like elevator pitch, because you just know your business so well. You know who you serve, you know who you help. You talk to 30 people a week, whether it be online or in person, and 29 of those people are just like, that's cool. That's good information.