Three B's

I currently don't have a package for unlimited in the HP. Anyone else not have one?

Brian Oshman

Unlimited in HP is stupid. It is a stupid business model and should never be considered and it is not necessary nor recommended for the technology.

Let's see:

Drop 50K on a bed

Another 4K for electric and A/C for it,

3K per lamp change,

Sell the most profitable unit with Bottom Feeder® mentality at $19.99 a month,

Further devalue your business and your industry,

And then complain that you ain't makin' no money.

Dat sownds 'bowt raight.

Oh yeah, did I mention that unlimited HP is stupid?

movieking

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sunsally

We offer the same types of packages in ALL our units - from 100W base beds to HP and Spray. So you can buy single visits, memberships, single week or month unlimiteds and sessions.

We don't sell many month unlimiteds on HP. We DO sell a large number of memberships (EFT's) and week unlimiteds. But mostly, people buy sessions and/or upgrade for a visit from another package.

Don't make it difficult for people to use your most profitable units. If you educate your clients and have the right pricing there is no reason to believe that unlimited HP will be abused to the point of being unprofitable. Quite the opposite, in my experience.

sunrisetan

i just have such a hard time selling something....and hoping they don;t use it alot to make a profit. i'll leave that for all the other salons...and i will just work less for more.

Three B's

Our HP bed does well, but sometimes I question if it could be better. If tons of others have it why don't I?
But with so few session needed to build, and maintain color it seems weird to have it.

Brian Oshman

Exactly. HP doesn't need to be unlimited to be effective. It is base bed mentality where you need 20 sessions to get a good tan. HP works in 4 to 5 tops. Sell it in packages. The industry evolved but the sales tactics haven't. Unlimited is a thing of the past with today's technology but people are reluctant to let go of a money losing model just because everyone else won't.

And I am right.

sunsally

Do you find your other unlimited packages are "abused"?

It is a question that can be answered by data.

For any given bed - what is the average session price for any given package.

For example

Level 1 -

Month Unlimited - $50 - gets used 10 times - average price of $5/session

EFT - $20 - gets used 5 times, on average, over the number of months enrolled - average price of $4/session.

But then need to ALSO look at average revenue/customer.

Let's say the Month Unlimited customer comes in April only, does no upgrading, buys no lotion --- so $50 on the year for those 10 visits.

The EFT customer stays on membership all year, upgrades sometimes and uses product. So 60 visits (the avg of 5 over each of the 12 months) but they spend $240 on membership + $60 in product and $100 on upgrades - $400 for their 60 visits.

Would you rather have a customer that spends $50/year? Or $400?


HP is no different. My customers on $99/mo EFT still fall off and stop coming but keep paying like other EFT customers. And indeed - they find they don't have to come an "unlimited" amount of times. But they like thinking they COULD - they see a "value" there, even if they don't take advantage of it. Sort of like someone going to a restaurant that offers "unlimited salad, rolls, pasta and drink refills". People THINK they will eat for 5. But in reality, they fill up on the rolls and salad and barely touch the more expensive main dishes

At the grocery store they sell small, medium and large sizes of almost every product. They sell baby formula that is ready to drink right from the can, to condensed, to powder form. All these options are to help ensure the store can make as many sales as they possibly can - because each sale adds up. And they hope - and assume - that they can help build customer loyalty through offering options - which leads to more sales and more profitability.

Depends of course on how you price it and how you pitch it. But it CAN indeed be very profitable to offer HP in options other than just sessions.

Lady Twilight

I do offer unlimited in my high pressure, Ergoline Affinity 950. We've been in business almost 4 years now and initially I did not offer the unlimited for the high pressure. However, it has turned out to be really profitable. The cost is $119 a month and the clients have use of all the beds. It may not work for every salon but it does work for my area. I also offer a week unlimited for $65 and a 2 week for $80 which also do well and I find more often than not the 2 week unlimited clients renew for another 2 weeks before their package has even expired. May not be right for everyone but it works really well for us.

BuyersGroup

If you do not own a business you should not comment on business techniques.

If you look at the fastest growing chain in the USA zoomtan you will see they exclusively do UL memberships including HP units.

I can also say we have always offered UL tanning in every unit from 160 watt basic level to HP units.

The real issue goes to what Sunsally writes you price a given product/service based on your business metric and you adjust it as needed. No legit revenue stream is "stupid".

My chain does not sell packages/groups of tans like 3,6,9 whatever. I did that in the early days and the metrics show that those purchasers tan less frequently. Now you may say that increases your per tan cost. yes it certainly does. However it also increases your active clientele by significant magnitude thus offsetting any increase in per unit tanning costs.

In other words NO POLICY is stupid if you think it through and run the numbers. Salons in a different demographic will definitely need a different model than I have and so on.