Everyone is looking for something to buy; whatever your "Authentic Signature" is you need to uncover it ~ define it and market it aggressively -

If you don't know what you are selling, how will anyone else know? Our clients are looking for value, results and convenience.

But on a deeper level, and perhaps more importantly, they want to enjoy pleasurable relationships that provide them with a sense of belonging and importance. If you can tap in at this level, you need to sell it.

Our employees want professionalism, flexibility and fair pay. These are important values, but if we as Leaders can create an environment that deliberately challenges and encourages personal growth, we need to let that be known, and sell it.

Let's break these two stories down and begin with the client.

We learn something from someone every day. Learning develops an automatic connection between the teacher and the recipient, and if fed, it is a relationship that can thrive for years. So, in a word, "education" may well be what sells relationships. As soon as a client enters your life:

Ask for "Permission to Educate" her, and then tell her "This is what you can expect from us"

• We will target your needs;
• Set mutual goals;
• Focus on results;
• Monitor and adjust;
• Reach goals and set new ones.

In obtaining her permission to educate, you have accomplished many things:

You have prepared your client to receive immediate and ongoing guidance and recommendations for services and products;

• You have opened the door for staff to feel comfortable in recommending these items;
• You are setting in motion, relationships that could potentially last a lifetime;
• You have provided your staff with a challenge and the potential for personal growth;
• You are contributing to your Spa's bottom line and therefore your sustainability.

As you progress through the steps to achieving her goals, she begins to catch on to the concept of "Self-Care" and personal goal setting. With this comes the promise of both a relationship and results - just what she is looking for. If you view every client as a life-long client, the rewards will come.

As we work with our clients, we learn their desires and their fears. We begin to open our eyes and our hearts and start to see them in a very different light. We are better able to recognize their potential and how to reach it with them. This relationship is what conveys the sense of belonging and importance that you're client so carefully seeks out, as well as the personal growth that your employees so desperately desire. This is not to say that we encourage our staff to develop "ownership" of the client. The system that works is a system that is able to change faces. So we all need to share the same long-term goals. It will be up to you, the Leader to plant the seed.

There are other important components involved in developing the relationship:

• Show them you understand time is the new money - Implement time-saving opportunities
• Strive for health over wealth - guide them with caring hearts and human touch
• Offer solid business services and value-added incentives wherever possible
• Incorporate their family and even their pets into the experience
• Make their convenience your priority - be their servant - show them your smile
• Support spiritual wellness - share the occasional secret
• Be aware and participate in the community
• Be environmentally conscious
• Offer them support through your business alliances
• Encourage the "I deserve it" mentality of self-reward, small indulgences and forbidden or exotic pleasures.

Now, our coveted employees. The desire for personal growth and to see others grow, is an inborn characteristic that most caregivers possess in abundance. In order to gain and retain the best contenders out there, you will have to sell this as one of your Spa's Opportunities.

The opportunity to grow with the clients, grow the business and ultimately grow personally is not common in our industry. It gets talked about a lot, but is difficult to find. If it is made clear that this is alive and thriving at your Spa, it will become ultimately clear to your employees that coming to work with you was, or is, the best choice possible.

So the ability to develop and transform your employees is perhaps the biggest opportunity you have to sell, but you may also want to consider creating an outstanding "package" of opportunities that will clearly outweigh the competition. This is referred to your "Value Packed Proposal". Here are some other opportunities that could potentially form your proposal:

Caring Culture - Driven by Inspiring Leadership

• Work/Life balance
• Flexible work arrangements
• Ongoing Talent Recognition and Action Plans - Cultivating potential
• Training and Development programs to provide stretch experiences and opportunities
• Diversity rules!

Compensation - A performance-oriented reward system

• Bonus Plans
• Incentive Programs
• Recognition and Reward Systems
• Service and Product Allotments
• Training and Educational opportunities
• Employee Benefit programs

All of human-kind wants the same thing - to treat and be treated kindly and feel a sense of importance. As Leaders we are in a position to make this difference. Are you doing your part?

Spas2b is a full-service Spa Development, Consulting and Training company based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Spas2b draws on the extensive experience of its President, Leslie Lyon. Leslie has evolved with the Health and Beauty Industry for more than 30 years and has participated in many aspects of the Spa trade. An Aesthetician and Electrologist for 25 years, today Leslie enjoys her profession as an International Consultant, Educator, Key Note Speaker, Published Columnist and Freelance Writer. Over that period of time, Leslie has gained a reputation as a creatively inspired, conscientious industry professional.

www.spas2b.com