Why Providers Hate Selling, Fixing the 'Retail Gap,' and Operationalizing High-Margin Revenue

We hire incredible providers to deliver incredible results. But why is it that the best injectors are often the worst salespeople? In a crowded market, your growth isn't limited by your clinical skill. It's limited by your team's willingness to communicate value. Welcome back to the Business of Aesthetics podcast. I'm your host, Dan Disha. And to help us fix the disconnect between treating and selling, we are joined by Laura Crowley. Laura is the CEO of Laura Janet & Co. and the founder of Laura Janet Aesthetics. She is a unique voice in our space because she has lived on both sides of the needle. As an award-winning esthetician who scaled her own clinic, she now acts as a fixer for practices where the revenue doesn't match the talent. Today we are going to discuss the retail gap. We're talking about why your staff feels guilty about selling, how to fix your checkout process, and how to build a culture where your team sells because they care and not just because they want a commission. This episode is brought to you by Ecomarketing, the digital growth partner behind this podcast and a trusted resource for aesthetic practices looking to dominate their local market. With that being said, Laura, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Happy to be here.

Absolutely. Let's get into the conversation here. Yeah. So let's start with the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Happy to be here. Absolutely. Let's get into the conversation here. Yeah. So let's start with the mindset. The biggest frustration for owners is hiring talented providers who refuse to sell because they feel it compromises their clinical integrity. How do you psychologically rewire a provider to see a product recommendation as a medical necessity rather than a commercial upsell? I think it's, again, it's those that it goes back to training and it goes back to education and it goes back to the tools that they have. So providers, whether it's an esthetician, whether it's a nurse injector NP, you have all these tools at your disposal, you have all these tools to help not fix a client, but help a client feel their best. And so you're really recommending that. So I kind of look at it as like, for example, like, I don't know too much about HRT right now. And like, everybody's talking about peptides and HRT and these things. And I am a consumer too, like, and I want to feel optimally like my best. So you're educating the client. And same, we can go back to units. Again, I'm an esthetician. I have over 20 years. I've worked with many injectors, of course, and know a lot about filler and Botox and things, but I don't know how many units I need. I don't know what filler I need in my face or what is the best thing for my neck or anything like that. So I need them to really educate me and tell me and I really want to trust them and their recommendation of, you know, not put themselves in like our wallet so much. I feel like people do that so often, you know, what do I need? And what do they recommend for me? And we're really asking them as, you know, as example of like a personal trainer. I don't know what I need for my body or to train or things like that. The personal trainer is going to train me and tell me what I need. And I think we get so hung up on maybe they get hung up on the price. It's so expensive. Like they can't afford that right now. Oh my gosh. It's like this whole plan is $5,000. They're like, Oh my gosh. Like I wouldn't spend that right now because I can't afford that right now, but they can. Or, and especially if now, like I just did a really amazing commercial with Sunbit. I've all these like, you know, practices, but we work with payment plans, there's so many options now to, you know, divide up that payment for them. So I think it's just like getting into that mindset of, they want to be treated and people want your education and they people want you like the best results to feel better and feel better about themselves, like no matter the cost, like, and then I'll be the one decide if I, you know, couldn't afford, you know, if I want to take a $10,000 vacation next week, or I want to spend $10,000 on my face, like, let me decide. next week or I want to spend $10,000 on my face. Like, let me decide. But please show me like all those options.

Got it. And you've written about emotional intelligence in sales. How do you teach a provider to read the room if they don't feel like they're pushing a product on a patient who actually can't afford it? I think it's about, it is, it's about reading the rum and it's about taking a step back. Like sales, I'm not pushy at all. I recommend and I write out a treatment plan, but it's about showing that to the provider and then basically stop talking, stop talking. And I'm sorry, showing that to a patient and just stop, like stop talking, stop overly talking. Because I think providers, sales, right, we try to over explain or we try to justify the price. And it's like, just stop. The price is the price. And this is my recommendation. I am the expert in the field. This is what I recommend. Stop talking. And if they, if you want to adjust the scope or want to adjust the treatment plan, of course we can, you know, do that. But I think you need to take a beat and write it all down for somebody. That's why I love, we can get into this later, write it all down for somebody. That's why I love we can get into this later. But I love like a consult pad of like really writing it down for somebody to kind of see it in black and white of like, what is this going to look like for the year? Like we're still in January right now. So this is such a good time. Like I'm actually doing this for myself this year. I'm really trying to take care of myself. So I am writing down like and trying to like stick to it what i want like done for the entire year as far as aesthetic treatments um you know working out health everything that's very interesting right there um so laura you've identified a specific retail gap where clinics fail to capture the high margin revenue sitting on their shelves. Beyond just forgetting to ask, what is the specific operational breakdown in the consultation or perhaps the checkout process that causes 50% of patients to walk out the door empty handed?

Oh, gosh, I mean, there's just no, there's no system, right? It starts with even before when they book an appointment, there's no system, there's no paperwork, like their paperwork should include home care and should include retail, like they're going to get the best results when everything is combined. You can't get a laser treatment or a really invasive like micronedling treatment and, and just not have home care, right? So we, it's, that's just so, so important. You're just not going to get the best results. You're setting them, not, you're not setting them up for failure, but you're not setting them up for like the best success possible, right? So if somebody is, and you want to prep their skin, like that's how you're going to get the best results too. So if somebody just tomorrow, or even today, for example, books like a micronedling treatment with our practice, and they're a new patient, I might say like, no, or I might say, like, we have to prep your skin first, or we have to like look and see where we're at. Because again, we care about getting that best result. So that comes with the paperwork ahead of time, we have extensive paperwork that they fill out, and they can fill that for a consultation in practice, or they can fill that out ahead of time. And then it starts with the consultation in clinic, our consultation is not just about like health and wellness and what we've done, it's about your skincare and retail history. And again, retail is a lot about the unknown, I guess you're teaching like, when I think about that, people don't know what an oil cleanser does, or what why they need that or anything like that so you're educating them on like this is a really great you know retail item that you might be interested in or a peel pad or again they don't know what a peel pad is like they are consumers I think we always we always think that we're talking to like other experts and we're talking to consumers that have no idea what they're doing maybe they use like god my husband still uses like irish spring it's like awful but like we're talking about people that have pretty basic regimens usually or we're talking about the conoisseur who loves this stuff, but maybe hasn't tried an oil cleanser, you know, so I think, again, we're putting ourselves in their mind that like, oh, they know everything or they have it, right? Well, no, they don't. And you might have like, or even like makeup, like back in the cosmetology days of like makeup or really fun lipstick or things like that. You're just introducing them to like fun new things. And then the checkout process, same thing. You're, you know, writing them a treatment plan. So not only you're writing them a treatment plan for the year for services and health, but you can write them a treatment plan for retail and have it all down there. And again, you can, you know, you can add it up, you can recommend, you can follow up with them. You can have all this put in the system. I have clients really honestly take a picture of their bathroom counter and have it send it to me in our portal on our CRM. And then we go over that. So it's a lot of like following up too.

Okay. And how do you follow up really? What's like the best practice of that? We're using a lot of, I mean, we're trying to get into more AI right now and automation, more automations, I would say. So our CRM is amazing. It's links to our EMR. So we use that to like, if it's a trigger, like these trigger links, so they buy a specific item, or they have a specific service, they are getting automations, you know, usually within of like, a Google review, of course, is in a couple hours, or a product or a check in is within like a couple days to check on them, depending on what they get. Well, that's awesome. And that's completely automated. Yes. We're trying to get it completely automated, but then we do have customer service representative, which I do have a customer service representative that works Monday through Friday, you know, just usually during the day. And she is monitoring that too. But then she is also setting up the automations and checking things. And now many owners try to fix low sales by throwing commission at the problem. But that often, you know, backfires or creates a bit of a cuthroat culture. So instead of just offering more money, what is the non-monetary culture switch that needs to happen for an hourly employee to start acting like a stakeholder in the business? I think transparency, honestly, too. I was thinking about this transparency about the business. I think it's so true until you're an owner, you really don't know where the money is going. Like you just don't, you think that like all this money and it's coming in and you really just don't know. So I think transparency of like really breaking down, like, no, this is actually how much this margin is, you know, and I think cuthroat for like in between by like providers, it's, you know, really talking to them, honestly, it's more one ones, I really felt like the more one ones are so important. I think like that old school of like once a year or once like every six months for a meeting is just not okay anymore you have to have individual one-on-ones all the time like pretty much like month like I would say minimum monthly but you really should have check ins like um again you don't have to have a two-hour check-in weekly but like you really should have check-ins like um again you don't have to have a two-hour check-in weekly but like you should have a check-in weekly and then you should have a group check-in weekly of the vibes and how is everybody feeling and things like that um commission it's like it's like you and you want to have a group goal like you guys all want to work together and have like a group goal too it's not just individual i think it should be a group goal. Like you guys all want to work together and have like a group goal too. It's not just individual. I think it should be a group goal, a staff goal. I think you could have like, again, like a monthly meeting or a check-in and huddles all the time, but of like, what is the goal for this month, for this quarter? And really write out like, what are your sales goal? What are your individual sales goal? And what is like the team sales goal? And really try to achieve that and help each other.

Okay. Can you take us, you know, through one of those meetings, the one-on-ones? I want to understand how they effectively address this problem. The one-on-ones, I think I just had one the other day and again we're telling them this is what I need you to bring in per hour this is what I need you to bring in retail per hour to afford your salary I need you to bring in this I think you need to tell them what you are bringing in what you did last year. Like I just had this conversation, what we did in December, what we did last year. In order for you to get a raise, I need you to do X, Y, and Z. I think just, again, being super transparent with that. And then being like, this is your commission for retail. This is your hourly for services. hourly for services. Of course, some of them get gratuities if they're an esthetician. This is your opportunity for spend this year for classes. I invest in my team for classes, like that's not a lot of that's a lot of money, networking opportunities, there's networking events, there's, there's so many classes that they want to do, I really address like their goals. And I can do that if they, you know, if they bring in x, y, and z, and I will pay for it for them. So it's about just laying it all on the line and being super transparent, and then giving them other opportunities which we can get into too yeah absolutely and you know you spent time as a director of education before opening your own spot so how much of this culture switch is simply lack of motivation? I think some of it, a lot of it is that they, they don't know the products. If they're not selling the products, they're not selling something they don't know about it or like they, they're not educated on it. So that's when I say, okay, nobody's selling this product, this product X, for example, let's get the rep in, let's get a webinar, let's set up a webinar, because they're probably going to go home again, they don't own the business. But you have to motivate them in some way of, again, that they could, you know, make so much more money to, you know, really own their money, though. So you have to so but some money to you know really own their money though so you have to so but some just want to go home and watch netflix they don't want to watch a webinar right at night time so you have to kind of like always like schedule those meetings too so you have like say like again you have all these tools you have all these tools, you have all these skincare lines, you have all these neuromodulator lines, you have, again, filler lines, you have to set up these education opportunities for them. Because if there's a reason that they're not recommending this filler, not doing this filler, it guaranteed is because they are not educated about it and they need more education about it or so they need more hands-on training about it um i always felt that like especially back in the day with skincare if somebody is not recommending a specific line um they just need to be more educated about it right

and it bring it reminds me of a really amazing quote that i heard last week which goes something like everyone wants to get paid at the end of the month but no one wants to admit that this is a business so what you're doing right there is really bringing transparency and you know giving them that ownership of like okay you, this is how much work you need to do to really afford your place at the practice. Yeah. Yeah. It's very expensive to even afford their salary and to know that they even not even cost like the other stuff, like the other expenses, but to even afford their salary is super expensive. So I think it's just super nice. It's really, really nice. I feel like over the years, it's really changed on the transparency of money and where all the money is going and what it takes to really even open, you know, a business and for a business to thrive in 2026. But yeah, I feel like lack of sales, lack of that is all about education. They usually don't know. They need more education about it. Absolutely. And before we continue, a quick message from our sponsor, Equa Marketing. Equa are offering our listeners a complimentary 60-minute digital strategy session. This is a one-one consultation with the senior strategist to help you map your 12-month high-value patient acquisition roadmap. You will get a personal diagnosis of your online presence and patient funnel, uncover untapped growth levers across SEO and social, walking away with a clear, across SEO and social, walking away with a clear, actionable plan tailored just for your practice. You can check the availability and reserve your spot in under two minutes at businessofaesthetics.org forward slash MSM.

Now, Laura, moving on to visibility, you advocate for personal branding, but many owners are terrified that if they let their staff build a brand, they will eventually leave and steal the patients. How do you structure an employee branding strategy that gives them autonomy while ensuring the patient loyalty remains with the practice and not just the provider. I think it's, I truly advocate that for everybody, everybody, even as an employee, has their own personal brand. I just think it's so important these days. I think it's so important to, again, give them that own, like own that. Like, for example, even when I was an employee, I felt like I owned my schedule, kind of, for example, like, yes, we had a huge practice and a huge front desk and huge marketing teams and things like that. And that was like, necessarily, like, the job of them to like, you know, help me get booked and stuff like that. But I don't know, it came to the point where I if I had I was just telling somebody else if I had white space, which was rare, or like a blank space or a cancellation, it was so super rare, I knew that I took it upon myself to like fill that because I wanted to fill that. So I was thinking like, you know, I just always wanted to be booked and busy and I really cared and I really took it upon myself for my sales going back to like sales too. So it kind of, you're kind of transition. Some, some people kind of transition to that entrepreneur, right. In a business, and they want other opportunities. They don't want just opportunities just when they're in clinic. So they want other opportunities that they can do and monetize. And now with platforms like Like to Know It and ShopMy, it's so easy for employees to make other streams of income. And I just think that's so important to give them that opportunity. And it really excites them. And it makes them just super happy. And again, another stream of income that they can do, again, as long as they're not, you know, doing, you know, their shop my why they're in clinic, you know, but they I feel like they to make another stream of income for them, it's just super exciting where the world is going. And I just felt that even a couple years ago, I was like, the world is changing. And I that's why I wanted other streams of income, I wanted to consult. So I opened up a consulting practice, I wanted affiliate links, I wanted other streams of income. I wanted to consult. So I opened up a consulting practice. I wanted affiliate links. I wanted digital products. I wanted to start speaking and like my speaking career. There's like, I could be guests on podcasts. You know what I mean? There's brand deals now. And there's like huge brand deals and these user generated content. Like it's just, it's, it's wild that the, where the world is going. And I think to, you know, to restrict that on an employee because you're afraid of them to leave, like if they leave, they leave, you know, I think just if yes, it, it stinks and it's hard and it's huge revenue loss and everything has to shift and it's, oh my God, it's, it's frightening, but that's why you have contracts in place. I think you can have contracts in for a place of reimbursement too, for, especially if you spent a lot of time and money on training them, of course. But I think they, with them marketing on their own, again, they are also bringing eyes to the practice, they are bringing patients to the practice, they are bringing leads to the practice. So maybe you didn't have to do as many ads that month, they are doing your marketing for you. If you think about that, I think about not doing many spending on ads, spending on Google ads, meta ads or spending on your social media manager. Can you imagine if a practice like say like a 50 plus practice with all people, they did all the marketing? Like, I mean, you wouldn't have to have a huge marketing team. I just think that's and I think getting everybody like that operation down, if everybody commented on the post, if everybody shared the post of everybody, you know, like, I think that's like, that's so cool to me to have everybody on board with like social media and marketing with that. And I just think it can, it's really can enhance the practice and bring so many new eyes to the practice. If everybody else had their own personal brand, not everybody wants their own personal brand. Some people just are like, no, I don't want that any part of this. And that's totally okay. But the people that do, you know, I think, and then for example, to stay at the practice, again, that one person is not going to do everything. So the person that injects your lips is probably not going to do your facials or do maybe your threads or do maybe your laser. Like, I think everybody's really niching down to. I think that's super important. super important. Again, I really want to go to like a laser specialist for like my CO2, maybe someday that just does those pretty much all day, you know, or I want to go to a specialist that does full facial balancing for my, you know, fillers and neural modulators and things like that. So that person is not going to do my facials. So or my maybe my retail or my dermaplaning, you know what I mean? So you're seeing everybody in the practice. And, and then again, the practice, the brand itself, you again, you have to have those small touches that make you, you know, super unique too. That's how long winded.

Small touches? Yeah, absolutely. But I would like to continue on that with the small touches there, because I was wondering, how do you really ensure the patient loyalty remains with the practice? And I think you just scratched the surface there. What are these small touches, Laura? I think, I scratched the surface there. What are these small touches, Laura? I think, I'm forgetting the book, putting the book right now. I think it's about your customer service. And again, differentiating yourself and your customer service of your, when they, you know, again, when they go into your website, when they go into filling out your paperwork, your EMR, to them coming in, to your practice feel, your vibes, your practice feel, your, again, your entire consultation with your staff, your front desk, and to your checkout, and to your follow-up system. And that customer service, it's very hard in your systems. These are like the brand's like systems. So that's very, very hard to recreate. I think you have to just make those small touches super, super unique to the brand of water that you get when you check out, you get a small gift, you get a small, you know, individual card when you check out. Do you get, you know, again, branded water bottles, branded like ice packs, small gifts on your birthday. Again, a handwritten card from the owner once in a while, a box of clean skin club towels, a nice, you know, bottled water, we just do all these like small touches, or individual like kind of quizzes, and already like always checking in on our patients to make sure that they have the optimal experience. And if they want anything else, they need to let us know. There we go. That's the way to differentiate.

And finally, looking at your own journey, you successfully transitioned from being a busy esthetician to a CEO who works on the business. For the owner listening in who is still trapped in the treatment room 40 hours a week, what was the very first operational system you built that allowed you to step back without your personal revenue crashing? I started delegating. So I got a personal assistant. That was the first thing I do. I got a personal assistant before I could afford one too. Not always recommend that. Please consult your finance people. But I knew that I needed that balance of that trade to really step back and let go and start delegating, start eliminating, delegating, and really the very low hanging fruit tasks, like checking my email, responding to emails, doing numbers, doing inventory. my email, responding to emails, doing numbers, doing inventory. Again, just via these very small tasks. I knew that I needed to like some of the social media things, I knew I needed to get off my plate. So I started again, and everything's not going to be 100% to your liking right away. And that's so hard. That's just so hard to let go. But it's so true that you can't be doing everything. And I think you're still, you're still, you know, doing that. You're still, you know, working 40 hours a week, taking patients, and then you're still doing all the admin stuff. And it's just in the sales and the social media and the marketing and things like that. And it's just and the sales and the social media and the marketing and things like that and it's just not possible um again and everything's not going to be even like 90 percent the exactly how you like it um but you then that's where i love like tools like loom or like just specific tools for sops um to really you, to break it down of how you like to do things. I think that's so important. But yeah, that was the first thing I did is I hired an EA. Okay. And was there a specific moment of failure, like where is this a week where revenue dipped or a key staff member quit that forced you to build that system? Yes. Yes, it was this past year. One of my best employees, she had been with me from the beginning and it wasn't, it ended on very great ways, but she took a full time, more of a full time job. took a full time, more of a full time job. And, and so I needed to hire more people. And I needed to, same thing, I needed to have more of these SOPs in place. So that was a big eye opener for me. All the stuff that she did as an EA for me, she wrote down and helped me really write those SOPs of what needed to be delegated and what needed to be done every day in both of my businesses.