Will These 10 Retail Secrets Increase The Profits Of Your Nutrition Practice? by Dr. Bill Hemmer ucts on-hand limits impulse purchases. Popular items cannot grow in popularity if patients cannot see other patients voluntarily purchasing nutritional support products from your practice. Even if the nutrition side of your practice is almost all special order, you could still grow by keeping products in stock for immediate purchase. 2. Optimize Your Check-Out Space Do you know the most expensive real estate in most grocery stores? For many retailers the area around the checkout is the most desirable location. The next time you run to the store for a few items, slow down and really look at the closer to where your patients pay? 3. Up-Sell Before The Visit Ends The up-sell is one step beyond the optimized check-out, as your employees actually ask if your customers are interested in a product on special offer. We all know that fast-food restaurants are notorious for offering “super-sized” items for just a few cents more. But keep in mind that this is not just a tactic that sells more burgers and fries. Every type of retailer from the very elegant to the very simple can encourage their employees to ask their customers if they would like to try “something new.” Occasionally you may give your patients the opportunity to try some- If your nutritional practice includes a stable of items that you recommend to most people, then why not move them closer to where your patients pay? Are You Walking Away From Nutrition Profits because you’re thinking like a chiropractor, and not like a supermarket manager? Every year people in your practice will spend hundreds of dollars on mass produced vitamins from big box stores. Many will make those purchases based on impulse buys created by nothing more than store architecture and sales displays. Wouldn’t you rather have your patients purchase quality nutritional products from you instead of some other retailer? Believe it or not you can create a larger nutrition practice using only the nutrition information you know right now, simply by thinking like a grocer instead of like a chiropractor. Inside this article you will learn 10 different secrets that retailers use to improve the passive purchases of the products that you recommend. Greater patient compliance and larger purchases of the nutrition you support will be the 10 | Chiropractic Products • April 2015 pg(10-15/24-27/36-37/46-47).indd 10-11 area around the register. From discount DVDs, to gossip magazines, to candy bars, to gift cards for other retailers, you will be offered as many as twenty different products in the few feet it takes to pay for your items. side-effects. Find one or two of your favorites to implement in your practice this week, in order to see that “how” you offer nutrition can make a difference. On one hand, there is nothing wrong with the special order practice. The patients have usually committed to the products before the order even takes place. Therefore the special order practice limits overhead expenses by limiting the purchasing of non-performing nutritional products. There are no products that just sit in your office. The science behind the check-out space is pretty simple. Your money is about to come out of your wallet or purse. You have already committed to at least one purchase, which increases the chance that you will commit to at least one more. In fact, if the sum of your purchases seems like it is a lot larger than the relative cost of the item being offered, it may increase your chances of buying again. For example, if you are about to spend $35.00 on a copay for a chiropractic visit, a months supply of vitamin D supplements for $9.00 or even $15.00 may seem like a good value — a natural conclusion to your visit. This is especially true if your chiropractor just finished telling you about the prevalence of vitamin D shortages in our population. On the other hand, keeping few products in stock limits passive nutritional sales. The greatest performing retailers know that shelf-space equals sales, and not having prod- If your nutritional practice includes a stable of items that you recommend to most people, then why not move them 1. Create Shelf Space There are two kinds of retail centers: those that emphasize the special order and those that keep products in stock for immediate sale. Likewise there are two nutritional practices: those that place orders for specific patient needs and those that sell items in stock. How you practice nutrition, specific testing and nutrition protocols versus general life-style support, will probably influence how much you keep product in stock. thing new to support their nutritional health. It is a strategy that you can use with everyone on the same day, or just with a certain patient population in a certain time-frame. For example, you may want to offer women over fifty nutritional supplements that support bone health. However you stage it, and whatever you offer, the up-sell is simply a numbers game, and the more you offer, the more you will sell. 4. Track Your Sales And Know Your Flagship Products It is no secret that retailers are in the business of selling as many goods as possible, which means knowing their flagship products. Most retailers have software to track which products sell the most and offer them the best profit. Even though your chiropractic practice is only a part-time retailer, the principle behind knowing what sells and the profitable profit margin still stands. There is no sense in continuing to offer a nutritional support product that very few purchase, or does not offer you enough profit. The key to knowing your flagship products might be the use of simple April 2015 • Chiropractic Products | 11 4/16/15 11:48 AM product inventory software — one that is either free or low-cost. Tracking what you sell, how much you sell and when, might help uncover some trends in your patients’ nutrition related purchases that can help you plan what items you will keep in stock, or help you invest in educational products for the purpose of supporting your sales. Even if you do not have tracking software, you probably have a good instinct about what products sell and what patients like. Or what products see more compliance with repeat purchases over the long-term. If you are the kind of chiropractor who only keep non-performing items in stock. Good nutrition practices will do the same. You need to get rid of what is not moving to dedicate more of your sales space to the products that inspire your patients to make nutritionally empowered purchases. Greater margins of nutrition profits may simply be a matter of discounting and removing stagnant products, and ordering more of what your patients already love. 6. Use The Psychology Of Numbers If you are a nutrition practice that keeps items on display, then you are going to be a retailer that publishes You need to get rid of what is not moving to dedicate more of your sales space to the products that inspire your patients to make nutritionally empowered purchases. sells what you take yourself, then you may only have a few products on hand. In that case your only products are your flagship products. The question is, are they really selling as much as you would like or as much as you think they are? prices for the products you recommend. Take advantage of the psychology of numbers, just like every other retailer does, and lower the first number of your products. The more items you have to display, the greater the influence the lower number can have. The only way to know which products are your flagship products, and how much they are actually selling is through accurate tracking. If you are a chiropractor in the business of nutrition, then you are in the business of retailing nutrition products. It might be helpful to put on a “retailer hat” and do what all retailers do and track your sales. What is the psychology of numbers? It is the natural short-cut the mind takes as it stores information. It works especially well when faced with multiple pieces of similar information, like product prices. Intellectually we all know that the price of $9.97 is only a few pennies shy of ten dollars. However, when we are scanning prices nine is the only number that tends to stick. We feel like the product is cheaper than $10.00. When it comes to the impulses that create sales, feeling like a product is less, when it really isn’t, offers an advantage to the retailer. 5. Know What Moves And Move What Doesn’t Once you know your flagship products and you have specific numbers about units sold, then you have an opportunity to grow. Retailers know that the products that move or are popular are more likely to grow in popularity than the products that tend to sit. The difference between good profit and better profit on popular items might be the number of units on-hand. Good retailers would rather give more shelf-space to popular products than 12 | Chiropractic Products • April 2015 pg(10-15/24-27/36-37/46-47).indd 12-13 7. Create A Power Display Like the psychology of numbers, the psychology of the power display is based on the natural patterns of human behavior and perception, and it encourages spending. Study after study of shoppers in stores shows that consumers often look or turn to the right when entering a place of business. Whatever Recommend a Cabinet Makeover Help Keep Good Health Close at Hand! 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The Hadayubi™ Lavender Moisturizer contains lavender essential oils for a soothing experience.* &IND$R/HHIRAS&ORMULASATBETTERHEALTHFOODSTORESNATIONWIDEsWWWESSENTIALFORMULASCOMPROFESSIONALFORMULAs * These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics® is a registered trademark of Essential Formulas Incorporated. Become a friend of Dr. Ohhira on Facebook. 4/16/15 11:48 AM rotating displays in size, color, and location in order to interrupt the familiar. You can use the same principle in your practice to interrupt your long-term patients, and re-excite their interest in your products and services. If you have been using the same location for your nutritional display for months or even years, then perhaps it is time to shift things around. Move the furniture and you might find that you move more nutritional products. The Future of Holistic Health: Possessing the Power to Maintain Wellness at the Cellular Level 10. Use Down Time Leading Natural Health Trends The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a report that identifies trends of dietary supplementation among American adults. The report reflects data collected on 88,962 Americans, ages 18 and older, enrolled in the National Health Interview Survey (three time points, namely years 2002, 2007, and 2012). Use of fish oil, probiotics or prebiotics, and melatonin increased among American adults, between 2007 and 2012. As well, usage of yoga, tai chi, and qi gong among adults increased linearly across the three time points. the reason for this behavior, retailers that don’t have a “right-handed entry” can still take advantage of this by creating a power display to the right of the door. Place a display of your most important and recommended nutritional products to the right of your clinic entrance. Or if you don’t have product to display, place the educational materials for your top nutritional products to the right. In fact, the concept of a power display can be used to feature any important practice information that you want to share with your patients. 8. Use Repetition Maybe you have heard the statistics on advertising that say your audience needs to hear your message repeatedly to recognize you, trust you, and trust your message. Where you often feel like you’re repeating yourself for the eighth time, your patient, or your perspective patients, may just be hearing you for the first time. This is true in your patient education about chiropractic, and in your education about nutrition. 14 | Chiropractic Products • April 2015 pg(10-15/24-27/36-37/46-47).indd 14-15 In-store repetition of information is a common strategy that retailers use in order to influence purchases. Stop and notice the next time you are in a big box store how often the same messages and images appear. True, you have less space and design resources than a large retailer, but that doesn’t mean that the principle of repetition cannot be used in your practice. Instead of one brochure location, try two. Instead of one poster, try three similar posters with the same message. Instead of one nutritional product display, split your products up into two different locations. You might find that your patients notice, learn, and retain your nutritional education more easily. 9. Shift Things Around The new and the novel always gains attention. A new hairstyle, a new suit, a new arrangement for your living room all provide visual interruptions that make us take notice of the things that have grown familiar. Retailers create the same effect by changing the It is hard to find a seat in a retail space, and when you do, it is usually facing the merchandise. Retailers offer very little down time, and when they do they take advantage of it by encouraging passive observation of more products. Where do your patients look when they are sitting and waiting for you or someone else in your practice? What are they doing with their down time? You can take a page from the major retailers and offer patients every opportunity to see, read, or notice your messages about nutrition or your nutritional products. So turn some of those waiting room chairs around and start educating while they are waiting. Think Like A Retailer? The size of the nutrition side of your practice is dependent on more than your expertise or experience in nutrition. How you are showing the products you support influences passive purchases and improves your nutritional sales more than you might realize. Instead of allowing patients in your practice to spend hundreds on questionable nutrition in big box stores, you can encourage them to buy the brands that you support and trust by thinking like a retailer, instead of just like a chiropractor. You can use one or more of these ten secrets that retailers hide out in the open to encourage better compliance of your nutritional recommendations, and increased purchases of the products you offer. Reg´Activ™ with ME-3—the Patented Probiotic Proven to Produce Glutathione, the ‘Master-Antioxidant’ Lactobacillus fermentum ME-3, encompasses over 20 years of published research, and is the ONLY probiotic proven to actually produce glutathione in the body, which has powerful effects for Cardio, Detox, and Immune System Wellness. Every cell in the body utilizes glutathione, considered by scientists as the “Master Antioxidant” for its crucial role in maintaining cellular health during daily exposure to free radicals, common environmental toxins and the effects of aging.* Reg´Activ™ formulas combine ME-3 with other established condition-specific ingredients for synergistic health promoting effects* Reg´Activ CARDIO WELLNESS™ Includes essential B vitamins, CoQ10 and ME-3, which help boost glutathione levels and generate powerful antioxidant support for the cardiovascular system.* Reg´Activ DETOX & LIVER HEALTH™ Proven ingredients that support healthy glutathione levels and promote healthy detoxification and normal liver function.* Reg´Activ IMMUNE & VITALITY™ Revolutionary probiotic blend of ME-3 and KP08 that supports immune system health and provides a core energy boost.* Revolutionary. Remarkable. Reg´Activ.™ About The Author – Dr. Bill Hemmer is a Logan graduate and practices in IL. Email him at [email protected]. 'JOE3FH}"DUJWGPSNVMBTBUCFUUFSIFBMUIGPPETUPSFTOBUJPOXJEFtXXX&TTFOUJBM'PSNVMBTDPNt *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. 4/16/15 11:48 AM
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