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Dr Tim Pearce
Inside Aesthetics (IA) is a weekly podcast and key channel in the aesthetics industry which discusses key issues cosmetic treatment issues with key opinion leaders, brands & practitioners.
Miranda Pearce, co-founder of SkinViva cosmetic clinic in Manchester UK, joined hosts Dr Jake Sloane & David Segal to discuss marketing issues in podcast #129:
“The injector mindset and how to supercharge your aesthetics business”
The hosts discussed Miranda’s background in the public sector before she joined Tim in building the SkinViva business, where she developed a passion for marketing, mindset and social media.
Miranda defines her view of marketing:
“I would say that marketing is overcoming your dream customer’s limiting beliefs.
“So I define a limiting belief as ‘I can’t do X because of Y’ – and it could be in any area of life, you know, I can’t start a podcast because I don’t have the equipment, I can’t find a partner because all men are f***ed, it’s like any limiting belief that stops you moving forward in your life and these people, there are people out there, who want aesthetics. They know they want aesthetics; but they have many, many things blocking them from getting aesthetics. So our job as a marketeer is to help them overcome those limiting beliefs and that’s it.
“Now in the clinic, how it smells how it looks etc, I would say that probably marketing stops at the point where they book and then I think probably sales begins and customer experience.”
The full podcast is below:
The discussion includes:
- Pricing
- How to set pricing within a saturated market?
- The value of a skilled injector
- How to feel confident charging appropriately
- Communication and value
- Reducing no shows
- Handling last-minute cancellations
- Increasing word of mouth referrals
- Improving patient loyalty
- Motivation and mindset
- How to combat ‘injecting anxiety’
- Dealing with limiting beliefs
- Recovering confidence after a complication
How to set your pricing in the aesthetics industry
The first issue discussed was pricing. The Australian hosts explained that their market is more dominated by large retail chains than the UK, which sets a more widely understood benchmark for price than in the UK, where the market has more independent practitioners and large clinics. Miranda gave her thoughts:
“When you are deciding your prices or when you are deciding whether or not to discount… take yourself to the ‘is it worth it’ moment.
“Now, every single person, whether you’re employed, self-employed, got a business – whatever kind of environment you’re in – we at some point ask ourselves… is this really worth all of this.
“So maybe you’ve got a client who’s breaking your balls and just trying to get 50 million follow-ups or you know they’re threatening to do a bad review or you’ve had a terrible tear trough complication; and you do, you have sleepless nights and you think to yourself ‘is this worth it?’ – shall I just go back to whatever the lowest thing is, like being single if it’s about your partner or being employed or going back into you know just go and be a gardener or whatever it is – you know, just the simple life. And when you imagine yourself in those moments, price from there; because honestly, when you ask yourself ‘is it worth it’ and you have all the anxiety that comes with that and all the resentment that comes with that, you need to know that it’s worth it for you, even in the shit moments, that your prices buffer you for the shit moments; because even if you don’t quit in those moments, so even if you ask yourself ‘is it worth it’ and you think ‘oh go on then I’ll carry on, it’s better than the national health service or whatever’ you are still carrying that terrible energy, you’re still so much more likely to procrastinate for example.
“So if you’re struggling to do your marketing, and it’s because actually if you’re honest you don’t think this business is worth it for you, that’s what’s going on – you don’t think this business is – you’re not making the returns, you’re not motivated enough. Whereas think about times when you’ve been really really motivated in your life, whether you’ve been really motivated to get a girl or you’ve been really motivated to finish an art project you’ve been doing at the weekend or taking your kids for a day out or whatever, you’re motivated because you’re gonna get something back from it. And if you price yourself too low, honestly, you’ll have way more of the ‘is it worth it’ moments.
“So take yourself to that pain and then price from there, that’s my first piece of advice.”
The hosts discussed their perception that a lot of practitioners tend to think primarily about cost of product when pricing, but tend not to think about their time, cost of consumables, follow ups and other factors that should be part of the price.
Miranda responded:
“Honestly, I was lucky that Tim set our prices, because honestly emotionally, that thought that you just said, if you’d asked me on day one I’d have been like ‘oh yes you’re right Jake’ but it didn’t go from my head into my heart for years.”
Explaining an instance where a client had challenged treatment price based on the cost of product, she continues
“…in that moment I was saying to myself it’s only about the price of the syringe, but like you say, there’s so much more.”
The team discussed Dr Tim Pearce’s phrase “It’s about skills not mls” which captures the importance of technique and training.
Miranda’s advice to a new injector thinking about pricing is:
“Articulate the value of what you do to your dream customer. Really and truly what’s going to happen to them when they have this treatment from you.
“A lot of people come into this industry and if we’re honest we don’t really agree with this industry we think it’s a bit scuzzy, we think it’s antifeminist, we worry about what it’s doing to society, we don’t really like the other end of it, you know, the kind of big lips end of it; and so we actually think that we are less valuable – we don’t understand what it’s going to give to that customer.
“But let me tell you the story of my own treatment.
“So I didn’t have – I had kind of a bit of Botox and whatever for years – and then I had 3 syringes of around kind of to tackle tear trough and that was about 8 years in! So like you’re running this business, I love my clients, but I don’t understand, I really don’t’ understand the value to them. So I did that and that was cool, then I left it another few years, then I had 10 syringes all in one go – whoop – that was amazing! and then you guys this was the biggest breakthrough for me, I had my lips done about 3 years ago, something like that. And I swear I sat up on that bed and I looked in that mirror and I said ‘oh my God I am sexy!’…
“…that was worth a shit ton of money!
“I think that if you don’t have treatment in this industry it’s a real problem. Now I’m not saying you should go and have treatment because you know that would be unethical – but I think you have to ask yourself, like, do you really understand the value to these customers?
“And then in September I had 16 syringes in one go and honestly put me on the rooftops, I’ll get a loudspeaker – ‘everyone needs aesthetics it’s phenomenal!’ and that, I wish I’d had that at the beginning. I could have had treatment, OK I was young but I could have had treatment, I didn’t.
“So my advice to you as a new injector is go and experience it, but go and experience it with someone else. Go and experience the whole customer journey. What could you do better? Did you feel special when you walked into the clinic? Did you feel comfortable? Did you feel intimidated? Did you get a follow-up when you wanted it?
“What kind of value could you add that would enhance your life and then replicate it and you will start to believe your own worth.”
Listen in full at
Free aesthetics marketing webinar
Join Miranda’s latest webinar, available at: https://www.mirandapearcemarketing.com/marketing-webinar-registration to learn more and receive some free marketing tips.
The introductory webinar by the creator of the Dream Customer Attraction Method (DCAM) eLearning course will include free tips on how to effortlessly generate 75 killer content ideas that will lead to bookings, the secret 3-step formula to make social posts that will stop the tumbleweed forever, and the surprising truth about how many followers you really need to make a 6-figure income from aesthetics.
Please sign up for the marketing webinar below:
More aesthetics marketing information
- Dream Customer Attraction Method (DCAM) eLearning course – containing so much more of these kinds of juicy tips
- Miranda Pearce
Dr Tim Pearce eLearning
Dr Tim Pearce MBChB BSc (Hons) MRCGP founded his eLearning concept in 2016 in order to provide readily accessible BOTOX® and dermal filler online courses for fellow Medical Aesthetics practitioners. His objective was to raise standards within the industry – a principle which remains just as relevant today.
Our exclusive video-led courses are designed to build confidence, knowledge and technique at every stage, working from foundation level to advanced treatments and management of complications.
Thousands of delegates have benefited from the courses and we’re highly rated on Trustpilot. For more information or to discuss which course is right for you, please get in touch with our friendly team.
