Marketing

Optimize Sales of Plano Sunglasses to Contact Lens Patients

By Mark Hinton

Implementing an education-basedsales approach can put more contact lens patients into anti-glare, polarized plano sunglasses.

ROB Bottom Line

Plano sunwear is a profit center that dispensaries implement with consistency.

Cost per unit
$16 to $18

Priced
$98 retail, with $49.50 sale price to contact lens, LASIK and plano patients.

Typically sell
100 to 150
per quarter in high-volume practices

Profit
*At least $4,950
per quarter

*Some patients opt to buy two pairs of these entry-level-priced sunglasses, or opt for a more expensive pair once educated on eye health benefits.

Educate General Sunwear Health Benefits
Begin the plano sunglass dialogue by giving theopticalteam concise and descriptive information to educate patients about why they need a pair ofsunglasses. Opticians should be able to teachpatients key points and ask relevant questions. They should be able to ask patients, for instance, whether they know that the skin and eyes are the only two organs directly exposed to ultra-violet lightradiation; that 6 percent of skin cancers begin on the eye lid; that sun exposure is one of five contributing factors to age-related macular degeneration; that ultra-violet light exposure puts them at greater risk for developing prematurecataracts; and that glare is linked as a contributing cause oftraffic accidents. Following the doctor’s advice in the exam room regarding the health need of sunwear, optical staff should be trained via role-play with one another to have the following conversation.

Talk About Protecting Eye Health
Doctor: “Mrs. Jones, now our opticalteam will help you choose a pair of sunwear to protect your eye health, as we discussed.”

Optician: “Mrs. Jones, as the doctor explained, we advise that you choose a pair of sunwear before leaving today. Sunwear is critical to your eye health. Leaving your eyes unprotected from the sun leaves you vulnerable to the harmful effects of the sun’s radiation, increasing your chances of developing everything from skin cancer on your eye lid to age-related macular degeneration andpremature cataracts. A good pair of sunglasses also will make driving safer for you, as government research reveals that sun glare is acontributing cause of car accidents.”

In addition, the optical staff must practice throughrole-play with the doctor the hand-off from him or her to the dispensary.

Particularize Pitch to Contact Lens Wearers
Explain to contact lens patients that, in addition to the general health benefits of sunwear, they are especially in need of a good pair of sunglasses.

Optician: “Mr. Smith, the sun is going to be brighter andgenerate more glare through your contact lenses because the contact lens sitting on your cornea is going torefract glare from the brightsun.”

Patient: “OK, thanks for letting me know. I guess I’ll get a pair at the store later.”

Optician: “As a contact lens patient,we absolutely do NOT want you buying cheap mass merchandized sun lenses! Eighty percentof them are punched out of acrylic, and acrylic is NOT suitable for any lens material. In fact, the risk and downside of acrylic lenses has been repeatedly reported to cause eye strain, blurred vision, improper UV filtering and distorted optics, leading to forced errors in your eyes. You’re seeing so much better now in your contact lenses, you wouldn’t want the wrong pair of sunglasses to ruin that for you. Does that make sense?”

Merchandise for Entry-Level Buyers
Most of your patients want to choose from entry-level to high-end sunglasses. They want choice or they’ll simply “choose” to shop elsewhere. Once they establish their buying habit elsewhere, the odds are stacked against you that you’ll see them for sunglasses, so don’t try to sell first-time sunwear buyers a $200 pair of planos, only. Stock your dispensary with entry-level sunglasses.

The practices I work with, for example, present potential first-time plano buyers with polarizedsunglasses priced at $98, but reduced to aspecial sale price of $49.50 if they makea purchasewithin a week of theexam. Reiterate the special deal with a tangible gift certificate listing the sale cost and the policy that they can only take advantage of it within a week of their finalized fit, so their purchase decision states a deadline, improving the odds they will act. The sunglasses are offered in gray and brown polarized lenses. Theoptician explains the difference between the two, and how the brown tint is best for overcast yet bright or hazy days, while the gray tint is better for super-sunny days. It is likely that some patients, after learning from both the doctor and the opticalteam of the health benefits of sunwear, will opt for a more expensive pair of sunglasses with antireflective treatment, or that they will buy both the gray and brown polarized glasses.

Prepare for the Resistant Patient
Role-play to engage andconvince the skeptical patient.

Patient: “Thank you, but I think I’m going to hold-off on making a purchase today.”

Optician:”Sure, no problem. I’m going to give you a gift certificate, and you can use it within the next week for this promotional price of $49.50.”

Patient: “Thanks again, but I think I may just get a pair at the mall ordrugstore later this week.”

Optician: “Please, whatever you do, do not buy the off-the-racks. We can’t be sure they’ll block 100 percentof the radiation, and they could be made out of acrylic. That is what 80 percentof the department store sunglasses are made of and that’s distortive. In fact, wearing a sunglass that doesn’t filter properly is more hazardous and dangerous to sight and vision than wearing NO sunglasses at all.”

Patient: “OK, well, I’ll think about it.”

Optician: “Here’s your gift certificate, and we’ll see you before this date.” Now, point at thedate and ask: “Do you have any questions? Did this education help you?”

Patient: “Yes, thank you.”

Optician: “Thank you. See you in a few days!”

Master Sales Friendly Language

Words you think of as harmless are not nearly as effective as others, and may even harm your optical staff’s attempt to seal the plano deal with patients. Train staff to become conscious of word choice.

Ultra-violet light”is OK, but “UV radiation” isbetter.“Radiation” is more powerful due to the frightening connotations of radiation as a cancer-causer.

“Advise” rather than “recommend.” You “recommend” a good restaurant; you “advise” patients of the need to wear protective sunwear to guard against age-related macular degeneration,premature cataracts and other eye health dangers. Patients are used to being directed from the moment they check in and are asked to “wait a few minutes to begin pre-testing” or whether lens “one or two is better,” so why not continuedirecting them when they get to the dispensary? “Advising” rather than “recommending” is a way to stay inthe mode of directing the patient.

These are your “choices,” rather thanthese are your “options.” Referring to merchandise selection as “choices” implies a needed action; “options” is more passive, encouraging the patient to browse rather than act, or make a “choice.”

Related ROB articles

Frames: Theories of Sales Presentations

Seal the Sale: Bundle in the Exam Room

For questions and help in getting your plano sunweargame on, you are invited to e-mail exchange with Mark Hinton / eYeFacilitate for additional clarification. To contact Mark:eYeFacilitate@gmail.com

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