Recommend what you would genuinely suggest if the client were your sister and the commission did not exist. Say what you think, explain why, give the price plainly, and then stop talking. The difference between a recommendation and a pitch is not the words — it is whether you are equally willing to say “you don’t need that” and mean it.
Most therapists are uncomfortable selling. Most salon owners want them to do more of it. That tension produces either awkward scripted upsells or nothing at all, and neither serves the client.
There is a better version, and it is not a technique. It is a standard.
Why the pushy version does not even work
Set the ethics aside for a second and look at it commercially.
Pressure selling in a treatment room produces a sale and loses a client. It converts once, then the rebooking rate falls, the referrals stop and the reviews get careful. In a local salon business, where the same clients come back for years and tell their friends, this is a straightforwardly bad trade.
It also puts you at risk. A therapist under pressure to sell will eventually oversell — recommending something unsuitable, over-claiming about a result, or pushing a treatment on someone who should have been referred to their GP. That is a complaint, and possibly worse.
Honest recommending outperforms pushing over any period longer than a month.
The standard: would you say the same with no commission?
This is the whole test, and it is worth saying out loud to your team.
If the answer is yes, recommend it clearly and confidently. Under-recommending is its own failure — a client who was never told the plan that would have suited her has been let down just as much as one who was sold something she did not need.
If the answer is no, say nothing. Or better, say the honest thing: “You could do that, but I don’t think you need it yet.” Clients remember that sentence for years, and it is worth more than the treatment you did not sell.
Recommend inside the consultation, not at the till
The consultation is where recommendations belong. The client is there to be advised, she has told you what she wants, and you have the information to answer properly.
A sequence that works:
- Ask what she actually wants, and let her finish. Most therapists start advising three sentences too early.
- Assess honestly, including screening and history.
- Say what you would suggest, and why, in plain language.
- Give the price straight away, without apology or padding.
- Say what she does not need, if that applies. This is the credibility step.
- Stop. Let her decide. Silence is not your enemy.
Compare that with the till, where she has her coat on, the next client is waiting and any suggestion feels like an ambush. If you take one thing from this post: move the conversation earlier.
What you can and cannot say
This is where good intentions can still get you into trouble.
- Never promise an outcome. No “this will get rid of”, no “permanent”, no “guaranteed”, no specific timescale for a result.
- Always say results vary. Not as a mumbled disclaimer — as an actual part of the explanation.
- Never suggest a device treats a medical condition. Acne, rosacea, melasma, eczema, PCOS and menopause are medical matters. Talk about the appearance of skin — tone, texture, unwanted hair — and if a client raises a health concern, point her to her GP.
- Do not diagnose. Not even informally, not even when you are almost certainly right.
- Do not use someone else’s results to imply hers. Individual responses differ.
The advertising rules apply in the room, not just online. What you say to a client in a consultation is a claim, and the ASA’s CAP Code standards for aesthetic treatments apply to it. This is general information, not legal or medical advice — check the current CAP Code guidance and your insurer’s requirements, and keep any before-and-after material within the rules.
Recommending homecare and add-ons
Retail is where “pushy” usually creeps in, because the margin is visible and the sale is quick.
Keep it simple: recommend homecare only where it genuinely supports the treatment plan, explain what it is for in one sentence, and never make it a condition of the treatment. If a client says no, that is the end of it — do not circle back later in the appointment.
The same applies to add-ons. Offering something once, clearly, at the right moment is a service. Offering it three times is pressure regardless of tone.
How to structure incentives without corrupting the advice
If your commission structure rewards the sale, you have created a reason for a therapist to recommend something marginal. That is not a character problem, it is a design problem.
| Structure | Effect |
|---|---|
| Commission on treatment sold | Rewards closing. Highest risk of over-recommending |
| Commission on course completion | Rewards suitable recommendations and good aftercare |
| Commission on rebooking rate | Rewards the client wanting to come back |
| Team bonus on client retention | Rewards the whole experience, not the individual sale |
| Bonus on review scores | Useful alongside, weak on its own |
The bottom four are all better than the first. Reward what happens after the sale and the incentive to oversell largely disappears, because an unsuitable recommendation does not complete and does not rebook.
Train it, then check it
Recommending well is a skill, and it is trainable. Role-play the consultation, including the awkward parts: the client who wants something unsuitable, the client who asks “will it definitely work”, the client who cannot afford the full plan.
That last one deserves a good answer. “Here is the smaller version, and here is what it will and will not do” is honest and useful. Inventing a discount on the spot is not.
Consultation skills sit inside a proper qualification rather than being a sales bolt-on — the accredited VTCT training that comes with our machines covers client assessment and communication for exactly this reason.
Then check it occasionally. Sit in on a consultation. Read the notes. Look at whether recommendations are converting into completed courses or into refunds and silence.
The short version
- The test is simple: would you recommend the same thing if there were no commission attached?
- Recommend during the consultation, never at the till, and stop talking once you have said it.
- Say what she does not need. It is the thing that makes everything else believable.
- Never promise outcomes, never imply a device treats a medical condition, always say results vary, and signpost the GP.
- Pay commission on completion and rebooking rather than on the sale, and the pressure looks after itself.
If you would like to see how the consultation side is taught before you commit to a treatment line, the training and machine pages are the place to start, or talk to us on 01226 885185.
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Written by Janice Hilton, founder and managing director of Contour Group and a former salon owner. Janice has never met a salon that grew by pressuring its regulars.
