Proven Ways to Boost Prescription Sunglasses Sales

Eyeglasses and contact lenses are not the only effective ways to make a profit within your optometry practice. Prescription sun wear is a great product to offer and can help boost your sales if marketed effectively. Below are some tips to help push prescription sunglasses and pad your bottom line.

1. Get your staff excited about prescription sunglasses

If your staff is not excited about the product, they aren't going to sell effectively to your patients. Go over the benefits of prescription sun eyewear with them and explain how much they could positively impact your patient’s day-to-day life. You can also consider tying prescription sunglass sales to an individual or practice-wide monetary bonus that is slightly less than your bottom-line increase. Once your staff becomes more comfortable and knowledgeable about prescription sunglasses, they will be more likely to recommend them to all of your patients.

2. Make prescription sunglasses sales a team effort

Patient experience in any practice starts with your receptionist. When your front desk staff is booking and/or calling to confirm appointments, make sure they are requesting that the patient bring any eyewear to their appointment and explicitly state this includes their second pair and prescription sunglasses. Many patients may not know that prescription eyewear outside of just their standard eyeglasses even exists. This could spark interest from your patient before they ever arrive at your office. If the patient states to the receptionist they don't have a second pair of glasses or prescription sunglasses, this is the perfect time to briefly educate them on their benefits and importance. Either way, before the patient ever enters your door, they are already thinking about prescription sunglasses.

Techs should also be reviewing the patient's current eyewear and highlighting any insurance benefits and in-house discounts offered on prescription sunglasses. Also, ensure that the doctor is reinforcing the benefits of prescription sunglasses and then reiterating those in the optician's presence our patient's visual health. Having some lifestyle questions on your intake paperwork will make this easier on your staff and more relatable for your patient. Suppose your staff can focus on activities the patient is interested in and how the prescription sunglasses would benefit them while performing those activities. In that case, the patient will be much more likely to purchase.

3. Offer financial incentives and package deals

Financial incentives can be the gateway to closing the deal in second pair and prescription sunglass sales. Most labs offer discounts to practices for multiple orders. Passing these savings along to your patients could be the difference in them deciding to purchase prescription sunglasses. Check with your lab and see what kind of incentives they offer, as these vary from state to state. You could also consider running a seasonal or holiday special to promote the sale of prescription sunglasses. Patients will be more likely to purchase in the summertime, so consider running this kind of promotional discount in the slower months.

A great way to offer varying discounts is to take your numbers from the previous year and list your months from most profitable per patient to least profitable per patient. You want to make sure you are doing this based on income per patient only, as the numbers will be skewed if you saw much heavier traffic in one month versus another. Once you have your months in order, assign different discounts to each month. Remember that you want to offer your greatest incentives in the months that brought you lower-income and lesser ones in your already profitable months. For example, in your month that was the most profitable, offer a free sunglass frame to your customers, and in the one month that was the least profitable, offer free prescription sunglass lenses. In the other months, you can vary, offering 30-50% discounts on prescription sunglasses when they purchase a pair of eyeglasses. By changing your offerings, patients will be more enticed to buy when they can get more considerable savings, and you can pad your bottom line in your slower months.

Prescription sunglasses are a great way to not only promote better vision health for your patients but also increase your bottom line. With your staff all on board and equipped with the knowledge they need to highlight the benefits, you should see your prescription sunglasses sales increase in no time!