Get in, get brown, get out. For consumers, the process of indoor tanning might seem so simple, but you know better. When a new client comes into your business, you have to do more than give clients what they want — a great tan — and give them what they didn’t know they wanted — an education about proper skin care and sun care.

People learn their lessons about tanning, however misguided, from a young age. They live their lives believing that they need to burn to tan. They enjoy the outdoors, thinking one coat of sunblock will last them all day. The stories customers tell about “how their skin works” never fail to make professionals cringe, but that’s when the work begins.

Every indoor tanning customer is a new opportunity to change the perception of tanning, sunshine, and the skin care products that make it all work. To do that, you need to show your customers that you care not only about their color, but also about what they use for prep, tanning, maintenance and preventing sunburn. Armed with passion, reasoning and the products to back it up, you can rescue your clients from even the silliest of tanning myths in order to distinguish yourself as an expert and build long-lasting trust. Veteran salons share their advice for using sunblock and aftercare product to create smart tanners.

Click here to read the entire article in the new issue of Smart Tan Magazine online.