Lens Tips
Gearing up for selling PALs to first-time wearers
By Erinn Morgan

Are more new progressive lens candidates walking in your doors every day? As the baby boomer nation moves into presbyopia, this trend is certain to continue gaining speed in the coming years. How do you gear up to meet their needs? How do you best present the progressive lens option to these PAL newcomers?

Some dispensers seem to already hold the answers to success with boomers and progressives. "For new wearers we experience about nine to one in those that choose progressives over bifocals," says Max Raynor, OD, owner of two Professional Eye Care locations in Benson, N.C., and Roseboro, N.C.

Positive results with progressives come from utilizing smart selling strategies, as well as the strong selections of product available today. "The options we have today have made it easier to sell progressives to patients," says Raynor.

Here, we present seven selling strategies that will tip the scales in your favor.

1. Start in the exam room. Opening up the dialogue about progressives in the exam room shows the doctor's support of and belief in this product. "I talk to them in the exam room about progressives," says Raynor. "I will start the conversation by talking about preferences and options and will go over the advantages, pros, and cons of each choice.

"Then I will take them out to the optician and say, 'My assistant is going to show you these options.' If the staff is confident and knowledgeable about the options, and they can relay all the lens types, then each person can really make the right decision for themselves."

2. Present progressives first. Starting off your lens choice conversation with progressives puts an emphasis on this option. It also comes at a point in the conversation when the customer is fresh and able to absorb information.

"Progressives are the first thing I would present," says Lakeland Optical's Cooper. "If it sounds like it's not for them, we work down from there." Still, she says most new presbyopes are open to this lens option. "Someone who is 33 to 55 will have a more open mind about it. But there is also a pretty snappy older group who will try it."

3. Educate the patient. Information is the best tool for selling progressives. Once customers appreciate the features and benefits of this option, they will be more willing to make a purchase. "We give them all the information they need to make a good decision," says Marc DeMarco, an optician with Eyes on Rochester in Rochester, N.Y.

4. Use visual aids. P.O.P., printed brochures, and other materials illustrating the benefits of progressives are worth their weight in gold. "Each vendor has supplied us with a lot of information that we distribute to patients and put in the waiting room. We will also show a pair of glasses with progressives in them so they understand what the lens looks like. We show them a bifocal executive versus a progressive and that's it--it's clear what they want to be wearing," says DeMarco. Adds Raynor, "We talk about readers, progressives, and straight tops as options with the patient, and we show lorgnettes with each."

5. Outfit the staff with progressive eyewear. If the people selling eyewear in your dispensary are presbyopic, be sure they are fitted with the best progressive eyewear. "The patients always look to the professional to see what they are wearing, and it opens up the dialog about the lens," says Eyes on Rochester's DeMarco.

"Vanity comes through here," adds Cooper. "If people see that they will look better--by seeing how good the staff looks in them--they will be more open to this lens."

7. Offer a guarantee. Finally, nothing works better than a guarantee on a first-time wearer's progressives. "If they don't work, we guarantee them that we will make them up a flat-top bifocal or whatever they want," says DeMarco.

This strategy appears to be working as Eyes on Rochester, only in its 10th month of operation, is averaging about 30 pairs of progressives each month. "We have a written warranty that if they are dissatisfied with the product or have a non-adapt, we will replace it with anything they want," he says. "I don't have any first-time wearers going into bifocals. We also have a very high rate of converting bifocal and trifocal wearers to progressives because of our policy."

Lakeland Optical also offers a similar warranty, which is backed up by many of the lens companies they work with, Cooper says. "As a first-time wearer you cannot say 'no' to this. Nobody loses with this deal."