We’ve all had them. You can’t please them; they are always late then have the audacity to complain about your massage room, the oils, the curtains, your music, or whatever they can think about that doesn’t meet their standards of perfection. They’re never come for their appointment on time, they leave their money ‘at home’, they never refer anybody to you….the list goes on.

I had a client once who was always clinging on to her Asthma for an excuse for everything. After 20 minutes into the appointment she arrived late (couldn’t find her puffer), doesn’t apologise (why should she, she was an asthmatic) and still expected her hour treatment (because Asthmatics need a full hour) and then criticised me for not using X,Y,Z technique, after all her last massage therapist did it (she die of asthma if I didn’t and it would be my fault)….I wanted to strangle her. But I didn’t because I wanted her business.

Then one day she forgot her purse at home (her puffers made her do it) and said “I’ll be back in ten minutes with the money.” I didn’t see her again. By this time I was so sick of it that I wrote her a letter. I was polite yet assertive. In a nutshell I was sick of being walked on and treated without respect. After all her breathing had never been better like when she was seeing me…I don’t mean to big note myself but it was just a fact. I deserved better.

About a week later I wrote her a letter explaining that I felt disappointed and hurt that she didn’t pay me because it was like she did not value me or the good work I was doing and to please pay within 7 days of getting this letter otherwise I shall seek legal action. As any normal business person would.

Well you can imagine what her reaction was. Because I’d spoken to her in an assertive way she was very angry after all she could have had an Asthma attack and died. She accused me of being unfair and didn’t want to see me again. Phew! I was so glad. She sent me a cheque pretty quickly though. And that was all she had to do. Frankly I didn’t want her back. And I was not being aggressive, I was being assertive. (There is a huge difference.)

Question: What went wrong? Why did this person give me grief?

Answer: because I let them.

I just wanted to make my massage business to work and I thought I had to accept new clients just because they gave me business. I thought that a big part of making my massage business work was accepting clients that came my way…ANY clients.

But I learnt something very different (and extremely valuable) from that experience. That was to value myself as a person and a massage therapist. So I made the decision to never let another client treat me like that again. I would recognise the signs of a “difficult” client and nip it in the bud, so to speak and stop it from getting stressful. (After all the difficult client doesn’t feel stress; YOU DO!)

I devised a mental formula to prepare me to terminate difficult relationships without delay. As soon as a new client displayed any of the signs of being a difficult client, they were referred to someone else instantly. I had a mental checklist and used it actively. Since then I was able to recognise difficult clients and make the conscious choice of self value and my life would be so much better. After all who needs it for $70?

If you have had an experience like this then you know the headache they can cause you. So the first thing to bringing fabulous, regular, appreciative clients into your life and get rid of the difficult ones, or disconnect them from your life. To do this you need to recognise the signs of a difficult client.

Checklist to avoid:

• A ridiculously late arrival for the treatment without any apology or acknowledgment that they have inconvenienced you.
• Forgets their money or doesn’t have enough at the end of the massage treatment (let you get the whole massage through and then tells you they don’t have enough money on them).
• Criticizes you in some very subtle way (this is called ‘invalidation’ such as “are you still using that cheap massage oil?”)
• Always compares you to their other massage therapist out loud in conversation with you, implying they were better and they are just seeing you because the other person went out of business, town etc, etc
• Tells you that they would like to make an appointment but suggests that you give them half price because eventually they will tell people about you, which somehow qualifies them for a huge discount. (This really means they do not value you.)
• Rings five minutes before the appointment to cancel then gets annoyed because they can’t have an appointment on a time you don’t work (like 10pm Friday night.)

Believe it or not their behavior is not personal. These people are like this because they don’t like themselves and have a difficult time with self value and respect. This manifests into insecurity and a difficulty in relating to other people in an honest and respectable way. They have not learnt to show others respect. They are like this to everyone, you just have the unfortunate situation dealing with them right now.

If a client displays ANY of these things you can handle it effectively for yourself by making the decision to be assertive. My advice to you is that they are just not worth the stress or headache. You are a valuable person and a very important massage therapist who deserves the very best that clients can give you and should not take any less, consider yourself to accept anything less. You are here now, doing something incredibly good for humanity so value yourself for it.

And think of this; if you charge $70 per massage treatment then you are putting up with all of this for $70. Is it your happiness more to you than $70? If it is, tell these people to see someone else. You are worth more.

Best wishes,
Amy Roberts
www.massagetherapysuccess.com

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How can a therapist overcome the resistance to wanting to promote themselves and the mindset that suggests that actively promoting themselves is somehow a bad thing?

You can find a bit about that in ‘I am no good at selling myself‘.

However, it is worth thinking about some more, because it is a huge issue with many natural health practitioners.

Where does the resistance come from?

Its source might be found in the fact that many practitioners start out because they develop a love for a particular treatment as a client. That prompts them to learn the skills to administer that.

When they finish many feel that they are not experienced enough. This is communicated through potential clients who react with uncertainty or worse. (I think this communication happens on an unconscious or energetic level.)

And therapists pick that up (unconsciously) thus heightening their insecurity.

To stop getting rejections, they avoid promoting themselves.

So I don’t think many practitioners think it a bad thing to promote themselves. The reluctance comes from protecting their emotional balance.

Focus on the Benefits

That is the single most important suggestion I have. Stop thinking about promoting yourself. Forget selling your services. Keep one thing in mind: How can you benefit the people around you best?

The first thing this does is to help you to listen better. Understanding other people, asking for more details to get the full picture, delving into their beliefs.

If appropriate or asked, think of whether you can help them.

Helping them does not even have to mean with your services. It could be giving them another contact. It could mean suggesting a product or doing a specific thing.

Solving a problem for your target market

It also means offering your services, promoting yourself.

This is where target market comes into play. The more clearly you have defined who your clients are and what problem you are solving for them, the better you will become at exactly that. That increases your certainty and the easier it will be to promote your services in that area.

How do I develop a relationship with health care practitioners who may not be familiar with the modality I practice? (avoiding their discrediting something they don’t understand)

Thanks Jocelyne.

I guess that really depends on what your modality is and how it complements what other health care practitioners do.

A relationship with you

What I am wondering is how they could discredit something that they are not familiar with. It probably means that they have heard negative things of the modality. So they might think that they are familiar with it, even though they do not know details.

Probably the best way around it is to build strong personal relationships: actively networking. It is probably best to focus your relationship building on other interests of yours.

Join a sports club, make music, go to events. Relate to people on a personal basis, so they get to know and trust you. Then will then extent to what you do.

And maybe it is not necessary to put a lot of emphasis on your modality, but rather on the problems you solve and the results clients can expect.

Supporting what others do

If there is a way that your modality fits int what other health care practitioners do (i.e. supports their process), you’ve got a great inroad for some mutual marketing activities.

I would avoid trying to convince people who use another modality that yours is better. But if they are a specialist in a niche different to yours, let them know about your niche and how you can help their clients in your area of expertise.

What exactly do you mean by credibility? Is it in relation to people believing that you can help them?

If you are just starting out the only way to get that fast is to give people a taste of what you do: giving something away for free. Depending on your modality that could be a check-up or a short demonstration of your modality. When you do that, it is best to put a $ value on it to show what you are worth. And then you can use that meeting to start building a relationship.

Give to Get

You have heard it many times: clients are built on relationships of trust. That
is the way to new clients as well. This is so important, because treatments
are services that differ from products in that potential clients cannot touch
them or look at them before buying.

The best way to earn their trust is to give them a taste of what they can gain
from a treatment. This means you need to give something without the
security that you will get anything back.

I have heard many practitioners saying that they are not willing to give
something away, that they have spent too much money for their education
and now is the time to earn it back.

The fact is, if you are not having enough paying clients to fill your day, you
are wasting your valuable time. Each hour that you are not producing
income, you are losing money. Let’s assume that you charge $50 per hour. If
you have 10 empty spots a week that is $500, which is around $25,000 a
year. Talk about giving something away!

So now you need to be focussed on filling these spots. Using any spare nonproductive
time is the cheapest thing you can give away, because it only
costs your time, not time and money.

Whether someone is good in selling or not usually comes from the mindset of what you are trying to achieve.

As long as you are stuck in the: “I have to convince someone to give me money.” it is very unlikely that you will have much success. But when you return to what you really want to achieve, what made you become a health practitioner in the first place, your focus will shift to providing value for your clients. Then the “selling” turns into providing value to others in need and they start asking you for more.

A clear vision helps to reconnect with that original reason why you do what you do.

I have just read an excellent article on How to Charge Your Dream Rates (and get away with it).

It is written for freelancers, but it applies to massage and other natural health therapists as well.  Take note of the caveat at the beginning : “If you’re struggling to make ends meet, I’d suggest building a stable financial base before attempting to charge your dream rates.”

Three steps are outlined:

1. Convincing the client that you are worth it.
2. Finding out whether the client can afford it.
3. Making sure the client does not think you are bluffing.

Whereas freelancing has that element of negotiating rates with each client and you might be more set in your rates, something important can be learned: You have to be certain that you are worth it to be able to communicate your rates convincingly - no matter what they are.

There is also an important tip with regards to step 2: If your clients cannot afford your rates, you might need to think about a better marketing approach that attracts the right clients.

Go to FreelanceSwitch.com for the whole article. It is well worth reading.

Someone shared his fear that it maybe a lonely existence working from home, as opposed to working in a Spa with support systems.

That is such a valid and important point. I have been working from home for the past 3 years and the biggest thing I am missing is the interaction with colleagues.

But there are ways to nurture that interaction through professional support groups. I set up some and found that 4-6 people are best. That is intimate and varied.

The Passionate Training also emphasizes that. Here is a brief outline of how we structure of our meetings. (more…)

I’ve been getting a lot of great questions about massage marketing. Rather than just answering individuals, I thought to share the answers with you in this blog.

Here is an email I received recently and my answer:

Funny, as I was thinking about emailing you. I’m not sure I should have got the training as I now realise it is for people who are trying to expand an existing practice. I am new and just starting my practice so I can’t really use existing clients, as I don’t have any!!

I am a Bowen Technique practitioner and I tell everyone I meet how wonderful it is, how it helped me and other people etc. They are really interested, take leaflets etc. and then never make appointments. Those that have made appointments then cancel. I ask whether it is because they don’t know the technique and they tell me no, they are just too busy and will reschedule. (more…)

Serge is a naturopath who came to a small Australian country town. He has a strong French accent, maybe that added to his appeal, but he managed to fill his practice in 3 months with no advertising.

He offered a very simple formula: first session was $40 for 1 hour, second and third session was $30 for half an hour. If any more sessions were necessary, they were free.

What does that translate to?

(more…)

There is no better time to market yourself than when you have clients.

I received an email the other day from someone asking me whether he could purchase the Passionate Training and not start it until later. The reason was that he was busy with some clients.

Most businesses go through phases of ebb and flow. While in the flow with lots of clients, nothing is done to retain them or get new clients. Why would you, all is great.

But then the flood stops and suddenly it becomes really important to get new clients. (more…)