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.

Due to the nature of the technique I am not going to phone up these people to “hassle” them to make another appointment - that would ruin my reputation before I even have one!

Phew! Offloaded a bit there. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. I do think the training is fantastic, if you already have a practice.

Thanks so much for your email and your questions. I’ll share some thoughts with you:

1. Did you practice on any patients during the time you learned to become a Bowen Therapist? It does not have to be for money, could be your family or friends or colleagues that you trained with. The important thing is to have certainty in yourself that you have healed people. Write down their names, write down what they ailment was and how quickly you were able to help them. Put it up on the wall as a poster, maybe even pictures of them. Really make it visual to yourself what you have achieved already. That alone helps building certainty in your abilities.
   If there is really no one you have worked on, give sessions to your friends and family without pay. It is absolutely essential that you practice your art and get positive feedback. Instead of their pay, get their feedback and testimonials (see Day 7 of the training).
2. Have you got support? Or are you going this path by yourself? Call someone from your training, hook up, get in touch with people who might be successful Bowen Therapists, in other words put yourself in a surrounding that builds your certainty and excitement. Your email sounds like you are currently alone and uncertain and begging people to let you help them. That comes across to your potential clients and possibly drives them away, because it is hard to trust an uncertain person.
3. You write: “They are really interested, take leaflets etc. and then never make appointments. Those that have made appointments then cancel.” This might be a really harsh answer, but I wonder: Are you really interested in them? Do you know what ails them? Do you ask them the right questions to make them feel heard and show that you know what you are talking about? Or do you only “tell everyone how wonderful it is, how it helped me and other people etc.” If they see you as a patient who is now trying to be a practitioner, they will not trust you. By developing your specialist statement (see Day 9), you can start to become the island that they come to for help.
4. When they cancel, you’ve got a great opportunity to get to know your clients more. Ask them whether their problem has gone away. If it has, be interested in how it happened. If it has not, ask them what other date would be more suitable. By asking “whether it is because they don’t know the technique” you are presuming that it is because of you(r technique), showing uncertainty.
5. Are you reaching your target market? Or do you talk to anyone you meet about a Bowen session? See Day 17 to help you think of strategies to get right to your target market.

If none of that makes a difference, ask yourself whether you are really fulfilling your deepest desires by being a Bowen Therapist. I am a strong believer in persistence. But I think it is also good to review our realities and understand what they mean, rather than wasting a lot of time doing things that do not make us happy.

In summary I want to say that starting out is always the hardest thing. And I congratulate you for having the courage to walk that path dear to your heart. When I produced the training I mainly had practitioners in mind who are in the early stages of running a practice. I would be very interested whether there are other things in there (apart from the past and existing clients) that make you think it is not suitable for practitioners starting out.

I hope that these thoughts are useful to you and you will be patient and persistent to get over this hump. Remember, just one little action each day is all it takes to make a huge difference over a year.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Certainty, Marketing, Persistence, Strategy, Support. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.