FX Solo Therapists – Members Site

When you have a client come in to see you. Do you have a vision on how you will address the problem they’ve come to see you for? Do you also have a vision on how you will sell the treatment program? In my opinion you do need both.

Having the know how to address an issue is one thing, we’re trained to do that for our clients. However, as massage therapists we really don’t get any training on how to sell a treatment program for our clients.

The not so secret, secret is to tell the client your vision on how they will feel after the treatment program you have vision for them.

So all you need to do is have a a vision for their treatment plan. Then express that vision on how the client will feel, once they stick to your treatment plan.

As a massage therapist, do you practice what you preach? I recommend getting a massage once a month. So shouldn't I be doing the same? Because it really is difficult to get someone to do something, when you're not practicing what you preach.

How many times do you get the question? "How often do you get a massage" or "Who does your massage"? I get it all the time.  Are you with all honesty able to say, you have someone to trade massage with on a regular basis?

This not only comes out when you have to tell a client, "No I don't have time" or something like that. But, you also need to take care of yourself, the same way your clients should be taking care of themselves.

One of the reasons we do massage, is to offer the health benefits of massage therapy. As a massage therapist we should practice what we preach and get the benefits of massage therapy for ourselves as well. Along with being able to tell our clients, yes I do practice what I preach.

As a massage therapist productivity is really the goal we should have for ourselves. Because, there really is a difference between busy and productivity.

I've seen lot's of people, not just massage therapists, be busy but not really productive. How much time do you actually spend being productive doing massage or building your massage business? The reason I ask, is we can all be busy, being distracted with stuff like social media or running around putting out fires.

Set up your day to do each of your business tasks in order without distractions. Such as, follow up with potential clients in the morning before your regular clients start, do your social media at specific times in the day, (morning, 3:00-4:00 in the afternoon) and so on.

Do you have a simple system to deal with distractions? Please don't get this confused with life details, such as your kids or pet needs and emergencies. Many of the distractions we have we bring on ourselves by saying, "yes I'll do that". You are allowed to say no you know!

So next time you look back at a busy day. Ask yourself was today productive or was it busy? When you signed yourself up to be a massage therapist, you really signed up to be a entrepreneur and you need to be productive. Because if you're not productive your not earning your wage. 

Doing sales for far too many people is the hardest thing to do. But in reality everyone does it every day all the time, it's just not classified as sales. Every day at work you have to sell something to someone one way or another. Whether it's the project your working on or a movie you saw and enjoyed.

So how are these things second nature and up selling your business so much different? My guess is it's the pressure of selling your own business services or products is somehow different.

One of the things I do is remind myself, what I do is valuable and honorable to my clients. No one has ever been upset with me for getting them in for an additional massage. I also use this same philosophy for the Nu Skin products I sell as well.

I'm 100% confident in my massage skills along with the products I promote and sell. So if you're having difficulty with doing sales, work with products you have confidence with and sales will be much easier for you.

Over the years marketing and sales have become more specialty areas of knowledge. However, what I see a lot of is that Solo Massage Therapists still get the two specialties confused. So you know, here is the basic definition of each one. Marketing is the art of attracting new business, where sales is the art of taking that person from a marketing prospect to a client.  

Marketing is as simple as hanging a sign outside of your clinic up to running a full social media campaign or a media campaign. Depending on your level of comfort on the size of the business you want to build, you will need that and everything in between. 

Where as sales is, having every prospect that contacts you, through your marketing efforts, immediately using any of the services or products in your clinic. But that expectation isn't really realistic. Because you just can't be everything to everyone.

The other thing you have to remember is, you can't have sales without marketing. No one will ever come up to you out of the blue and say I could tell you're a massage therapist, can I get a massage from you. So depending on your monetary commitment or resources towards marketing, you need to know your options and the options are endless. Everything from a well thought out business card to a finely tuned permission marketing campaign to a well practiced out elevator speech.

So even the act of giving out a business card is marketing, so never leave the house or clinic without business cards. But, when you give out a business card, this is when you turn into a sales person. You now have the opportunity to bond with the person and get them on your massage table or in you massage chair. With the other person seeing your vision as to how you can help them.

So please remember as a Solo Therapist, you need to know when you're a marketer and when you're a sales person. Going from one to the other can happen very fast and you have to be ready.