December 22, 2009

Seasons Greetings!

I’ve decided to write a full newsletter this month for two reasons. First, I’ve been able to carve out a bit more time than usual than I had initially expected. Second, I also wanted to make a public acknowledgement of the passing of one of my mentors — a man who is deserving of way more than a quick comment.

“From The Massage Table: Marketing and Motivation That Works”

Welcome to “From The Massage Table”! My name is Michael Humphreys, cofounder of Help Your Practice.

Each month, From The Massage Table will hit your email inbox with the latest news, special offers and great massage business tips that can help you create the massage practice of your dreams.

Want to make sure you don’t miss an issue? Please add mike AT helpyourpractice DOT com to your address book and keep the spam filters from eating your subscription!

Now Available: Instant Massage Marketing

Imagine if you could take proven massage marketing pieces and just add your own name and contact information…Well, imagine it no more!

Michael has taken some of the most successful massage marketing pieces from his own massage practice to create Instant Massage Marketing.

To learn more about Instant Massage Marketing, please click here.

Monthly Motivational Tip

On December 5, 2009 I learned that Jim Rohn had passed away at the age of 79. In my opinion, the world has lost a wonderful man.

I was devastated when I got the news. Weeks later, I’m still saddened by his passing.

Since then I’ve learned that for over 18 months, Jim battled Pulmonary Fibrosis before finally losing the battle.

Despite being very ill, many people have spoken publicly that Jim never lost faith or his constant positive spirit. It’s the same spirit which has influenced millions of people for the last 46 years.

While I never spoke to or met Mr. Rohn, I was one of those lucky ones who found life-changing wisdom in his teachings.  Many times, when I was stressed out by life, I found wisdom and inner peace simply by listening to one of Jim Rohn’s CDs or reading one of his articles.

Motivational guru Anthony Robbins credits Jim Rohn as being his mentor. Self-help author Brian Tracy recently said “There are a lot of speakers who have similarities to other speakers, and many times people can get them mixed up. But not Jim. There is nobody like him in the world. There is – and always will be – one Jim Rohn.”

Unlike many other motivational speakers, Jim Rohn wasn’t a ‘rah-rah’ type of person. Instead, he was better known as a business philosopher… the type of person who was sharing timeless wisdom that rings true for everyone who was willing to listen.

I’d like to share a few quotes of Jim Rohn’s that really show how powerful yet “simple” his advice could be.  They are courtesy of Jim’s Treasury of Quotes book which I highly recommend.

Skills: “Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems; wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges; wish for more wisdom.”

Change: “We generally change ourselves for one of two reasons: inspiration or desperation.”

Success: “Success is what you attract by the person you become.”

I could talk for hours about everything I’ve learned from Jim about life, relationships, and business philosophy — but I won’t.  I realize not every subscriber would want to read about Jim Rohn’s teachings for hours.  For those of you do want to learn more about Jim Rohn, you can find a number of his articles on his website http://www.jimrohn.com

My heart goes out to the family of Jim Rohn for their loss.  Jim Rohn… I will miss him greatly.

Massage Marketing Monthly Tip

Since we are heading into the holiday season, I wanted to give something special to all of our subscribers.

So in the spirit of giving, here’s an excerpt from the deluxe version of Help Your MASSAGE Practice. It’s an even dozen tips massage marketing tips, shared from the chapter of 81 additional MASSAGE Practice Marketing Tips.

Without further ado, here’s a dozen fresh ideas to help you get your marketing juices going:

1.  Develop a Unique Selling Proposition, or USP. A USP tells any prospect why you are the best choice for their needs.  Use your USP to stand out from the pack!

2.  Don’t be cute or creative in your marketing or advertising. The purpose of your marketing or advertising to create a new client, not create a laugh.

3.  Keep the creative graphic artists away from your marketing and ads. Words sell, graphics on their own rarely do.

4.  If you offer the same service, same offers, and features as another massage therapist, the prospect will consider one of you to be unnecessary. A classic example is your local Yellow Pages…everyone’s ad looks the same!

5.  Pick a specialty or niche. Specialists are more valuable, sought after, and paid more than a generalist.

6.  A general practitioner usually needs up to 20 times more money to properly market their practice than a specialist. Why?  They have a lot more people they need to reach to find each new client.

7.  Pick a strong, positive name for your business that accurately communicates what you offer or what you do. If your significant other can’t say your business name with a straight face, you need to come up with a new business name.  If your clients can’t tell a friend where they go for a massage without making someone laugh, head back to the drawing board for a new business name.

8.  Skip the “hands” reference in your massage business name. We can’t tell you how many massage therapists we’ve seen with business names like:

Cloud Hands            Power Puff Hands        Healing Hands
Helping Hands        Strong Hands            Tranquil Hands

Are you saying your “hands” are the same as every other set of “hands” in your town or city?

9.  Focus on giving clients what they “want” and not what they “need”. They want a great massage.  They may need to relax more, decrease pain, eliminate muscular spasm, and so on.  “Wants” sell…”needs” wind up on the bottom of their “to do” list.

10.  Use comparisons that favor your business. If you have 17 years of experience, mention it in your marketing.  If you have office hours at night and most of your competitors don’t, you better mention it in your marketing.

11.  Create a sense of tremendous value in the minds of your clients. If your client feels they are getting $200 worth of value from your service, they won’t complain about paying you $100 for one hour of your time.

12.  Never aim to be the lowest priced massage therapist in town. There will always be someone who will be able to go cheaper.

That’s all for now. I look forward to talking with you next month.

Happy Holidays,

Michael Humphreys

Help Your Practice

P.S. The feedback on the Holiday Special for the fr*ee deluxe upgrade on Help Your MASSAGE Practice has been overwhelmingly positive. Due to numerous subscriber requests and the fact that my family is hosting a Christmas Eve get-together — which I had forgotten about and my wife kindly reminded me of — I’m going to extend the Holiday special from December 24th until December 30th at 10 p.m. EST.   You can get the full scoop by going here:

http://www.helpyourpractice.com/hymp_holiday.html

P.P.S. Do you know someone who would enjoy reading this newsletter?

Please forward this newsletter to them and help share the wealth! Better yet, use the Recommend Us page on our website http://www.helpyourpractice.com/recommend_us.php and tell them about Help Your Practice.

Here’s a question I get from massage therapists frequently. Many therapists ask me how to deal with local competition.  The truth is, if you aren’t marketing yourself effectively, it can seem like there is always too much competition around you.

I just checked with the online Yellow Pages to see how many massage therapists, massage therapy centers, day spas, or medical offices offering massage were in my area.  That online search came back with a count of 84 options within a 5-mile radius of my massage office!  That’s double the number of competitors than were around me just 4 years ago.

Am I worried?

Not at all.

Even when I owned my massage therapy center, I didn’t worry about my competitors.

Will I lose any sleep over the thought of losing clients to one of these other massage providers?

Not even a wink.

These days, I not looking for any massage clients so, I’ll use my old massage therapy center as a better example.  It’s a more accurate comparison to most massage therapy practices because I was actively looking to attract more massage clients then.

With my massage center, I knew I had some major competitive advantages, even over any competitors who offered more therapists, a bigger location, or even more upscale decor (like granite tile in their lobby).

Let me explain what two of my competitive advantages were.

Advantage #1: I focused on getting specific types of clients.

In countless studies, a specialist will command more money and social prestige than a generalist.  In my professional massage experience, I have found this to be true. As I explained in my article, “I Don’t Want To Limit Myself To Getting Any New Massage Clients” http://www.helpyourpractice.com/massage_marketing_limiting.html if you try to go after every type of massage client, you’ll wind up attracting few or practically none of them.

Take clients who are looking for the day spa experience when they get a professional massage.  Since I wasn’t interested in spending $100K (or more) to create another day spa in my area, my massage therapy center wouldn’t appeal to them since we didn’t offer showers, fluffy robes, hair styling, mud wraps, and the other pamping services of the typical spa.

Of course, the massage therapy client who was looking for a quiet, relaxing place to get a great professional massage, then my massage center sounded just perfect to them.

I took the time to do some research on the target markets I wanted to go after and how to get them to respond to my marketing.  I developed and refined my methods for doing so, which I share in several chapters of “Help Your MASSAGE Practice”.

It’s such a critical step, yet so many massage therapists don’t do it and will continue to struggle financially instead.

Advantage #2: I Out Marketed My Competitors

After doing some informal surveying of my clients, I discovered 5 interesting facts.

1. Many of them had tried a competitor before they came to me.  A few had tried a competitor when they couldn’t get a last minute appointment at my center.

2. NONE of my competitors ever sent them any follow-up mailings.  No welcome letters. No special offers.  Nothing to recognize their birthday or special occasions like the birth of a child.

3. Many of them looked forward to getting mailings from my massage therapy center.  From the client educational newsletters to postcard mailings, over 85% of them reported that they read or looked at everything we had sent them.

4. Approximately half of them requested that I send them educational materials, both online and offline, more frequently than I already doing!

5. None of my competitors had ever sent them any educational content.

Most of my competitors relied on their Yellow Page ad and periodic referrals to attract new clients.  In contrast, I frequently used as many as 30 different marketing and advertising methods in a given month to attract new clients and make more sales.

Your clients are bombarded daily by thousands of advertising, marketing, and sales pitches. Your clients are constantly being pitched to, to give someone else their hard-earned money.  After a while, it’s only human nature to start to tune out all of the sales pitches.

Yet, I’ve used a different approach with my clients. I give them great, useful information in the form of free reports, client education newsletters, and so on.  I have become a trusted health advisor instead of an annoying, whiny salesman.  So they look forward to hearing from me because I’ve become a welcome addition to their lives.

Think about how you can create similar types of advantages for your massage business.

Your bank account will thank you!

Until next time,

Michael Humphreys

During the course of the massage, my massage therapists decided to talk about business with me.  She asked me how business was and I told her that I was very busy and had no complaints. 

It was her reply that spurred me to write this article.

She said to me “Well, I wish that was the case here!”  She proceeded to tell me how she worked part-time at a medical office as a secretary in order to make ends meet.  She mentioned that she wished she were busier in terms of massage.

During our conversation, I couldn’t help but notice how bad her mindset was.  You see, she kept talking about how she didn’t have enough work.  How she didn’t think that she could get enough massage clients.  How the work was so physically demanding that she didn’t know how anyone could possibly do massage on a full-time basis.

Unfortunately, she’s not alone.  I’ve had the pleasure and opportunity to talk with hundreds of other massage therapists throughout the world. 

And there’s one major difference that I spot right away: It’s a therapists mindset.

When I was struggling early in my massage career, I thought like many other massage therapists.  I really had a negative mindset… I even referred to the monies I made doing massage as my “social fund”.

I used to think that there was never enough money.  I’d worry that there was never going to be enough clients for me.  I’d stress that I would never get busy with my massage practice, and maybe it was time that I look at a different career.

For some of you who are reading this, my old thoughts may sound familiar to you. Even though I had taken plenty of psychology classes in college, I had forgotten how powerful the thoughts that you think and speak really are. 

In psychology, they call it a self-fulfilling prophecy.  That means whatever you think will happen, you draw it into your life.  Often those negative thoughts that you draw towards you become a painful reality.

I like to refer to this negative mindset as a scarcity mindset.

When I talk to massage therapists who are extremely busy, it never fails that they have a very positive mindset.  For these therapists, they are confident that:

• They are making enough money,
• They have enough massage clients and welcome more who need their services,
• They are confident that they will stay consistently busy with their massage practice,
• They are doing what they love as a career.

I call this an abundance mindset.

Other people automatically notice your mindset too.  Don’t believe me?  Have you ever walked into a room and seen a friend or loved one with a troubled expression on their face?  Was the first thing that you say?  “What’s wrong?”

If you are in a scarcity mindset, other people will notice it and respond accordingly.  Subconsciously clients will feel more pressure. 

Some clients will respond by scheduling more frequently to provide you with a business that you need just so you can just cover your bills. 

But most clients will start feeling repelled by you or negative mindset. 

The clients used to come in for regular appointments suddenly stopped scheduling for no apparent reason. 

I hate to say this but most clients don’t care if you’re having a bad day.  Chances are, they have come in for a massage to forget about their bad day!

So how do you go about changing your mindset from scarcity to one of abundance?  Here are a few tips that I use to get myself in the right mindset if I’m having a bad day:

1. Fake It Until You Make It.  If you’re not feeling upbeat and cheery than start acting like you are.  Focus on what IS going right in your right and give thanks for those good things.  Before you know it, your mood has changed for the better.
2. Whatever Is Bothering You, Isn’t Going To Get Solved During Your Client’s Massage Appointment.  If you need to make an extra $100 this week just to meet your bills, and you are getting ready to work on a prepaid massage appointment, you need to forget about your money worries during the appointment.  Anything that is bothering you isn’t going to get solved while you’re doing a massage and your client will notice that you seem distracted.
3. Listen To Motivational Music, Tapes, or CDs To Lift Your Spirits.  I like to listen to something that gets my adrenaline flowing as I drive to my office.  Sometimes it’s music that I would normally do an exercise program to.  Other times, it’s some type of motivational speaker.  Find what works for you and use it.
4. Expand Your Business Knowledge.  If you’re feel you need to learn how to market yourself more effectively, study marketing.
5. Always Be Marketing.  The most successful massage therapists (and businesses) are always marketing and promoting themselves.  Most of all, they market themselves even when they are already busy. 

Do whatever you have to do to change your mindset in position yourself for success.

Until next time,

Michael

How are you doing?

Today, I’d like to talk to you about the concept of Commitment.

When I say Commitment, I’m not talking about romantic relationships. Granted, the word commitment is often used in that part of our lives. No, this is a massage business building site, so I’m talking about being more commitment to growing your own massage business.

As many of you may know, I read on the average 2-3 books per month.  This month, I wanted to share with some of the insights I’ve gained from a book that I’ve read and how it could be applied to your own massage business.  The book is called “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Dr. Robert Cialdini and I would definitely recommend it.

Let me tell you what this book is NOT.  Despite the title of the book, it’s not a book about mind control or suckering people into buying stuff from you. Instead, it’s a fascinating look inside human psychology and why people do the things that they do.

In fact, Dr. Cialdini has done extensive research on human behavior and the factors that affect behavior in both social and personal life settings.  This research was done and verified over a 3 year period of observation.  In addition, Dr. Cialdini has gathered other outside research and discusses how it is relevant to his findings.

Let me share some of those findings with you.  Then I will explain how to apply them to your own massage business.

For this article, I’ll apply them to one method of generating additional massage business: business networking.

Take the concept of commitment.  Once you have made a choice or taken a stand on an isssue, you will likely encounter personal and social pressures to behave consistently with that commitment.  Those pressures can even cause you to respond in ways that justify your earlier decision.

Have you ever had a discussion with someone and heard yourself saying, “I don’t know why I feel that way but I just do”?  Well, that’s an example of self-applied pressure to stick to your previous decision.

Socially, there is a high value associated with being consistent.  In many cultures, having a high degree of consistency is normally considered to be a sign of high personal strength and intelligence.

Now, here’s another key to being consistent.  If you make a personal commitment to yourself to do something, then you will have set the stage for you to stick to that commitment automatically.

How do you get started? By setting small commitments initially, so your natural instinct is for being consistent causes you to stick to it. Anything that is associated with that big commitment will increase automatically in importance.

If you put those commitments in writing, it reinforces your commitment even more.  First, it provides physical evidence that you made a commitment or goal.  Once you have written out a commitment, it becomes much more difficult to believe you had done so.  The written commitment is right there where you can read it everyday and be reminded that you made a commitment to yourself.

Once it is in writing, you can show it to other people.  While it can persuade other people to make the same commitment, it actually helps reinforce the importance of the commitment to yourself.

By making an active commitment, your self-image is squeezed by consistency pressure. There is pressure from the inside to bring your self-image into line with the needed action.  From the outside, there is pressure to adjust your self-image based on the way others perceive us.  Since others see us as believing what we have written, we will experience another type of pull to bring our self-image into line with the written statement.

Third, making a written commitment requires more work than verbal ones.  It’s very easy to say that we should be doing more business networking.  It’s a lot harder to put it into writing, show it to others, and then work on doing that commitment.

Okay, so how do you apply this to your goal of doing more business networking?

• Let’s say your commitment is to do business networking to grow your massage business.
• For your business networking goal, you would schedule a series of smaller activities that are networking-related or are actual networking events.
• You take the time to write out your own written commmitment to do more business networking.
• Show your written commitment to a trusted friend or family member.

Give this exercise a try and stick to it for the next 30 days.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised how much progress you will have made on achieving your goal!

Until next time,

Michael Humphreys

Enjoy,

Michael

Chapter 24
Public Speaking

Why public speaking?  Here are three major reasons:

1) It gets your message out as to your uniqueness in the massage therapy realm.

2) Public speaking enhances your reputation and grows your business.

3) It’s an effective marketing weapon that requires little or no money to use.

Public speaking has a remarkable effect on your wallet.   As you become more effective as a public speaker, your reputation and your business continue to increase.

Many massage therapists fear the area of public speaking because they have to “put up or shut up” when it comes to expounding their beliefs.  We are in the business to show people that our techniques will help them feel better and make a difference in their lives.

Everything with effective public speaking starts with developing the belief that you know what you are talking about.  You know that your skills or system of techniques work in helping people.  It’s one thing to “talk the talk” and quite another to be able to show that you are competent and very skilled.

Where To Start

Ok, we have established that you are competent in your abilities.  How do you go about finding public speaking within your field?

First and foremost you would Research, Research, Research and one of the most valuable tools for research is the World Wide Web.  You will find countless topics for ideas on public speaking on the Internet and some will pertain to massage therapy.

Research the topics that indirectly relate to massage.  For example, if you are planning on doing a speech on the benefits of massage for diabetic patients, take the time to research what the common problems of diabetic patients may be.

Let’s get right to the point of why public speaking can become an integral part of your business.    By speaking to groups, you reach a higher group of prospects than one-on-one marketing can ever do.  Let’s look at that again.  You will increase the potential client base for your business.

A massage therapist who stands in front of an audience is in a position of authority.  Your audience is craving for and eager to hear your knowledge, and you’re the person who can deliver it.  You will get responses if your presentation is relevant, entertaining and interesting.

How To Break Into Public Speaking

What does one need for breaking into public speaking?  You might say, “Just a voice”, but that is only a small portion of the equation.

You need a package that will sell YOU before you speak.  It should include a bio, brochure, business cards, letters of recommendation, photo, and a fee schedule.

The initial presentation should catch someone’s attention so that they will then hire you to speak.  You can also include an audio or videocassette of a prior speaking engagement, but this is optional.  These audio or videocassettes are also products to sell within your business that we will discuss in more detail later.

In terms of how to get your first booking, there are many ways to gain access to a speaking gig.  You should always start with your circle of friends and family.  Because he has done it several times, Eric has had great success with creating speaking engagements through friends or family.

Your first line of communication to the outside world is your immediate contacts.  Start with them because they know you and will do the legwork for you.

The next logical step would be going to local or regional associations.  These are the people looking to book speakers.  Frequently, they are in need of speakers to add to a conference or special event.

Next, go to corporations and speak with a CEO (who is more accessible than you think) or someone in the Human Resource Department.  For small to medium size businesses, you can frequently meet these people at local Chamber of Commerce events or business mixers.

Ask for that first booking. It could not hurt!

Finally, what should you charge?  The massage therapist should look at the low ($100-$500) to the medium ($500-$1000) for their initial journey into public speaking.  As you become more confident and more importantly, better known, you will be able to charge the “big bucks”.

Copyright 2004-Present Day Help Your Practice All Rights Reserved.

I happened to look at the calendar today and realized that 2009 is almost halfway over.

I quickly reviewed the goals I set for this year.  A few of them I had already achieved.  I’m on pace to meet some additional ones before years-end.  There’s also a few goals that I’m miles away from reaching this year.

The goals that you have already acheived can be a tremendous confidence booster. So can the ones that you can honestly say you’re on your way to reaching.

It’s the ones that you set the bar too high that can really squash your spirits… if you let them.

Many therapists will automatically put themselves down for missing the mark… that’s why the cliche “I am my own worst enemy” holds a lot of truth for them.

Please don’t put yourself down!

Tearing yourself down will only knock your self-confidence even lower and make it much more difficult to achieve all of your goals.

Instead, take the time to reassess each goal that looks like you won’t meet this year. 

Ask yourself these questions:

1) Did I set an unrealistic goal? If so, readjusting the goal to a more realistic level could be a great decision to make.

2) Did something happen that was out of my control and prevented me from reaching my goal? Don’t put the blame on yourself for missing a goal if it wasn’t your fault.  Sometimes life truly does hand us lemons.  It’s best to acknowledge that something happened that was out of your control.

Let me give you a great example.

When 2008 started, I had set a big goal for my income.  Both my consulting and massage businesses were doing very well, so I honestly felt I had a really good chance to have my best year ever financially.

That was before my then-pregnant wife was in a really bad car accident in March. She then gave birth to our son in May.  The good news is both of them are completely fine.

Unfortunately for my big goal, I had literally no shot of reaching it.  That’s because I had to massively cut down my work load for almost 5 months to help my wife care for our children and assist her recovery.  While I felt “bad” about missing my big goal, I quickly dismissed the bad feelings because I knew I did the right thing by being there for my wife and children during their time of need.  At the end of the day, my family means more to me than any amount of money in the world.

3) What can I do or do differently to reach that goal? Ask yourself: is it a matter of needing more information or a better strategy to reach your goal?  If it’s needing more information, then start looking for that information.  If it’s a matter of strategy, then take 30 minutes and sit down in a quiet place and brainstorm.  You’ll be surprised by the number of great ideas or even a step-by-step plan your mind will produce.

Let’s take one of the most common issues that I hear other massage therapists talk about: not making enough money.

Many therapists tell me that the reason they aren’t making enough money is because they don’t have enough clients.  It’s been my experience that’s only part of the problem.

It’s not just getting new clients… althought that is important.  It’s getting all of your clients to come back for more appointments again and again.  Getting loads of new clients won’t help you build a full-time busy massage therapy practice if they don’t ever come back again!

You see, studies have shown that it costs 6-10 times more to get a new massage client than to reactivate an old client.  So why not do marketing that gets your current clients coming back again and again?

It’s such an important strategy that I cover many tips, tactics, and techniques in Help Your MASSAGE Practice to get more repeat bookings.  Add in all of the ways I share to get more clients and ethical ways to make more money per appointment, and suddenly a lack of money is no longer an issue.

More clients.  More repeat bookings.  More money made per appointment.

Focus on doing something in each category and you can create a massive surge in your sales.

Not sure how to do exactly that?

No problem. I want to help you reach your massage practice goals so here’s two of the most popular options.

Option 1: You can read any of the back issues of “From The Massage Table” to get some ideas. Pick any of the ideas that you like and put them into action for your own massage business.  Over the last 5 years, I’ve written a lot of newsletter issues that you can review.

Option 2: Check out our ultra-popular massage marketing manual Help Your MASSAGE Practice instead.  There’s over 200 pages of in-depth tips, tactics, and techniques inside it that are proven to work.

Let me sweeten the pot a bit for you. Simply go to this page here by Friday June 19th and you can grab the deluxe version of Help Your MASSAGE Practice at the standard version’s price. That’s a $20 savings for you and even more great business building information at your finger tips too. But don’t wait because this massage practice “check-up” won’t last long.

To Your Success,

Michael Humphreys

Welcome to “From The Massage Table”! My name is Michael Humphreys, cofounder of Help Your Practice.

Each month, From The Massage Table will hit your email inbox with the latest news, special offers and great massage business tips that can help you create the massage practice of your dreams.

Want to make sure you don’t miss an issue? Please add mike@helpyourpractice.com to your address book and keep the spam filters from eating your subscription!

Recently, I switched to putting the issues of “From The Massage Table” directly onto Help Your Practice instead of emailing it to you.

Why the sudden change?

Four big reasons really.

First, thanks to spammers and other nasty folks, it’s become extremely difficult to deliver all types of email — even the ones you want to send to your favorite aunt. If it’s an ezine or newsletter like “From The Massage Table” there’s even more work behind the scenes to get it delivered.

Some hosting companies want you to “register” with them and promise that you won’t send spam to their customers.

Second, to combat the flood of spam hitting everyone’s email boxes, many people have started using spam filters or verification services like SpamArrest.  Every month, I get dozens of SpamArrest verifications from new subscribers who sign up for my free newsletter… and then I have to verify that I’m someone that they truly wanted to get email from.  It’s a major time burner for me, especially for offering a free newsletter.

Third, I used to send each newsletter out by email and then when time permitted, post it online as well. That was making double the work for me and as I got busier with my businesses and family commitments, I found myself getting further and further behind on posting the issues as webpages.  So I’m literally cutting this task down a great deal because Help Your Practice is now powered by a word press blog so there’s no web design software needed to post an issue online.

Finally, search engines love seeing websites that are updated regularly and reward them with higher natural search engine rankings. By putting the new issues directly on this site, it accomplishes that task beautifully.

Each month, I’ll send a quick email alert letting you know that the current issue is now available for reading online.  You’ll be able to read any or all of the past issues that currently available (with more past issues to be posted as I am able).

Check It Out: “Instant Massage Marketing”

Imagine if you could take proven massage marketing pieces and just add your own name and contact information…Well, imagine it no more!

Michael has taken some of the most successful massage marketing pieces from his own massage practice to create Instant Massage Marketing.

To learn more about Instant Massage Marketing, go to:

http://www.helpyourpractice.com/instant-massage-marketing.htm

Monthly Motivational Tip

This has been a challenging month for me to say the least.  With Mothers Day and both of my children’s  birthdays this month, it’s been a lot of extra planning to do.  I don’t enjoy shopping so having to go gift shopping for each special day requires a self pep-talk beforehand.

To add insult to injury, I had some major problems with internet hackers. My home and office computers were both hit with a hacker’s computer virus which I didn’t discover until after three of my websites and personal Ebay account were attacked. 

The websites (none of which were this one) required a complete rebuild of all of the files. The Ebay account… well, 14 days later I’m still getting that mess straightened out and waiting for Ebay to refund monies. 

It turns out they wrongly removed over $250 from my personal bank account because someone else rang up in fraudulent auction charges after hacking into my Ebay account. Talk about an attention-getter!

In short, this month has been extra stressful.  It’s been enough to make me angry at the world… or even depressed… but it hasn’t.

Instead, it makes me thankful.

Thankful that I’m not leading an “ordinary” live.  Thankful that this is just a bump in the road of life.

A good friend of mine recently introduced me to a great program called Six Days To Saturday by Sam Crowley.  I’ve been listening to it every day and one thing that Sam said really hit home for me.

To paraphrase, “Life isn’t supposed to always be up.  It’s supposed to have it’s ups and downs because that’s life.”  

It served as a strong reminder to me that just because life isn’t currently rosy doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way.  In fact, in the journey called life, it’s only a small bump in the road.

Remember, life is a journey, not a destination.  You don’t have to become a very successful therapist overnight.  You do need to enjoy the ride as you rise upwards toward your dream of being a full-time massage therapist.  You do need to remind yourself that the low points are only temporary and not a permanent destination.

The possibilities are endless and you can reach as high you believe is possible.  Just build upon your successes like little stepping stones.  Your bank account will thank you!

Massage Marketing Monthly Tip

As a father of two, I’m going to come right out and say what most of my fellow dads won’t say: Fathers Day is often an afterthought. 

I regularly see Mothers Day promotions.  I almost never see Fathers Day ones, especially for massage!

That’s a big mistake because dads are stressed-out folks too.

Just as important, most men are terrible at taking care of their health.  If I had a nickel for every male client that was sent in for a massage by their wife or girlfriend, then I’d be a very rich man.

That’s a big reason why you need to dare to be a little different.  Most of your competitors will ignore Fathers Day… or will just give a half-hearted marketing effort.

In other words, it’s a golden opportunity to grab a bunch of new clients and most of your competitors will completely miss it.

Focus on telling your prospects and clients why they need to treat the stressed-out dads in their life to an overdue massage.  It can be a direct mail piece.  It can be an email blast.  Heck, it can even just be a few signs in your massage office and treatment rooms.

Make them a great offer on a massage appointment or gift certificate so they want to pick up the phone and call your office right away.

“Okay, Michael, I got a bunch of stressed-out dads in my massage office… Now what?”

Now, show them what they have been missing.  Turn that stressed-out guy into a sleepy pile of “man mush” on your table.  They will be amazed at the difference.  So will their families and significant others.  As I talk about in multiple sections of Help Your MASSAGE Practice, you don’t want to settle for just a single one-time appointment.

No way.  The lifetime value of a massage client is quite significant so we want to tap into it.

In fact, this is the perfect time to tell them about your regular monthly treatment programs for men.

Don’t have one?  Then I suggest you create a monthly program right now.  There’s countless ways to setup monthly programs — just use your creativity to name and design one.  (If you’re really stuck, then grab your own copy of Help Your MASSAGE Practice where we cover monthly programs in more detail.)

Fathers Day used to be a forgotten day for massage marketing.  Try this 2 step marketing plan and you should be pleased with the results.  The only thing you have to lose is blank space in your appointment book!

Got Feedback Or A Success Story You Would Like To Share?

Drop Michael an email at mike@helpyourpractice.com and tell him now.

************************************************************************

That’s all for now. I look forward to talking with you again soon.

Seize the Day,

Michael Humphreys

Help Your Practice

P.S. Do you know someone who would enjoy reading this newsletter? Use the Recommend Us page on our website http://www.helpyourpractice.com/recommend_us.php and tell them about Help Your Practice.

November 30, 2008
Volume V, Issue 5

Welcome to “From The Massage Table”! My name is Michael Humphreys, cofounder of Help Your Practice.

Each month, From The Massage Table will hit your email inbox with the latest news, special offers and great massage business tips that can help you create the massage practice of your dreams.

Want to make sure you don’t miss an issue? Please add mike@helpyourpractice.com to your address book and keep the spam filters from eating your subscription!

Check It Out: “Instant Massage Marketing”

Imagine if you could take proven massage marketing pieces and just add your own name and contact information…Well, imagine it no more!

Michael has taken some of the most successful massage marketing pieces from his own massage practice to create Instant Massage Marketing.

To learn more about Instant Massage Marketing, go to:
http://www.helpyourpractice.com/instant-massage-marketing.htm

Note: Due to a bad bout with the chest cold & bronchitis, I did not publish an issue of From The Massage in October.  It put me down and out for about a week… which was long enough to force me to play catch-up for the rest of the month.  That’s hopefully the last time I ever miss writing an issue.

Okay, onto this month’s newsletter!

Monthly Motivational Tip

Earlier this week, I happened to catch one of my favorite books that was done into a movie.  Now usually, when Hollywood gets their hands on a book, they slash and hack it into a 90 minute cliché that rarely resembles the original author’s work.

In this case, Dan Millman’s The Way of the Peaceful Warrior has been extremely well-preserved. My wife and I sat down and enjoyed every minute of the 2 hour movie.

In the movie, the wise, all-knowing guide is nicknamed “Socrates” and Nick Nolte gives a creditable performance in the role.

So what is one of the first things that Socrates tells his new student to do?

“Clean out your head trash”

What does that mean?  Well, my interpretation from reading the book a few times and now being reminded of it by the movie is this: Your head trash is all of your negative, self-limiting beliefs.  Every time you tell yourself that you can’t succeed at something, that’s your “head trash” talking.

So how do you take out the “trash”? Well, the book (and movie) show one way of doing it which I won’t reveal here.  What I will do, is share the two step method that worked for me.

First, I focused on putting positive information into my mind like biographies of successful people, inspirational quotes, and so on.  I stopped the negative junk that I had been previously mentally “snacking” on like watching the evening news, hanging out with negative people, reading the obituary pages every day, and so on.

Second, I started setting up small, easily reachable goals that were like stepping stones.  Stepping stones that would take me towards reaching a bigger positive goal.  For example, once I decided I wanted to take my private practice and convert it into a massage center; I started saving money to pay for the construction.  I cut some careless expenses like eating out every day to a minimum and get small goals of saving a little bit of money each week.  Eventually, I set bigger goals to reach until almost a year later; I had saved over $7000 towards my goal of opening a massage center.

There’s an old joke which I’m going to share because it has a ton of great wisdom in it.

“How do you eat an elephant?”

“One bite at a time.”

Setting goals for your business and personal life are the same way: Just take it one step at a time, step-by-step… inch-by-inch. Before you know it, you’ll have reached your goal!

Massage Marketing Monthly Tip

‘Tis the season for gift certificate sales! If you haven’t started your holiday gift certificate promotions (yes, promotions), now is the time.

Every savvy businessperson makes it a point to watch what his or her competitors are doing, and then trump them with a better product or service. I make it a point to do this in both the massage therapy field (near my office) and in the “massage marketing arena” (online world).

Anyway, let’s get started. First, a couple of major rules:

1) Don’t give away the farm.

Many massage therapists are quick to deeply discount their gift certificates or services.

This is a huge mistake!

Here’s the business rule of thumb to remember:

For every 1% discount you give, you need 10% more sales to just break even.

If you normally charge $60 for an hour gift certificate, and start running a promotion where you sell them for $30 each, you will need to sell twice as many gift certificates to make the same amount of money!

Here’s the numbers to back up my point:

Regular priced: $60 X 10 gift certificates sold = $600

Deep discounted price: $30 X 20 gift certificates sold = $600

I can’t speak for every massage therapist out there, but I’m a massage therapist because I love helping people and enjoy making more money (not less) doing massage every week.

2) If you want to make your holiday promotion special, offer special upgrades, which cost you practically nothing.

If you normally use a 6-month expiration date on your gift certificates, make a 1-year.

Offer complimentary products or services packaged in your special like a fr*ee hot stone upgrade or 10 minute chair massage certificate.

3) If they want the holiday discount rate, they have to buy the whole package.

This is one lesson that I had a hard time learning myself. Once, I had a gentleman come into to inquire about buying a massage gift certificate for Christmas. I quoted my fee and he exclaimed, “That’s Outrageous!”

I mentioned my holiday special on a four gift certificate package. He said he only wanted one. I countered by asking him what he thought was a “fair rate”. He suggested a rate that was lower than the local massage school’s student clinic charged. I politely declined. He told me that was all he could afford. I told him that I couldn’t offer a lower price without taking food off my family’s table.

I watched him walk out the door of my office in a huff…and climb behind the steering wheel of a brand new green Jaguar XJS!

Moral of the story: If you are giving a holiday discount, it needs to be for the price of your whole holiday package, not just one certificate.

Five Steps To Cheaply Market Your Holiday Gift Certificate Special

Step 1: If you have your own website, then you can jump ahead to step two.

If you don’t, you will need one in order to get the best bang for your buck. When it comes to domain name purchases or website hosting, there’s only one company I always recommend: Aplus.Net.

You can purchase a domain name for about $10 at http://www.aplus.net and their web hosting plans start as low as $5.95 per month. With Aplus, you can use their fr*ee web page building software or upload your own web pages. If you are familiar with building websites, you can use software like Microsoft FrontPage or Adobe Dreamweaver to create your site. A powerful fr*ee web design software is called NVU.  Simply do an internet search and you’ll find a downloadable version for your own use.

Another solid hosting option is using BuilderSpot. They have two websites where you can sign up:

http://www.builderspot.com and http://www.citymax.com

Check them both to see which one is currently running the cheaper special. For less than $20 per month, they can provide a full featured website including shopping cart. You can use the shopping cart to list the types of products or services you sell.

Best of all, you don’t need to learn HTML or web design! Just pick a design and use their web-based “word processor” to create your site.

Step 2: Sign up for a fr*ee Pay Pal account at http://www.paypal.com

With Pay Pal, your client can use any major credit card, debit card, or even electronic check to pay for their purchase. Pay Pal is owned by Ebay and is the largest web-based e-commerce processor.

Best of all, it costs you nothing to sign up and you only pay a small fee each time someone purchases something off your website with Pay Pal. Pay Pal is completely safe and secure, so your client’s financial information (and yours) will never shared, sold, or stolen.

Step 3: Set up Pay Pal on your website. If you go with BuilderSpot, their shopping cart is automatically setup to work with Pay Pal. Simply enter your Pay Pal account information, and you are ready to go.

If you use another web hosting service, like Aplus, you’ll need to create buttons in Pay Pal and then paste the HTML code into your web page. It’s not hard at all!

Step 4: Setup a version of your gift certificate online. Clients can print them out themselves or request the ones you carry in your office instead. Simply leave a spot on the online certificate where they must fill in an authorization code. That’s a code that they can only get from you after they have paid. If the certificate does not have a proper authorization code, then it’s not a valid certificate.

Step 5: Tell your clients how they can purchase your holiday special online or at your office. Do this with a mailing to clients (postcard or letter) and put up signs in your office.

Stuck For A Holiday Promotion Idea?

Here’s one I’ve used more than once over the years: Buy 4 regularly priced gift certificates, get the 5 th one free. Plus, I upgrade the expiration date from 6 months to a year fr*ee of charge and will mail the certificates for them if needed. Typically, maybe one or two clients ever ask me to mail the certificates for them each year.

Note: Gift certificates and holiday promotions are so important that Eric and I dedicated a full chapter on each of them in Help Your MASSAGE Practice. To learn more about Help Your MASSAGE Practice, please go here.

In closing, forget about being the low-priced therapist in town.  Someone will always be willing or able to work for less than you. I suggest focus on being the most skilled and offering the best customer service instead. It’s a powerful combination that many clients will love.  Your bank account will thank you!

Got Feedback Or A Success Story You Would Like To Share?

Drop Michael an email at mike@helpyourpractice.com and tell him now.

That’s all for now. I look forward to talking with you again soon.

Seize the Day,

Michael Humphreys

Help Your Practice

P.S. Do you know someone who would enjoy reading this newsletter?

Please forward this newsletter to them and help share the wealth! Better yet, use the Recommend Us page on our website  and tell them about Help Your Practice.

September 30, 2008
Volume V, Issue 3

Welcome to “From The Massage Table”! My name is Michael Humphreys, cofounder of Help Your Practice.

Each month, From The Massage Table will hit your email inbox with the latest news, special offers and great massage business tips that can help you create the massage practice of your dreams.

Want to make sure you don’t miss an issue? Please add mike@helpyourpractice.com to your address book and keep the spam filters from eating your subscription!

Quick Message From Michael: Ever since I became the father of 2 kids under the age of 3, I’m finding my memory isn’t as razor-sharp as it used to be.  I’ll blame it on a lack of sleep as my wife and I are still averaging about 4-5 hours per night due to our “duo in diapers”.

Because I’m a bit foggy-brained at times, I make it a point to review what topics I’ve written about when so I don’t write about the same topic more than once in a short time span.

As I’m flipping through the past issues, I came across this one that Eric Mitchell and I wrote back in September 2005 after Hurricane Katrina had struck New Orleans.

We dedicated that issue to a subscriber named Jonas who had contacted us just one day before Katrina hit.  Fortunately, Jonas and his family escaped New Orleans before Katrina came to town.

It really hit home for me because 3 years later… New Orleans almost got hit by a major hurricane again!

Instead the hurricane creamed southern Texas, particularly Houston where my good friend Bruce lives with his family.

The good news for Bruce was his neighborhood only lost power for about a week.  The bad news is, his 30 foot boat — probably his biggest passion — was docked in a marina outside Galvaston, Texas and was completely destroyed.

Hurricane Ike didn’t just hit Texas… people as far north as Ohio suffered property damage and loss of electricity.  Millions of people were affected by Hurricane Ike, just like Katrina affected millions just 3 years ago.

So this month, I’m republishing one of our most popular issues ever.

And on behalf of retired Help Your Practice co-founder Eric Mitchell, I’d like to dedicate it to everyone who was recently affected by Hurricane Ike.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Do you know someone else who would enjoy reading this newsletter?  Please forward this newsletter to them and help share the wealth.

(Quick Note From Michael: I received a question from a newsletter subscriber
that I’ve decided to write about this month. I had received several follow-up questions from a newsletter subscriber named Jonas, who was from New Orleans. I received his last question
was just one day before Hurricane Katrina stuck New Orleans.
So, both Eric and I are hoping that he got out of New Orleans in time. Either way, this
issue is dedicated to you Jonas and everyone else who have been devastated by this
natural disaster.)

Check It Out: “Bootstrap Your Massage Business!”

Attention New or Struggling Massage Therapists: Discover the Secret To Marketing Your Massage Business For Practically Pennies!

To learn more about “Bootstrap Your Massage Business”, go to http://www.bootstrapmassagebusiness.com

Motivational Monthly Tip *** By Eric Mitchell

Last month, we talked about Slumps. In light of the recent disaster we are going to talk about Hope. For all those in Louisiana and surrounding states who have suffered great losses and are feeling despair, Help Your Practice would like to say our thoughts have been with you.

It’s when tragic events like this happen that we are reminded that life is very short and we must take advantage of everything that life has to offer.  When we are faced with “issues” whether it is the horror of a disaster or the conflicts of everyday business we must remember that there is a light at the end of every tunnel.
Life will always throw us curve balls, which may cloud our ability to make the decisions that will further our lives.  However, our greatest human attribute is Hope.  You cannot forget that no matter what happens you must never lose the Hope that life has to offer.

Mike and I know that we are primarily a business that was designed to help you build your massage practice.  However, the reality is, we hope that positive life improvements are what we are really helping give.  Therefore, no matter what happens you must never lose the Hope.

Hope Builds Confidence
Hope Builds Your Business
Hope Improves Your Life
Remember, when life gives you lemons, you must make lemonade!

Monthly Massage Marketing Tip *** By Michael Humphreys

Here is one question that I have heard many times before and this month, I’m
going to address it.

“Is Being A Male Massage Therapist An Advantage Or Disadvantage?”

When I first started doing massage therapy in 1993, I heard from several people that male massage therapists have a harder time finding clients. That “every massage client would rather have a female massage therapist instead”.

Even a popular book on the massage industry said that male therapists have a harder time getting clients.

But this didn’t make sense to me. I knew I was a good massage therapist and that a professional massage is just that: strictly professional. Heck, the gentleman that taught me massage had more clients than he could handle and 13 years later, he is still seeing 30-40 clients every week personally.

So I opened my massage practice and started promoting massage therapy to everyone I met or could talk to. And sometimes, I’d hear someone say something like:

“I prefer a female therapist.”

“I’m not comfortable with a male massage therapist.”

And I would do the absolute wrong thing…I’d take it personally.

After all, I heard them tell me where they were in pain. I knew the exact massage techniques to get them out of pain. I was eager and willing to help them. And my gender was a stumbling block.

It turns out that there are people who won’t use a male therapist because of his gender, after all.

How I Overcame This Stumbling Block

One day, I was doing a massage trade with another massage therapist, who I’ll call Melissa to protect her privacy. Melissa is a very successful massage therapist who became so busy that she started a massage therapy office with four other massage therapists to handle her overflow.

As I’m giving Melissa a massage, I ask her if she was on vacation and wanted a massage, would she schedule an appointment with a male or female massage therapist.

And Melissa said:

“I don’t care if they are a male or female therapist. I want somebody who is good and can give me the type of massage I asked for!”

Don’t Try To Sell A “Chevy Car” To A “Ford Truck” Man

It was then I realized that I had trying to get clients the wrong way. I thought everyone was a candidate for massage with me.

Well, not everyone is a candidate for massage with you. Trying to get everyone to get a massage from you is like trying to convince a “Ford Truck” Man to buy a Chevy Car:

* They have always bought Ford Trucks
* They have always been happy with Ford Trucks
* They are not interested in any other type of car or truck, no matter how much better it may be built, cost less, etc.
*   They consider themselves a “Ford Truck” Man for life.

What I Learned As A Massage Therapy Center Owner

I’ve answered the question of therapist gender numerous times in my career. As a massage therapy center owner, I started tracking the client requests, so I could hire additional massage therapists that could quickly match what clients were asking for.

I’m going to save the question of what massage techniques were most requested for another time. When it came to client preferences on therapist gender, here are the results I can share.

I can loosely divide every type of massage client into one of these three categories:

* They will always schedule with a male therapist. (About 30%)
* They will always schedule with a female therapist (About 30%)
* They don’t care: They want a therapist who will deliver the results they want. (About 40%)

So it doesn’t matter what gender you are. There will always be about 30% of the people who will get a professional massage, who won’t schedule with you because they want a different gender. Or perhaps their spouse dictates what gender they can go to.

Focus on the 70% who will consider scheduling with you instead. Target them and tell them how you can deliver the results that they are looking for.

The other 30% who won’t schedule with you because of your gender, you can refer them to a massage therapist of the opposite gender.

Another massage therapist?

Yes, they can be a great business ally for you. They come across people who want a massage and tell them that they are the wrong gender too.

How I Created A Natural Referral Network

About 10 years ago, I started getting clients who would ask me if I knew of any good female therapists for their spouse, friend, boss, etc.

So I started developing a network of other massage therapists that I could refer to.

If a client’s spouse wanted a female therapist who did energy work, I knew a female massage therapist that did energy work. If another client’s boss wanted a female therapist who did sports massage, I knew another massage therapist who did sports massage.

I identified these other massage therapists, mostly through networking. Those who I felt comfortable with, I would do a massage trade so both of us could get an idea of what each other’s technique and overall strength might be.

When any of us has a potential new referral to send, we just make the referral. There’s no expectation of referring X number of clients every year.
It costs us nothing but a few minutes of our time and everybody wins.

Got Feedback Or A Success Story You Would Like To Share?
Drop Michael an email at mike@helpyourpractice.com and tell him now.

That’s all for now. I look forward to talking with you next month.

Seize the Day,

Michael Humphreys
Help Your Practice

August 31, 2008
Volume V, Issue 2

Welcome to “From The Massage Table”! My name is Michael Humphreys, cofounder of Help Your Practice.

Each month, From The Massage Table will hit your email inbox with the latest news, special offers and great massage business tips that can help you create the massage practice of your dreams.

Want to make sure you don’t miss an issue? Please add mike@helpyourpractice.com to your address book and keep the spam filters from eating your subscription!

Check It Out: “Instant Massage Marketing”

Imagine if you could take proven massage marketing pieces and just add your own name and contact information…Well, imagine it no more!

Michael has taken some of the most successful massage marketing pieces from his own massage practice to create Instant Massage Marketing.

To learn more about Instant Massage Marketing, go to:
Check Out Instant Massage Marketing

Okay, onto this month’s newsletter!

Monthly Motivational Tip

One of my favorite ways to stay motivated is to read the biographies of successful people.  Some of them have had to overcome tremendous adversity in their lives to get to where they are.

So this month, I thought I’d share a bit about one of them, Lee Iacocca.  If you’re looking for a great biography to read, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better one than Iacocca’s which is simply called Iacocca: An Autobiography.
After finishing college, Iacocca joined Ford Motor Company in 1946 and after working briefly in engineering, he asked to be moved into sales and marketing.  That’s where his career started to rise.  In 1956, Iacocca gained national recognition as a local district sales rep with his then ground-breaking “56 for 56″ campaign.  It offered $56 monthly payment loans for 1956 model year cars. That campaign went national and Iacocca was asked to join the main division of Ford where he quickly moved through the ranks.  On October 15, 1964, his 40th birthday, Lee became the President of the Ford Division.

Iacocca was involved with the design of several successful Ford automobiles, like the Ford Mustang, the Lincoln Continental Mark III, and the Ford Fiesta.  He was instrumental in the introduction of the Mercury Cougar and Mercury Marquis.

As a “mover and shaker” in the Ford Motor Company, Lee was responsible for a number of positive innovations.  However, during his time as the president of the Ford Motor Company, he frequently clashed with Henry Ford II, who was the largest shareholder and chairman of the board of Ford Motors.  In 1978, those clashes reached the point of no return and Iacocca was fired by Henry II, despite Ford Motors posting a $2 billion profit for the year during Iacocca’s presidency.

After being fired at Ford, Lee was quickly offered the position of president at the Chrysler Corporation, which was in danger of going out of business.

Iacocca joined Chrysler and quickly learned how big of a mess he just stepped into.  He began to worry that maybe Chrysler couldn’t be saved.  Fortunately, his wife Mary was listening to Lee’s private worries and knew exactly what to say.  She told him maybe Henry Ford II was right: Maybe Lee didn’t have what it took to run a major automobile company.  Maybe Lee should just stick to marketing after all.

Well,that got Lee really mad — and then he got motivated to prove all of the critics (like Ford) wrong.

He rebuilt the entire Chrysler company from the ground up, laid off workers, and sold off Chrysler’s European division which was losing massive amount of money for Chrysler.  Then Lee focused on building his core team by bringing in former associates from his from Ford Motors.

Realizing that the company would go out of business if it did not receive a significant amount of money to turn the company around, Iacocca approached the United States Congress in 1979 and asked for Congress to guarantee the loan in the event that Chrysler failed to repay it. At the time, it was considered an unprecedented move, but Iacocca pointed to the government bailouts of the airline and railroad industries, arguing that more jobs were at stake if Chrysler went under. In the end, Iacocca received the loan guarantee from the government.

After getting additional financing in place, in 1981 Chrysler released the Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant.  After the oil crisis of the 1970s, these small, efficient and inexpensive, front-wheel drive cars sold rapidly.

Just two years later Chrysler one of Iacocca’s that Henry Ford II refused to green light at Ford Motors and launched it.  Since then the Chrysler minivan has become one of Chrysler’s biggest selling product lines ever and one of the automobile industry’s biggest sellers.

Because of these three cars, and the reforms Iacocca implemented, the company turned around quickly and was able to repay the government-backed loans seven years earlier than expected.

Lee Iacocca succeeded for a number of reasons.  Probably two of the biggest ones were having a set of business goals to go after and the persistence to keep going after them — even when times were tough.

Ask yourself: What are your business goals?  What are you doing to pursue them each and every day?

Massage Marketing Monthly Tip

Today we’re going to talk about another way to boost your sales: Using the power of testimonials.

Now testimonials can be used in a variety of different marketing, advertising, and sales pieces that you use to promote your business.  For this article, I’m just going to use the word sales letters as a catch-all phrase for all of the above.
One of the key factors that will determine whether a sales letter will succeed or not is credibility. If a sales letter lacks creditability, it will fail what marketer Ken Calhoun calls the “B.S. meter.” Every prospect has a B.S. meter and it can sink your conversion rate fast if it’s activated.

Here’s what I mean… Have you ever started reading someone else’s sales letter and found yourself saying to yourself, “Yeah, right.  I don’t believe that at all.”

What happened?

Well, that sales letter failed your B.S. meter.  Chances are, you stopped reading the sales letter and started doing something else… like going to another website.

So how do you prevent your prospect’s B.S. meter from sounding off?

Well, one obvious way is to keep your sales letter believable… especially any claims you make.  If you claim your massage techniques can make them pain-free, you better be able to prove that it will.  Otherwise, you are trying to lie to your prospects… and their B.S. meters will nail you telling a lie.

You need to believable and one of the best ways to offer more credibility is to use testimonials.  In fact, using testimonials are one of the top 3 ways to boost your conversion rates — a surefire way to get more clients and make more sales!

Keep these 6 rules in mind when you want to use testimonials.

First, studies have shown that using three or more testimonials will have the strongest impact. Use at least one testimonial.  Put that one on your sales letter until you get two or more testimonials to add.  I tell clients with few testimonials to use either one or three testimonials on their sales letter because two testimonials don’t perform as well.

Second, testimonials from “ordinary” people are more believable than some “famous” people.  I say some “famous” people because there are celebrities who toss out tons of testimonials – strictly to promote their own name.  When you see some famous celebrity claiming that yet another product or service “is the greatest thing he’s ever seen”, it’s not believable.

Third, the easiest way to get customer testimonials is to ask for feedback.  When customers email you with their feedback and it’s positive feedback, ask them if you may use it in your marketing.  Get their permission before you use a testimonial!

Fourth, you might need to rewrite the testimonial for the customer.  If a customer gives you a generic feedback like “Joe, I think your product is great” then ask them to tell you why they think it’s great.  The more specific the testimonial is, the more believable it will be.  Send the original and the revised testimonial to the customer.  Ask them which they like better and get their approval to use the testimonial.

Fifth, list the testimonial giver’s full name, not initials.  You also need to use their city and state.  If they are not from the U.S., then you need to list their city or province and country.  If the customer is concerned about privacy issues, then put the testimonial down as either their full name with no city/state OR first initial and last name.

Finally, turn part of the testimonial into a headline for the testimonial.  If there isn’t an easy way to do it for a testimonial, then use a headline like “Here’s what one customer told us about Joe’s Marketing Machine…”

For specific examples of headlines for testimonials, I’d suggest you go to this website address to see some good examples: http://www.helpyourpractice.com/help_massage.html

It’s the sales letter for Help Your MASSAGE Practice.  If you scroll down towards the bottom of the letter, you will see that I use both types of testimonial headlines there.  Feel free to study them so you can craft testimonial headlines for your own sales letters.

To your success,

Mike Humphreys

Got Feedback Or A Success Story You Would Like To Share?

Drop Michael an email at mike@helpyourpractice.com and tell him now.