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Hello and welcome to this weeks episode of JING TV! Today we're going to be talking about
"how can I get more clients"
Welcome everybody. I'm Rachel and this is Meg (hi ya) and today we're going to be talking about, I know a very important question for
lots of massage therapists - How do I get more clients? And actually this one has come
from one of our lovely students Francis O'Flynn, thank you Francis, who asked 'How can I get
more clients and also does social media attract clients?' which I think we'll probably save
for a different episode, but we might mention it here (yeah, good question). So, Meg, lets maybe talk about how you, back
in the olden days, (haha, olden days!) before social media - how did you get clients for
your first massage practice? So my big thing was finding somebody who was really mouthy,
somebody who talked a lot (yeah) and they were really my marketing arm (yeah). So for
instance, when I first started, when I was working out in San Francisco I had a "day
job" that was at an organisation that supported women in business, which obviously I still
do quite a lot of and I did on-site massage there. What I realised was one of the people
in the administrative staff talked a lot (yeah). And so I gave her a free massage and I spent
a lot of time with her giving her love and support and asking her to tell friends and
I never charged her (yeah). So that was one of my big things. Yeah, that's really funny
cos, I think one of my teachers at massage school called them the golden nugget client
(OK) and I had a really similar experience so my golden nugget client was a wonderful
woman called Grindl Dockery, whose still out there in Liverpool. And she was actually a
friend and Grindl was, is, still is the most enthusiastic person in the world, so, like
you and your golden nugget client I gave Grindl, not free massage, but I gave her very cheap
massages and she then basically seemed to go around and bully the rest of Liverpool
into getting on my massage table (yeah). "Oh my god, you've got to go and see Rachel, she's
great." (Yeah). And everybody came from her. So I think, what we're both saying is it's
not really about leaflets (yeah, no), it's not really about cards, I mean it's really
important to carry something with you that you can hand over but one is, the first thing
really, is about being passionate about what you do and feeling like you can talk about
it, so one of the things we do at Jing quite a lot is getting clients, actually in the
stone course (yeah) we do some marketing elements of that and I think, and on the on-site course
we do - where we get therapists to talk about - What is it that you can offer? What makes
you different as a massage therapist? (Yeah) What techniques or treatments can you offer?
So not so much about, 'I do myofascial treatment' or 'I do trigger point therapy' (yeah) but
it's like, 'I deal with people who have migraine pain.' What you can do for somebody else (absolutely).
Cos that's really what people want to know. They don't really want to know you do myofascial
work (yeah) or trigger point work but they wanna know 'what can you do for me?' (Yeah).
So, if you always think about - how can I solve my potential clients problems? (yep)
- you'll always have a practice (yeah). But obviously you have to get the word out there
(yeah). So how do we get the word out there? We talked about our golden nugget clients
but I also think the idea of just actually being passionate about what you do (yeah,
huge, huge) and talking to people about it (huge). Cos I know you've got that story about
when you started your practice in Brooklyn. Cos we've all started practices about 5 different
times because we've moved around so much. Oh my god, the walking thing?. (Yeah, your
dog walking thing) So I had this amazing dog (yeah) and in New York you're only allowed
to let your dog off the leash between 8-9 in the morning or 7-8 and I used to take my
dog every morning and we'd sit and have coffee and the dogs would go crazy and people would
say "What do you do?" and we also have that great story about that dinner party we went
to. (Yeah, true). Anyway, and I'd say "I'm a massage therapist and these are the things
I do" and although they were neighbours and at first it probably felt like "oooh I'm not
so sure I can ask her for a treatment" they realised that they got to know me and I that
I was much better (yeah) than anyone they could find in the Yellow Pages, or I don't
know whatever. So all of that was really important and that was the inside, so it was all the
dog walkers (yeah, yeah). So you got to know those people and then the other thing you
always say was that you did side lying work with them and that nobody had had side lying.
(Yeah) So you got the word out, and you had the USP, (yeah) you were doing something that
other people (yeah) weren't doing, which was very simple, you put them on their side. Yeah,
for stretching or something like that. Yeah and you had some cool techniques in there.
Yeah and I think that's, going back to how you get more clients. So I think it's - Be
passionate about what you do. Don't over analyse leaflets and paper and that kind of thing.
Get a website, because actually at this point in time if somebody can't find you on the
web then people don't think you're real sort of 'kosher'. (Yeah). But we're not talking
about a massive website, you just have to have a web presence, your name; your address;
what techniques or where they'd find you. You need something to back yourself up, so
in the olden days when we started I did have a leaflet but I quickly found out that putting
them around health food shops (yeah, didn't work) didn't work at all. Whereas if I took
my leaflets out with me to a party or a social gathering, talked to people about what I was
doing, backed it up with a leaflet (yeah). These days I have to say I would get out my
smart phone and I would book them in there and then. (Yes) Even better. Also if you do
any volunteer work make sure you get their contact information (yeah) and get them to
tick a box saying 'I'm happy to be contacted next week' or something like that. And YOU
have to follow up and call them and say 'how was the treatment' (yeah) which can sometimes
take a bit of balls (yeah) but you can absolutely do that. So there's lots of different ways,
it really just means dialogueing with people. So if you're really interested in doing more
of this with us and talking. The stones course is a great option. The on-site course is a
great option. Or just coming and doing the Advanced (or the marketing course), the marketing
course is a great option (hahaha, imagine!). Or getting involved with Facebook and Twitter.
You can find everything at www.jingmassage.com or you can download the DVDs in the shop or
you can buy the online course - the Jing method low back pain and how to treat it. OK, see you next time.