I was thinking today about the process of promoting one’s self to the process of building relationships and it suddenly hit me that the two are quite similar. I don’t quite have all the connections but bear with me and let me know what you think about selling and building relationships.
I was reading some general steps to making a sale that are outlined in various ways by various people. The general process goes something like this:
- Greet and introduce yourself
- Create Trust with the other person
- Establish a need or get info from the other person to establish what it is that they do need so you can address them. Find out what they value.
- Offer a solution based on your own values that will fulfill their need or solve their problem.
- Ask for the sale (or appointment in a massage therapists case)
For some reason massage therapists don’t like the idea that they are selling or need to sell themselves. Because they are caring people, selling is usually equated with greed, deception and not caring.
The process of caring and building relationships with someone is quite similar to selling.
If you are at a party and are meeting new people who are potential friends or even a date what do you do? Pretty much the same!
Since caring is at the heart of a massage business -how can you care and promote yourself too! I do it by sharing as much as I can about what I know about massage right on my office website. I get so many people calling and becoming clients and saying “I want you for my massage therapist” even though I am farther away in downtown Seattle and cost more than most massage therapists in other areas. By writing down all of the things that you are talking about with clients anyways it will show you know what you are doing and that you care! When you get a client who is already valuing your service when they call, you don’t have to do any hard selling. People will be attracted to you when they know what you are about and can see what you value! You then find out what they value in the intake and session so that you can relate to their values – which is usually something around their health and wellbeing since they are coming in for a massage. When you can understand what they value and link it to your values selling isn’t that bad selling anymore. It is just telling people what you do so they can make an informed decision.
Go out and look for a massage therapist yourself and look online or get referrals and take a look at the process that someone goes through to find a massage therapist. I do this all the time and it is scary out there what people are doing to ‘not sell themselves’. I find websites with no information what so ever about themselves. The basic things that you want are:
- An about me page -full biography including your philosophy on healing, why you went to massage school, what you love about doing massage
- A full page description of every type of massage that you do – deep tissue, swedish massage – you name it. People really don’t have a clue about many of the different therapies. They just want to know if it will work for their pain or stress.
- Show them how it will work for their pain, stress or condition!
Getting new clients is all about creating relationships and yes -selling yourself but doing so with heart – by connecting your values to what you do and telling people about them.
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This is a great article so many of my clients come to me for Massage marketing advice but what I always try and tell them is that there is a lot more that marketing tips and tricks, you need to look at your business holistically look at yourself and what you want your business to be about.
Like the saying goes there is no such thing as non-communication so when people start along the road on looking for clients as opposed to people to help (There is a big difference) its almost as if this is communicated, and it could have the negative effect of scaring people off. However when my clients really focus on why they became massage therapists this caring energy will always be transferred and felt by the potential client.
The whole rapport building will flow quite naturally from that point onwards.