How to Get Someone to Sell Your Massage

You have a fan out there who thinks your massage is the best thing since Ben and Jerry’s VEGAN Caramel-Almond-Brittle ice cream. And that fan will sell your massage like nobody’s business.

But finding that number one fan takes some work. Here’s how I do it.

The Client Who Will Sell Your Massage

First, we need to talk about current clients who love your massage. Some will sing your praises to others, right?

And there’s probably one who’s especially good at talking you up.

Unfortunately, there are limitations with clients who love your massage. For one, how do you stay relevant in their minds besides when they come to see you for a massage?

A referral rewards program helps, but how many times can you talk about the referral program before you start to sound pushy?

Also, your fans who are clients may not be connected to the people who would actually use your service.

The Influencer Who Will Sell Your Massage

That’s why I look outside my client base for influencers in my target market.

An influencer is someone who can persuade a person in your target market to do something. And a motivated influencer could turn out to be the best salesperson that you’ll ever have in your corner.

Here’s an example of what I mean by an influencer in your target market: If your target market is cyclists, cycling coaches and bike store owners would be influencers because they can refer cyclists (people in your target market) to you.

By the way, an influencer’s referral is rock solid.

Why?

Because the person being referred trusts the influencer.

Once you establish a relationship with an influencer, you can drive the process of referrals by investing heavily in the relationship. More about that later.

Finding the Influencer Who Will Sell Your Massage

To find the an influencer in your target market you’ll first need to:

1. Define your market.

If you don’t have a market yet, this will help you figure things out: A Niche Market = More Clients ($).

You can have more than one market. But each market will be a separate deal.

Fifteen years ago, I had an office in a fitness center. I had two markets. One was working with people who had specific fitness goals. The other was people in chronic pain.

Once you’ve decided on a market, you’re going to:

2. Approach people in businesses that service that market.

For example, if you want to work with people who have back pain, you might want to start poking around the offices of chiropractors, orthopedists, PTs, acupuncturists, etc.

But before you start poking, read this article: How to Get More Clients: Referrals. It will save you from going down dead-end streets.

At my office in the fitness center, I had approached personal trainers. I got to know them, and would only charge them $40 for a 60 minute massage. They appreciated the discount, and I got to demonstrate my work.

Once you’ve approached potential influencers, then you need to:

3. Engage the influencer who’s most interested in your services.

It won’t take you long to figure out the influencer who’s most interested in your work. He’ll probably be familiar with massage or have an interest in it already.

The best way that I’ve found to engage a potential influencer is to get him (or the people he works with or services) on the table. I do this by offering free demo massages.

This is my formula for demo massages: How to Grow Your Business with Zero $.

Here’s how it went down at the gym: One trainer, Josh, started to become a fan of my work because I had worked on some of his clients at another gym. So I offered Josh a free massage for the referrals he’d sent me in the past.

He came in for the free massage.

(Please don’t suck…please don’t suck…)

Fortunately, I didn’t suck that day, and Josh and I connected even more.

 

As the number one fan starts to emerge, go all in and

4. Provide extraordinary care.

This could be the most important step to determining if the influencer who sells your massage is going to provide  a trickle or a steady flow or referrals. And it’s the easiest step to screw up.

I know this because I’ve screwed up. Once I had really connected with Josh, I started to take our business relationship for granted.

My thought at the time was when/if the referrals come, great.

But when they weren’t coming, I started to question things: Did Josh stop thinking I did a good job? Did he find another MT?

That pushed me to get out on the gym floor to talk to clients and trainers (especially Josh) whenever I had a spare moment.

Over time I noticed that the more Josh and I talked (connected), the more the referrals would start coming my way again.

Well, I be damned…a business relationship is like a personal relationship. Ignore it and you’re left hankering for the good ole days.

Thankfully, the solution to a marginally working relationship is to give a crap–something we, MTs, already do with our clients.

How I Showed I Cared

Here’s how I happily showed Josh that I cared about him, our relationship and his clients:

1. I made sure that I always had time to answer any questions Josh had about my work with his clients.
2. I spent time researching questions that Josh had about his clients that I couldn’t answer.
3. I talked to Josh before I’d work on his clients so I’d know where each client was in her training cycle.
4. I gave Josh direct access to me whenever he had a question about a mutual client.
5. I recommended Josh as a trainer (because he was a great trainer) to clients whenever appropriate.
6. I included Josh in business promotionals when it made sense.

Prime Your Number One Fan to Sell Your Massage

So…if you’re thinking that’s a lot of work to find an influencer and to keep the relationship going, here’s your incentive: steady and predictable referrals.

Press a button (put more time into the relationship with the influencer) and more referrals come out. Seriously.

It’s not hard. And you already have the most important ingredient: you care.

Here’s the quick “how to”:

1. Think of influencers in your target market but outside your clientele.
2. Connect with those influencers, then focus on the one who is most interested in what you do.
3. Go all in with that relationship and don’t neglect it as time goes on.

Here’s some advice from a PT regarding how to connect with an influencer:

Here’s some advice from a chiro:

Build it (relationship with influencers) and they well sell your massage better than you ever could.

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