The Downside to Discounts (and what to do instead) |

Business and Marketing for Massage and Bodywork Therapists

Episode 42.

MINDY TOTTEN:

Hey, Hey there. Welcome back to the Do It With Intention podcast.

I’m your host, Mindy Totten, and I wanted to share a quick story with you. A couple of weeks ago, I got a lovely email from a practitioner just starting out in her body work business. And I loved it. I love getting these emails.

You know, I love hearing about how much she loved her work and how excited she was to be of service to others. Her email really made my heart sing. But then she said she was probably going to start to try to get clients through Groupon and my heart sank. This is such a common mistake that Bodyworkers make.

I get asked about it all the time. And I want to talk with you about it today. No matter where you are on the journey to creating your ideal bodywork business, here's your mantra going forward? Don't discount. Add value. That's it four simple words that will save you so much. Heartache and aggravation.

Don't discount. Add value. Now let's go back to Groupon for a second. I have no problem with Groupon as a company, there are many others like it, you know, sites that offer daily deals. And I understand why it's appealing, especially when you need to get clients in the door ASAP. You know, often they write the ad copy for you and they'll send it out to the gazillion people on their email list and you don't have to pay them unless someone signs up through them.

Hooray. Right? Well, no. What ends up happening with Bodyworkers when they use these daily deal type discounts is that you're not typically attracting your ideal clients. Instead, you get people contacting you for are either tire kickers. You know, they just want to try something new and cheap. They're not actually invested in their wellness journey or you get the bargain shoppers folks who are only coming in to see you because of the cheap price.

Not because they value you or your work or their own health and wellbeing. So, if you're not going to use discounts, how do you get your first clients in the door? Check out episode eight that I recorded several months ago, episode eight has five tried and true ways to get your next 20 clients in the door.

We'll link to that episode in the show notes, and you can find the show notes at www.mindytotten.com/podcast/episode 42. Check those out and you can, I'll give you, I gave you tons of ways to get new people into your office, but when you run a daily deal, I've seen it time and time again, therapists and up underwater because people come in once.

And they're never seen again, believe me when I tell you this, it's not you, it's not because of your massage that you give. It's not because of your body work skills. Daily deal sites are just not well suited for our industry. And I don't recommend discounting your own prices either. If you offer discounts frequently, you're doing two things.

First of all, you're teaching your clients to wait until a discounted offer comes around. Which isn't good for them or for you, right. They need to come in to see you regularly because they're going to get the best results that way they shouldn't be waiting around until you offer a discount. And you're teaching your clients that you don't truly value your own work, because if you did value it, why would you discount it?

An example of this is an organic clothing company that I love. I love their clothes. I love the company, but I would never pay full price for anything that they offer. Not because I don't love them, but because I literally get an email in my box every single day with sales and discounts, I know that whatever I'm looking for is going to be discounted soon.

So I just wait. They've taught me to wait for the sale. And you don't want to do that. So what should you do instead? Okay. Let's go back to our mantra. Don't discount. Add value. You need to add value to your services. We dive deep into how to do this inside of the bodywork project, but for right now, think of it this way.

You want to be known as the best, most skilled practitioner that you can be. You want people to say she's expensive, but she's worth every penny. Your clients will start getting such good results that they'll start sending referrals your way, and because you're charging premium prices for premium services, you won't need as many clients to hit your baseline revenue goals.

So, what does adding value look like? Adding value can mean, personalized touches, individualized recommendations for moving forward. It can mean diversifying your offers so that you can be of better service to your people. It definitely means a scene, the first session. And I did a whole podcast episode on that as well that you can learn more about by listening to episode 18.

And we'll link to that in the episode, show notes, do adding value means continuing to ask yourself, how can I be of service? How can I be of service and how can my clients see better results? One thing I do at my initial session is I give my new clients a copy of dr. Obligers book, your inner physician in you in their welcome package.

I started including this because craniosacral therapy is such a gentle. Subtle touch therapy that clients are sometimes unable to quote unquote, feel the therapy in the same way that they might say in a therapeutic massage or a sports massage. So I asked myself, how can I be of service? What can I do to help my new clients better understand the subtleties of this work?

And I came up with the idea of giving them the book written by the person who created craniosacral therapy and written in a way that people can really understand. It has been so successful. I am amazed by how many people actually read the entire book right away. And they even bring it in with them to their next appointment to share something with me or to ask a question about it, I've added value to their experience.

So they get better results and they understand the modality more completely. And here's a quick note that I want you to pay careful attention to. It's important to note that I charge more for that first session to cover the cost of the book, along with some other costs that helped me to add value. I don't just keep adding things in without getting paid for those things.

So when you're thinking about adding value, you're not giving free time. You're not giving an extra free half hour. You're not, you're actually. Being of service in a better way that will help your clients get better results. I want you to think about what you can do to add value to your customer experience.

Don't discount, add value. I encourage you to ask the questions, believe in yourself and your work, and keep repeating your new mantra. Don't discount. Add value.