What to Do When People Don’t Get Back to You|

Business and Marketing for Massage and Bodywork Therapists

Episode 50.

MINDY TOTTEN: Hey hey there. Welcome back to the Do It With Intention podcast!

I’m Mindy Totten, and today we're going to continue with the series that we started last week —what to say in certain sticky situations, kind of difficult situations, awkward situations that you might find yourself in as a massage or bodywork therapist.

I encourage you to send me an email@helloatmindytotten.com to ask your questions, I'll be happy to perhaps put together a podcast episode around the questions that you have, not only your bodywork business, but about what to say when you find yourself in these situations.

And today we're going to dive into what to say when you reach out to somebody and you don't hear anything back. All right. The most important thing to remember is if someone doesn't respond to you, it is not necessarily about you think about that. It's not about you, you must follow up with people because the fortune is in the followup.

And what I mean by that is. Think about it this way, you reach out to somebody you've put your heart and your soul into this, whatever it is, an email or,  a phone call that you give that you make to somebody, and then you don't hear anything back. How does that make us feel? Of course, it makes it feel like the person has rejected us or isn't interested in what we have to offer.

But so often it's not about us at all. It's about the person on the other end and maybe not ever receiving the request. No. Ever not having the time yet to answer or to reply to the request it might be. And this is something I've learned y'all in the last,  maybe six months a year or so. I will sometimes get emails from people and.

I'm so intrigued by what they're asking, they're reaching out to have me on a podcast or they're reaching out to do some kind of a collaborative thing or they, they want to work with me. I'm so intrigued by the request that I wait. I don't respond right away because I want to make a really thoughtful response.

So I give myself,  a day or two to craft a response before I send it back. And what I have found is that. If somebody reaches out to me and I'm waiting because I want to put together a thoughtful response and then they reach out again a day or two later. I'm impressed with that. That means they really are interested in whatever it is that they reached out to me about.

They really do want to work with me, or they really do want me on the podcast or whatever it is.  So think about that. You're not being pushy by following up, you are just reminding the person, giving them another opportunity, letting them know how serious you are about whatever it is that you're reaching out for today.

I'm going to give you a couple of things to consider around, following up, or reaching back out. And then also we'll talk about. We'll talk through three examples and I'll share with you what to say. So the first thing that I want you to consider is think about how you are reaching out to people. What medium are you using to reach out to people?

And in the business world, the communication world it's called the level of stickiness. So how sticky is. The message that you're putting out there. What that means is how likely is the person to notice it and to respond to it. So the medium or the way that you're delivering, that message does make a big difference.

For example, texting is the least sticky. Think about it, right? You can easily text somebody and they can easily ignore it. It's the same, , when you're confirming people for their appointments,  you do it via text. People can easily say, Oh, I didn't say that. Or, they just don't respond at all because it's  very not sticky, medium to use after texting,  email is next.

So texting is the least sticky emails, a little more sticky.  I. Prefer people to contact me via email. I never respond to Texas, frankly, because I rarely even know where my phone is. I don't have a smartphone. And so I'm not a big texture. So if somebody really wants to get in touch with me, they know that they need to email me.

Email is a little stickier than texting the next,  bump up the ladder is a telephone call reaching out to someone. And if you don't. Contact them directly leaving a voicemail. That's quite sticky. That's hard for people to ignore. And then the most sticky approach is in person meeting. And that's not always practical if you're reaching out to someone across the country.

But, if you ask someone directly face to face, if they're interested in. Whatever that you're reaching out for doing some kind of a collaboration there. We're going to answer you because you're right there.  So I want you to really think about that. Okay. I texted somebody and I asked if they would wanted to get together for a virtual coffee chat.

And I didn't hear anything back. Well, you may want to change the way that you contacted instead of just sending another followup text, you may want to consider sending an email instead or making a telephone call instead. So that's the first thing that I want you to consider the medium that you're using to contact your audience.

Whoever that is really does make a big difference. All right. The next thing to think about is how many times should you follow up? How many times do you follow up? And this is where, people get a bad rap, right? Like, Oh, I don't want to follow up. I don't want to bother them because we've all had the situation where someone's, , bugging the heck out of us, 10 different times.

Did you get my message an hour ago? Did you get my main on that? Ah, overwhelming. So I want you to make a commitment to yourself that when you reach out to somebody for whatever it is that you're going to allow yourself at least one followup. So if you don't hear from the person, allow yourself at least one followup, because things get lost in the shuffle.

Things are very busy right now. Things are very uncertain right now. Remember, it's not about you. It's about the person you're trying to reach. So if you don't hear back right away, allow yourself at least one followup. And for me, I say maybe two. I don't believe in following up until you hear something from somebody, you want to get a restraining order.

I guess you're continuing to follow up for this for a person. Right. But at least one follow up and then possibly two, if I really, really want to reach the person, I'll follow up a second time. And then after that, I just let it go. The third thing is, how long should you wait before you follow up with someone?

And that's a great question. The first thing is it depends on whether or not you have a deadline. So let's say you're reaching out to another practitioner in town and you're interested in doing a,  alternative wellness. Symposium online thing. And you'd like her to join you. If there's a deadline, like you are going to have this thing a week from today, if there's a certain deadline, you can't wait as long as you normally would.

So that's the first thing to consider. Is there a deadline for what I want to do with this person? If there's not, I usually give it, I don't know. A week is sometimes too long. So I usually give it four or five days. And if I haven't heard anything from the person, I will reach out again. And in just a second, I'll share some of the language that you can use to reach out again and just, make sure that things didn't get lost in the shuffle.

Explain what it is that. I was reaching out for, and then wait to hear. And then if I don't hear the second time, I'll probably follow up,  a week after that. Just one more time, just giving it one more time. I know things sometimes get lost in cyberspace. Here's what I'm proposing. And then after that, if I don't hear anything, I just let it go.

All right. So let's look at a couple of different situations or circumstances where you may need to follow up and I'll share with you some ideas about what you can say. So taking what we do. You said earlier, you reach out to another practitioner, let's say for a virtual coffee chat, like you want to get to know some other people in your area so that you can help them by referring people to them.

If you have anyone that could be a good fit for them, and also so that they can refer people to you. If they might be a good fit for you. So you reach out to Sally, let's say a practitioner in your town and you say,  you sent an email and you say, Hey, I w you know, I've admired your work for a while. I would love to have a quick virtual coffee chat, just to learn more about you and introduce myself and, let me know a time that would work.

Or how about these times, something like that. You don't hear anything back. So maybe four or five days later, you can either try. A another way to reach Sally. So either a text or a telephone call, or if you want to try an email again, you can use language like, Hey Sally, I'm just following up. So you can use following up or I'm just circling back around.

You know, you've heard that before, probably just checking in. Something like that, checking in to see whether you got my email. And what I usually do is just copy the original email. And then in the followup, I put that part that says, Hey, I'm just following up to make sure you received this email about the virtual chat or what?

And I put that part in italics. And then I put the original email underneath so that she sees when I sent it before. And that I'm following up so you can use phrases, like checking in, circling back around, following up.  and I, I often am just really, really honest and really let myself be vulnerable.

I know things can sometimes get lost in cyberspace. So I wanted to follow up or, I re I realized that you are really very, very busy. And so I don't want to take too much of your time, but I wanted to circle back around to make sure that you received this,  whatever it is, whatever the request is.

So those are a couple  of languaging pieces that you can use when you follow up with someone, when you reach out and you don't hear anything back. The second example, let's say that you send an email to all of your clients telling them about. I don't know, let's say, Oh, a new online video series is that you're offering, okay, you're coming up with something really exciting and new.

It's going to be a series of five videos and you're selling it for whatever $27, 97, whatever it is. And you're very excited. You send it to  all of your, the people on your email list. And after let's say you only have one person who signed up for the program. Please, please, please don't assume that your program sucks or that it's about you or that no, one's interested in it.

Nine times out of 10. It people either didn't see it or it just. Slipped their mind. So after a couple of days, if you have an online offering like this, follow up again with everybody, and if you have an email service provider, which I highly recommend something like MailChimp or a Weber or convert kit, you can do this within the email service provider.

You can resend the email to people who haven't opened it. People who haven't seen it, or you can choose to send an email again, excluding the people who already opened it. Right. So you can think about that, but you'll follow up again in a couple of days and say, Oh, I'm so excited that this new online, video series that I'm on Fran is going to start next Friday.

and I'd love to have you be a part of it. Here's click here for more information. Okay. The day before the deadline of registration, you want to send one or two email follow ups saying just a reminder that tonight is the last night to sign up for my video online series. Here's what we're going to talk about.

Here's how it can benefit you. I'm really excited about it. If you have any questions, let me know. So with something like that, you want to follow up three, four or five times. If you're offering something as a deadline. Got it. Okay. The last piece, the last example I'm going to share with you happens all the time.

So I'm here to tell you today. It is not just, you let's say a client comes in for her first appointment and it goes really well. And she says she wants to make another appointment with you, but she needs to check her schedule first. So she's going to get back to you. And then after a week you haven't heard anything from her.

Sound familiar, right? It's happens to all of us all the time. So what should you do? Do what I used to do is just presume that I wasn't a very good therapist and she didn't get very good results. And so I just, that was it.  I blew it somehow. Now I know that it's not about me. That life happens for people and I can be of service to them by following up.

So how would I follow up with somebody like this?  she says she wants to make another appointment, but she needs to check her schedule. So let a week ago or so. And then I would follow up. I usually am an email person. You could also call the person depending on what you feel most comfortable with, but I would.

Probably email her. Let's say her name is Sally too. And say, Hey, Sally, I'm following up after our initial appointment. I'm so glad that you got, that you got so many good results. And I know that you mentioned you were ready to reschedule. Have you had a time, a chance to look at your appointment book or your calendar because I've got.

These openings next week or something like that. Don't just say, do you want to reschedule and leave it like that? Yes or no. Give Sally, give the person some options where she can come in. So I've got,  I know you like this two o'clock afternoon time slot, and I do have a two o'clock open next Thursday.

If that will work for you, please hit reply and let me know something like that. For me, I only follow up with those folks one time. If they,  they've come in, they're enthusiastic. They want to continue. I say, great. I'll follow up with them. Here's a specific time. Let me know if that will work or if another time is better.

If I don't hear anything back again, I just let them be.  usually not always, but usually they're on my email list. Cause they've said, yes, I want to get your emails. So they'll get an email from me, , a couple of times a month. And that will remind you them as well that Oh yeah, that's right. I wanted to make an appointment with Mindy for that grandiose psychotherapy.

So that's the way that I do it. I follow up one time direct, give them an option and then I'll let it go. So I hope that is helpful for everybody.  what to say in some of these sticky situations, remember when you were following up, it's not about you, it's about the person that you're trying to be of service to.

So have confidence come from the heart and do it with intention. .