Make the Most of Massage

Category: Accelerate Massage Business (30K – 60K+)

  • How to NOT Discount Your Massage Rate

    How to NOT Discount Your Massage Rate

    Early in my massage career some customers worked me over, and I dropped my massage rate for them.

    My guess is that a big part of me discounting my massage rate came from a lack of confidence.

    You may feel the same way if you’re a compulsive massage rate discounter, too.

    But I’m going to sidestep the lack of confidence thing right now.

    Why?

    Well, for one you’ll get the bends taking that deep of a dive into the recesses of your psychology without some professional help.

    And we’ve only got another 1,000 words or so to get you to toughen up on your price.

    So, here’s how I’m going to sidestep self-confidence: We’re going to look at confidence as a situational phenomenon.

    Sometimes you have it and sometimes you don’t.

    You have a great day at work. You rock as an MT, right?

    Have a bad day and you’re thinking about a career change.

    You can’t count on confidence to get you through being firm with your price.

    So let’s attach our thinking to something more permanent, like a plan you refer to when you start to feel yourself giving in.

    My plan has these layers:

    1. Truth
    2. Lies
    3. More lies

    First, before I get into the truth layer, I’m not saying don’t ever slide on your price.

    Little old men and ladies, people who you feel compassion for because they’re in pain and you want to help them, family and business connections—these are ones you may want to slide on.

    I’m saying create a strong, firm-price habit so that your default position is “firm price” which will allow you to fight off the bargain shoppers and pushy people.

    Believe me, it’s waaay harder (if not impossible) to start with a wishy washy price-mindset and move to a firm price-mindset during the course of a conversation.

    Onto the truth layer of sticking to your massage rate.

    Layer #1: Truth

    Start creating a firm price habit by making sure that viewers can see your prices on your website.

    No writing prices in 8pt font at the bottom of your Services page.

    By making your price very visible on your website, you’re doing all the firm-price work upfront. If a customer has been to your website, he should know exactly what he’s going to pay before he walks into your office.

    If a customer calls to book, make sure she knows your massage rate before you end the phone conversation.

    We have an intro rate. I let the customer know our intro price and then I let her know what she’d pay for her next visit.

    So being clear about your prices on your website and when booking will silence the person who is not an overly aggressive discount shopper.

    But what about the let’s-make-a-deal person who simply thinks he can work you over?

    Layer #2: Lies

    Joe owned his own company and had 30-ish employees. After the massage he asked me: “Hey, Mark, do you offer package deals?”

    I knew that Joe had read our website thoroughly because my wife had a conversation with him where he had said to her that the content on our website was what drew him in.

    He straight up knew that we didn’t offer a package deal. And that our discount was already built into our pricing because we had a no tipping policy.

    Joe was trying to work me, and didn’t want to hear about what we were already doing for him.

    My first response was a truth: “We can’t afford to offer another discount”.

    That didn’t throw Joe off stride for one second.

    It was time to unpack the lies.

    Here are some of my go-to lies:

    1. My ____ (fill in with wife, husband, spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, fiancé…) would kill me if I ______ (offered a discount, gave a package deal…).

    By the way, Joe used this one on me to start the conversation. He said that his wife wouldn’t let him get a massage every week if he had to pay $X.

    1. Our expenses have really shot up.
    2. Our business is on a super-tight budget.

    Truthfully, I forget what I told Joe. But whatever I said was good enough to make Joe regroup and work a different angle.

    He then said, “I’d like to send my employees to you maybe as a reward kind of thing or have you come out to my office.”

    Okay, so that kind of nebulous promise of employee gifts and special events rarely works out.

    Show me the money, Joe.

    I said something like, “We do things like that with a lot of companies in the areas.” (And they don’t ask for discounts.)

    Joe wasn’t done with me.

    “We have a great website team. I’m sure one of my guys could make yours really look like a big business,” he said.

    “But, Joe, you said our website content drew you in.”

    “It did.”

    “Well, then it’s sorta working without being super fancy…”

    Confused dog look, then he said: “Yeah, but we could get you good, professional pictures…[wheels turning as he thought]…and we could get it so that you rank high and get more traffic.”

    “But we’re first in the organic search already and rank in the top 5 in the local search.”

    Crickets.

    It was apparent that Joe had no idea what the difference was between local and organic searches.

    Joe backed off (and is now a bi-weekly client).

    But I was ready for more “working me down” with more lies.

    Layer#3: More Lies

    He could have said: “I have a lot of people I’d like to refer to you.”

    Response: “I appreciate that, but we’re really swamped.” (We don’t need clients.)

    Which brings me to the ultimate answer to staying firm on your price: You need to have new clients coming in all the time.

    When that happens you won’t fear losing the customer who is trying to work you because you know that another client will be ringing your phone soon.

    If you don’t have new customers coming in check out my Build a Massage Business Mini Crash Course.

    And if you need a website so that you can create your first layer of  Firm Price Defense this is my Webiste DIY guide.

    Sticking to Your Massage Rate

    My bottom line with customers who want me to lower my massage rate is this: Some are true bargain shoppers.

    And if I’m not the cheapest, they’ll go elsewhere.

    Fine.

    I don’t want them. Let them find someone else.

    But for the ones like Joe whose DNA says “get the best deal possible all the time”, you just need to back them off.

    Try the truth first.

    If that doesn’t work: Lie.

    Then more lies.

    Practice that a few times and I’m pretty sure that you won’t crack.

    Need more help?

    This is a free course that will lift your massage business off the ground: Jumpstart.

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  • Get Out Of Your Massage Room

    Get Out Of Your Massage Room

    Am I introverted? OMG, put a laptop with a WIFI connection in my massage room and you won’t see me for a month.

    Basically, that’s how I ran my massage business when I first started.

    I’d sit in my office at The Edge (a local fitness center) writing on my laptop with my door half-open.

    Only customers who really wanted to see me would put up with the irritated looks that I’d give them after they’d knock on the door and interrupt my stream of consciousness (haha).

    Talk about a doomed-to-fail marketing strategy: Be semi-visible (and give nasty looks) to potential customers who randomly walked by.

    Eventually, I learned that to make it as a MT I needed to get out there and engage people.

    Engage? You mean like BS-ing and small talk and pretending to care about conversations I don’t care about?

    Well, if you’re as introverted as I am, that’s how it’s going to feel at first.

    But like most anything else, once you start getting your reps in with something you don’t like doing, you’ll eventually get better at it—even with starting conversations.

    I don’t know, Mark, my massage room is pretty comfortable.

    I get it. But is “being comfortable” paying the bills?

    Didn’t think so.

    It’s time to get out of the massage room and engage people.

    Not just anybody though.

    You want to talk to:

    1. Potential clients
    2. Referral sources (healthcare professionals and business owners who will refer clients to you)

    Okay, deep breaths my fellow introverts.

    At first, we can engage people on our own introverted terms.

    You’re comfortable doing massage, right?

    So, let’s engage people by doing demo massages.

    This article should get you on your way with that: How to Sell (a Lot of) Massages with Your Hands.

    You just skipped right over that article, didn’t you?

    Hey, no judgement here. I 100% know that being stuck in the massage room is some serious stuff.

    But I’ve got more ammo to get you out.

    Guess what else happens when you poke your head outside your massage door and squint into the fluorescent light?

    You expand your therapeutic value which means you are even a bigger help to your clients.

    For example, by interacting with physical therapists on a regular basis I’ve learned that physical therapy has become more user-friendly than it was 5 years ago.

    Some PT places even offer free consults.

    So for my clients with soft-tissues-issues-beyond-massage-help I now have another referral option besides orthopedists.

    I’m not done.

    When you engage other health professionals you find your place in the bigger picture.

    What bigger picture?

    The client’s health picture.

    Interact with PTs, personal trainers, yoga instructors, Pilates teachers and chiropractors and you start to see how what you do can compliment or supplement what other health practitioners do.

    Stay in your room and you tend to think massage is the be-all-end-all.

    Getting out of your Massage Room is Good for Business

    Getting out of your room is not only good for your clients, it’s also good for business.

    Once you understand how your piece fits in, your piece is easier to talk about (sell).

    I’m not going to lie to you, coming out of your massage room is gonna suck at first.

    You’ll whine, whimper and find yourself back inside your room all warm and cozy just hoping someone knocks on your door.

    When that happens think 1. more money, 2. better value, and 3. big picture.

    Need More Help?

    If you’re just starting your business, this free course will get your business off the ground: Jumpstart.

    If you have an a massage business that just pays the bill, this program will take your massage income to the next level: Accelerator.

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  • I Saved My Client $5000 (By Using My Most Important Neuromuscular Tool)

    I Saved My Client $5000 (By Using My Most Important Neuromuscular Tool)

    You may be surprised when I tell you that the most important tool in my neuromuscular toolkit is not a T-bar. My most important tool is actually a strategy. And it has helped my clients get out of pain (and save money) far greater than any other tool I use. It’s called Perpetuating Factors.

    What is a Perpetuating Factor?

    A perpetuating factor can be defined as anything one does (bad work posture to bad decision making) or has (a structural imbalance) that aggravates or prolongs a pain condition.

    When I learned St. John’s neuromuscular therapy (NMT), the emphasis was on finding the structural perpetuating factor (e.g., short leg, hemipelvis). And that’s what I did in my practice—but then I injured my back.

    My Worst Perpetuating Factor Ever

    When I injured my back, I searched hard for the structural perpetuating factor. I stood on two scales to see if I had a weight distribution imbalance, but that checked out okay. My friend who was a chiropractor found no structural issues when looking at my X-rays. I didn’t have a leg length differential and my arches were fine. I was baffled.

    At the same time, I rehabbed with deep muscle massage, chiropractic adjustments and PT. But I wasn’t getting better. In fact, I was getting worse. A lot.

    Finally, in desperation, I stopped everything, both searching for structural perpetuating factors and all treatments. And within a couple weeks I was better.

    Who? Little Ole Me?

    Over the next year, I began to understand what had happened. Initially, I had tweaked my back working out. Then I made things worse by trying to fix it with aggressive treatments. I was the perpetuating factor.

    There are 3 gigantic reasons why I pay close attention to non-structural (lifestyle) perpetuating factors: 1. To get a client out of pain, 2. To help her avoid pain in the future, 3. To save her money.

    The Miracle Cure

    Scott would come to see me when his lower-back acted up, maybe 2 – 3 times a year. Recently he came in with extreme pain in an area by his upper right scapula and the front of his shoulder. It was a completely new pain.

    He said that there was no event that caused it and nothing had changed in his activities at home, work and play.

    His guess was the he reinjured the rotator cuff that he had surgically repaired a couple of years ago. But that didn’t make sense to me because his range of motion was fine in that shoulder and there was no strength loss.

    There had to be a perpetuating factor somewhere.

    Scott Lied (Well…Sort of Lied)

    In the massage room, Scott yelped when I pressed the pain area. That area didn’t feel tight to me. And it felt and looked the same as on the opposite side (the side that didn’t bother him). I went back to asking questions and I got the same response: nothing changed. But then he paused. “Well,” he said, “I did change my desk.”

    Pay dirt!

    Scott’s new desk was a standing desk. The standing desk fit on top of his current desk. He adjusted it up when he stood to work. He lowered it when he sat down.

    As we continued to talk, his new pain made sense to me. When he stood to work, his arms were completely unsupported. This meant that his shoulder and upper back had to do more work now. Under the added muscular stress, his right shoulder/scapula area (compromised from being injured before) rebelled. In addition, the pain occurred at the same time as when he changed to the standing desk.

    He got rid of the standing desk and the pain went away.

    I Saved Scott $5000

    If we hadn’t uncovered Scott’s lifestyle perpetuating factor, his trajectory could have been this: doctors’ visits, muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatory pills/injections, PT, X-rays and possibly an MRI—easily $5000 plus in bills.

    In addition, Scott was out of pain and knew how to avoid pain in the future. To me, that is a powerful tool.

    Perpetuating Factors Crash Course

    I find if you keep these 3 questions in mind when looking for a lifestyle perpetuating factor, you have an excellent chance to figure things out:

    1. Has anything changed in your work, home or recreational life?
    2. If so, when did the change occur?
    3. If just before or soon after the pain occurred, could this change be connected to the pain?

    And remember that a client may have filtered out something that she thinks is unimportant, like Scott did with his standing desk (after all, standing desks are supposed to be good for you, right?). So, stay on the trail.

    You Got This!

    If you’re new to the idea of Perpetuating Factors and/or are struggling with it, leave a comment here.

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  • Massage for Lower Back Pain 101: The Brain

    Massage for Lower Back Pain 101: The Brain

    This is a story of massage for lower back pain not working (but there’s a lesson).

    Casey was crippled because of his lower-back pain. And nothing worked.

    In fact, after 4 injections his pain got a lot worse. He went from lying face down on my table to lying on his side to sitting up to not coming in.

    The last time he came in, we used a wheelchair to get him in and out of the office.

    I was 99% sure that Casey was heading for the knife.

    A few weeks after Casey stopped coming in to see me, I met Dr. Charlie Johnson, a PT who specialized in back pain. I thought Charlie might be able to help Casey, and Casey agreed to see him if I came along.

    When I went to pick Casey up for the appointment, I expected to see a slumped over, broken man. But what I saw was Casey close to how he used to be pre-back pain.

    What the hell?!

    Did the nerve compression ease up?

    Did the inflammation go down?

    Wait…I’ve been down this road before…these questions imply that pain is only a product of tissue damage.

    But research shows that pain is not simply a tissue damage event.

    Pain is an experience.

    I Can Heal You (NOT)

    When I opened my neuromuscular massage (NMT) practice in early 2000, I thought I had the playbook for correcting things like lower-back pain.

    I’d go through the NMT evaluation protocol, identify the eccentric and concentric muscle issues, add in trigger point therapy, and BAM!–pain get ready to get your butt kicked.

    But massage for lower back pain and other issues produced inconsistent results.

    I soon became frustrated and started to look for answers elsewhere.

    So for the next ten or so years, I studied and wrote about back pain.

    At this time, a new view of pain and how it should be treated was just starting to emerge.

    The old way for understanding pain was that pain is strictly a matter of tissue damage. The new way for understanding pain was that pain is complex and is influenced by social, emotional and conditional factors.

    When I think about Casey’s back-pain story, it makes more sense to view it through the new lens.

    Here’s what I mean.

    Casey’s Lower-Back Pain

    When Casey hurt his back, he stopped working. And as it got worse, his world got smaller, so small that he wouldn’t even leave his house.

    By five months, he was basically incapacitated.

    But then things started to improve as he approached the 6 month mark.

    Interestingly, 6 months marked the time short-term disability would be cut off and Casey would have to go back to work. If he didn’t go back to work, they’d fire him.

    I’m not at all suggesting that Casey was faking his back pain. I was there and it was real—to the point where he lost leg functionality.

    I’m saying other factors played into Casey’s experience of back pain.

    The Other Parts of Back Pain

    In his book, Itty Bitty Book About Lower Back Pain, Charlie the PT explains that “pain does not equal damage or injury…it is simply an experience created by the brain when it thinks your body is in danger.”

     

    He goes on to say that it takes 3 – 6 months for ligaments, muscles, nerves and discs to heal in your back. After that if pain persists it could be that your sensing system is revved up and you’re brain “is still sensing danger.”

    Now, let’s back up to when Casey hurt his back. A physical event happened in his back, like a tear or strain or rupture or impingement or something.

    About a month post injury, he was doing better. Then things suddenly got worse. At the time, he was still seeing a personal trainer and my hunch is that the personal trainer was having Casey do something that aggravated his back condition.

    Then Casey started injections. Each injection helped for a very short period of time, but then the pain returned and eventually got worse. During this time he had some falls and could’ve re-injured his back.

    But eventually, the potential back-pain, perpetuating factors were eliminated–no more falls and he stopped seeing the personal trainer. So he was healing and feeling better, right? Actually, no. The pain now was the worst it had ever been!

    Why?

    Maybe because there were things revving up his sensing system, like:

    Casey HATED his job because his boss stressed him out!

    According to the research Charlie sites in his book, if you hate your job, you’re likely to experience more pain than someone who likes her job.

    In addition, it’s been shown that memories can impact pain. Casey constantly talked about his boss as being psychotic.

    Memory of Psychotic Boss + Thought of Going Back to Work = Stress Hormones Shooting Up.

    Okay, but you could argue that Casey’s stress level should’ve gone down because he was away from the hostile work environment while on disability.

    True, but Casey also knew he’d be fired if he didn’t return to work after 6 months of disability.

    That worried him A LOT. By the way, if you’re sad or worried you’re likely to feel more pain than someone who’s happy and relaxed.

    OMG, no wonder the poor man couldn’t sleep! And, yes, bad sleep habits equal more pain.

    Can you feel the pain intensifying?

    Casey (Massage for Lower Back Pain) Revisited

    “Pain is an experience” makes complete sense to me. Casey’s lower-back pain fits this view to a T.

    If I could have a do-over, here’s how I’d try to help Casey now.

    First, I’d let him know that the injury to his back will heal in 3 to 6 months. This should ease some immediate anxiety regarding his back pain.

    Next, I would jump into action once I heard Casey repeating things.

    For instance, each time I massaged Casey while he was in back pain, he told me (and I could see) how stressed out he was. But I didn’t appreciate the significance of what stress can do to the experience of pain.

    If I had really gotten this, I would’ve pestered Casey endlessly to get counseling or find a professional who could teach him how to meditate.

    Lastly, it doesn’t matter how well I listen to a client and recognize a need if I don’t have someone good to refer her to.

    With Casey, I learned that my referral list had holes in it.

    This became apparent when Casey filled me in about the back doctor he was seeing. I was not impressed. For one, the doctor gave Casey more injections than most other doctors would and he never used imagery when injecting.

    But I didn’t have an alternative for Casey to see at the time. If I had known about Charlie, I would have sent Casey to him.

    Old Dog, New Trick

    Here’s how I’m gonna fix my referral list. I’ll talk to people in the health and wellness industry who I trust. I’ll get their recommendations, then I’ll vet their recommendations. Here’s how I vet.

    Also, going forward, this is big, I promise to NOT take stress or any other factor that influences the experience of pain, for granted—ever, ever again.

    And, if things are looking bad because the pain won’t go away, I’m going to remember that in 3 to 6 months most back issues have healed.

    Maybe there’s something revving up the pain system.

    Time to look with a magnifying glass.

    P.S. When Casey went back to work, he had a new (and nice) boss:-)

    Need more help with your back pain clients?

    Check out Common Sense Ways to Treat Sciatica.

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