Take my brother-in-law, a natural salesperson, and me, an anti-salesperson, and give us the same vacuum cleaner to sell and it’s pretty obvious who’s going to reach ten sales first. (By the way, I won’t totally be shut out because I’d get a pity buy.)

And this is how I went around most of my life, comparing myself to my brother-in-law, thinking that I was a lousy salesperson, which was really not good since I worked for myself.

But within the past five years, I started to realize that if I was a totally suck-y salesperson, my massage practice of 20+ years would’ve failed.

Anti-Salesperson Breakdown

So, I started to take a closer look at Mark the Anti-Salesperson to see what I was working with and this is what I found.

Anti-Salesperson Mark never…

looked at sales as a game and the customer as a number,

worked from a sales script,

steered the customer,

manipulated the customer,

pressured the customer,

had a close.

Damn, what the hell was I left with?

This: I cared.

I cared how the potential customer felt went I talked to her.

I cared that I was giving her the best information that I had.

I cared that when she walked away—whether she bought from me or not—she had a good experience.

And from that caring mindset I managed to have an okay business.

Just okay?

Yep, just okay.

I say that because other massage businesses who used traditional sales tactics had more clients than Anti-Salesperson Mark.

But that’s not the end of my anti-salesperson story.

Caring on Roids

I eventually realized that “caring” was killer at growing a business once the person walked through the door, but “caring” wasn’t great at getting the person to the door.

That is until I figured out this: If you took the same caring mindset and plugged it into other marketing platforms, good things start to happen.

For example, a website is a powerful marketing platform when you inject care into it.

Seriously?

Seriously.

Here’s how that works. When you show that you care on your website people are engaged  (spend time on your website).

Higher engagement helps to improve Google search rankings.

When you move up in the search ranking, more people will see your website.

And what happens when all these new people land on your website?

They see that you care.

Caring is the unspoken close.

In other words, it makes the phone ring.

On our website people see that we care in no less than 6 ways.

1. Free and helpful information.

We have a runner’s blog and massage resource page on our website.

We also have a video on how to use a self-massage tool that cost less than $5.

2. An advertised customer care policy.

Viewers can see that we put customers first when they read our About Page.

3. Easy scheduling.

Though we don’t have an online scheduler for logistical reasons, we do offer 2 ways for customers to contact us: phone and email.

We also explain that we may not be able to pick up the phone when they call, but we will get back to them ASAP.

4. Introductory special.

Here’s what I like to think our introductory special says to potential customers: Hey, we know you work hard for you money and we want you to try us out. So, we’re going to take a few bucks off the first massage as a way of saying thanks for giving us a shot.

5. Customer reviews.

We take our reviews seriously and that is why we invite potential customers to look at them.

Not to mention that our reviews show that we care.

Over the past year we’ve added another care category to our website.

6. COVID-19 Safety Policy

I don’t want to give, spread or get or COVID-19 through my actions—and I want our COVID-19 business operations procedures to reinforce our COVID-19 safety goals.

So, our COVID-19 safety policy is the first thing that a visitor sees on our website.

Subtext: We are a safe place to get a massage.

Our COVID-19 safety message is not just reserved for our website. When I answer our business phone, I let the other person on the line know what we’re doing to keep her COVID-19 safe.

Our COVID-19 safety procedure also goes on our Google My Business (GMB) page.

If you don’t have a GMB page, you need one. Go here.

In addition to the content on our website, here’s another way that I use care to sell massage: I let potential clients know that we coordinate care with other health professionals.

Coordinating Care

For example, if a client comes in with a neck issue, I find out if she is working with other health professionals for her neck pain. If so, I ask her if she would like me to contact those health professionals so that we all can be on the same treatment page. Coordinating care is also stated on our website.

Coordinating care alone won’t get you clients beating down your door, but it could be an important consideration for potential clients who are in pain.

Isn’t this cool?

Providing care is what you do. It’s a reflex. You don’t have to think about. Now, if you simply highlight the things that you do to care for you clients on your website, GMB page and when you talk to potential clients, “caring for your client” suddenly becomes a potent sales strategy.

As you start this process of highlighting how you care, you will see new ways to care.

New Ways to Care

For example, how do you answer the phone?

Do you answer the phone like my Uncle Norman did for his business: Hello, Fehr’s Nursery!

By the way, that exclamation point was not a “Great to hear from you, Bob!”. It was more like a “What the fuck do you want, asshole?!”.

Do you return calls and texts promptly?

I’m still working on that one.

How does your office look? Does it look like you care? If it does, then take a picture of it and put it on your website or GMB page.

I have to fess up here. I have a condition called slob-osis. You won’t find it in any medical dictionary because it’s new; in fact, I just made it up.

It’s a chronic condition and it basically means I can’t be held accountable for how messy my office looks because it’s beyond my control.

So, you shouldn’t have a messy office, but I can because I’m sick.

Okay, seriously, I need to work on that one, too.

Care and “care more” seem so easy to do, don’t they?

But what about the times when you’re having a bad day and you don’t care.

Bad-Day Care

Well, the good news is that caring is already built into the non-human parts of your business. For example, caring is built into your website and GMB page. No one knows that you’re having a bad day because your website and GMB page are your interface with the potential client online. They’re doing the caring work for you.

But what if you answer your business phone right after your dog just chewed up your couch? How do care about your client or potential client then?

Actually, it’s easy.

You become a good faker.

Wait, that seems so duplicitous, Mark?

Maybe it will sound better when I explain what I mean.

Caring about clients is your natural set point, right? You build your business around the fact you care and that is reinforced every time a client walks into your room or a potential client talks to you on the phone.

Over and over again your brain is rewarded for caring. Great massage! Thank you for calling my PT. Can I book next week? You are the best part of my week.

The rewards and reinforcements of caring solidify caring as an automatic response whenever you interact with clients and potential clients.

In other words, you’re not thinking about caring when you’re at work; it just happens at an unconscious level—even when you’re having a bad day.

Recently a client, Nefri, commented my chiropractor friend, Heather, and I were always so happy and wonderful to be around and that is one of the reasons she looooooved coming to us for treatments.

I almost laughed out loud because I was struggling that day. It was my normal day off, but clients were beating at my door and I relented and booked out the day. To be honest, at that very moment Nefri was gushing about Heather and me, I resented being at work.

Yet Nefri had no idea that I was still pouty over my decision. To her it looked like normal Mark—present, pleasant and all in.

Why?

Because my automatic pilot took over my therapeutic-rapport plane the second Nefri stepped into the massage room, like it has done time after time, always making a safe landing.

Am I faking it?

Yes and no.

Yes, in the sense that I’m not letting Nefri know how I really feel.

No, in the sense that this automaticity is real.

My automatic pilot is a part of me. And I trust my automatic pilot to produce the best treatment outcome for Nefri and the best business outcome for me.

The Anti-Salesperson Strategy in a Nutshell

How does all this caring play out?

I can’t say 100% for sure that caring (improving engagement) is the main reason why our Google ranking is high and makes more and more customers call us for the first time each month.

But I can say that since our website is 100% anti-salesperson that something about our caring approach is working really well.

So if you’re not sales-y, try amplifying the fact that you care.

Besides doing it live, do it on your website.

Think customer care policy, reviews, introductory special, convenience for the customer, COVID-19 safety, and helpful information.

And please, don’t spend any more energy or money on trying to sell like traditional salespeople do.

It’s not you.

It’ll never be you.

Embrace your inner anti-salesperson.

You’re gonna be just fine:-)

The Accelerator

This is what I did to take to my 50K business to 80K+.

And it’s cheap to do.

Accelerate now.