Slicing The Cost & Keeping the Price

Yesterday I posted on how we can take advantage of the fact that in the times ahead which are said to be bleak where credit is concerned, people will be hammering their credit cards. Today we talk more about cash and making things affordable but without cutting down our prices.

I am totally against sales, I am adverse to money offs and 2-4-1 offers. They make you look cheap and like a discount store and I am neither. So yes people are looking at things with more scrutiny these days, wondering if there are ways to cut expenses and there are ways us therapists can make things a lot easier for clients when it comes to paying for our services.

Basically we're talking about installments. Whether you see your clients weekly, monthly or as a simple one-off you can make it look very easy to pay you fee - no matter how much you're charging.

Let me show you how. Say you charge £550 to stop someone smoking (btw if this sounds unreasonable to you then you NEED to change your mind set), instead of someone having to fork out the whole 550 all at once, you take 50% on booking wither over the phone by credit card (see yesterday's article on why we should all be accepting credit cards now) and then the remaining amount on their arrival at the appointment. WHY? This does three extremely important things:

1. It looks cheaper and make sit more affordable/easier for them to pay.
2. You can say "goodbye" to all those cancellations, once someone commits financially to something then you can be sure they'll turn up.
3. It actually increases your effectiveness and multiplies your results. Since a financial commitment has already been made they are starting to solve the problems for themselves even before they arrive at your door.

There you have it. More soon.

Credit and Customers

It seems the media are taking this whole 'credit crunch' and got excited, and as ever when the media decide to highlight something the public take it as gospel.

Our customers are starting to panic over how much things are costing and are locking up their bank accounts - and things can only get worse. We're entrepreneurs and that means we're enterprising people. We need to take the situation we're faced with and act fast to allow our customers to remain using our services.

HOW? Well dropping prices is not the answer, as you know I am extremely adverse to price dropping and competing on price, it's a loser's game. So we simply make it easier for our customers to pay.

How many therapists do you know who accept credit cards? In times when credit is a pain, people whack up their cards and if we are able to accept them then all the better. The easier we make it for people to part with their money, the more likely they are to do it. Credit cards are a mere way of delaying payment, tomorrow I'll write an article on another way of using this to make sure customers find it easy to pay us for our services.

A Little Early for Romance?

Is it early in the day to be thinking about Valentines? Absolutely not. To be ahead of the game start thinking about it now - what is it you can offer couples at this time of the year to improve their relationships?

It's the time of year when most strain is on relationships, we've just gotten over Christmas and now we are about to be forced in to romanticism - so the therapist to the rescue. Think about how you can use your specific therapies to unlock the romantic potential that is bottled up inside every one of your clients right now. How you can improve their love lives, release stress and make this coming Valentines one that they will love to remember.

A great idea would be to send out some information to men in your local area telling them just how much their ladies would love a therapy session, reflexology, head massage or whatever it is you do - and how it makes the perfect Valentine's gift.

Time is of the essence.

A New Blog for Therapists

This is my brand new commitment to you, the therapist. This will be a place to share success and strategies for achieving that success in the therapy business.

Throw out all of those generalised marketing books, audio courses and expensive binders - I'm going to take you step by step in to a world of marketing and business success that works for therapists and their clients all over the world.