Allison Rapp

Holistic Practitioners — want to build a practice? Watch Starbucks®

If you are a holistic practitioner, and you want to build your practice, you need to keep yourself in front of your clients all the time. Starbucks knows this, and there are lessons to learn from them.

Raise your hand if you’ve never heard of Starbucks®…

Somatic practitioners can learn about building a practice from Starbucks
Starbucks has a practice-building lesson for somatic practitioners who want to build their practice… whether you like Starbucks or not.

Now raise you hand if you don’t know what they sell, or what you can do at one of their shops…

I don’t see any hands raised… do you?

Who hasn’t heard of Starbucks? And doesn’t know what you go there for?

Every Holistic Practitioner should have this problem, right?

So — here’s the thing — one of the most well-known brands on the planet has launched a new, multi-channel marketing campaign that includes social media, billboards and TV.

That’s a pretty strong message to every holistic practitioner on the planet who wants to build a practice!

You just can’t stop letting people know you’re there.

It takes the average person 7 times of hearing about you to notice that you exist, begin to give you credence and recognize your name. And given the attention span most people have, if the second time is too far away from the first time, you’re starting over.

When you are a holistic practitioner, you have to be relentless in getting yourself  “out there.” You’re competing with so many traditional methods of care that have billions to spend on advertising, that you cannot just sit back and wait for people to find you.

You can’t take people’s loyalty for granted.

There’s a lot of competition for everyone’s attention. We receive zillions of bits of information every day, and filter most of them out. If you want people to see you, you have to be visible. Not just once, but often.

Most people who have ever visited a holistic practitioner will recognize the names of other holistic practices. This means that people who have been to a Feldenkrais® practitioner will recognize cranio-sacral, Trager®, Structural Integration and many others as possible alternatives.

People who don’t go to holistic practitioners may be unable to tell you the name of even one alternative practice. It’s a tough field, but it’s the one we’re playing on. If you don’t keep yourself in front of the people you can help, they won’t get to the point of realizing you can help them.

No matter how easily people can say what you do, you still have to tell them what you do.

Don’t you wish you could easily tell people what you do? Imagine how much more difficult it is for people who don’t really know what you do! As a holistic practitioner, you’re not alone… most alternative practitioners have a really hard time telling their potential clients how they will benefit from sessions.

Starbucks is a multi-national company that has to keep telling people they sell coffee. Therefore, it’s really, really important for you to be able to help people see why they should come to you! They aren’t going to figure it out without your help.

The problem is…

Since Day One, most holistic practitioners have been trying to find the best way of describing what they do… and prospective clients are still glazing over because they don’t get it.

Fortunately, there’s another way. It’s called Have a Heart-to-Heart Consultation with your Clients… and once I started using it, I found that more than 90%of my first-time clients signed on for a series of at least 10 sessions with me.

If you’re a holistic practitioner who’s ready to build your practice, click the link to schedule a complimentary Exploration Session with me to find out if you could benefit from this revolutionary method of engaging, empowering and helping your clients commit to working with you!

 

2 thoughts on “Holistic Practitioners — want to build a practice? Watch Starbucks®”

  1. Hi Allison,
    Thanks for building this website.I am currently training to be an Anat Baniel Practitioner, and while I am largely doing it out of personal need, the question of gee can i really make it as a practitioner, and how many people actually make it out there after the training has really been nagging at me. It is a large financial investment, and I’m glad you’re out here to provide support to help those of us who want to build businesses do it. I have two more years before I am certified. I do not have a background in physical therapy. What can I do now to further my career as a practitioner? 

    1. Hi, Amelia,
      It’s so great that you are planning ahead, and thinking about what you can do now to make yourself ready to start your practice when you graduate!
      One of the major things practitioners ask me about is how to talk about what we do, so that we can get clients. To that end, I would say that starting now to learn how to talk with people so that you can help them get clear on what they want, and so that you can convey how you can help them, is the most important thing you can do.
      Good luck!
      Allison

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *