Most people have a fear of closing the sale. Like many issues, the fear comes from an assumption of not being good enough. In business it is critical to convert contacts into interested parties; then interested parties into clients. The easy part is converting contacts into interested parties; you just convince them of the efficacy of hypnotherapy; which, of course, you do easily because you trust your own skills.
It is more challenging to convert interested parties into clients. People who use your services and not pay you are NOT clients. They are what I call consumers. They use up your energies and give nothing in return. Ever feel like a piece of used toilet paper?
Interested parties, with assumptions of themselves not being good enough, make excuses. You compound those fears with your own fears of not being good enough. The downward spiral leads to
unjustified desperation in which you feel lucky to simply get a booking.
I’ve known too many for whom simply booking clients was exciting, the more the better. But that is not really closing the deal. In my practice, an appointment means a session has been scheduled with full payment in advance. And only then do I congratulate myself on having a new client.
Being too eager to book a client can cause you to negotiate reduced fees just to get more interested parties in the door, but that is simply bad business. I don’t believe in giving discounts.
Discounting your fee is tantamount to devaluing your work. I can choose to give a gift of a few extra minutes or even an hour or extra time to round off a session, but I do not
discount my work just to make a sale.
I told Gwen to put a sticky note on her computer screen with the question, "Who pays my rent?" It is to remind her who bought the equipment, who will spend the time, and who will print the CDs
and who pays her light bills.
That reminder of the business perspective also creates an impetus to close the sale by moving the interested party assertively towards a commitment; voicing the following not as questions but as
statements, “When do you want to come in?” and “How do you plan to pay for the session?” Remind yourself, you ARE good enough; and use that confidence to move interested parties
off the fence to commit to becoming a client. Treat them as though they are already a client; make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This is not the time for therapy. The hypnotherapist gets caught up in the possibilities for healing, neglecting the close, and easily loses an opportunity. Think instead from a business
perspective. “Who pays the rent?” Close the sale. Then you can heal.
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