By Erika Flint, BCH, A+CPHI, OB
Published in the Journal of Hypnotism

Do you like being sold to? Most people don’t. I don’t like being sold to, and I don’t like “selling” anything. Most hypnotists I know feel the same way. I am not a salesperson. Hypnotists are caring people. Most would rather spend the day hypnotizing and bringing relief to their clients rather than marketing and sales. 

If this sounds like you, keep reading. If you’d like to improve your own process for attracting and signing up new clients, keep reading. 

This article includes the three primary modifications I made that have most significantly grown my business. They've also made the sales process (if you want to call it that) more meaningful and heart-centered. These changes convert more potential clients to paying clients while feeling good about the process at the same time. 

Here are the changes: 

1. Mindset: From Selling Hypnosis to Being Helpful

The first modification is a mindset shift. I want you to think about signing up new clients in a completely different way. Not as selling hypnosis, but by being of service to your potential clients. 

When talking with your potential client, make it your goal to help them. Get rid of the intention to "sign up a new client" - that sales part of the process should be out of your head entirely. A "win" in this regard is: did you help your potential client today? If they're a good fit for you and your practice, then you offer to help them with hypnosis. If they're better served elsewhere, you help them by pointing them in that direction. Either way, focus on how can you be of highest service to your potential client. I've had plenty of clients who weren't a good fit at the time, but came back later, or referred friends and family to me simply because our conversation truly helped them.

I start with a process I go through before I speak to any potential new client. I use self-hypnosis to get into a positive and compassionate state of mind. It starts with gratitude, and I am thankful for everything in my life that I already have, including the opportunity to help someone that day. I then focus on my potential client and on doing what is in their best interest - even if it isn't working with me.

By removing the pressure to sign up a new client, my mind is free to focus on the highest good for them. Remarkable things happen when we run our practice this way - with service to others as the focus.

2. Focus on Results

Clients come to us to get their problems solved, yet many hypnotists are still focusing on selling hypnosis to their clients. I see this on websites that devote the entire page content to talking about hypnosis and their own experience as a hypnotist.  Instead, focus on your potential client, and what brought them there that day. Your client should feel as if you were speaking to them when they arrive on your site. 

I hear this when talking to hypnotists who are having difficulty signing up new clients. They’re nervous about the sale, and focusing on the hypnosis process. Instead, listen to your clients and focus on the results you can help them achieve. 

For example, Michelle (not her real name) arrived at my office so nervous she could hardly speak. She wanted help stopping drinking, and was upset about a comment a family member had made about her drinking earlier in the week. Her life was not heading in the direction she wanted. I asked her how she wants to be instead and she paused. It wasn't an easy question to answer. Then she proceeded with a remarkably clear response of how she wanted to wake up feeling good and spend the day with her family enjoying their lives together.

That simple question of getting her to focus on the results made all the difference. Consider this – when you get your client focused on the results, now they are feeling better and in a position to want to work with you. 

The primary idea is that you are not selling hypnosis; instead, you are selling your potential client a new and improved version of themselves. Help them feel and experience it – even for a moment while talking with you.

Then tell stories of other clients who have a similar experience, as described below. 

3. Tell Stories of Client Success

When we share stories of client success, what we’re doing is helping our potential clients to imagine their own positive results. 

The story-telling process is a form of hypnosis. We captivate our potential clients by sharing with them another human who had a similar situation, and the results they achieved. When done well, clients begin to believe they can have the same result. That’s why we don’t have to sell hypnosis to our clients. When done well, the results sell themselves.  

Stop selling hypnosis. Instead, sell your client the new and improved version of themselves - with hypnosis as the method.