Every client relationship starts with a sale.
If you’re a practice owner (solo or group), you need a sales process.
I know: yuck.
Therapists, and even group practice owners, tend to have an allergy to the idea of "sales." There's something about it that feels at odds with the sacredness of our work: too transactional, too self-serving.
But here's the thing: your practice is a business that relies on people trusting you enough to spend money. And the referrals that fill out a form and book a consultation? They want what you’re selling. Any other industry would call them ‘warm leads.’ And too often, therapists squander client’s trust by being tentative, vague, and passive.
See how differently that lands when I swap out the word ‘sales’ with trust?
Selling isn’t the real problem. Trust is.
Ok, let’s drop the terms “buying and selling” for a moment, before I lose you.
Because I think the discomfort actually starts much sooner than the email response, consultation call, or booking conversation. I think it starts with therapists’ discomfort at recognising themselves as experts.
It’s been a minute (20 years, to be precise) since I completed my Masters degree. But it was drilled into me that “the client is the expert of their own lives.”
That’s true. And, yet…here they are. In your inbox/screen/office. Looking for help. They’ve hit a wall, and reached the limits of their ability to help themselves. They’re looking to you for leadership. Not “well, what do you think you need?” or “give it some thought, here’s my booking link.”
A lot of therapists hold back. They leave things open ended. It’s like they’re ignoring the fact that outcomes require commitment and consistency. And if you’re reading this thinking, “no, therapy is the work of the soul, humans are messy, too complex, therapy transcends outcomes,” well: why not ask your clients what they wish could be different in their lives. I guarantee you that they are all there because something needs to change.
Clients trust a therapist who shows up with confidence as well as compassion. If I’m feeling lost, stuck, or overwhelmed, I need a collaborative guide. Clarity and competence is grounding.
(Btw, did you know that confidence in Latin literally means with trust?)
As a group practice owner, it’s up to you to set the expectations for what your sales process looks like, and support your team to get there. This looks like:
Coaching on how to do a free consultation call that builds trust and converts (and setting a practice conversion rate for your practice)
Having expectations on rebooking sessions, and practice benchmarks for rebooking rates
Having a template for first sessions, treatment planning, and booking conversations
Having a solid follow up process
Retaining clients (meaning, earning their trust) so that they remain in your ecosystem for all their life’s seasons
Let’s look at who benefits from a good sales process.
Still not buying what I’m selling (wink)? Think about the last time someone sold you something that genuinely improved your life.
I bought a kayak recently. It was a significant investment, and as a consumer, I had my share of objections (will I use it? Will it be annoying to put it in my car? What if it’s a passing phase?). The person helping me was patient, respectful, and acknowledged that my objections were valid…and also that owning a kayak means being on the water a lot more often. I'm sure the store was glad to make the sale. But I love that kayak. I use it. It adds something real to my life. I don't have to queue up at the rental place for 30 minutes before my paddle starts, I don't have to watch the clock when I’m deep in my serene paddling zone. That purchase was good for me long after the money left my account and the salesperson pocketed their commission.
That's what a good sale looks like. Trust is established. The consumer bets on the right side of the cost benefit analysis. The seller earns. The client benefits.
When your clients reach out, they’re already partway there. When you have a clear, intentional process for responding to them, following up, and booking them in, you're not exploiting them. You're showing leadership to someone who has shown up asking for guidance.
A therapist can be forgiven for feeling awkward or tentative about this process. After all, we were conditioned to believe that our work should transcend this. What is less forgivable is a therapist who can’t get over that.
So how can therapists become more comfortable with all of this?
A good sales process in a therapy context starts from the moment a client lands on your website, and ends when they’ve completed a successful course of therapy. It’s relational, built on trust, and centres the client as the primary beneficiary.
In the five years since I founded my clinic, Open Space Counselling, I’ve obsessively fine tuned our sales process (truth be told, I never referred to it as a ‘sales process’ until a business coach outside our industry pressed me to identify it as such).
Those who are good at this make it look like an unplanned, fluid process, but when you really break it down, they’re showing up as a genuine human while building trust and unapologetically showing some expertise and guidance.
Those who are new to it, or have some mindset blocks around showing expertise need a clearly defined process, broken down step by step. That’s where your leadership as the group practice owner comes in. Leadership begets leadership.
Building this process from scratch takes time most practice owners don't have. I created the Client Retention System for group practice owners to give their team a ready-made training on every stage of the client journey: from consultation calls to retention. I don’t think I use the term ‘sales’ once in that entire program, but it sure has helped a lot of practices increases sales and improve retention!
If you know anything about me, it’s that I love talking through this stuff. Book a callif you want a fresh set of eyes on your existing process, or if you want to explore how I can help.