Ready to turn your introductory client calls into confirmed sessions with ease? Join Dr. Kate Walker as she reveals her "Call that Books a Client" training, a powerful strategy that's been meticulously crafted to bolster your client conversion rates. Whether you're starting fresh or aiming to polish your established cash-based practice, this episode is brimming with tangible advice to sharpen your intake process. Discover the subtle yet critical aspects of scheduling, like pinpointing the perfect consultation times for various client demographics, and learn why scripting your calls could be the game-changer you need for consistency and success. Plus, for those juggling the complexities of larger practices, I've got a treasure trove of resources including episode 45 of Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses that promise to streamline your operations.
Take a front-row seat as we explore the art of improving client booking rates through a blend of personal touch and technology. I'll guide you through the nuances of setting up consultations that resonate with potential clients, utilizing scheduling software for seamless interactions, and best practices for meetings that leave lasting impressions. This isn't just about filling your calendar; it's about nurturing relationships and planting seeds for future referrals. Whether you're a seasoned professional or new to the field, this episode will equip you with insights to elevate your counseling services above the rest, fostering growth and client commitment within your practice.
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
Ready to turn your introductory client calls into confirmed sessions with ease? Join Dr. Kate Walker as she reveals her "Call that Books a Client" training, a powerful strategy that's been meticulously crafted to bolster your client conversion rates. Whether you're starting fresh or aiming to polish your established cash-based practice, this episode is brimming with tangible advice to sharpen your intake process. Discover the subtle yet critical aspects of scheduling, like pinpointing the perfect consultation times for various client demographics, and learn why scripting your calls could be the game-changer you need for consistency and success. Plus, for those juggling the complexities of larger practices, I've got a treasure trove of resources including episode 45 of Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses that promise to streamline your operations.
Take a front-row seat as we explore the art of improving client booking rates through a blend of personal touch and technology. I'll guide you through the nuances of setting up consultations that resonate with potential clients, utilizing scheduling software for seamless interactions, and best practices for meetings that leave lasting impressions. This isn't just about filling your calendar; it's about nurturing relationships and planting seeds for future referrals. Whether you're a seasoned professional or new to the field, this episode will equip you with insights to elevate your counseling services above the rest, fostering growth and client commitment within your practice.
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
you, you, you, you, you, you. You 's all for now. So, while Dr Gusha is still here, I'm a little discombobulated today because I got a new computer and you know, when you get a new computer, everything is different, everything. So I'm looking at a different place for my Facebook feed. I'm looking and my laptop isn't quite doing what I want it to do, so it's a little discombobulating. But I have my notes when in doubt, paper notes, all right. So do I want to keep this open? I probably should. Let me make sure I have sound All right. So, yeah, yeah, I got sound All right. So I'm going to close that. Actually, no. So if people want to comment, you can go for it. So again, I'm Dr Kate Walker. Welcome to your Tuesday training. Today is a pretty popular training that I give. It's called the Call that Books a Client, and I've done this a few times over the years. It's. You know, I've changed it up a little bit depending on the software, but a few things remain the same. Number one this is a data-driven strategy, so that's a good thing. So you can tweak things quickly if you need to make changes, right. So, and number two, the results come very, very quickly. So when you change these things that I recommend that you change, you will notice things happening. I would say, within a month you're going to notice some key changes in the number of calls that you answer, which is wonderful, right? We all want to make sure we're answering calls, but the term that I use is conversion rate. So conversion rate means going from the call to the first session, right, because that call, I mean it's just a call, unless it's, you know, informational and you're just answering a question about some, you know, random topic, you want the call that you get to convert to an actual client. Now a few caveats before we get started. This is geared toward a cash-based practice, but the techniques still work. If you're going to use insurance Also, this is really for you as you're growing your practice. So maybe before you've added 15 offices and a few hundred therapists and you're taking, you know, thousands of calls a day, if you're looking for information that has to do with that, I highly recommend that you go to episode 45 in Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses. Anna Marcello Rodriguez talks about the particular type of intake call that they get and the script that they use. It's a little bit different for her population as well. So this idea of using a script for a phone call isn't new. I mean, lots and lots of businesses train front office staff in the technique that they need them to use in order to book a first client. Or if you're a hair salon, you want to make sure that all the calls aren't going to the same people, that everybody's getting a fair look from these calls, who are just like I don't care who cuts my hair, send me to whoever? Okay, well, you've got to narrow that down, otherwise you know the front desk person may be sending too many calls to this person or that person. So I'm not going to get into the minutia of you know, if you have a lot of therapists and they're all different days and different times, because if you're new to this business, then what you may not know there are times that are more conducive to a particular population. You know, for example, for nine months out of the year, three o'clock until close is a great time if you see adolescents and kids right, because it's after school. If you're trying to build a business working with kids and you're like but I'm going to only stay open, you know, from eight to three you're going to have a tough time. Not that you can't do it, you can. But it's going to be a tough time because most kiddos are available after three and I can already hear some of you going yeah, but what about the homeschool? Yeah, and that's a different phone call, different podcast episodes. So if you're listening to me, live, awesome, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. If you're watching or listening to this on a replay, go you, because you're taking time out of your day to learn something new and you're doing it probably while you're doing something else. So welcome to the training. Welcome to the podcast episode. Let's dive in. So the call that books a client the first thing I want to sort of leverage here is data. You've got to understand this is a data driven metric. So when we think about calls and I would I would thought about. You know I'm going to talk about email as well. But number one I don't like emailing clients, so that's personal, but also the data gets a little wonky there. So I'm going to just stick with phone calls. So when you're chasing phone calls, that's its own metric, right, because that call then has to go to the metric of the returned call, right, and you're a good person, you're a good therapist and you're going to return every single call, right? You better Now. So we have, let's say, 10 calls in a week and you're going to have 10 returns. That's awesome, you are 10 for 10. But then we get to the actual connection, right? So you have 10 calls, you have 10 calls that you actually return, and then you get voicemail or nobody has voicemail anymore, I don't know what you get. Maybe this mailbox is full, right? So you're returning these calls and you get an answering machine, which means you don't really get a chance to convert anybody to anything, because that person has already gone down their list of counselors they're trying to get in touch with and it ain't you, right? So we're back down to square one. If they're going to agree to play phone tag with you, right, they may call you back. In which case we count the metrics again 10 calls, 10 returns, zero connection. Maybe. 10 calls, 10 returns, three connections, all right, you've got a 30% success rate for actually connecting with someone on the returned call. So that's what this training is about today, when you actually get that person on the phone. Now I'm going to challenge you, before I even get into the call, to track this metric and it's easy to do, even if you don't love spreadsheets but I don't know who doesn't love spreadsheets I love spreadsheets, excel spreadsheets. Yay, I challenge you to track this for a month, every day. Right Monday, I got two calls. I returned two calls. That's 100%, but I connected with zero. So you would have maybe three columns and it would be two, two, zero for Monday. Tuesday I got five calls, I returned five calls. I connected with two of them. Okay, that's a little bit better. Then you get that metric for the entire week, then you get that metric for the entire month, and so you'll be able to track. Okay, I got this many calls, I returned this many calls and I was able to connect this many times. Okay, now the conversion to the first session. Right, that's your conversion rate, because those metrics are lovely and they may make you feel good, but it's like taking batting practice instead of batting in a real game. I mean, you want to see how many of these calls will actually convert to a first session. So remember again, if you are trying to scale to a giant practice and you're having to hire front desk staff, this isn't really for you. But if you're just starting out and you're already trying to hire out who's answering that phone. This is where I want to stop you. Initially, when you're building your practice and you're making a relationship with people and you're forming your reputation in the community, they need to talk to you. You are the person they are going to form the relationship with. If you have this amazing website with this fabulous headshot, these folks have already formed a connection with you. Your bio, maybe even the colors you use on your website, if you are using words like holistic and natural, or you're using words like performance and competition, so these folks are already connecting with you. So you returning your own phone calls is going to increase your conversion rate. Remember, conversion rate is the rate of phone calls answered, connected with and first session, okay. So number one, grab the data. So you know this is working, because I don't do many trainings where I'm like this is guaranteed, right. But this is one of those trainings where I will definitely say that if you can perfect this skill, your conversion rate, your number of booked clients, will go up. I guarantee it. I mean there's no money being exchanged. I can't say guaranteed or your money back, but if I could, I would right, because I learned this actually from a business coach in another industry who was teaching it to people in other industries right, it's a natural connection. Whether you own a body shop or a hair salon or a counseling center, the person at the front desk, the person connecting with that client, the potential client, better know how to make that person feel comfortable enough to book, while at the same time helping that person self-select out if they're not a great fit for you. Right, there's nothing worse, I don't think anyway for someone to appear on your couch and you're like, oh my goodness, this is not my specialty, they are uncomfortable with my price point. They came in on a Wednesday, but they said they can never come in on Wednesdays again. So these are all places where this person should have Excuse me, where they should have self-selected out. If you have someone answering your phone calls and they're not able to do that, let me do that again without wiping my nose. If you have hired someone and they're not able to help a client self-select out, that's a problem, and that's why I'm going to talk about the script, the actual script, in this training. I want to do a little bit of a paradigm shift. At this point, though, I am talking to counselors. I'm not talking to shoe store owners. I'm not talking to mechanics. I'm not talking to hair salon owners. I want you to think for a second. How many sessions does it take for you to do your best work? If you're a couple counselor or a family counselor or a play therapy counselor, how many sessions, roughly, does it take for you to do your best work? Now I want you to think in terms of an intake or an assessment. I know those of you who take insurance. This might be where we split ways a tiny bit, because I know if you take insurance, you've got to give that diagnosis in the first session, which I hate that for you and you probably hate that for you too. For me, it takes me at least three sessions with an individual to feel like I have done a thorough assessment. I may get through all of the paperwork and all of the interview questions in that first session. I've technically done an assessment, but for me I feel like I've really done my best work. After the third session, I tell this potential client that I work that into the script With couples. I think I don't do my best work until the fourth session. I'll show you how that works in my intake script in just a second. Because, yes, again, I get through the assessment with both parties in that first session, but then I do a single one and done individual session with each one of them. Then I do a little quick communication exercise in the fourth session. By the end of that fourth session, that's when I feel like I can give them some really good information about couple counseling. Is counseling going to be helpful for their issue in my opinion? Am I going to be a good fit for their issue? I make it really clear, and I'll say this out loud, my couples. They may find they don't like me after the first session, and that's absolutely okay. Remember, this call is about you helping your client self-select out or self-select in. In other words, book that first session with you. What I would ask you to shift, as far as our paradigm here is you're not really selling one session For me. I'm selling three sessions for an individual and I'm selling four sessions for a couple. That fits with my theory, that fits with my technique, that fits with my expertise. I'm not saying, hey, you know what, you get a deal here if you book four sessions with me. No, I'm going to be very, very honest, and I'm going to explain to this potential client exactly what to expect at every step of the way, so that they are making an informed decision. Remember, they're going to self-select in or self-select out by the end of my spiel with them on the phone. So that's the paradigm shift. You're helping them understand how many sessions you need to do your best work. You're not trying to control their choices or somehow dress something up into something that it's not All right. Second, I guess this is 2.5, right, because we're going to get to the script in a second, I promise you. The next thing is your scheduling software. So remember the data I asked you to take earlier. A lot of that had to do and depended on your potential client agreeing to play a little game, a phone tag, with you, which is so much wasted time for you, it's so much wasted time for them and they're going to keep going down their list of potential counselors, because whoever picks up the phone and gets this conversation going first has the first opportunity to form this relationship with this potential client. Right, and remember, that's what your client's looking for. Right, they may be impressed by your degree and your website colors, but really they want to see if you can get them in today, right? So you've got this person who is really anxious, who is a dire straits, who's gotten had it up to here with whatever's going on, that they're making the leap to make an appointment and you are trying to meet them there. That is such a narrow, narrow window. So if you have scheduling software that allows your clients potential clients to schedule a 10-minute consultation with you, this is what I recommend. I recommend that you create a service called a 10-minute consultation. Potential clients can click that and get that time with you and it's scheduled for them and it's scheduled for you. So, right away, you see where my guarantee comes from. Right, because that immediately is going to increase the number of calls where you actually connect. So you have five calls, right, or you have five connected calls, right. We're not even playing phone tag anymore. You just start looking at your calendar and you start saying, oh gosh, there's a 10 minute consultation, there's a 10 minute consultation. Oh, my goodness, I have 10, 10 minute consultations this week. So we're not even taking data anymore, we're not even trying to return phone calls. We literally have these appointments with well qualified leads, right? A lead is a sales term. That means this client has actually self-selected themselves. This is attraction marketing. They're coming to you because they're interested in you and they want to hear what you have to say. So this isn't a sale anymore. This is you now introducing them to your awesome self, helping them understand how many sessions roughly it will take for you to do your best work, answering a few of their questions and then giving them the opportunity to self-select in and book that first appointment or self-select out, and I have a strategy for that as well. Right, because if they do self-select out, you still want to be top of mind. If they have a friend looking for a counselor, right, they may say, oh, my goodness, I talked to this amazing person. They gave me so much good information I couldn't book with them because you know their price point or their schedule or whatever. But, my goodness, they answered my questions and they have this wonderful thing called a 10 minute consultation. So you can actually you can book it right now. So you're gonna have people who, even who did not book with you, who are going to be singing your praises to friends and colleagues who are struggling and looking for a counselor. Even better on you. If you have a website you can redirect them to say, hey, check out my website. I have this resource, this resource and this resource that I think will be really, really helpful for you. So where's the downside here? Right, you've connected with this person intentionally. They've self-selected out, but they still find you to be extremely helpful, which means the world to them enough so that they would refer you to other friends and family. In other words, you've created a raving fan. You've created someone who's going to think that you're amazing, even though they're not coming to you and spending money and time with you. So let's get to that script. I'm gonna take a second. I am not gonna screen share because this is an old script, so I'm gonna be editing while I talk. But remember what I said earlier this is going to be based on your client scheduling with you. No more phone tag, no more. Oh my gosh, did we connect? Have they already moved down to another counselor? And they're just kind of keeping me on standby If they. You know I've had that before. I know you have too right, where a client's like oh, I already booked with someone, but you know, if it doesn't work out, I'll keep you on standby. It's like, oh, okay, that sounds great. So no, this is about you creating a 10 minute consultation with your scheduling software that potential clients can click easily and you look at your calendar and you see, oh my goodness, there are 10 potential clients who are already self-selecting in. So I don't have to sell anything. I simply need to help this person understand who I am, how I do my best work and then give them the opportunity to select in or select out. So, 10 minute consultation. You call them, remember at the designated time. Hi, this is Kate Walker with thecheapalanceorg. Is this blank, right? You wanna make sure this is the person who's actually making the appointment? I don't know how you feel about that. I'm not really cool with adults making appointments for other adults, but you do. You, so I confirm, is this you? And say that I say great, you scheduled a 10 minute consultation with me. Is this still a good time? Sometimes your clients or potential client they scheduled it and they forgot, and they're at the grocery store, right? They may say, oh, my gosh, I totally forgot about this. I'm in the grocery store. Can we do this in two minutes? Let me get to the car. That's up to you. You decide if you wanna reschedule or not, but it's nice to ask someone hey, is this still a good time? So if they say yes now, I want you to put a smile on your face, because now you get to give this person the hope that they're looking for. So, yes, be enthusiastic, great, this is a mirroring effect as well. Right, if you're projecting confidence and positivity, they're gonna hear that. Right, and hopefully you'll get some mirroring going on. Now you're going to tell them tell me a little about what's going on so I can give you some recommendations. So see what you're doing. There is, you're already setting the expectation that this is a 10 minute consultation. There's a beginning, a middle and an end, and you're priming them to expect something from you. Right, tell me a little about what's going on and then I'm gonna give you recommendations. Right, again, this could be a referral to someone else, this could be scheduling a time on your calendar, but you're already helping them to understand this is how you work. So this potential client then can tell you their story, and you do. However, you decide to let them get into it how far, how much detail you want. For me, personally, I keep an eye on the clock because, again, I'm giving them some safety here. I'm helping them understand I am time bound, my services are time bound, so, but again, not everybody does it like this. But I work with a lot of couples and so I work with a lot of people where that time boundary equals safety, like here's your time to talk, here's your time to talk, and I'm gonna always keep it fair. So this is my opportunity to sort of showcase that. So, as you're listening, I keep an eye on the clock. Now I want to. If it's an individual, I'll say is it okay if I tell you what you can expect from counseling? Or I may ask have you had counseling before? What did you like about it? What did you not like about it? But then I say let me tell you a little bit about what you can expect from me. I've already primed them to expect that. If it's a one person, I'll say okay, in this first session I'm going to ask you a lot of questions. It's going to feel like an interview. At the end of that first session I'm going to give you some homework and you'll have something to read or write or look up At the end of that second session. We will have course corrected based on your feedback. By the third session you're going to have a good idea if working with me is a good fit. No guarantees of a cure, no saying oh, you have come to the right place, None of that. Simply, here's what you can expect at session one. Here's what you can expect at session two, so that by that third session you'll know if working with me is going to be a good fit. With a couple it's a little bit different, because I like to do four sessions. I say something like okay, in the first session I'm going to ask you a ton of questions. It's going to feel like an interview. I will tell you then some directions that we can take. If everyone agrees to go forward, I will set up an individual with each of you. In the fourth session is a communication session. By the end of that fourth session you'll have some tools and you'll know if working with me is going to be a good fit. I've helped them understand how I work. I've helped them understand that I have a concrete structure and I've helped them understand what they can expect. Now I'm scrolling here. If the person is ready to book a session, I will say something like do you have any other questions for me. I'd say this a lot, but remember, a potential client is coming to you under duress, so anxiety goes up, cognition goes down. So when you ask a question, you're like do you have any questions? They may say no, no, you're already inside. They're like you're already giving me a lot of information. So it's nice if you're able to prompt them to say well, a lot of potential clients asked me about price and scheduling and insurance. Any of those questions are those any questions you would ask me? Usually they'll say, oh, yeah, yeah, those are great questions, tell me about that. So then you can tell them if you take insurance or not, or you can tell them if you have openings on Monday, or you can let them know what your cost is for a session. What I highly recommend, though, with scheduling and I've talked about this before another trainings is only offer them a couple of spots. Don't say, well, I've all Tuesday opening, and Wednesday I have openings from five to eight, and Thursday I have openings here and here. Right, start off with well, here are a couple openings that I have. Or you could say what's a good day for you, and then I can look there. Right, try to narrow the choices you don't want to give them choice overload. If they can't make the two that you gave them, then you can offer them more, but start off with a time of day, a day of the week, something like that, to really limit their choices. And again, we've already talked about if they say, ooh, you know what, your schedule won't work for me, or oh, your price point is too high or too low or whatever, and you're able to say, you know what? I think this might be a really good resource for you, that, even though you and I won't be working together, I think this would really be helpful for you in this situation. Do you have any other questions for me? So in that 10 minutes you're going to book a session or you're gonna create a raving fan. I mean, it's a win-win for everybody. Plus that's the reputation you can start to build in your community an expert, someone who's willing to take 10 minutes and explain and refer if they need to, and you're very clear, and you're gonna be one of those rare counselors who actually knows how to explain what it is that you do in a way people can understand. So go you All. Right, I'm up against time. I'm gonna look and see if anybody has any questions on Facebook. I do not see. All right, I think we're good. All right, thank you guys for watching, thank you for listening and if you're listening to this on a replay, you go. You keep building those skills and take my challenge. If you take the data, just track the data for a month and do the things that I'm telling you to do here and watch to see if your first session bookings don't go up, right, I phrased that in the negative. Let me rephrase that they're gonna go up. I wanna hear about it so you can tag me on the Facebook page. You can always tag me in Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses. I want to know how your business is doing, because you're important. You're too important to your community to hide behind. I don't know how to do phone calls. I don't know what a conversion rate is. This sounds too salesy for me. No, you've got potential clients looking for you. They need you, so start explaining how what you do actually works for them or, if it doesn't work for them, can work for the community. All right, I'm Dr Kate Walker. Have a wonderful day.