November 19, 2025 • 20 mins
We share how to get therapists invested in cancellations, retention, and growth without pressure by using clear metrics, meaningful incentives, and a shared mission. The focus stays on data that guides action, systems that remove friction, and profit sharing that builds ownership.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
It can often feel like we are the only ones who
(00:02):
care about our business.
And a lot of practice ownersfeel like only they're worried
about cancellations andretention or the bottom line of
their finances.
How can we motivate our team tobe invested without making them
feel pressured?
My name is Craig, and I'm theowner of DAC Financial Coaching.
Our team is on a mission to makeyour therapy practice
(00:24):
permanently profitable.
If you own a solo or grouppractice, we're here to help you
build a business that createsmore time, makes more money, and
serves more people.
This is the Therapy BusinessPodcast.
A lot of therapists start theirbusiness as just them.
(00:44):
It's a solo practice.
I know for me, when I started mybusiness, it was just me doing
coaching and consulting forpeople and businesses.
And so the idea of getting otherpeople to buy into my mission,
my purpose, all of these thingsof my business was pretty
foreign to me when I started myteam.
In fact, it felt kind of weirdexpecting them to care about how
(01:06):
much money the business wasmaking, that we were
prioritizing cancellations, thatwe were trying to close clients.
It felt strange asking this teamto care about that because if
I'm being honest, it felt like Iwas being selfish, I was being
greedy.
I wanted them to make me moremoney.
And that just felt like therewas a disconnect between what I
really care about and what I wasasking them to do.
But here's the thing (01:28):
it's really important that they buy
into it.
And in fact, what I've come tofind with my team is they
genuinely care about what theydo.
They want this company to grow,they want us to reach more
people because they understandthat there is a greater impact
that can be made by having thatbigger outreach, that greater
outreach, and it bringing inmore clients.
(01:50):
So, how can we motivate ourteams to care about this?
If you're facing this problemwhere your team isn't really too
bothered by last-minutecancellations or clients
canceling, or they're losingclients, or clients aren't
staying as long as you wouldlike, or maybe they are not
closing as many clients as whatyou would like to see.
They're not taking on many newclients, they're not doing
(02:12):
outreach.
There's a lot of those areasthat we want to focus on, and we
want to make sure that yourtherapists are engaged in that
because it's super important,not only for them, but also for
the business.
Now, there's a few things we'regonna look at to help you
motivate them to help bring themin on this thing so that they
they have some skin in the game,they care about what's going on.
(02:35):
And truthfully, I do want tolead with I have a feeling if
you hired right, if you've hiredthe right people, they probably
care.
They probably do care.
And if you're might just be likeme, where you're just assuming
why would they care about mybusiness?
Why, what what's in it for them?
They probably care because whatyou're doing is important,
you're making an impact on yourcommunity, you're making an
(02:56):
impact on people.
And I would wait you to say thatsomebody who got into therapy or
physical therapy did it to helppeople, to serve people, and you
are giving them the platform inorder to do that without them
having to go start their ownbusiness to do all their own
everything.
You've given them this platformwhere they can serve people,
they can help people, and wewant to make sure that they have
(03:21):
the ability to care about yourbusiness.
So, what I've found is we don'talways give them the opportunity
to care, if that makes sense.
And so the first thing we can dois share metrics.
A lot of times when I say wedon't even give them the
opportunity to care, is theydon't even know the data.
Maybe they don't even know thatcancellations is a problem.
Maybe they don't even know whatretention is, that they aren't
(03:42):
retaining as many clients aswhat you would expect or what we
think is the norm.
They may not be aware of thosethings.
They may just be humming alongthinking that this is what it's
supposed to be.
So we have to share the data ofwhat are your numbers?
What are we expecting, or whatwould we like to see so that
they have something they'retrying to attain?
They have a clear picture ofwhat's going on.
(04:04):
I've found that a lot of timesthey don't even realize that
their cancellation policy ishigh.
You know, it may feel differentthan what the actual numbers
say.
I've I've felt that on my endtoo.
On the sales side, you know, wemay, I may be thinking we've
closed clients, or close ratehas been really good.
But if I sat down and looked atthe data, it might tell a
different story.
Or maybe I've been kicked, youknow, feeling down because of
(04:25):
the opposite.
I feel like we haven't closed aclient in a while, but then I go
and look and go, wow, our closerate this quarter is actually
really good.
So let's look at some datapoints.
Here's some data I think wouldbe really important to share
with your clinicians.
I would say if you have a team,I would gather team data, and
then I would also gatherindividual.
So getting together on a in ateam meeting and saying, as a
(04:46):
company, how are we doing onthese metrics?
And then also with a one-on-one,sitting down with each
clinician, each therapist, andsaying, Here is what your
numbers are, where you'refalling in these areas, and then
some areas for I could see somegrowth opportunities.
The first one is retention,right?
So, what is the average numberof sessions per client?
(05:08):
So that's the easiest way tocalculate that.
Uh, we're not gonna get toocomplicated with this.
So just when of all theirclients, how many sessions have
those clients typicallyattended?
Now you know, depending on whatyou're doing.
So if you're you may be in aspecific type of therapy where
it's always a set number ofclient sessions.
So you might just be looking athave people gone from point A to
(05:28):
point B?
They've finished the the numberof sessions that is expected.
Physical therapists, same thing.
You might have somebody comingto you for X number of weeks to
rehab after surgery.
So for you, it's just probably acompletion.
How many, how many clients aregoing are completing the whole
program or staying for the exactamount of time?
If it's more fluid, as in, youknow, the my therapist and I,
(05:52):
it's just ongoing.
I don't know that they we havean end date in mind.
I've been going for two to threeyears now.
So for that, it's just how manysessions per client on average
are we seeing?
And then we're gonna comparethat to our company, compare it
to others, and then for you,it's just what would you expect?
What would you like to see?
Cancellations and no shows isthe big one.
And this is an area where a lotof people probably the biggest
(06:15):
complaint uh I hear frompractice owners is that their
therapists just don't care toomuch about this.
And again, maybe they just don'thave the data.
So showing them what is theircancellation percentage on a
monthly basis, how many of thesessions booked, how many are
canceling last minute?
I would say um we could alwaysdo a different metric for
rescheduling.
(06:35):
Uh but for this, it's justpeople who cancel and maybe
don't get back on the booksright away.
If somebody reschedules, maybewe include that in a different
metric.
But I look at a reschedule aswe're just moving the date.
You're still getting that incomecoming in, you're still seeing
that client.
Unless they are reschedulingcontinuously.
But again, we're gonna simplify.
So just the no shows or thecancellations, the last-minute
(06:57):
cancellations.
The next metric we want tocalculate is new clients
generated monthly.
Whether your clinicians ortherapists are doing their own
consultations or their ownoutreach, we want to still
calculate what is their new, howmany new clients are they taking
on monthly?
And maybe this is an area wherethey can buy in and they can
start helping generate leads,generate clients.
(07:19):
And then lastly, if they aredoing consultations on their
own, what is their conversionrate?
So people who show up to a salescall or reach out, and how many
of those are turning into arebooking their first session is
probably the best way to look atthat.
What percentage of people thatthat either got in a
consultation or reached out forhelp turned into and turned into
(07:39):
a client?
They booked one session withyou.
So those are some metrics youcan calculate as a whole
company, and then again on anindividual basis, show them what
the data is.
And I have a feeling that you'llsee more buy-in just naturally,
just from them being aware ofwhat's going on.
Once we have the data, the nextthing we can look at is just the
bigger picture.
Going back to what I said when Istarted this episode, your
(08:01):
therapists probably care a lot.
In fact, um I'm sure you canprobably agree that this is not
a business for somebody whodoesn't care.
You know, I'm a former teacherand I remember that was we
didn't get paid enough.
There was a lot of stress.
It was um, there was just a lotof pressure put on us, the hours
versus what our salary was.
(08:22):
Basically, you you had to lovebeing a teacher.
You had to really care about theimpact you were making on your
students, you had to care aboutthe greater mission.
If you didn't, then you reallythose teachers usually only
lasted maybe a year or twobecause it's just not worth it.
And so therapy, I really feellike is the same.
And even physical therapy is thesame, where you really do have
(08:43):
to care about what you're doing,you have to care about your
clients.
And so bringing in yourtherapists on the bigger picture
is huge.
The more clients that they helpgenerate, the more clients that
they help keep on, the greaterthe impact your company can
have.
And so, even going back to somedata, you can share some metrics
on the impact that you're havingon the community.
(09:04):
How many clients have you servedthis year as a company?
How many people have youimpacted in a positive light?
Looking for those places whereyou can highlight how have we
made a positive impact.
Because again, we get into theday-to-day, sometimes we lose
sight of that big picture ofwow, look at the footprint we
have put on our community andserving these people.
(09:26):
Now, avoiding on the individualside, avoiding cancellations,
avoiding or focusing onretention for your clinicians,
that is on the relationship sidewith the client, the bigger
picture of making that impact,showing that we care about them,
we care about their journey, wecare about them getting the
support and the help they need.
And you know that in order forthem to be successful, whether
(09:48):
it's in mental health therapy orphysical therapy, they have to
be showing up to every session.
If they don't, then oftentimesmissing time can have negative
effects.
Um, I've talked about thisbefore in previous episodes, but
again, back in education, whenwe would end the school year,
then we have summer, and then wego back to school about two to
three months later.
(10:09):
We always called what we we hadsomething, what we call the
summer slide, and that is weregress because we're not going
to school.
So if a student was at a certainreading level in May, they may
regress a reading level or twoby August because they're not
regularly practicing theircraft, they're not working on it
to improve and get better.
They a lot of them don't eventouch books in the summertime,
(10:31):
and so they naturally slide.
This can happen with yourclients.
If they're missing too manysessions in a row, then they may
regress.
And so showing, bringing uptalking to them about
cancellations, um, discussing itwith your clients is going to
show that you care about theirprogress and highlighting the
(10:52):
importance of it.
All right.
Beyond the big picture, moneytalks.
Okay.
We don't want that to be theonly thing driving your team
because at some point it getsexpensive.
We may not be able to afford it.
And do we really want I wantmoney-driven, money-motivated
people?
I don't want money-focusedpeople.
Money driven, money-motivatedmeans that they they care about
(11:14):
what they're making, they careabout generating more clients,
working hard, building theircaseload.
Money focused means all theycare about is that paycheck.
They don't care about thepeople, they don't care about
anything else.
They just want to get money intheir bank account.
Money driven versus moneyfocused.
So having financial incentivescan be really, really helpful.
So here's just a few options.
(11:35):
And so bonuses is going to benumber one.
And I would say highlight thearea that you feel like is your
biggest um weakness right now.
If it's cancellations, if it'sretention, if you don't feel
like clients are staying on longenough, then we can offer
bonuses for those to incentivizethose things.
This could be a short term.
You could say, hey, this quarteror this year or whatever you
(11:57):
want to focus on.
We're going to focus onretention.
And for every time you have aclient complete X number of
sessions, you will receive aretention bonus of X.
So you're just incentivizingthat retention piece.
This retention is we're notforcing people to keep coming,
but it is a matter of we'rehoning in our craft.
(12:18):
We're trying to make sure thatwe are providing a service that
makes people want to keep comingback to see us, but also that
we're following up.
If somebody cancels, we're notjust letting weeks or a month go
by before we're like, oh yeah,whatever happened to them.
It's no, I want to make surethat we get them back on the
calendar so that way we can hitthose that X number of sessions
(12:38):
to get that retention bonus.
Paying them for non-clinicalhours.
I know a lot of you do that formaybe note-taking.
But what about for marketing andnetworking and lead generation?
Offer X number of hours perweek, per month for them to
spend doing those things.
They could be writing blogs foryour website.
They could be reaching out toreferral partners, they could be
(12:59):
following up with old leads,making phone calls, sending
emails.
Paying them some non-clinicalhours to do that is twofold for
them.
They're going to get paid forthe time they're doing the work,
and then they're also going toget more clients, which is going
to pay them more money.
So there's a lot of financialincentive to that.
Paying them non-clinical hoursfor follow-ups and prospecting.
Like I said, so not onlyfollowing up with past leads,
(13:21):
but maybe just prospecting ingeneral, finding different ways
to generate leads, generateclients.
Now, another financialincentive, and this is one of my
favorites, and I recommendpretty much anybody who has
employees considers doing this,and that's an employee profit
sharing program.
If you are intentionally settingaside profit into a separate
(13:41):
bank account, which I recommend,let's say you're setting aside
five to 10% of all income into aseparate bank account, at the
end of the quarter, you canreward your team by dividing up
a portion of this money to yourteam members.
This is buy-in to the greatergood of the company.
And that's exactly what we'retalking about today.
How can we motivate ourtherapists, our team members, to
(14:04):
care about our company?
The best way to do that is togive them a little stake in the
company, right?
We're not giving them equity,they're not getting ownership
stake, but we are rewarding themwhen the company as a whole does
well.
I like this over individualbonuses.
Uh, I think both have theirplace, right?
(14:25):
Individual bonuses, rewardingthem for hitting milestones or
having a certain number ofsessions per week is great.
I don't, I'm not discouragingthat.
This is the greater good.
So if we as a company do reallywell this quarter, you're going
to see a higher financialreward.
Your profit share is going to bebigger.
If we are struggling, if leadsare down, if client sessions are
(14:46):
down, if client cancellationrate is really high, then we're
going to see that as a company.
And that means the profit shareis going to be a lot smaller.
They're going to have thatbuy-in with the company.
This is huge.
Now, with that, you can decide,and and we can absolutely help
you figure out how to best sharethat profit.
A good rule of thumb is in thatbank account, I usually say
(15:11):
about half is going to go intoretained earnings.
Maybe one third or one half willgo into just your emergency
fund.
So let's say we get to the endof the quarter and you got
$10,000 sitting in there.
$5,000 can go into thisemergency fund.
Then we're going to take thatother five and we're going to
divide it up.
The way I like to do that is acertain percentage, maybe 75%
(15:33):
goes to you.
So of that$5,000, maybe 75% goesto you.
If let's just say, even if youwanted to do half, so$2,500 goes
to you,$2,500 gets divided amongthe team.
So that is a general rule ofthumb.
There's obviously lots ofdifferent ways to go about it.
You could set up a bank accountpurely for profit sharing and
put X percent into that accountevery single time a dollar comes
(15:54):
in.
There's a lot of ways to goabout it.
We're happy to help if this issomething you're interested in
and me talking about is like Iwant to do that.
I don't even know where tobegin.
In the show notes, always is alink to talk to one of our
coaches.
We can absolutely help you getthat system set up so that next
quarter you're ready to pay outsome bonuses to your team.
All right.
Lastly, is how do we get them tobuy in is to collaborate on
(16:19):
things that are out of theircontrol.
So we may be seeing the metrics,we may be feeling frustrated
that cancellations are high forour clinicians or therapists,
but maybe there is somethingthat's out of their control that
could be contributing to it.
I won't say causing it.
So maybe in a team meeting youcollaborate and talk about are
there things that we could dobetter that we could improve on
(16:42):
that maybe would help?
Is there, is our schedulingsystem, is it easy for clients
to schedule and reschedule?
Or is that difficult?
Do they have to call in in orderto do it?
Do we have online options wherethey can schedule and plug in a
new time or make sure thatthey're showing back up?
Do we have a good follow-upsystem or a reminder system for
(17:03):
these sessions?
If you're seeing a high no-showrate, what is our reminder
system looking like to send outthose reminders to make sure
that they are showing up?
Do we have that?
Do we have automations in placeto make sure that it's
happening?
Are we asking our therapists tophysically follow up and remind
clients?
Or asking our admin team tophysically follow up and roll
(17:24):
and remind clients of sessions.
That could be an area.
Are we enforcing cancellationpolicies?
So if you say last if you cancelwithin 24 hours, you're gonna
you're it's a$50 fee or apenalty fee, whatever it is.
Are we enforcing that?
If we're not, then of courseclients will keep canceling last
minute.
They there's no penalty, there'sno nothing to prevent them from
(17:46):
doing that.
And then are clients even awareof cancellation policies and the
importance of regular attending.
They may not even be aware thatthere is a cancellation policy,
they may not even be aware ofthe importance.
So, what I mean by that is yourtherapist, if if they're
canceling a lot, if a client hascanceled multiple times, having
(18:08):
that conversation of theimportance of keeping those
regular sessions, just like wewere talking about earlier with
that summer slide, talking aboutit's really important that we
keep meeting regularly.
Um, also, it's really importantthat if you do need to cancel,
that you give us prior notice,plenty of notice.
Because when I'm looking atcancellations, typically I'm
saying it's within 48 hours orlast minute.
(18:30):
And we need prior notice on thatand kind of outlining the impact
it has on the company.
So your therapist can do this,you can do this with the
clients.
Just sharing this, not only doesthat mean that hour is now taken
up on your therapist's calendar,that has an impact on the
company as a whole.
They may not even be aware thatthose last-minute cancellations
(18:52):
are doing that.
It may just to them be like, oh,well, I called and let you know,
and I didn't even realize howbig of a deal it is.
So sharing with them theimportance of showing up for
their own therapy, but also justasking that they please give you
more notice and make sureinstead of canceling, we're
rescheduling and reframing thatverbiage.
We're not going to cancel, butlet's reschedule it.
(19:15):
Let's push that our meeting toanother day.
If you're needing toincentivize, to motivate your
team, we're profit coaches whofocus on building financial
systems in your business to growit, but we're also business
coaches.
So we look at everything throughthe lens of profitability.
And we have coaches on our teamwho specialize in team
management and leadership andincentivizing your team to buy
(19:40):
into your company vision and tofeel a little bit of ownership
with what you're trying tobuild.
If you feel like that's out ofsync in your business, our
coaches can help.
Click on the link in the shownotes.
We would love to meet you.
We'd love to hear what's goingon and see how we can best serve
you and best help you moveforward.
Thanks for joining us on theTherapy Business Podcast.
(20:00):
Be sure to subscribe, leave areview, and share it with a
practice owner that you mayknow.
If your practice needs helpgetting organized with the
finances or just growing yourpractice, head to
therapybusinesspod.com to learnhow we can help.
It can often feel like we are the only ones who
(00:02):
care about our business.
And a lot of practice ownersfeel like only they're worried
about cancellations andretention or the bottom line of
their finances.
How can we motivate our team tobe invested without making them
feel pressured?
My name is Craig, and I'm theowner of DAC Financial Coaching.
Our team is on a mission to makeyour therapy practice
(00:24):
permanently profitable.
If you own a solo or grouppractice, we're here to help you
build a business that createsmore time, makes more money, and
serves more people.
This is the Therapy BusinessPodcast.
A lot of therapists start theirbusiness as just them.
(00:44):
It's a solo practice.
I know for me, when I started mybusiness, it was just me doing
coaching and consulting forpeople and businesses.
And so the idea of getting otherpeople to buy into my mission,
my purpose, all of these thingsof my business was pretty
foreign to me when I started myteam.
In fact, it felt kind of weirdexpecting them to care about how
(01:06):
much money the business wasmaking, that we were
prioritizing cancellations, thatwe were trying to close clients.
It felt strange asking this teamto care about that because if
I'm being honest, it felt like Iwas being selfish, I was being
greedy.
I wanted them to make me moremoney.
And that just felt like therewas a disconnect between what I
really care about and what I wasasking them to do.
But here's the thing (01:28):
it's really important that they buy
into it.
And in fact, what I've come tofind with my team is they
genuinely care about what theydo.
They want this company to grow,they want us to reach more
people because they understandthat there is a greater impact
that can be made by having thatbigger outreach, that greater
outreach, and it bringing inmore clients.
(01:50):
So, how can we motivate ourteams to care about this?
If you're facing this problemwhere your team isn't really too
bothered by last-minutecancellations or clients
canceling, or they're losingclients, or clients aren't
staying as long as you wouldlike, or maybe they are not
closing as many clients as whatyou would like to see.
They're not taking on many newclients, they're not doing
(02:12):
outreach.
There's a lot of those areasthat we want to focus on, and we
want to make sure that yourtherapists are engaged in that
because it's super important,not only for them, but also for
the business.
Now, there's a few things we'regonna look at to help you
motivate them to help bring themin on this thing so that they
they have some skin in the game,they care about what's going on.
(02:35):
And truthfully, I do want tolead with I have a feeling if
you hired right, if you've hiredthe right people, they probably
care.
They probably do care.
And if you're might just be likeme, where you're just assuming
why would they care about mybusiness?
Why, what what's in it for them?
They probably care because whatyou're doing is important,
you're making an impact on yourcommunity, you're making an
(02:56):
impact on people.
And I would wait you to say thatsomebody who got into therapy or
physical therapy did it to helppeople, to serve people, and you
are giving them the platform inorder to do that without them
having to go start their ownbusiness to do all their own
everything.
You've given them this platformwhere they can serve people,
they can help people, and wewant to make sure that they have
(03:21):
the ability to care about yourbusiness.
So, what I've found is we don'talways give them the opportunity
to care, if that makes sense.
And so the first thing we can dois share metrics.
A lot of times when I say wedon't even give them the
opportunity to care, is theydon't even know the data.
Maybe they don't even know thatcancellations is a problem.
Maybe they don't even know whatretention is, that they aren't
(03:42):
retaining as many clients aswhat you would expect or what we
think is the norm.
They may not be aware of thosethings.
They may just be humming alongthinking that this is what it's
supposed to be.
So we have to share the data ofwhat are your numbers?
What are we expecting, or whatwould we like to see so that
they have something they'retrying to attain?
They have a clear picture ofwhat's going on.
(04:04):
I've found that a lot of timesthey don't even realize that
their cancellation policy ishigh.
You know, it may feel differentthan what the actual numbers
say.
I've I've felt that on my endtoo.
On the sales side, you know, wemay, I may be thinking we've
closed clients, or close ratehas been really good.
But if I sat down and looked atthe data, it might tell a
different story.
Or maybe I've been kicked, youknow, feeling down because of
(04:25):
the opposite.
I feel like we haven't closed aclient in a while, but then I go
and look and go, wow, our closerate this quarter is actually
really good.
So let's look at some datapoints.
Here's some data I think wouldbe really important to share
with your clinicians.
I would say if you have a team,I would gather team data, and
then I would also gatherindividual.
So getting together on a in ateam meeting and saying, as a
(04:46):
company, how are we doing onthese metrics?
And then also with a one-on-one,sitting down with each
clinician, each therapist, andsaying, Here is what your
numbers are, where you'refalling in these areas, and then
some areas for I could see somegrowth opportunities.
The first one is retention,right?
So, what is the average numberof sessions per client?
(05:08):
So that's the easiest way tocalculate that.
Uh, we're not gonna get toocomplicated with this.
So just when of all theirclients, how many sessions have
those clients typicallyattended?
Now you know, depending on whatyou're doing.
So if you're you may be in aspecific type of therapy where
it's always a set number ofclient sessions.
So you might just be looking athave people gone from point A to
(05:28):
point B?
They've finished the the numberof sessions that is expected.
Physical therapists, same thing.
You might have somebody comingto you for X number of weeks to
rehab after surgery.
So for you, it's just probably acompletion.
How many, how many clients aregoing are completing the whole
program or staying for the exactamount of time?
If it's more fluid, as in, youknow, the my therapist and I,
(05:52):
it's just ongoing.
I don't know that they we havean end date in mind.
I've been going for two to threeyears now.
So for that, it's just how manysessions per client on average
are we seeing?
And then we're gonna comparethat to our company, compare it
to others, and then for you,it's just what would you expect?
What would you like to see?
Cancellations and no shows isthe big one.
And this is an area where a lotof people probably the biggest
(06:15):
complaint uh I hear frompractice owners is that their
therapists just don't care toomuch about this.
And again, maybe they just don'thave the data.
So showing them what is theircancellation percentage on a
monthly basis, how many of thesessions booked, how many are
canceling last minute?
I would say um we could alwaysdo a different metric for
rescheduling.
(06:35):
Uh but for this, it's justpeople who cancel and maybe
don't get back on the booksright away.
If somebody reschedules, maybewe include that in a different
metric.
But I look at a reschedule aswe're just moving the date.
You're still getting that incomecoming in, you're still seeing
that client.
Unless they are reschedulingcontinuously.
But again, we're gonna simplify.
So just the no shows or thecancellations, the last-minute
(06:57):
cancellations.
The next metric we want tocalculate is new clients
generated monthly.
Whether your clinicians ortherapists are doing their own
consultations or their ownoutreach, we want to still
calculate what is their new, howmany new clients are they taking
on monthly?
And maybe this is an area wherethey can buy in and they can
start helping generate leads,generate clients.
(07:19):
And then lastly, if they aredoing consultations on their
own, what is their conversionrate?
So people who show up to a salescall or reach out, and how many
of those are turning into arebooking their first session is
probably the best way to look atthat.
What percentage of people thatthat either got in a
consultation or reached out forhelp turned into and turned into
(07:39):
a client?
They booked one session withyou.
So those are some metrics youcan calculate as a whole
company, and then again on anindividual basis, show them what
the data is.
And I have a feeling that you'llsee more buy-in just naturally,
just from them being aware ofwhat's going on.
Once we have the data, the nextthing we can look at is just the
bigger picture.
Going back to what I said when Istarted this episode, your
(08:01):
therapists probably care a lot.
In fact, um I'm sure you canprobably agree that this is not
a business for somebody whodoesn't care.
You know, I'm a former teacherand I remember that was we
didn't get paid enough.
There was a lot of stress.
It was um, there was just a lotof pressure put on us, the hours
versus what our salary was.
(08:22):
Basically, you you had to lovebeing a teacher.
You had to really care about theimpact you were making on your
students, you had to care aboutthe greater mission.
If you didn't, then you reallythose teachers usually only
lasted maybe a year or twobecause it's just not worth it.
And so therapy, I really feellike is the same.
And even physical therapy is thesame, where you really do have
(08:43):
to care about what you're doing,you have to care about your
clients.
And so bringing in yourtherapists on the bigger picture
is huge.
The more clients that they helpgenerate, the more clients that
they help keep on, the greaterthe impact your company can
have.
And so, even going back to somedata, you can share some metrics
on the impact that you're havingon the community.
(09:04):
How many clients have you servedthis year as a company?
How many people have youimpacted in a positive light?
Looking for those places whereyou can highlight how have we
made a positive impact.
Because again, we get into theday-to-day, sometimes we lose
sight of that big picture ofwow, look at the footprint we
have put on our community andserving these people.
(09:26):
Now, avoiding on the individualside, avoiding cancellations,
avoiding or focusing onretention for your clinicians,
that is on the relationship sidewith the client, the bigger
picture of making that impact,showing that we care about them,
we care about their journey, wecare about them getting the
support and the help they need.
And you know that in order forthem to be successful, whether
(09:48):
it's in mental health therapy orphysical therapy, they have to
be showing up to every session.
If they don't, then oftentimesmissing time can have negative
effects.
Um, I've talked about thisbefore in previous episodes, but
again, back in education, whenwe would end the school year,
then we have summer, and then wego back to school about two to
three months later.
(10:09):
We always called what we we hadsomething, what we call the
summer slide, and that is weregress because we're not going
to school.
So if a student was at a certainreading level in May, they may
regress a reading level or twoby August because they're not
regularly practicing theircraft, they're not working on it
to improve and get better.
They a lot of them don't eventouch books in the summertime,
(10:31):
and so they naturally slide.
This can happen with yourclients.
If they're missing too manysessions in a row, then they may
regress.
And so showing, bringing uptalking to them about
cancellations, um, discussing itwith your clients is going to
show that you care about theirprogress and highlighting the
(10:52):
importance of it.
All right.
Beyond the big picture, moneytalks.
Okay.
We don't want that to be theonly thing driving your team
because at some point it getsexpensive.
We may not be able to afford it.
And do we really want I wantmoney-driven, money-motivated
people?
I don't want money-focusedpeople.
Money driven, money-motivatedmeans that they they care about
(11:14):
what they're making, they careabout generating more clients,
working hard, building theircaseload.
Money focused means all theycare about is that paycheck.
They don't care about thepeople, they don't care about
anything else.
They just want to get money intheir bank account.
Money driven versus moneyfocused.
So having financial incentivescan be really, really helpful.
So here's just a few options.
(11:35):
And so bonuses is going to benumber one.
And I would say highlight thearea that you feel like is your
biggest um weakness right now.
If it's cancellations, if it'sretention, if you don't feel
like clients are staying on longenough, then we can offer
bonuses for those to incentivizethose things.
This could be a short term.
You could say, hey, this quarteror this year or whatever you
(11:57):
want to focus on.
We're going to focus onretention.
And for every time you have aclient complete X number of
sessions, you will receive aretention bonus of X.
So you're just incentivizingthat retention piece.
This retention is we're notforcing people to keep coming,
but it is a matter of we'rehoning in our craft.
(12:18):
We're trying to make sure thatwe are providing a service that
makes people want to keep comingback to see us, but also that
we're following up.
If somebody cancels, we're notjust letting weeks or a month go
by before we're like, oh yeah,whatever happened to them.
It's no, I want to make surethat we get them back on the
calendar so that way we can hitthose that X number of sessions
(12:38):
to get that retention bonus.
Paying them for non-clinicalhours.
I know a lot of you do that formaybe note-taking.
But what about for marketing andnetworking and lead generation?
Offer X number of hours perweek, per month for them to
spend doing those things.
They could be writing blogs foryour website.
They could be reaching out toreferral partners, they could be
(12:59):
following up with old leads,making phone calls, sending
emails.
Paying them some non-clinicalhours to do that is twofold for
them.
They're going to get paid forthe time they're doing the work,
and then they're also going toget more clients, which is going
to pay them more money.
So there's a lot of financialincentive to that.
Paying them non-clinical hoursfor follow-ups and prospecting.
Like I said, so not onlyfollowing up with past leads,
(13:21):
but maybe just prospecting ingeneral, finding different ways
to generate leads, generateclients.
Now, another financialincentive, and this is one of my
favorites, and I recommendpretty much anybody who has
employees considers doing this,and that's an employee profit
sharing program.
If you are intentionally settingaside profit into a separate
(13:41):
bank account, which I recommend,let's say you're setting aside
five to 10% of all income into aseparate bank account, at the
end of the quarter, you canreward your team by dividing up
a portion of this money to yourteam members.
This is buy-in to the greatergood of the company.
And that's exactly what we'retalking about today.
How can we motivate ourtherapists, our team members, to
(14:04):
care about our company?
The best way to do that is togive them a little stake in the
company, right?
We're not giving them equity,they're not getting ownership
stake, but we are rewarding themwhen the company as a whole does
well.
I like this over individualbonuses.
Uh, I think both have theirplace, right?
(14:25):
Individual bonuses, rewardingthem for hitting milestones or
having a certain number ofsessions per week is great.
I don't, I'm not discouragingthat.
This is the greater good.
So if we as a company do reallywell this quarter, you're going
to see a higher financialreward.
Your profit share is going to bebigger.
If we are struggling, if leadsare down, if client sessions are
(14:46):
down, if client cancellationrate is really high, then we're
going to see that as a company.
And that means the profit shareis going to be a lot smaller.
They're going to have thatbuy-in with the company.
This is huge.
Now, with that, you can decide,and and we can absolutely help
you figure out how to best sharethat profit.
A good rule of thumb is in thatbank account, I usually say
(15:11):
about half is going to go intoretained earnings.
Maybe one third or one half willgo into just your emergency
fund.
So let's say we get to the endof the quarter and you got
$10,000 sitting in there.
$5,000 can go into thisemergency fund.
Then we're going to take thatother five and we're going to
divide it up.
The way I like to do that is acertain percentage, maybe 75%
(15:33):
goes to you.
So of that$5,000, maybe 75% goesto you.
If let's just say, even if youwanted to do half, so$2,500 goes
to you,$2,500 gets divided amongthe team.
So that is a general rule ofthumb.
There's obviously lots ofdifferent ways to go about it.
You could set up a bank accountpurely for profit sharing and
put X percent into that accountevery single time a dollar comes
(15:54):
in.
There's a lot of ways to goabout it.
We're happy to help if this issomething you're interested in
and me talking about is like Iwant to do that.
I don't even know where tobegin.
In the show notes, always is alink to talk to one of our
coaches.
We can absolutely help you getthat system set up so that next
quarter you're ready to pay outsome bonuses to your team.
All right.
Lastly, is how do we get them tobuy in is to collaborate on
(16:19):
things that are out of theircontrol.
So we may be seeing the metrics,we may be feeling frustrated
that cancellations are high forour clinicians or therapists,
but maybe there is somethingthat's out of their control that
could be contributing to it.
I won't say causing it.
So maybe in a team meeting youcollaborate and talk about are
there things that we could dobetter that we could improve on
(16:42):
that maybe would help?
Is there, is our schedulingsystem, is it easy for clients
to schedule and reschedule?
Or is that difficult?
Do they have to call in in orderto do it?
Do we have online options wherethey can schedule and plug in a
new time or make sure thatthey're showing back up?
Do we have a good follow-upsystem or a reminder system for
(17:03):
these sessions?
If you're seeing a high no-showrate, what is our reminder
system looking like to send outthose reminders to make sure
that they are showing up?
Do we have that?
Do we have automations in placeto make sure that it's
happening?
Are we asking our therapists tophysically follow up and remind
clients?
Or asking our admin team tophysically follow up and roll
(17:24):
and remind clients of sessions.
That could be an area.
Are we enforcing cancellationpolicies?
So if you say last if you cancelwithin 24 hours, you're gonna
you're it's a$50 fee or apenalty fee, whatever it is.
Are we enforcing that?
If we're not, then of courseclients will keep canceling last
minute.
They there's no penalty, there'sno nothing to prevent them from
(17:46):
doing that.
And then are clients even awareof cancellation policies and the
importance of regular attending.
They may not even be aware thatthere is a cancellation policy,
they may not even be aware ofthe importance.
So, what I mean by that is yourtherapist, if if they're
canceling a lot, if a client hascanceled multiple times, having
(18:08):
that conversation of theimportance of keeping those
regular sessions, just like wewere talking about earlier with
that summer slide, talking aboutit's really important that we
keep meeting regularly.
Um, also, it's really importantthat if you do need to cancel,
that you give us prior notice,plenty of notice.
Because when I'm looking atcancellations, typically I'm
saying it's within 48 hours orlast minute.
(18:30):
And we need prior notice on thatand kind of outlining the impact
it has on the company.
So your therapist can do this,you can do this with the
clients.
Just sharing this, not only doesthat mean that hour is now taken
up on your therapist's calendar,that has an impact on the
company as a whole.
They may not even be aware thatthose last-minute cancellations
(18:52):
are doing that.
It may just to them be like, oh,well, I called and let you know,
and I didn't even realize howbig of a deal it is.
So sharing with them theimportance of showing up for
their own therapy, but also justasking that they please give you
more notice and make sureinstead of canceling, we're
rescheduling and reframing thatverbiage.
We're not going to cancel, butlet's reschedule it.
(19:15):
Let's push that our meeting toanother day.
If you're needing toincentivize, to motivate your
team, we're profit coaches whofocus on building financial
systems in your business to growit, but we're also business
coaches.
So we look at everything throughthe lens of profitability.
And we have coaches on our teamwho specialize in team
management and leadership andincentivizing your team to buy
(19:40):
into your company vision and tofeel a little bit of ownership
with what you're trying tobuild.
If you feel like that's out ofsync in your business, our
coaches can help.
Click on the link in the shownotes.
We would love to meet you.
We'd love to hear what's goingon and see how we can best serve
you and best help you moveforward.
Thanks for joining us on theTherapy Business Podcast.
(20:00):
Be sure to subscribe, leave areview, and share it with a
practice owner that you mayknow.
If your practice needs helpgetting organized with the
finances or just growing yourpractice, head to
therapybusinesspod.com to learnhow we can help.
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