October 8, 2025 • 21 mins
We dig into why leads slow down, how to diagnose the real cause, and what to do when nothing obvious is broken. We share a simple follow-up script, the cadence that converts, and how to stabilize cash while you tune your marketing.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
My name is Craig, and I'm the owner of Daisy
Financial Coaching.
Our team is on a mission to makeyour therapy practice
permanently profitable.
If you want 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.
(00:24):
Now I know in the mental healthindustry, the summer slump is a
thing.
And so we've done a few episodeson combating the summer slump.
This is when during summermonths, leads tend to drop.
People are busy, clients arecanceling, business is just down
in general.
And so if you're listening tothis in the summertime, I
recommend going and checking outthat episode.
Because today we're going to betalking more in general about if
(00:48):
leads go down.
So listen to this first.
But if it's summertime afterthis one, go into the summer
slump on where we're going togive you some really specific
ideas for summertime and how tocombat that.
But I want to get into what ifleads slow down?
What if it's inexplainable, justout of nowhere?
Whether it's the economy,whether it's a number of things
that could be happening to causeleads to drop.
(01:10):
This happens to me throughoutthe year.
Now we have our traditionalsummer where leads will go down
a little bit.
And then we also have times ofthe year where just months here
and there where things are down.
In fact, usually the months ofAugust and September are really
good months for us as far asgetting lead intake because what
we look at as the second newyear, people are back into
(01:32):
routine with kids going back toschool.
And so they are starting torethink about their finances and
get back into that mindset.
However, this year, as I'mrecording this, our leads have
been down these past two months.
And I really don't know what thecause is.
I don't know how to explain it.
I can probably look at theeconomy, I can look at a bunch
of different things happeningwith uh politics and in the in
the country.
But at the end of the day, thosethings are out of my control.
(01:55):
What I need to do is find outwhat I can do as the business
owner to make sure that we aregetting leads in.
There's that saying that it'snot by my hand, but in my lap.
So maybe the fact that leads notcoming in right now, it's not
your fault.
It's not anything you're doingwrong, but it's still your
responsibility.
So it's not by your hand, but itis still in your lap.
(02:16):
It's still something that youneed to take by the horns, you
need to figure out, and you needto solve and do what you can to
get leads back up.
So the first thing I'm gonnaguide you through some steps,
some things you can be doing toone get to the bottom of it to
figure it out to startincreasing leads, and then two,
some ways you can utilize thistime.
Maybe if leads are down and youjust happen to find that you
(02:39):
have some extra time on yourcalendar, maybe that's a good
thing.
Maybe your business is in aplace where you're going, oh,
finally, like I'm not doingconsultation calls, I'm not
seeing so many clients, like Ihave some space to focus on
scaling and growth.
So the first thing we're gonnado is get to the bottom of it.
Why are leads slowing down?
Kind of what I alluded tobefore.
Is this seasonal?
(03:00):
Is this something that we canpinpoint that we can say, okay,
that is exactly why that'shappening?
We want to get to the bottom ofwhat is going on.
Is there another cause?
Again, is it out of our control?
Is our website having issues?
Do some investigating.
So if it feels like this isunusual, you're going, okay,
(03:21):
what is why is this wrong?
Start investigating.
You can go into your GoogleAnalytics.
So look at your Google Analyticsto see some website visits.
Has traffic been on par withwhat you would normally see?
You can look into Google SearchConsole.
Are people searching?
Are they finding you?
What is going on?
Are your ads performing?
If you're paying for ads, arethey performing as well as they
(03:42):
normally do?
Has your social media presencechanged?
Are your has social media itselfchanged?
So maybe your posts are notgetting as much organic reach as
they were before.
Look into a bunch of differentthings and see, okay, is there
something I can pinpoint thatmight be part of the reason we
are seeing a drop in leads?
Now, there's a that's going tobe an undertaking of itself.
(04:05):
And so again, approach it withcuriosity.
That's always my myrecommendation.
Because it can be kind offrustrating, it can be
stressful, it can be scary topull these things up, it can be
overwhelming.
Just go into it with curiosity.
Hmm.
Okay, interesting.
Our our website traffic is down,or our website traffic is fine,
but we're not getting as manyvisits to our contact page.
(04:27):
What's going on there?
Go to your website as apotential prospect and browse
it.
Click around, see what's goingon.
Maybe referral partners aren'treferring as many people to you.
We this happened with a clientone time where they realized
leads were down, and what wediscovered was the referral
partner who sends them a lot ofbusiness hadn't been referring
(04:47):
because they were on maternityleave.
And so the we I don't think theyhad realized how important they
were for lead generation, butthat referral partner was out,
and so all of a sudden the leadsdried up.
When they returned, leadsstarted kicking back up again.
And so just keeping in mind thatthat's kind of the curiosity,
the things that we can find iswhat could be the cause of this.
(05:08):
Is this something that we needto change?
Or in that case, is it justlike, okay, that's just gonna be
a temporary pause, but alsoprobably a concern for the
bigger picture if we are thatdependent on somebody else.
So keeping those pieces, goingin with curiosity, taking notes,
figuring out, okay, what aresome areas?
We are not doing this tooverhaul.
We are not going in andoverhauling our website.
(05:30):
If you go and see our websitevisits are down, we need to
change everything, or no one'svisiting our contact page,
that's it.
I'm gonna go spend 10 grand on awebsite redesign.
That's not always the answer.
We're going in just trying tosee could this be a piece of the
puzzle?
And at the end of the day,sometimes people just aren't
visiting the contact page.
Once again, maybe becausethey're just stressed and
(05:52):
overwhelmed about life and theworld, their finances, the
economy, all those things cancome into play.
They get on your website, theysee what you charge, and they
get scared.
So keep all those things in mindas you're looking.
Now, a quick tip on this is totrack the number of leads per
month and create a line graph inExcel.
So if you have some capacity, orif you have an admin, if you
(06:13):
haven't been tracking leads, gohave them go back and just say
how many intake forms, sowebsite forms, phone calls,
voicemails, emails, how many didwe get every month?
For we can look, I would say goback two, three years, and that
way we can compare.
What did if you do a line graphfor I'm recording this in 2025
and then you have 2024 and 2023?
(06:36):
What we can see is month overmonth, are we seeing the same
trends?
Is it spiking around the sametime?
Is it dropping around the sametime?
Most likely you're gonna see itdrop a little bit in the
summertime.
You're probably gonna see itspike around the beginning of
the year and around September.
That's just traditionally whatwe would see in this industry.
So keep that in mind and lookand just see is this drop
(06:58):
normal?
It's also gonna show someanomalies.
What we found doing this with aclient was it dropped in a month
where typically it spikes, andthat created an opportunity for
some curiosity.
What is going on that causedthis?
What caused the leads to dropall of a sudden right here?
So by tracking that and thenmoving forward, I would just
track it.
Have your admin at the end ofthe month, log it in the
(07:19):
spreadsheet, line graph willupdate, and then we can compare
year over year.
Are we starting to see thetrends change?
Are we starting to see themshift?
Is it and that gives us anopportunity to address it?
Now, once we have gotten curiousand tried to figure out what's
going on, you can make thetweaks if you feel like it is
necessary.
If you found, oh yeah, it turnsout that our contact page was
(07:40):
broken and it was sending peopleto a 404 or the form wasn't
working.
That's an easy fix.
You fix it, leads shouldhopefully tick back up.
If you get to the point whereyou're going, okay, maybe some
minor tweaks, but nothing stoodout as crazy, or it turns out
that it's it might just be, onceagain, an economy thing.
It might just be a whatever inthe world is going on that
(08:02):
people are not reaching outnearly as much.
Well, then we can go through thenext phase, and that is
follow-up.
This is where you go throughyour pipeline and you are
proactive about seeking peopleout.
We're not cold calling.
That's not what I'm recommendinghere.
What I'm recommending isreaching out to the people who
reached out to you in the past.
I'm willing to bet, unless youare just one of the few who is
(08:25):
super good at this, I'm willingto bet that you aren't following
up as much as you should.
I would say nine out of tenclinicians, therapists, PTs that
I meet with, when we talk abouttheir process of when a client
reaches out for help, it's maybethey reach out through the
website, you have an admin,email them or or call them.
(08:47):
And if if you get them on thephone, then maybe you have a
conversation and try and getthem booked.
But if they don't answer, it'san email and it's a voicemail,
or or it's a voicemail.
Usually it's rare that it'sboth.
And then that's it.
And if the person never getsback to you, then that that lead
is gone.
Maybe they follow up one moretime, but what I've found is so
(09:07):
many people are falling throughthe cracks.
When I was going through myprocess of finding a therapist,
it was so incrediblyoverwhelming that I was almost
afraid to get on call.
I didn't want to call thembecause I didn't, I didn't want
to talk to them.
I was I was so overwhelmed withthe process, the idea of it, the
(09:28):
can I afford it?
Uh, what's it gonna be like?
Is this it's just kind of ascary thing to be going through.
And that's likely what yourclients or your prospects are
going through.
And so when you reach out tothem, it's a they see the email
response, hey, it's Craig.
Um, let's schedule a call tosee, blah, blah, blah.
Here's my link, book a call now.
Like, I'll do that later, right?
(09:50):
That overwhelm, that fight orflight.
It's the we're gonna push thatto the side out of out of mind,
and um, I'll I'll circle backwhenever I'm in the right
headspace.
Uh, maybe they reached out inthe middle of the night while
they were incredibly stressedand anxious, and now they're
feeling a little bit better, andthey're like, Okay, cool, uh,
yeah, I'll get to that when Ican.
And they just never do.
(10:10):
It is in our company, we don'tgive up on people.
That's one of our values.
So, what that means for us is ifyou reach out to us for help,
we're not gonna give up on you.
Unless you at some point say, Weare not interested, we don't
need help anymore.
Please stop, please stopfollowing up.
We're gonna stay on you.
(10:31):
And that's because exactly whatI just talked about.
Somebody may have reached out tous for help at one in the
morning when they couldn't sleepbecause their stomach was in
knots because payroll was duethe next day and they didn't
have enough money to pay it.
And then they wake up, theymaybe they are able to figure it
out, and the pain point is notas prominent, but they're still
(10:51):
in trouble.
Or maybe they're embarrassed, ormaybe they wake up and they just
get that clear mind, or they'rejust the same thing I was
talking about, too scared to geton a call.
We're not gonna give up on them.
They raise their hand saying, Ineed help.
Something needs to change, andit's our responsibility as the
people who know how to help themto make sure that they're
getting the help, whether that'swith us or with somebody else.
And that is our main goal.
(11:12):
When we get a response fromsomebody, uh after maybe it's
after been a few months and theyfind like they finally respond
like, hey, thank you so much forfollowing up.
We actually were able to figurethis out, or we hired somebody,
or we did X, Y, and Z.
Things are a lot better now.
That is a win for us.
We are thrilled, we celebrate itas a team.
It is just that is fantastic.
(11:33):
That's what we want.
We want them to get the helpthey want.
Now, as a business owner, weobviously want we want to be the
ones helping people, but that'skind of the byproduct.
Our goal is that people gethelp, that business owners are
no longer stressed aboutfinances, that therapy practices
are no longer worried about themoney and they can focus on what
they want to do, whether that'sthrough us or through someone
else.
(11:53):
So it's our job not to give upon people.
So, what I would recommend isgoing through your list of old
leads.
It can be years old.
That's okay.
Go through that list.
And since you just had youradmin, go back and, or maybe you
yourself, if you're a solopractice owner, went back and
counted leads.
Now we're gonna take those andwe're going to reach out to
them.
Those people who have beenreaching out to us that didn't
(12:16):
turn into anything.
And you can send out just asimple email and feel free to
write it exactly like this.
Hey, first name, it's been Xdays, months, years since you
reached out through our website.
Have you been able to get somehelp?
If they outlined a pain point,if they outlined something, um,
couples therapy, whatever it is,it's it's been six months since
(12:37):
you reached out through ourwebsite for help with your
marriage, whatever.
Have you been able to get somehelp?
It's just a simple follow-up.
And then moving forward, followup with them regularly.
If you want to let them know youwill, I will circle back in a
week or two if I haven't heardfrom you.
And then put them in a rhythm offollow-up.
We have a whole episode on afollow-up process that I
(12:59):
recommend using.
Uh, go back through ourepisodes, find that, listen to
it.
It's gonna guide you through howto convert more clients just by
simply following up.
It's better to do this on yournext lead.
And that's what that episode isgonna help most with is the next
time you get a lead, making surethey don't become somebody who
just gets dropped to thewayside, that you stay on top of
(13:20):
them, and you're gonna start tosee a higher conversion rate
just by simply following upmore.
The standard is between eightand twelve touch points before a
lead becomes a client.
That is the average in sales,the industry average is between
eight and twelve touch points.
That means you connecting withthem in some capacity eight to
(13:41):
twelve times.
The typical practice does one tothree, three being a lot, and
that is responding to theiremail, maybe leaving them a
voicemail, and that's usuallywhere it ends.
Maybe they follow up one moretime.
So if you can up that in thefirst 30 days they reach out to
you, if you can talk, try andreach out to them 10 to 12 times
(14:03):
in that first 30 days, you'regonna see a drastic, drastic
improvement.
And I promise you, I know someof you are hearing this going,
oh my gosh, that's a lot.
I don't want to bug thesepeople, I don't want to bother
them.
I've found I would much ratherannoy 10 people by reaching out
too much if one person comesback and says, Thank you so much
(14:23):
for not giving up on me, whichhappens all the time.
It's worth it to me.
I will annoy some people whojust say, Stop contacting me, or
who just keep deleting my emailsbecause they don't want to read
them.
I will risk that in order to getpeople the help that they want
because we don't give up onpeople.
All right.
Now, like I said, we're gonna gothrough, you can revamp your
follow-up process.
That is episode 15 if you wantto go back and find that one.
(14:46):
Um, I went through somestatistics on what that looks
like for the follow-up sequence,but there is a lot of different
statistics that I find really,really fascinating in this
realm.
Um, only 12% of people make morethan three attempts.
That's what I told you.
Uh, most people are under threeattempts and following up.
Um, 44% of people give up afterjust one follow-up.
(15:08):
And that might be you.
That might be your admin team,that might be your clinicians.
And so that's something to ifyou have a team, have a team
meeting on this and bring peoplearound.
Uh, send the podcast episode toyour team and have them listen
to it about the value andimportance of following up.
Um, telephone is significantlyoutperforms email conversions.
So if your admin is gettingsomebody in, having them call is
(15:30):
a lot better than emailing.
Um, only 2% of sales areactually made on that first
contact.
So we're following up, we'rechecking in, and really just
staying on top of them.
And then 50% of buyers choosefrom the person that responds
first.
So this kind of goes into themaking sure that we are being
timely with how quickly we'regetting back to people.
(15:50):
I know I'm I'm breezing throughthis because this one, if you go
to that episode on following up,episode 15, that's gonna give
you a lot of information.
We're talking today about whatto do when leads are down.
So, me telling you to try andhurry and respond quickly on new
leads, leads are down.
That's not the problem we'retrying to solve today.
Next, we're gonna review ourmarketing efforts.
How much are we spending on ads?
(16:10):
This is a great time, again,whether you want to review them
to see are they performing rightnow, or do we want to just take
some time because leads aredown?
We have some time on our plateto go through and to say, okay,
what's our ad spend?
How are they performing?
How is it is that money beingthe best spent the best way?
Do we want to up it?
Do we want to decrease it?
Do we want to try somethingdifferent?
(16:31):
How many leads have we receivedfrom those ads?
How many clients have closed?
So those are some key metricsthat we want to know.
From if you're running Facebookads, you should be knowing these
things.
I just talked about this withRoss on our last episode when it
comes to ads, some things thatyou should be getting from if
you have an ads manager is cost.
What are we spending?
How many leads have we gotten?
(16:51):
So usually it's clicks, how manypeople have clicked?
Uh, if it's Google Ads, howmany, how much have we spent?
What's the cost per click, orhow many people are actually
coming to the website, and thenhow many clients are closing as
a result, as best as we can see.
Not always as simple as aone-to-one, but typically we can
see a at least somewhat how manypeople are coming directly from
(17:12):
those ads and becoming clients.
Okay.
Um, and then how's our website?
How is your website performing?
Episode 12, if you go back tothat one, it talks about
websites that convert and a lotof great, great tips on how to
improve your website so that youcan get more clients from that
avenue, so that when people cometo your website, you're speaking
(17:33):
to them.
It's not just generalized, it'snot just all about you, it's
about them, their pain points,the thing they're struggling
with, and how you and your teamcan help.
That's going to show a hugedifference.
This would be if you see onGoogle Analytics that you're
getting a lot of traffic, butthey're just not converting.
Also, it might help with yourGoogle search if people are
searching the wrong things.
Maybe the people who are landingon your website are looking for
(17:55):
couples therapy and you don'tprovide couples therapy.
Or maybe they're looking for acertain type of physical therapy
and you don't provide that.
And so you're seeing, wow, wegot a lot of traffic, but no
one's converting.
It could be the wrong traffic.
And so, really going back andrevamping your website is a
great use of your time if youhave the capacity to do so right
now.
Psychology Today profile isanother one.
I have a few episodes, episodesfor 17 and 47.
(18:18):
We go through on some tips onhow to get more clients out of
your psychology today profile.
Um, so go and listen to thoseand see are you doing making
some of the common mistakes thatwe see on those profiles, making
some of those tweaks, and a lotof them are really easy and
quick.
By doing those, you can see ahuge uptick in some conversions
through that website as well.
And then finally, during thistime, um, you can review your
(18:41):
finances and your systems.
We can do an expense audit.
If leads are down, then you'reprobably feeling the financial
crunch.
You might need to temporarilycut back on some spending.
There's an easy exercise we callkeep cut trim.
That's where you create threecolumns and you put all your
expenses in one of the threecolumns.
Keep is this is an expense wehave to keep.
It can't go anywhere.
Cut is one we can get rid ofcompletely, even if it's
(19:02):
temporarily.
So, what are some expenses thatmaybe we can just cut out of the
books for now?
If we need to bring them back,we can.
That might be some softwares,that might be some different
things, that might be lunchesfor your team, whatever it is.
Uh, that might have to go to thewayside for a bit.
And then trim, what are someexpenses that maybe we can pull
back on?
Maybe that's marketing spend,which I know feels kind of
(19:23):
counterintuitive with leadsbeing down.
Maybe that's finding a lowertier subscription on something.
Maybe it's cutting down on whatwe're spending on coffee for the
office, whatever it is, trimmingdown our spending in certain
areas.
Sometimes this can beaccomplished just by even
looking and seeing is therecheaper alternatives to our
phone plan, to our billingservice, to fill in the blank.
(19:44):
You might be able to trim downwhat you're spending by
switching to a different companyor switching to a different plan
within the same company.
All right.
And then if you don't have aprofit first system set up,
episode two, uh, one of our mostpopular episodes is how to
transform your practice with theprofit first system.
This is a cash management systemthat you can implement into your
business to make sure that whenleads are down, when revenue is
(20:07):
down, your business is stillsustainable, that you still have
cash on hand, that you're stillable to pay your team, that
you're not living in day-to-daystress simply because the
revenue is down.
So check out that episode.
Or if you want some help gettingthat implemented, getting a
system in place so that that canbe a reality.
In the show notes, always wehave a link to talk to one of
our coaches, get some help.
(20:27):
We would love to talk to you andsee how we can help your
practice grow and becomefinancially stable.
Leads being down can be scary,but let's approach it with
curiosity.
Let's try some different thingsand remember it's maybe not your
fault, but it's your job, it'syour responsibility as the
business owner to get to thebottom of it and try and
pinpoint a way to increase thoseleads and grow your business.
(20:48):
Thanks for joining us on theTherapy Business Podcast.
Be sure to subscribe, leave areview, and share it with a
practice owner that you mayknow.
If your practice needs helpgetting organized with finances
or just growing your practice,head to therapybusinesspod.com
to learn how we can help.
My name is Craig, and I'm the owner of Daisy
Financial Coaching.
Our team is on a mission to makeyour therapy practice
permanently profitable.
If you want 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.
(00:24):
Now I know in the mental healthindustry, the summer slump is a
thing.
And so we've done a few episodeson combating the summer slump.
This is when during summermonths, leads tend to drop.
People are busy, clients arecanceling, business is just down
in general.
And so if you're listening tothis in the summertime, I
recommend going and checking outthat episode.
Because today we're going to betalking more in general about if
(00:48):
leads go down.
So listen to this first.
But if it's summertime afterthis one, go into the summer
slump on where we're going togive you some really specific
ideas for summertime and how tocombat that.
But I want to get into what ifleads slow down?
What if it's inexplainable, justout of nowhere?
Whether it's the economy,whether it's a number of things
that could be happening to causeleads to drop.
(01:10):
This happens to me throughoutthe year.
Now we have our traditionalsummer where leads will go down
a little bit.
And then we also have times ofthe year where just months here
and there where things are down.
In fact, usually the months ofAugust and September are really
good months for us as far asgetting lead intake because what
we look at as the second newyear, people are back into
(01:32):
routine with kids going back toschool.
And so they are starting torethink about their finances and
get back into that mindset.
However, this year, as I'mrecording this, our leads have
been down these past two months.
And I really don't know what thecause is.
I don't know how to explain it.
I can probably look at theeconomy, I can look at a bunch
of different things happeningwith uh politics and in the in
the country.
But at the end of the day, thosethings are out of my control.
(01:55):
What I need to do is find outwhat I can do as the business
owner to make sure that we aregetting leads in.
There's that saying that it'snot by my hand, but in my lap.
So maybe the fact that leads notcoming in right now, it's not
your fault.
It's not anything you're doingwrong, but it's still your
responsibility.
So it's not by your hand, but itis still in your lap.
(02:16):
It's still something that youneed to take by the horns, you
need to figure out, and you needto solve and do what you can to
get leads back up.
So the first thing I'm gonnaguide you through some steps,
some things you can be doing toone get to the bottom of it to
figure it out to startincreasing leads, and then two,
some ways you can utilize thistime.
Maybe if leads are down and youjust happen to find that you
(02:39):
have some extra time on yourcalendar, maybe that's a good
thing.
Maybe your business is in aplace where you're going, oh,
finally, like I'm not doingconsultation calls, I'm not
seeing so many clients, like Ihave some space to focus on
scaling and growth.
So the first thing we're gonnado is get to the bottom of it.
Why are leads slowing down?
Kind of what I alluded tobefore.
Is this seasonal?
(03:00):
Is this something that we canpinpoint that we can say, okay,
that is exactly why that'shappening?
We want to get to the bottom ofwhat is going on.
Is there another cause?
Again, is it out of our control?
Is our website having issues?
Do some investigating.
So if it feels like this isunusual, you're going, okay,
(03:21):
what is why is this wrong?
Start investigating.
You can go into your GoogleAnalytics.
So look at your Google Analyticsto see some website visits.
Has traffic been on par withwhat you would normally see?
You can look into Google SearchConsole.
Are people searching?
Are they finding you?
What is going on?
Are your ads performing?
If you're paying for ads, arethey performing as well as they
(03:42):
normally do?
Has your social media presencechanged?
Are your has social media itselfchanged?
So maybe your posts are notgetting as much organic reach as
they were before.
Look into a bunch of differentthings and see, okay, is there
something I can pinpoint thatmight be part of the reason we
are seeing a drop in leads?
Now, there's a that's going tobe an undertaking of itself.
(04:05):
And so again, approach it withcuriosity.
That's always my myrecommendation.
Because it can be kind offrustrating, it can be
stressful, it can be scary topull these things up, it can be
overwhelming.
Just go into it with curiosity.
Hmm.
Okay, interesting.
Our our website traffic is down,or our website traffic is fine,
but we're not getting as manyvisits to our contact page.
(04:27):
What's going on there?
Go to your website as apotential prospect and browse
it.
Click around, see what's goingon.
Maybe referral partners aren'treferring as many people to you.
We this happened with a clientone time where they realized
leads were down, and what wediscovered was the referral
partner who sends them a lot ofbusiness hadn't been referring
(04:47):
because they were on maternityleave.
And so the we I don't think theyhad realized how important they
were for lead generation, butthat referral partner was out,
and so all of a sudden the leadsdried up.
When they returned, leadsstarted kicking back up again.
And so just keeping in mind thatthat's kind of the curiosity,
the things that we can find iswhat could be the cause of this.
(05:08):
Is this something that we needto change?
Or in that case, is it justlike, okay, that's just gonna be
a temporary pause, but alsoprobably a concern for the
bigger picture if we are thatdependent on somebody else.
So keeping those pieces, goingin with curiosity, taking notes,
figuring out, okay, what aresome areas?
We are not doing this tooverhaul.
We are not going in andoverhauling our website.
(05:30):
If you go and see our websitevisits are down, we need to
change everything, or no one'svisiting our contact page,
that's it.
I'm gonna go spend 10 grand on awebsite redesign.
That's not always the answer.
We're going in just trying tosee could this be a piece of the
puzzle?
And at the end of the day,sometimes people just aren't
visiting the contact page.
Once again, maybe becausethey're just stressed and
(05:52):
overwhelmed about life and theworld, their finances, the
economy, all those things cancome into play.
They get on your website, theysee what you charge, and they
get scared.
So keep all those things in mindas you're looking.
Now, a quick tip on this is totrack the number of leads per
month and create a line graph inExcel.
So if you have some capacity, orif you have an admin, if you
(06:13):
haven't been tracking leads, gohave them go back and just say
how many intake forms, sowebsite forms, phone calls,
voicemails, emails, how many didwe get every month?
For we can look, I would say goback two, three years, and that
way we can compare.
What did if you do a line graphfor I'm recording this in 2025
and then you have 2024 and 2023?
(06:36):
What we can see is month overmonth, are we seeing the same
trends?
Is it spiking around the sametime?
Is it dropping around the sametime?
Most likely you're gonna see itdrop a little bit in the
summertime.
You're probably gonna see itspike around the beginning of
the year and around September.
That's just traditionally whatwe would see in this industry.
So keep that in mind and lookand just see is this drop
(06:58):
normal?
It's also gonna show someanomalies.
What we found doing this with aclient was it dropped in a month
where typically it spikes, andthat created an opportunity for
some curiosity.
What is going on that causedthis?
What caused the leads to dropall of a sudden right here?
So by tracking that and thenmoving forward, I would just
track it.
Have your admin at the end ofthe month, log it in the
(07:19):
spreadsheet, line graph willupdate, and then we can compare
year over year.
Are we starting to see thetrends change?
Are we starting to see themshift?
Is it and that gives us anopportunity to address it?
Now, once we have gotten curiousand tried to figure out what's
going on, you can make thetweaks if you feel like it is
necessary.
If you found, oh yeah, it turnsout that our contact page was
(07:40):
broken and it was sending peopleto a 404 or the form wasn't
working.
That's an easy fix.
You fix it, leads shouldhopefully tick back up.
If you get to the point whereyou're going, okay, maybe some
minor tweaks, but nothing stoodout as crazy, or it turns out
that it's it might just be, onceagain, an economy thing.
It might just be a whatever inthe world is going on that
(08:02):
people are not reaching outnearly as much.
Well, then we can go through thenext phase, and that is
follow-up.
This is where you go throughyour pipeline and you are
proactive about seeking peopleout.
We're not cold calling.
That's not what I'm recommendinghere.
What I'm recommending isreaching out to the people who
reached out to you in the past.
I'm willing to bet, unless youare just one of the few who is
(08:25):
super good at this, I'm willingto bet that you aren't following
up as much as you should.
I would say nine out of tenclinicians, therapists, PTs that
I meet with, when we talk abouttheir process of when a client
reaches out for help, it's maybethey reach out through the
website, you have an admin,email them or or call them.
(08:47):
And if if you get them on thephone, then maybe you have a
conversation and try and getthem booked.
But if they don't answer, it'san email and it's a voicemail,
or or it's a voicemail.
Usually it's rare that it'sboth.
And then that's it.
And if the person never getsback to you, then that that lead
is gone.
Maybe they follow up one moretime, but what I've found is so
(09:07):
many people are falling throughthe cracks.
When I was going through myprocess of finding a therapist,
it was so incrediblyoverwhelming that I was almost
afraid to get on call.
I didn't want to call thembecause I didn't, I didn't want
to talk to them.
I was I was so overwhelmed withthe process, the idea of it, the
(09:28):
can I afford it?
Uh, what's it gonna be like?
Is this it's just kind of ascary thing to be going through.
And that's likely what yourclients or your prospects are
going through.
And so when you reach out tothem, it's a they see the email
response, hey, it's Craig.
Um, let's schedule a call tosee, blah, blah, blah.
Here's my link, book a call now.
Like, I'll do that later, right?
(09:50):
That overwhelm, that fight orflight.
It's the we're gonna push thatto the side out of out of mind,
and um, I'll I'll circle backwhenever I'm in the right
headspace.
Uh, maybe they reached out inthe middle of the night while
they were incredibly stressedand anxious, and now they're
feeling a little bit better, andthey're like, Okay, cool, uh,
yeah, I'll get to that when Ican.
And they just never do.
(10:10):
It is in our company, we don'tgive up on people.
That's one of our values.
So, what that means for us is ifyou reach out to us for help,
we're not gonna give up on you.
Unless you at some point say, Weare not interested, we don't
need help anymore.
Please stop, please stopfollowing up.
We're gonna stay on you.
(10:31):
And that's because exactly whatI just talked about.
Somebody may have reached out tous for help at one in the
morning when they couldn't sleepbecause their stomach was in
knots because payroll was duethe next day and they didn't
have enough money to pay it.
And then they wake up, theymaybe they are able to figure it
out, and the pain point is notas prominent, but they're still
(10:51):
in trouble.
Or maybe they're embarrassed, ormaybe they wake up and they just
get that clear mind, or they'rejust the same thing I was
talking about, too scared to geton a call.
We're not gonna give up on them.
They raise their hand saying, Ineed help.
Something needs to change, andit's our responsibility as the
people who know how to help themto make sure that they're
getting the help, whether that'swith us or with somebody else.
And that is our main goal.
(11:12):
When we get a response fromsomebody, uh after maybe it's
after been a few months and theyfind like they finally respond
like, hey, thank you so much forfollowing up.
We actually were able to figurethis out, or we hired somebody,
or we did X, Y, and Z.
Things are a lot better now.
That is a win for us.
We are thrilled, we celebrate itas a team.
It is just that is fantastic.
(11:33):
That's what we want.
We want them to get the helpthey want.
Now, as a business owner, weobviously want we want to be the
ones helping people, but that'skind of the byproduct.
Our goal is that people gethelp, that business owners are
no longer stressed aboutfinances, that therapy practices
are no longer worried about themoney and they can focus on what
they want to do, whether that'sthrough us or through someone
else.
(11:53):
So it's our job not to give upon people.
So, what I would recommend isgoing through your list of old
leads.
It can be years old.
That's okay.
Go through that list.
And since you just had youradmin, go back and, or maybe you
yourself, if you're a solopractice owner, went back and
counted leads.
Now we're gonna take those andwe're going to reach out to
them.
Those people who have beenreaching out to us that didn't
(12:16):
turn into anything.
And you can send out just asimple email and feel free to
write it exactly like this.
Hey, first name, it's been Xdays, months, years since you
reached out through our website.
Have you been able to get somehelp?
If they outlined a pain point,if they outlined something, um,
couples therapy, whatever it is,it's it's been six months since
(12:37):
you reached out through ourwebsite for help with your
marriage, whatever.
Have you been able to get somehelp?
It's just a simple follow-up.
And then moving forward, followup with them regularly.
If you want to let them know youwill, I will circle back in a
week or two if I haven't heardfrom you.
And then put them in a rhythm offollow-up.
We have a whole episode on afollow-up process that I
(12:59):
recommend using.
Uh, go back through ourepisodes, find that, listen to
it.
It's gonna guide you through howto convert more clients just by
simply following up.
It's better to do this on yournext lead.
And that's what that episode isgonna help most with is the next
time you get a lead, making surethey don't become somebody who
just gets dropped to thewayside, that you stay on top of
(13:20):
them, and you're gonna start tosee a higher conversion rate
just by simply following upmore.
The standard is between eightand twelve touch points before a
lead becomes a client.
That is the average in sales,the industry average is between
eight and twelve touch points.
That means you connecting withthem in some capacity eight to
(13:41):
twelve times.
The typical practice does one tothree, three being a lot, and
that is responding to theiremail, maybe leaving them a
voicemail, and that's usuallywhere it ends.
Maybe they follow up one moretime.
So if you can up that in thefirst 30 days they reach out to
you, if you can talk, try andreach out to them 10 to 12 times
(14:03):
in that first 30 days, you'regonna see a drastic, drastic
improvement.
And I promise you, I know someof you are hearing this going,
oh my gosh, that's a lot.
I don't want to bug thesepeople, I don't want to bother
them.
I've found I would much ratherannoy 10 people by reaching out
too much if one person comesback and says, Thank you so much
(14:23):
for not giving up on me, whichhappens all the time.
It's worth it to me.
I will annoy some people whojust say, Stop contacting me, or
who just keep deleting my emailsbecause they don't want to read
them.
I will risk that in order to getpeople the help that they want
because we don't give up onpeople.
All right.
Now, like I said, we're gonna gothrough, you can revamp your
follow-up process.
That is episode 15 if you wantto go back and find that one.
(14:46):
Um, I went through somestatistics on what that looks
like for the follow-up sequence,but there is a lot of different
statistics that I find really,really fascinating in this
realm.
Um, only 12% of people make morethan three attempts.
That's what I told you.
Uh, most people are under threeattempts and following up.
Um, 44% of people give up afterjust one follow-up.
(15:08):
And that might be you.
That might be your admin team,that might be your clinicians.
And so that's something to ifyou have a team, have a team
meeting on this and bring peoplearound.
Uh, send the podcast episode toyour team and have them listen
to it about the value andimportance of following up.
Um, telephone is significantlyoutperforms email conversions.
So if your admin is gettingsomebody in, having them call is
(15:30):
a lot better than emailing.
Um, only 2% of sales areactually made on that first
contact.
So we're following up, we'rechecking in, and really just
staying on top of them.
And then 50% of buyers choosefrom the person that responds
first.
So this kind of goes into themaking sure that we are being
timely with how quickly we'regetting back to people.
(15:50):
I know I'm I'm breezing throughthis because this one, if you go
to that episode on following up,episode 15, that's gonna give
you a lot of information.
We're talking today about whatto do when leads are down.
So, me telling you to try andhurry and respond quickly on new
leads, leads are down.
That's not the problem we'retrying to solve today.
Next, we're gonna review ourmarketing efforts.
How much are we spending on ads?
(16:10):
This is a great time, again,whether you want to review them
to see are they performing rightnow, or do we want to just take
some time because leads aredown?
We have some time on our plateto go through and to say, okay,
what's our ad spend?
How are they performing?
How is it is that money beingthe best spent the best way?
Do we want to up it?
Do we want to decrease it?
Do we want to try somethingdifferent?
(16:31):
How many leads have we receivedfrom those ads?
How many clients have closed?
So those are some key metricsthat we want to know.
From if you're running Facebookads, you should be knowing these
things.
I just talked about this withRoss on our last episode when it
comes to ads, some things thatyou should be getting from if
you have an ads manager is cost.
What are we spending?
How many leads have we gotten?
(16:51):
So usually it's clicks, how manypeople have clicked?
Uh, if it's Google Ads, howmany, how much have we spent?
What's the cost per click, orhow many people are actually
coming to the website, and thenhow many clients are closing as
a result, as best as we can see.
Not always as simple as aone-to-one, but typically we can
see a at least somewhat how manypeople are coming directly from
(17:12):
those ads and becoming clients.
Okay.
Um, and then how's our website?
How is your website performing?
Episode 12, if you go back tothat one, it talks about
websites that convert and a lotof great, great tips on how to
improve your website so that youcan get more clients from that
avenue, so that when people cometo your website, you're speaking
(17:33):
to them.
It's not just generalized, it'snot just all about you, it's
about them, their pain points,the thing they're struggling
with, and how you and your teamcan help.
That's going to show a hugedifference.
This would be if you see onGoogle Analytics that you're
getting a lot of traffic, butthey're just not converting.
Also, it might help with yourGoogle search if people are
searching the wrong things.
Maybe the people who are landingon your website are looking for
(17:55):
couples therapy and you don'tprovide couples therapy.
Or maybe they're looking for acertain type of physical therapy
and you don't provide that.
And so you're seeing, wow, wegot a lot of traffic, but no
one's converting.
It could be the wrong traffic.
And so, really going back andrevamping your website is a
great use of your time if youhave the capacity to do so right
now.
Psychology Today profile isanother one.
I have a few episodes, episodesfor 17 and 47.
(18:18):
We go through on some tips onhow to get more clients out of
your psychology today profile.
Um, so go and listen to thoseand see are you doing making
some of the common mistakes thatwe see on those profiles, making
some of those tweaks, and a lotof them are really easy and
quick.
By doing those, you can see ahuge uptick in some conversions
through that website as well.
And then finally, during thistime, um, you can review your
(18:41):
finances and your systems.
We can do an expense audit.
If leads are down, then you'reprobably feeling the financial
crunch.
You might need to temporarilycut back on some spending.
There's an easy exercise we callkeep cut trim.
That's where you create threecolumns and you put all your
expenses in one of the threecolumns.
Keep is this is an expense wehave to keep.
It can't go anywhere.
Cut is one we can get rid ofcompletely, even if it's
(19:02):
temporarily.
So, what are some expenses thatmaybe we can just cut out of the
books for now?
If we need to bring them back,we can.
That might be some softwares,that might be some different
things, that might be lunchesfor your team, whatever it is.
Uh, that might have to go to thewayside for a bit.
And then trim, what are someexpenses that maybe we can pull
back on?
Maybe that's marketing spend,which I know feels kind of
(19:23):
counterintuitive with leadsbeing down.
Maybe that's finding a lowertier subscription on something.
Maybe it's cutting down on whatwe're spending on coffee for the
office, whatever it is, trimmingdown our spending in certain
areas.
Sometimes this can beaccomplished just by even
looking and seeing is therecheaper alternatives to our
phone plan, to our billingservice, to fill in the blank.
(19:44):
You might be able to trim downwhat you're spending by
switching to a different companyor switching to a different plan
within the same company.
All right.
And then if you don't have aprofit first system set up,
episode two, uh, one of our mostpopular episodes is how to
transform your practice with theprofit first system.
This is a cash management systemthat you can implement into your
business to make sure that whenleads are down, when revenue is
(20:07):
down, your business is stillsustainable, that you still have
cash on hand, that you're stillable to pay your team, that
you're not living in day-to-daystress simply because the
revenue is down.
So check out that episode.
Or if you want some help gettingthat implemented, getting a
system in place so that that canbe a reality.
In the show notes, always wehave a link to talk to one of
our coaches, get some help.
(20:27):
We would love to talk to you andsee how we can help your
practice grow and becomefinancially stable.
Leads being down can be scary,but let's approach it with
curiosity.
Let's try some different thingsand remember it's maybe not your
fault, but it's your job, it'syour responsibility as the
business owner to get to thebottom of it and try and
pinpoint a way to increase thoseleads and grow your business.
(20:48):
Thanks for joining us on theTherapy Business Podcast.
Be sure to subscribe, leave areview, and share it with a
practice owner that you mayknow.
If your practice needs helpgetting organized with finances
or just growing your practice,head to therapybusinesspod.com
to learn how we can help.
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