Networking, Marketing & Referrals: Tips, Information & Encouragement for Filling Up Your Practice1/25/2020 When the vacation or holidays are over, it's time to focus again, and get back to work. I bet you could use some tips, inspiration, and encouragement to get your networking and marketing going so that you can fill your practice. So, let’s get right to it! 1. Set Aside Time for Networking and Marketing. Tip: Track what’s working and then do more of it—repeat what works. Quit what doesn’t work or work well enough. 2. Networking is simply making professional friends and acquaintances. Don’t wait for opportunities to come to you, make yourself targeted opportunities. When going to a networking event or a lunch or meeting, decide on your networking goals before you arrive: Who do you want to meet and talk with? How many new people do you want to get to know? Tip: Read How I Came to View Networking Events as Social Meetups Tip: Make list of 10 contacts you want to meet—people you want to know or be known by in your community. Then find ways to meet and develop mutually beneficial relationships with them. Tip: Find others who might be in contact with or serving your ideal client from other professions; find allied professionals who serve your client population or ideal client. Get to know them and let them get to know you, the services you offer, and the type of work you do. 3. Marketing is what you do to help clients—and referral sources—find you, and to get clients coming to you instead of you running after them. Remember that people are not going to look hard to find you or to find out more about you. Make it easy for them. Tip: Follow the Two Golden Rules of Therapist Marketing: 1.) Make the act of marketing energy producing instead of energy draining; 2.) Only do marketing activities that fit for you, your client population, your type of practice or service—and ALWAYS within legal & ethical guidelines. Tip: When clients go to your website, directory listing, and social media pages, what they are really looking for is: Who are you? What can you do for me? How can I contact you? Make sure your content on your website, directory listing, and social media pages addresses that. Tip: To market effectively, you need to know two things: what you offer and who needs what you offer. Think about what you want to be known for, the treatment options you want to be known for, and the target populations you want to attract as clients. Share this content in a way that will get it—and you and your practice—noticed and that will help you build your practice. 3. Referrals: Don’t just rely upon clients, friends, colleagues or potential referral sources to automatically know that you welcome their referrals. It’s up to you to let them know and to educate them about who are good referrals for you and your practice. Tip: Directly mention that you welcome referrals by using a brief, and thoughtfully scripted, phrase or statement. This can produce significant results for your practice. You can say things like:
Okay, reading time is up. Now it’s time to get out there and increase your visibility in the community so that your new clients can find you when they need you! Happy practice-filling.
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Getting Paid: Talking with Clients About the Price & Value of Therapy is the first article in the Getting Paid: Talking with Clients About Money Matters Series:.
There’s a lot of interest lately in addressing the issue of the amount of money clients pay, or don’t pay, per session for therapy. The truth is that, as a profession, we as therapists often undercharge, and are underpaid, for the therapy services we deliver. Fortunately, this seems to be changing as people are becoming more aware of the value of the therapy that therapists provide—and what therapy actually costs to provide. So, what is the therapy that mental health professionals provide worth to clients and in marketplace? Overall during money conversations when the price of therapy comes up, we, as therapists, need to focus on increasing people's perception of the value of the therapy services clients receive instead of routinely just dropping our fees. When clients, or prospective clients, bring up the cost of therapy services during the intake or pre-therapy conversation we have, it’s up to each of us, in our therapeutic role, to engage the client in conversation about what they actually need and can benefit from in therapy. This helps the client think through and justify paying the session rate, or continue to pay the session rate, we charge for therapy. It’s what we do in every other conversation with clients. Money matters are no different. Yes, in these money conversations the therapist’s role, or clinical task, is to help the client clarify the value of the therapy and services they need and the results or benefits that therapy can or has delivered to their lives and relationships. Helping clients look at what they benefit or gain from, don’t have to suffer, or will heal from because they are coming to therapy is an important part of these conversations when clients become over-focused on the price or cost of therapy services. It’s not just about the money or the price of therapy services, it’s part of the therapy itself. It’s definitely part of our clinical role to help client think through what they need or are coming to or are seeking therapy for and the results and benefits therapy is providing to them or can provide. When the therapist has this type of clinical client interaction, clients will often hire the therapist or continue coming to therapy even when the therapy costs more than what they originally wanted to pay or thought they could afford. Remember that clients are paying for the value and benefits that therapy provides for them, not the time—and clients want a price, a number, they can justify paying. One that’s commensurate with the service and benefits they receive and need. Do you get paid for your time or your expertise? Remember, professionals get paid for their expertise instead of for their time. Charge for your expertise and the value you provide, not just for your time. Convey to your clients that they pay for your expertise, not just for your time. Clients often forget this when they focus on money and numbers. People will pay in full and out-of-pocket for your therapy services if they see you as a trained professional and an expert who can give them or help them get what they want. The most common question I receive in my Money Matters workshops and practice coaching is how to respond when a client says, “I can’t afford that,” “I can’t pay that,” “I don’t want to pay that” or “I don’t know how I could pay that.” Good responses to “I can’t afford it” are clinically based. Work with clients, or converse with prospective clients, to find out how they could pay that amount—what it would take or what they would need to/could do to make that happen. Treat the issues that come up in these client money conversations the same way you’d treat any other client issue. Maintain your therapeutic stance and approach as you work with the client and their issues during the money conversation. Yes, I am recommending that you address client fee and payment issues as clinical issues. Maintaining your therapeutic role or position and confidently taking charge of money conversations works—and is therapeutic for the client. Focus on the value, cost, and worth of the therapy service to the client and their life. A client will pay for that. Clients do pay for that. Be sure to keep the focus of your interaction on the client paying for services they need and receive not on what the therapist gets or how much the therapist charges. Remember: a client doesn’t “give you money,” a client pays for services rendered. The client is not in charge of determining much therapy costs, the therapist is. I wish you the best in your client money conversations. They are always adventures! |
Lynne Azpeitia, LMFTFor 10+ years Lynne Azpeitia has helped therapists to live richer and happier lives through her workshops, private practice and career coaching, and her practice consultation groups which train, support, and coach licensed therapists, interns & students how to create and maintain a successful, thriving clinical practice and a profitable career Archives
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