We’re here for part two of the four levers of practice growth. At the last conference I spoke at, I was asked, “What is the #1 blind spot most practice owners have?”
My answer was their intake department.
If I’m shooting straight with you, most practices have a pretty terrible intake and sales process—AND they think they are totally fine. This isn’t a jab—it’s just what we’ve seen across hundreds of practices. It’s the second of the four critical levers we coach on because if your intake system isn’t dialed in, it doesn’t matter how many leads you generate. You’ll leak opportunity before a client ever steps into the therapy room.
Let’s dive into how to fix that.
Intake as a Lever
Ever had a kid come up to you and show you a drawing they did? They have pride and energy and think it’s just incredible!
By kid standards, it is! In the world of art—it has a long way to go.
I wish I had a better analogy for what’s happening with most intake departments, but honestly, that sums it up pretty well.
Most practice owners think they have a top-notch process. But they don’t. And they don’t even know what it should be because they’ve never seen it in action.
Intake as Sales
I didn’t start my career in the world of therapy. Instead, I worked in sales and marketing jobs.
I worked for the Chicago Tribune for a while, and my annual goal as a sales rep was to generate more than $800K in new business.
To do this, I got my actions down to a science:
- How many phone calls I needed to make each day
- How many pitches I needed to send out
- How many follow-ups I needed to do
- How many new deals I would then close each month
Then—how much my commission would be? How much I would make for every phone call I made.
I was able to draw a straight line between how many phone calls I made each day and how much my take-home pay would be.
I share this because intake success is BOTH a numbers game and a quality-of-content game. Most practices do not create clear metrics for the actions their team should be taking, nor do they audit and improve the quality of their content.
Intake Success Recommendations
1. Live Answer Calls & Call Leads Back Within 5 Minutes
This recommendation is not a popular one. It’s hard to do, feels operationally time- and money-intensive, and seems pointless when so many other practices are having “success” with normal callbacks and follow-ups.
It’s not the right move for every practice, but all studies show—and data from our practices confirm—that those who live answer have an astronomically higher conversion rate than those who just do follow-ups.
2. Script Everything and Role-Play
Make sure all your emails, texts, and phone calls are scripted and written down. Then, measure the reply and open rates of messages and role-play the phone scripts.
Most practice owners and intake teams don’t audit live calls or role-play their phone calls.
If you want your team to improve, you must do this consistently.
3. Create Time Blocks
Your intake team should have a daily outbound time block.
This means that any day they work, they have a 1–2 hour period completely dedicated to lead follow-up. Here’s the thing—it doesn’t take very long to return 10 calls and send 10 emails.
But if you scatter those actions in between everything else, things will drop off, and actions won’t happen.
I also know that no one wants to make that 2nd, 3rd, or 4th call follow-up on leads. This is the spot where your team pushes in and does the hard work.
4. Fire Underperforming Admin but Train for High Performance
Many businesses (not just therapy practices) have really terrible admin…
It’s often not the admin’s fault, though. Typically, they exist in an environment where they were handed a job, told what tasks to do, and left to their own devices after that.
Ask yourself, “Do I invest in the performance and management of my admin every day/week?”
Every employee, of any type, needs weekly investment. Your admin needs structure, feedback, clarity, encouragement, and more—all from you (or their manager if you’re bigger).
Need help defining what this looks like? Last year, I did a training on leveling up your front office—[Access it here]
If, after properly investing and managing your admin, they are still underperforming, fire fast. You can’t fire without doing your part first; otherwise, your next admin will struggle in the same ways.
Don’t hold on to bad team members who refuse to follow a great process, be detail-oriented, and help your practice grow.
Intake Close Ratio
If you’re noticing a gap between how many inquiries you get and how many actually become clients, your intake system is a great place to look.
For most practices, intake is a blind spot. But it’s also one of the biggest levers you can pull to drive growth.
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