If there was a magic, one-size-fits-all approach to caseload growth, it would be as simple as pushing a few buttons, installing a few applications and enjoying a 6-figure practice.
This isn’t how it works in any field, but with therapy, the nuances and differences between practices are amplified even further.
The techniques used to properly fill a caseload with good-fit clients vary dramatically, depending on:
1. The modalities in use
2. The demographics one works best with
3. The market – Urban? Suburban? Rural?
4. Brick and mortar practice? Any remote / telemental sessions?
5. Individual practice? Small Group? Large Group? Agency?
These are just some of the differentiating factors, not to mention if the practitioner is also performing remote / telemental sessions
Having said this, when executed correctly, there are known-good strategies that ensure potential clients in the surrounding area find you – consistently. These strategies simply need to be tailored to the makeup of the individual practice.
After all, therapy is a relationship-based industry, not service-based. The practice owner and their ability to help a specific group (or groups) of people is the “product”.
After growing over 1,000 practices like we have, you begin to take such knowledge for granted. It’s a good reminder to recall where we were when we started – the illusion of “common knowledge” falsehoods and how they fade away with experience.
One classic example of such a falsehood is a therapist in a rural area thinking their area doesn’t contain enough potential clients, while a therapist in an urban area thinking they have too much competition.
The actual issue in both cases is simple – no one ever taught the practitioner how to market. Grad school doesn’t cover how to grow, how to run your own practice, and how to find the clients that need you. Any such training was minimal, if present at all.
When you only need 20-30 sessions a week to enjoy a full caseload and $8,000 – $12,000 a month, how large of a population segment is that? Just 30 people? In an area of tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands (or millions)? It’s a drop in the bucket mathematically.
As such, the lesson is – quite a bit goes into into growing a practice beyond the simple “Lets just pass out cards and get my name out there for the next five years”, but any and all strategies have to be tailored to the individual. Failure to do so will result in subpar performance and possibly the failure of the practice itself.
If you’re interested in having a proper assessment to see how the many available growth strategies would be applied in your specific situation, click here.
-Victor