Sales Funnel for Therapists: Step-by-Step Guide
Practice owners need a sales funnel if they want to stand out from the competition and grow their practice. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to start building out your sales funnel.
Table Of Contents
1. What is a Sales Funnel?
2. The Curiosity Stage
3. The Enlightenment Stage
4. The Commitment Stage
5. Why is Branding So Important?
What do practice owners want? As practice owners, you want a predictable pipeline of new client leads coming to your practice.
The problem is that many practice owners don’t have a sales funnel or a marketing system. And, they don’t have one that consistently drives those new client leads to their practice.
Or you might have a sales funnel, but it’s broken and you don’t know how to fix it.
Even worse, marketing today isn’t easy. Showing up on page 1 of Google has been really necessary for a lot of practice owners in the past 15 years. However, there’s a lot more competition now.
People have wised up to SEO, along with big directory websites like Psychology Today, Thriveworks, and Good Therapy. And you have telehealth companies like BetterHealth, Headspace, and Talkspace.
All of these companies are doing their own SEO work, and you’re getting pushed lower and lower down on Google. So the reality is now more than ever, practice owners need a powerful sales funnel that incorporates both digital and organic marketing strategies and for your website to be working for you 24/7 as your top sales agent. And this is the reality for most practice owners today.
If you don’t have a sales funnel, you won’t grow.
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What is a Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel is a marketing strategy that guides potential clients and customers through a series of steps with the end goal of converting them into paying clients.
3 Major Stages of a Sales Funnel
The sales funnel includes 3 major stages: the curiosity stage, the enlightenment stage, and the commitment stage.
In the curiosity stage, the client is asking, “Can you solve my problem?” In the enlightenment stage of the funnel, if they answer yes, the client will move down and they will consume more of your content because they are now asking, “Can I trust you?”
And this is really important for mental health because they are asking, “Can I trust you with the most intimate details of my life?” So your website specifically has to be creating trust.
And if they say, “yes, you can solve my problem and I trust you to do that.” This leads them to the commitment stage, which is the take my money stage.
3 Main Assets to a Sales Funnel
Under the umbrella of the major stages, there are typically three main assets included in a sales funnel.
One is your brand message. These are the words that you use to talk about the problems you solve for your clients.
The second is your homepage and website. You need a well designed, scannable website, with not a ton of text. People come to your website because they have a problem, and you have to convince them that you’re the one to solve it.
The third is a lead generator (or lead magnet) and an email campaign. A lead generator is a free resource that you give away, to capture somebody’s email address, and then you can nurture that relationship on autopilot through an email campaign.
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The Curiosity Stage of Your Sales Funnel
Starting the the first stage of a sales funnel, the curiosity stage is about peaking the potential client’s interest by answering their most pressing questions about the problems they’re trying to solve. If you can succinctly and clearly answer the question, can you solve my problem?, then you’ve hooked the potential client.
Your Brand Message
So what is a brand message? A brand message is sort of like a movie script. No movie is created without a script. The screenplay provides the words that will give the directions for the movie.
Where is the action? Where’s the mystery? Where’s the suspense? Scripts also detail how many actors you’ll need. It provides guidance and inspiration on set design, location shooting, costume design, and what type of lighting that might be needed, even props.
Producers will not hire directors or actors, set designers, anybody until they have a script. It all starts with the words.
Imagine what it would be like to create a movie if you didn’t have a script. You’d just be working backwards. It’d be an absolute disaster.
Your Homepage
So many practice owners will create a website without having a clear brand message, and what happens is you have confusing websites.
Using the grunt test from Donald Miller, the idea is that you have 5 seconds for someone to be able to grunt out like a caveman. The questions your homepage answers should be as simple as:
- What does your practice do?
- How can you help the client?
- And how can they get started with counseling?
You have 5 seconds or less to answer those questions. If you don’t do that, you will confuse potential clients and they will bounce away from your website.
Using Kid Matters Counseling as an example:
- What does your practice do? We’re a child therapist counseling children ages 2 to 12.
- How can you help? There’s less anxiety and worry. Manage big emotions and confidently parent your child.
- How do I get started? Schedule an appointment.
Pro Tip: Have happy smiley people on your website that reflect what transformation looks like for your client.
Your SEO
At the end of the day, what you should really focus on is your Google Business Profile. It’s really good for your SEO and it’s easy to get it going.
If your business name doesn’t have “counseling” or “therapy” in it, that is a keyword that is a ranking factor for your Google business profile.
An easy way to up your SEO is to create DBA’s that include those keywords. Use them in your Google Business Profile and on your website so that when potential clients search “counseling near me”, “therapist near me”, or “marriage therapist near me”, it ensures that your practice will show up.
Turn Your Website Into a 24/7 Selling Machine!
The Enlightenment Stage of Your Sales Funnel
During the enlightenment stage in the sales funnel, the potential client will consume more content to understand how you can help solve their problem. But ultimately they’re asking, can I trust you?
Your Website
Again, your website serves as the backbone of your sales funnel and will be the primary driver to move clients from the lightning stage and eventually down into the commitment stage.
And there are 6 ways your website can primarily accomplish this:
- Blog
Have a blog of some sort. Write blogs about the problems you solve for people. A blog is a great way to show your expertise and build that trust.
- Video
Video is the fastest way for someone to know, like, and trust you. You want your website to be your top sales agent.
People shop for their therapists like they do Amazon products. A good video will attract your ideal client and repel those who aren’t your ideal client.
You should have at least 3 videos on your website:
- A homepage video. This is a quick video to tell what you practice does and who it helps.
- Individual clinician videos. Each one of your clinicians has a brand by using their clinical skills.
- A thank you video. This is used after someone submits a form, either a general submission form, or when scheduling an appointment, that highlights the next steps they can expect when seeking help.
- Ebook
An ebook is a digital version of a traditional book. Ebooks can include text, images, or both, and are designed to be read on electronic devices like computers, tablets, smartphones, or dedicated e-readers.
Consider creating a mini-ebook as a lead generator (or lead magnet) to give away in exchange for client email addresses.
- Lead Generator
A lead generator starts as a pop up on your website. Even though you might be annoyed by pop ups, they do work.
You’ll want your lead gen to be weighty. Give your potential clients something that builds trust. Think of it as a very long blog post. Include a checklist, resources, tips, and any other valuable information.
Need Lead Generator ideas? Check out our Top AI Tools to help you create content!
- Reviews
Again, people shop for their therapists like Amazon products. And when you shop Amazon products, you look for how many stars a product has and then you compare it to how many reviews are associated with those stars and then you start shopping, right?
People will do the same thing. So reviews are important. Ask other colleagues, friends, and even family members to leave you a Google review.
- Email Newsletter
An email newsletter, or a branded newsletter, is a regular communication sent to a subscribed audience. It typically features new blog posts or tips, new hires, or valuable content.
Again, it will include content that helps clients solve problems that they are experiencing, And if you consistently do this and personalize that communication, you’re building that trust.
Get This Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing for Your Practice!
The Commitment Stage of Your Sales Funnel
The final stage is the commitment stage. This is the “take my money stage”, so you want to make it as easy as possible for someone to be able to schedule an appointment or get started.
You would be surprised at how many websites don’t have a call to action button that says “schedule appointment” or “schedule a consultation”. People need to be told what to do. Give them that simple step.
So give them a simple and clear call to action button. Either “call us to schedule”, or “fill out this form to schedule”.
Why is Branding So Important For Your Sales Funnel?
There are three stages of where people go when a problem arises:
- The first stage is being problem aware (My marriage is in trouble)
- The second stage is solution aware (I need marriage counseling)
- The final stage is brand aware (Thrive Marriage Counseling helps couples)
So that’s why a sales funnel is important because it builds that trust in that brand awareness.
That’s the power of branding, and it’s why companies spend so much money on branding.
You have to create a clear brand message, design a simple and clear website, and develop a lead generator to capture emails and nurture the relationship. Then you can use marketing channels to scale to the moon.
People will recommend your services if they trust you, and people will buy your services if they trust you. And a sales funnel is the most effective way to build that trust.