I once played babysitter for a day. When my good friend had to leave for a sudden business trip, he reached out to me to take care of its two kids for the day. Sarah and James are pretty noisy, and each has a voracious appetite..

spend moreIt’s no surprise that we landed up at McDonald’s to feed Sarah’s never-ending sweet tooth. While fumbling in my pocket to pay for the two chocolate milk shakes, I was asked, “Would you like fries with that?”. The bill went from $3.99 to $5.49.

I just witnessed a 37% increase in revenue for McDonald’s, based on a simple yet unhealthy sales strategy. This single phrase adds millions of dollars to the McDonald’s bottom-line each year.

That got me thinking. Why don’t we as physical therapists and fitness professionals up sell our physical therapy business services and generate additional revenue?

After all, our physical therapy business services promote health and human function. Shouldn’t we be the ones ‘up selling’?

In a competitive economy like this one, clinics have to find a way to get more patients, or increase revenue per visit. Given the dual problem of declining reimbursements and fierce competition, it can get quite challenging to bring in more patients.

With some of the strategies mentioned in this article, you may not need to add a high volume of patients to your caseload. If a clinic can find ways to increase revenue by $10-$20 per patient, the jump in the bottom line can add up.

Traditionally, patients have been unwilling to spend anything beyond their copay. It’s not because the patient’s don’t want to buy our value-added services, we just need to learn how to sell such services to them!

In many cases, the patient is likely to invest about $10-$15, when presented with a cash-based service that has a high perceived value. You can also increase your clinic’s revenue using package deals and extended payment plans.

The patients who come to you already have faith in you and your services. In fact, they are already in a buying mode.

As a therapist, all you have to do is to provide them with what they need and at the right time.

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