How Not To Fill Your Couples Retreat

As I said, I’m making my way through David Diana’s book Marketing for the Mental Health Professional and I’m really enjoying it. Not only am I slow reader but I also have three or four books on the go at any one time – some fiction, something for professional development, David’s book (of course!) and the Sunday papers keep me going for most of week.

I’ve reached the end of the first section and David raises some excellent points about encouraging us to move away from the selling process and become part of buying process. He urges us to think about creating a shift where people seek us out to buy what we’re selling and develop a customer-focused sales model. He speaks about focusing on our customers’ needs and learning how to sell the way people want to buy ie; by offering solutions and not simply features.

I raise this not only because I promised to review the book for you but because I had an interesting conversation with a friend who’s been looking for a therapist. He raised the subject with me to ask for my help to find someone as the first therapist he met with disappointed. I asked if he’d be willing to say why. Apart from anything else, it seemed like a good learning opportunity for me!

He said what put him off was that this therapist was the way they enthusiastically recommended he and his partner attend a couples retreat in Europe over the summer. In the very first session while my friend was tentatively trying to introduce what had got him to the point of seeking therapy. Feeling vulnerable, feeling nervous. We both agreed you couldn’t really have picked a less inappropriate moment to pitch a couples retreat you’re organising.

Now, obviously I don’t have an issue with therapists organising couples retreats, I think it’s a great idea. It’s the way it’s being sold I have a problem with. There’s a phrase I’ve heard which goes like this – People LOVE to buy, but they HATE to be sold. What was going on for my friend here was that he was feeling sold. He also felt he was being sold in his very first session with someone who could have been potentially been his therapist.

Re-read what I wrote at the beginning of this post. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

The sales process that happened in this example is nothing like what David outlines. Was this customer focused? Was it what the client wanted? No. This therapist ended up not only failing to recruit someone into her couples’ retreat, they also failed to welcome a new client into their practice.

Here’s a tip from David’s book that might have helped – A distinguishing skill of top performing sales professionals is their ability to ask thoughtful questions of prospects. As mental health professionals, we should have a clear advantage on this one, we should and can use our skills to listen to customer needs and ask questions that get to the core of their wants.