Prognosis Over Price: A Simple Hack to Boost Sales Conversions

In this solo episode, Doc Danny Matta unpacks one of the most common struggles in cash-based PT: helping staff (and owners) get comfortable with sales. Drawing from years of coaching, Danny shares a simple “prognosis-first” approach that removes the stress around money and makes closing plans of care natural and effective.

Episode Summary

• The sales hurdle: Many clinicians (especially new grads) struggle with money conversations.

• Danny’s early mistakes: Starting at $175/session, no packages, offering weak 3-visit plans.

• The prognosis hack: Forget cost—present what’s clinically needed based on diagnosis and desired outcome.

• Why it works: Patients trust clarity, honesty, and confidence more than discounts or options.

• Staff training tip: Anchor staff to prognosis, then be quiet—let the patient decide.

Key Takeaways

• Prognosis > Price: Tie your recommendations to outcomes, not dollar signs.

• Confidence closes: Patients sense discomfort; clear communication builds trust.

• Education wins: Patients invest when they understand timeframes, healing, and next steps.

• Less talking, more listening: Present the plan, then pause—don’t talk them out of it.

Pro Tips You Can Use Today

• Have staff present plans in terms of visits + timeline, not dollars.

• Use a simple handout with care plan options—let patients point to their choice.

• Practice being silent after presenting prognosis; resist filling the gap.

• Role-play money conversations until staff are comfortable staying clinical.

Notable Quotes

“Forget about the plan of care cost. Focus completely on the prognosis.”

“It’s not hard to sell when you’re clear, confident, and opposite of the traditional medical experience.”

“Patients invest when they understand exactly what it takes to solve their problem long-term.”

Action Items

• Re-train staff to frame care plans around prognosis, not price.

• Create one-page prognosis templates for common injuries.

• Practice silence—say what’s needed, then stop talking.

• Track conversion rates before and after implementing this hack.

Resources & Links

• PT Biz Website 

• Free 5-Day PT Biz Challenge

Do you enjoy the podcast?  If so, leave us a 5-star review on iTunes and tell a friend to do the same!

Ready to elevate your practice? Book a call at the link below with one of our expert consultants today and start your journey to delivering unparalleled physical therapy.

Podcast Transcript

Danny: [00:00:00] Hey, Danny Matta here, founder of PT Biz, and today we are gonna talk about one hack to improve your sales conversion rates, especially if you [00:00:10] have staff PTs that are struggling with this. So over the last. Man, 11 years I've had a chance to [00:00:20] start clinics, uh, you know, grow clinics as well as help a lot of entrepreneurs in particular on the sales side.

And recently I was having a [00:00:30] conversation with a clinician that was struggling with one of their staff members. This was a newer clinician that they had brought on. Um, this was a new grad at that, right? So they didn't really have a lot of reps [00:00:40] outside of their internships. They did their rotations and they were really struggling with sales.

Now, most people have some sort of plan of care that they put together and, [00:00:50] and present as a, an option that people have to solve the problem that they have at their initial visit. Some people, maybe that's a two visit, uh, option where you can sort [00:01:00] of do the assessment. Number one, and then they come back and you can make a dec a decision about prognosis and plan of care of what people wanna do after that.

There's a number of ways to do it, but either way, at some [00:01:10] point in time, either you or your staff member is gonna have to tell somebody, here's what I need from you. Here's much how much time, here's how many [00:01:20] visits. Here's the the prognosis based on the injury that you have shown up with in my office.

That's usually tied [00:01:30] to a certain amount of money. Now, for those of you that are new to starting or running a clinic, you are dealing with this right now. You're dealing [00:01:40] with the fact that you probably feel uncomfortable with the money conversation because we don't have to do that in the hospital. I didn't have to do that in the Army.

We don't have to do that in clinics. Um, [00:01:50] but when you go out on your own and you decide in particular to. Go the cash base route or even hybrid because you're gonna have to [00:02:00] talk to people about their deductibles, uh, the copays and all that. But on the cash base side, you're completely kinda just talking about here's what it costs to work with us.[00:02:10]

And that can have a big price tag associated with it in the mind of, uh, your staff, clinicians, or yourself. Right? And for me, this was very challenging. I [00:02:20] very, uh, vividly remember I charged $175 a visit and I wouldn't sell any packages. For a, a very long [00:02:30] period of time, I wouldn't have any option for people to pay for multiple sessions or a plan of care all at once until probably a year and a half in.

And my very first plan of care option for people [00:02:40] was three visits. Okay, so like 500 bucks. $525 is what it cost. And that was. That, that was my first plan of care, and [00:02:50] I'm probably not making a long-term change in almost anybody in three business. Let's be honest. I'm probably more than anything, just making a symptomatic change, which is not what we're going for.

So getting over the fact [00:03:00] that you feel uncomfortable talking about the monetary side of it is something that everybody has to deal with. You're gonna have to deal with it as an owner, and then you're gonna have to help your staff deal with it because the, the fact that we [00:03:10] help people do things that they enjoy doing and we help get them over injuries and back to activities they like.

There's a certain amount of personal satisfaction associated with that. Many of us would work with [00:03:20] people for free if we could, if we didn't have, uh, you know, if we didn't have to make money. We get a lot of personal satisfaction. I mean, it, it feels awesome to help somebody get over an injury and back to stuff they like to [00:03:30] do.

So with that though, we feel even worse when we pay somebody to pay us for that, and if they. If they have a hard time affording it, uh, it makes us feel even worse because we want to [00:03:40] desperately help them and they need help. Right. And that puts us in this really challenging position. But to run a business, we have to get past the fact that yes, we may.

Like this so much we would do for free, [00:03:50] but it's very valuable and you need to charge what you're worth in particular to be able to run a business and, and be able to pay salaries and have benefits and all the things that we wanna do as business owners. So [00:04:00] one little hack that you can implement for yourself or for a staff clinician is to really think about this as, forget about the plan of care cost.[00:04:10]

Forget about the uh, procession cost. Focus completely on the prognosis. Imagine that you are in [00:04:20] a situation where like it's literally free, or money's not an issue, right? It doesn't really matter. You are just going to present them with. The plan of [00:04:30] care that's appropriate for their injury. And this is exactly what I would say to a young clinician.

This is exactly what I told this, this client of ours that was dealing with this problem is I said, you've gotta talk to them [00:04:40] based on what they know, which is how to get somebody better and how to diagnose something. Give somebody a prognosis in terms of what they can expect. Duration of time is [00:04:50] gonna take, you know, number of sessions they may need to come in, things of that nature in order to get them the outcome that they want and be agnostic to the cost, right?

Just remove yourself from it. Don't even think [00:05:00] about that. So if I was to come in, unless I have. Chronic back pain and I have an acute bout on chronic issues that I've had for years. Is that something that you think [00:05:10] I'm just gonna see somebody one time for? Is that something you think you're gonna see somebody for a year for right?

Like there's going to be a period of time and a number of sessions that would work within that time [00:05:20] that's gonna be appropriate for the injury that you see? If I see a kid who. It has a grade one plus ankle sprain that has no history [00:05:30] of any sort of ankle issues, uh, previously. That's a, that's an active soccer player.

Am I gonna say that I need to see this kid for three to six months to resolve this, this acute injury? [00:05:40] Absolutely not because it's not congruent with my clinical assessment. And. I will always tie what I [00:05:50] recommend that somebody does to what I need clinically to get them the outcome that they want. And if you can be agnostic to everything else and just say, this is, this is what you want, this [00:06:00] is how much I need from you as far as time or sessions, or however you're breaking it up in order to get the outcome that you're telling me that you want.

And for it to not. Sort of [00:06:10] halfway gets you there to just make you feel better temporarily. And then this comes back, or maybe it comes back even worse 'cause we never really resolved the problem and you're still in somewhat of a weakened state and we [00:06:20] have this secondary injury that's even worse. So if you can teach to the clinical side, which is what they've been trained on, which they feel far more competent with, [00:06:30] and not on the sales side.

Right? Because we talk about clinical sales training, that is a tough thing to do with a staff member. That is not money motivated, [00:06:40] that is not, that doesn't own the clinic, that doesn't feel comfortable talking about money. They just wanna help somebody get better and they don't wanna work in a high volume clinic.

So if you can break it down and [00:06:50] say, just basis on the prognosis, that's it. All I want you to do is that. And if it's, Hey, I need to see you for 10 sessions [00:07:00] over the course of this duration of time. This is like how many visits I need to see you to get this outcome that you said that you want. That's what you're [00:07:10] looking at to make sure we get you in a place where this never comes back again.

You understand how to manage this and get you the performance level that you're looking for, period. And then be quiet, [00:07:20] and if you have a printout that shows exactly what options you have, and they can just point to the one that makes the most sense and make it as simple as clinically based on my experience, [00:07:30] based on the number of people that I've worked with, based on the assessment we have today.

Here's what you're looking at, and here's why tissues heal at this rate. First, this is gonna happen. Then we're gonna work on this, and then we're gonna do this. [00:07:40] And then we're gonna expose you back to these movements and you'll be back to doing the things that you wanna do. It's gonna take this long, or I need this number of sessions.

Leave it at that. [00:07:50] And if you can have them be comfortable with the discomfort of not talking, whenever they present somebody with a prognosis, that's the hardest thing you're gonna have to work on because you're just [00:08:00] tying this back to something they already understand and they feel. Confident about that.

So let them make the prognosis. Let the let them make the diagnosis and prognosis, tell them what they can expect, and then just have them [00:08:10] let that person make a decision because they may say, that sounds great. And that is what I want, but at this time I can't do X, Y, and Z. [00:08:20] Right? And that is frankly, a small percentage of the people you're gonna talk to.

If you're doing a good job of educating them, because obviously they're there 'cause they wanna solve a problem. You're being honest about how long it's gonna take. And [00:08:30] for them now, this is an open, honest discussion where they can say, well I can't do that. Can I do this financially? Whatever it might be.

Which in my experience is very, very small percentage. That's what we think. [00:08:40] Is gonna happen more than anything else. It's what freaks people out whenever they have these discussions. But more often than not, it's literally, okay, if that's what we need to do, let's do it. [00:08:50] Because if you're clear about what's going on and they feel comfortable that you're the person that can help 'em, and they're in the right place, people are not afraid to make an investment in themself [00:09:00] as long as they have clarity on what's going on and they have an honest person in front of them that is, that is doing the opposite of what the medical system typically does.

Think [00:09:10] about the average medical experience that somebody has. It's fragmented. The communication is not clear. They have no idea what they [00:09:20] owe. They may maybe aren't sure like how long things are gonna go on, or if they need to go then see another specialist. And these diagnostic tests that probably they don't need [00:09:30] all of these things.

It's, it's one of the reasons why people avoid going to the doctor. Like, and this is something that. You know, it, it's very proactive to do so, so you don't have, [00:09:40] uh, you know, worse problems that pop up. But yet people still avoid this because they don't like the discomfort of the medical environment, the healthcare system that they have to deal with.

And damn, if you can be opposite of [00:09:50] that, clear, present, listen to them, understand what they want, help them achieve the thing that they want. It's not hard to sell that. You just have to [00:10:00] be confident enough to understand how you relay that to them is a big chunk of it. Because if you are talking a ton and you talk them out of it, you know, it's like, well, you could do this.

Or like, I don't [00:10:10] know, maybe you can't afford that. It's fine. We can do this or this. Like the more squirrely you act, the less faith they have in you. Because it's a strange thing to see somebody who's a subject matter expert as a [00:10:20] clinical professional, not have a defined goal or idea of like what is going on and how long it's gonna take and what you should do.

And [00:10:30] you lose that power whenever you talk people out of things and you get uncomfortable around pricing and, and, and what they need to actually do to get the outcome that they want, [00:10:40] because money makes you feel uncomfortable. So if you remove the money and you just focus on what they actually need clinically, and then be quiet and let them make the [00:10:50] decision of if they trust you enough, if you are clear enough that they want to invest in themself to be able to get the outcome that they want, because we know what we provide is very [00:11:00] valuable.

They obviously can feel a big difference between what they've traditionally seen and what they see. Now. It's more of a concierge level of, of education and, and access to a provider [00:11:10] that a lot of people are looking for. And that's worth a lot more than you think. So stop tying what you're doing to the cost and start tying it to the actual [00:11:20] prognosis that you come up with based on your thorough examination and listening to what they say that they want.

And your close rates will go up. And if your staff focuses on this. [00:11:30] Your staff's close rates will go up as well, and they'll feel far more comfortable with the very end of a visit, which is what scares most people the most about an evaluation is having to do the [00:11:40] sales process. They don't have to do the sales process, they just have to make the diagnosis, deliver the prognosis, and let that buyer, let that client patient make a decision about what they want [00:11:50] to do.