In this episode of the PelviBiz Podcast, Dr. Kelly Alhooie walks listeners through a live role‑play of a discovery call with a mock client named Sally. She demonstrates a step‑by‑step framework for converting a phone inquiry into a booked, paying client for a cash‑based pelvic‑health practice. The conversation starts with open‑ended probing, uncovers the client’s deeper why (confidence, social connection, weight loss), repeats back the concerns, and then handles the three most common objections—money, time, and the “husband” objection—using reverse‑questioning, framing the cost as an investment, and leveraging partner support. Kelly discloses the $250 per session out‑of‑network price, secures a booking, and explains the follow‑up process (intake form, card on file). She expands the discussion to a broader sales philosophy for cash‑based practices, emphasizing the value of high‑ticket plans ($3K+), the importance of attracting ideal clients, and the need for staff training and front‑end systems (pre‑recorded objection videos, intake automation). The episode concludes with a sponsor plug for Jane, a scheduling and billing platform, offering listeners a free‑month promo code HealthyBiz1MO. Throughout, Kelly stresses that objections indicate interest, that sales are about helping the right people, and that systematic objection handling can unlock significant revenue for pelvic‑health clinics.
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Welcome to PelviBiz Podcast. I'm Dr. Kelly Alhooie. I have grown and established brick-and-mortar practice in Northern Virginia called Ortho Pelvic Physical Therapy and also founded PelviBiz, which is an online business consulting company that helps healthcare providers make more money and be healthy while doing it, especially in the pelvic health realm. Let's talk about a discovery call. When a new client calls, how are you going to handle the objections that they throw at you? It's either a money objection, a time objection, or a husband objection. So let's get into it today. I'm going to walk you through the exact framework that I use to walk through an actual call to get them to convert. So the first thing is ring, ring, ring. Let's practice. Ring, ring, ring. Hi, this is Kelly at Orthopedic Physical Therapy. How can I help? Um, well, hi, um, I'm Sally. Oh, hey Sally, nice to meet you. What's going on? How can I help? Oh, well, I have a low back pain, or I have low back pain. Oh, okay. Well, is there anything else that you're experiencing? Well, it's kind of embarrassing, but I have leakage as well. Oh, okay. Well, can you tell me when that leakage comes on? Oh, well, it comes on when I do jumping jacks at Burn Boot Camp. Okay, is there any other time, like when you're sneezing, coughing, laughing, anything like that? Uh, kind of, but like the main thing is when I'm like doing jumping jacks at Burn Boot Camp. Okay, this is the most important part, guys. Pay attention. Okay, so why is it important for you to solve your problem at Burn Boot Camp and be able to do those jumping jacks? Well, it's important because I want to be able to participate in the class and like see my friends. Okay, so what I'm, what I'm hearing is that you want to be able to see your friends, which is very important, and be able to feel like you can participate. Is that correct? Yes. Okay, and is there also something to where you also maybe don't want to feel embarrassed by, you know, having to run to the bathroom or feel like, oh my gosh, I can't do these exercises, so now you're embarrassed because you're just standing there because you feel like you can't do it? Is that something as well? Yes. Oh my gosh, yes, that's what I feel like. I don't want to feel embarrassed anymore, and I want to feel that like I'm willing and capable and able to like do the thing. Um, now I just connected with her, by the way. I just connected. She understands that I understand her deeply, and I just got to her deeper why. So what you're saying is— and I repeat it back because she may not understand that like that is what she ultimately wants— is what you're saying is That you want to be able to go to Burn Boot Camp, feel confident in the exercises that they give you, be able to do them, and not feel embarrassed that you have to stand there or modify or run to the bathroom or hope that, you know, a situation doesn't occur and that you have to go change your pants. Is that right? Yes, you've got it. That's what I've been looking for. I know people say like this is normal, but like I just want to feel confident. Comfortable and confident going into the gym because I also want to feel that I can like lose weight and not have to modify my exercises. And then I feel like my heart rate goes down and then I can't lose weight. Oh, okay, I get you. So besides feeling confident, you also want to be able to lose weight, and you feel by you stopping, your heart rate drops, and then you also can't keep up. And so you can't lose weight because your heart rate is not in that elevated state that you want to be able to be in that fat burning zone. Is that right? Yes, that's right. Okay. All right. And how long has this been going on for, did you say? Oh, 2 years. Okay. Was there anything that started this thing? Um, well, no. I mean, I don't know. I really don't know. It just— I thought this was like a normal— Okay. Well, this is definitely not normal, but this is something that we work with a lot, and we definitely would love to help be able to get you back to going to Burn Boot Camp, not feeling embarrassed, feeling more confident, and be able to complete the workout and not have to modify it. Is that— that's what you want, right? Yes. Okay. Um, well, does Tuesday at 5 o'clock work? I have an opening here. Does that work for you? Actually, yeah, that works. Okay, awesome. Just so you know, we are out of network. We charge $250 a session so that you can be able to go back to Burn Boot Camp, not feel embarrassed, and be able to feel confident so that you can lose the weight. Um, hmm, well, hold on, let me think about this. That's, that's a lot of money. $250, is that a session? Is that per session? Yes, so that we can actually get you to your goal and and be able to get this resolved? And then she's like, oh, and then she kind of gives me this, oh, well, I don't know. I feel like I'm gonna have to think about it, and I'm gonna have to like speak to my husband. Okay, well, let me ask you this. Let's say your husband was in this situation, and your husband wanted to lose weight. He wanted to go hang out with his friends. He didn't want to feel embarrassed anymore. He's He's been dealing with this for 2 years and he's in this situation. And he came to you and was like, hey honey, like, I want to go and invest in going to therapy so that I can solve this problem that I've been experiencing for 2 years. And I think ultimately that's the thing that's stopping me from really losing weight and feeling like myself again. Would you support him in that journey of trying to solve, uh, for confidence and decreasing his leakage? Well, yeah, I would. Okay. Well, why would you support him? Well, I want the best for him. I know he would want, you know, to feel more confident. Ultimately, that would make him in a better mood. That would make him happy, and I just want to see him happy. Okay. So what you're saying is you want to see him happy, and you would support him. Okay. Well, let's roll reverse and flip that back in our situation right now. If you went to him and said, "Hey, honey, like I." want to invest in therapy and I really feel that it's going to help improve my confidence and be able to make me— have me lose weight and connect with my friends again. Do you think he would support you? Yeah, I think he would actually. Okay, well why would he support you? Well, he would support— Quick interruption. For those that have questions on today's episode, please text my personal number. 703-783-2388. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have to get you unstuck. Let's get back to the episode. Places, maybe trying to get on a waitlist and maybe solving your problem, and it's really just symptom management. Don't you actually want to get this solved? Yeah, I actually want to get this solved. Okay, and you said you've been dealing with it for like 2 years, right? Yeah, I've been dealing with this for 2 years. Okay, so like How much longer do we really want to wait? Like, it seems like right now you're calling because you really want to get your problem solved. Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct. I want to get my problem solved. Okay. Well, it sounds like you came to the right place. Sounds like we are a perfect fit. Um, so is there anything else that's holding you back? Well, you know, it's really just the finances. Like, I just, it's the finances. Like, I just don't know. Okay. Well, what is it? Worth then to get this solved? Like, is it actually worth investing to then not have to deal with this later on? Because it's only going to get worse if we continue to let this go on. As you can probably see over the last 2 years, it has gotten worse. Is that correct? Yes, it's gotten worse. Okay, well then that means it's just going to take longer to go away, and we want this to go away quicker, right? So that's why I highly recommend getting started now so that we can actually start solving your problem And even in 2 or 3 sessions from now, you're going to be able to go to Burn Boot Camp and feel more confident because I'm going to be able to give you modifications on that you can do where you don't have to stop your workout and be able to continue so that you can keep your heart rate up and feel that you can then lose weight then and feel more confident that everyone's not looking at you because you're just stopping and they're like, well, did you just give up or what? And that's what you want to feel, right? Okay, awesome. Well then, I say, let's go ahead. This appointment's, you know, 2 days out. So let's go ahead and book this. And if anything changes, you can give us a call back. But I say, let's go ahead and book this so that we can actually start solving your problem and you feel more confident. You know what? I think you're right. Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and do that. And then you guys, you continue the booking out. Um, you send them the intake form, um, have them put a card on file. And, you know, make sure they fill that out 24 hours in advance. So that's how I handle it over the phone. And if you're— if you guys are not good at this yet, because most of you guys are not, this is what we teach. And that's just one way to handle the husband objection and the money objection. I kind of handled many of them together. There's so many different ways you can handle it. That's just like one way I just, you know, spit out on the top of my head. But They're, they're, they're just— you've got to make sure that if you suck at talking to people over the phone, like can't convert, A, you either hire, um, B, and you can use like our tools that we have where we can train your staff on our objection handling, um, or you say, okay, well, I'm gonna practice this over and over and over and over again until I get really good at it. Now ultimately, you don't want to be answering the phone if you're the business owner. You really should have someone else doing it. But you've got to get good at being okay with handling objection. An objection means that they're interested. An objection is good. That means they want to come to you. If you don't have an objection, that means they don't like you. Okay, so handle the objections. Don't be afraid. And it's okay if you hear a no, or if it's okay if they say you cost too much. It's how fast can you move on from that mentally to be like, you know what? No, I don't cost too much. I know my worth. I know my standard. I know my ideal client, and I need them to invest in themselves so that they actually take action. I believe part of why we get great results in a cash-based practice is because they have to invest. We literally have them invest. And at least a lot of these plan of cares are at least $3K or above. So like, is that person motivated to get help? Yes. So like, that's a win. And then if you're like, well, Kelly, but I can't talk like that over the phone just yet. Cool. Well then, what we do with our clients is we implement a system on the front end as well that allows them to have prerecorded videos to already handle objections before the person even gets on the phone with you. So like they're already prepped and ready so that there's less objection handling over the phone. And then we have after the fact, if they still tell you no, we still then have a whole other system that then allows you to keep pointing out that they either have a problem or don't have a problem and then give testimonials and tips on why they need to come see you over anyone else that they are searching. And so guys, if you don't have these systems in place, This is where you're actually missing the ball and lots and lots of money because you're just taking the phone call, not knowing what to say, and then hanging up. So then like all your effort on the front end of marketing is just literally going out the door because you don't know how to, how to do sales. And sales is not sales. Sales is helping people. It's not just like, let me, everyone's for me. It's the right people with the right messaging come into your world. They say yes to you. And that's when the marriage of the beauty happens. It's the negative is when you get the wrong people, the cheap people into your world, or don't— they don't have like a real big problem, and then you got to fight with them because they don't know your value, or they're just like, you know, cheap people, and it just doesn't work out well. So you always want the right person from the right messaging to come in, and when that marriage happens, that's called sales. That means you're helping the right person, you're getting them the results that they're looking for, and everyone walks away Happy, and that ultimately is the win-win. And so that's in 2026 how you actually convert over the phone. Guys, so much for listening to the podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Jane. There are the people that are going to have an amazing scheduling system for your patients. They're going to provide you with a super bill. They're going to make templates for you. They're going to provide you with the best custom. And because of that, they allowed us to have a code for 1 free month for those that are wanting to try Jane with our scheduling, checking out super bills, telehealth, all the different options. That code is HealthyBiz1MO. We will put in the show notes, but HealthyBiz1MO, that is the code for Jane. And thank you so much, Jane, for sponsoring this podcast. If you guys want more information, and want to learn how that you can keep bettering yourselves, go ahead, click the link down below and make sure that you book a call. And we'd love to provide any clarity questions on any follow-ups. Bye, guys!
