That’s right, we said it, “Sales.” While a recovery admissions department wears titles such as “Treatment Consultant” and “Treatment Specialist” and uses terms like “help” and “assist”, in the end it’s all about selling. Since most recovery operations are for-profit, then to be successful, it better be all about sales. In fact, in order to stay competitive in today’s recovery market, addiction treatment centers and mental health treatment facilities have no choice but run their admissions department at a premium performance level. Sadly, many recovery operations simply lack the in-house skills and expertise to build a high conversion admissions team for one very important reason. It’s simply not that easy. Not only does the admission department have to be top notch, but other supporting departments like onboarding, intake, operations, and clinical have to be at peak performance and working seamlessly together or leads will burn and admits will be lost.

A strong admission sales team first and foremost should be supported by both a strong technology-based Call Management System (CMS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Without those platforms optimized and in place, you might as well cut your sales team’s productivity in half. Next in line is call handling. If your admissions team is just winging it on calls with no scripts then again, cut your conversions in half. And finally if you have no next action follow-up protocols in place, you will burn your leads a twice the rate of someone who does have these systems in place.

Now, chances are good that some Admissions Directors reading this might be shaking their heads in disagreement but you can bet the owners and shareholders won’t, because at the end of the day it’s their hard earned capital being burned. We call this a reality check, some “tough love”, and the message is clear. Addiction treatment centers and mental health treatment facilities better maximize their admissions department or face the ultimate loss of going out of business. Competition is fierce and getting more intense with the entry of new competitors in to the recovery industry every day.

The experts at Recovery Marketing Consultants have been building sales teams and sales systems for over twenty five years, and we have a successful track record, within the addiction and mental health industry, assisting recovery operations with their admission growth. We understand the complications and intricacies of running a recovery operation and can help navigate critical challenges.