Sales and Coaching in Physical Therapy: What Nobody Teaches You in PT School | Dr. Samantha Ritz
- Morgan Meese, PT
- 1 hour ago
- 8 min read
The short answer: sales and coaching are the same skill set. And you've been doing both your entire career without realizing it. The missing piece isn't talent or personality. It's structure.
If you've ever frozen up on a discovery call, struggled to get patient buy-in during physical therapy sessions, or felt like selling your services was somehow beneath you as a clinician, this conversation is going to shift how you think about all of it.
Dr. Samantha Ritz is the sales and coaching specialist here at DPT to CEO. She went from burning out in a traditional clinic before finishing her new grad contract, to building her own cash based physical therapy practice working with tennis and pickleball players, to joining our team as a coach and eventually stepping into a full sales role. She has seen this profession from every angle and what she has to say about sales skills for physical therapists is something nobody taught either of us in PT school.
Key Takeaways:
Sales is a deeply human skill you've been using your whole career without knowing it
The two things that close more sales than anything else are summarizing back what you heard and presenting a clear plan to solve it
Sales and coaching are almost identical in structure and approach
Getting better at sales makes you a better clinician and vice versa
The biggest difference between clinicians who build successful practices and those who stay stuck comes down to one thing: excuses
If you're ready to stop leaving opportunities on the table and start building a practice that actually pays you consistently, Join DPT to CEO and learn from coaches who have done this themselves.
Why Do Physical Therapists Struggle With Sales?
Sales has a terrible reputation in our profession. The second you bring it up, most clinicians immediately picture the sleazy car salesman, the pushy closer, the person who manipulates people into spending money they don't have.
But here's what Sam points out that most people miss: you've been selling since before you could form complete sentences. Every time you negotiate, compromise, or have a conversation with some kind of outcome in mind, you're selling. It is an intrinsically human activity.
As clinicians, we sell constantly. You sell your plan of care to every patient. You sell the value of showing up consistently. You sell the idea that the exercises you're assigning actually matter. Even in insurance-based settings, patients still have to show up. They still have to do the homework. They still have to trust you enough to follow through.
That's all sales.
The problem isn't that physical therapists are bad at selling. The problem is that most PTs are just untrained. We were never taught how to structure a conversation that leads to a decision. And if you've ever felt guilty or uncomfortable asking someone to invest in their health, you're not alone — there's a real reason why selling feels so wrong to physical therapists, and it has everything to do with how we were trained. That's exactly what sales skills for physical therapists comes down to — not personality, not persuasion, just structure. Knowing how to sell PT services is one of the most important skills you can develop as a private practice physical therapy owner, and it's rarely taught in any formal setting.
What Actually Closes a Sale at the End of an Evaluation?
According to Sam, if you can do two things well, you'll be in the top percentage of anyone selling anything.
The first is summarizing back what the person told you. Cleanly, concisely, and accurately. "Based on what you're telling me, here's what I'm hearing. Is that right?" That single move tells the person in front of you that you actually listened, that you understand what's going on, and that you're capable of holding space for what they're going through. Most people go through their entire lives feeling like nobody really hears them. When you demonstrate that you do, trust happens fast.
The second is presenting a clear, simple plan to solve the problem. Physical therapy can be complicated. But if you can take everything you just heard and say "here's exactly how we're going to fix this" in plain language, it communicates two things at once: you know what you're doing and you can actually help them.
If you're trying to prove how smart you are in a sales conversation, you will lose the sale. Complexity creates doubt. Clarity creates confidence.
This is also why explaining your cash based PT pricing gets so much easier once you have a clear service structure to present. You're not justifying a number. You're walking someone from where they are to where they want to be.
How Are Sales and Coaching Actually the Same Thing?
This is the part of the conversation that tends to surprise people the most.
In coaching, you don't walk into a session and say "here's exactly what you need to do, go do it." You ask questions. You reflect back what you're hearing. You explain why you're recommending what you're recommending. You check in to make sure it landed. You get buy-in before you move forward.
In a sales conversation, you do all of those exact same things.
The structure is different. The energy shifts slightly depending on whether you're in a coaching call or a sales call. But the core skills are identical: active listening, asking the right follow-up questions, diagnosing the real problem underneath the surface-level complaint, and guiding someone toward a clear decision.
Sam puts it simply: you hire a coach because you want a guide. You get on a sales call because you want an answer. The role is the same. The context is different.
For any clinician working through the clinician to entrepreneur transition, this is actually great news. The coaching skills for physical therapists you've been building your entire career transfer directly into selling your services. You already know how to do this. You just haven't been given permission to apply it outside the clinical setting.
How Does Learning Sales Make You a Better Clinician?
This is where it gets really interesting for cash based practice owners who are still in the weeds of treating patients every day.
Sam's perspective is that learning how to sell PT services forces you to develop your second and third question. On the surface, a patient tells you their shoulder hurts. But if you keep asking — "what's really bringing you in today?" or "I sense there's something else going on here, am I missing something?" — you get to the real reason they showed up. Maybe it's a competition they're training for. Maybe it's a fear they'll never be able to lift again. Maybe it's something unresolved from years ago.
In a world full of instant gratification and surface-level interactions, being the person who asks the second question is rare and powerful. Patients who feel genuinely seen by their physical therapist stick around longer, follow through more consistently, and refer more people.
Physical therapy communication skills and sales skills are the same muscles. The more you train one, the stronger the other becomes.
There is also a compounding effect for cash based practice owners who invest in niche marketing. When your messaging is clear and you're consistently attracting the same type of patient, you get hundreds of reps treating the same problems. You become an expert faster. Better clinical outcomes, better patient buy-in physical therapy sessions, better retention. Whether your digital marketing is bringing people in through Instagram or through your telehealth physical therapy platform, it's the sales conversation that converts them into committed clients. Selling well and treating well are not competing priorities. They feed each other.
What Is the Biggest Difference Between Clinicians Who Build Successful Practices and Those Who Stay Stuck?
Sam doesn't sugarcoat this one: Excuses.
Not the same excuse every time. The excuses can change, get creative, evolve. But the pattern is the same: it's always something. Something came up. The timing wasn't right. Life got in the way. For clinicians who stay stuck in physical therapy entrepreneurship, there is always a reason why it didn't happen this week.
For the ones who succeed, the feedback sounds different. "It was a rough week but it got done." The minimum effective dose got done. Whatever the smallest viable version of progress looked like, it happened.
This isn't about grinding yourself into the ground. It's about leaving corporate healthcare to build something on your own terms and then actually showing up for it. The Sunday scaries that come with dreading Monday morning don't go away on their own. They go away when you build something worth showing up for.
The other differentiator Sam mentions is asking for help. Being vulnerable enough to say "this isn't working, I don't know what to do next, I need support" is a skill that feels uncomfortable for a lot of clinicians. We're trained to be the expert in the room. Asking for help can feel like admitting failure.
But the students who engage, who ask questions, who send the voice message because something just came up — those are the ones who make the fastest progress.
Sam's Journey: From Physical Therapy Burnout to Building Something She Loves
Sam's story is worth sharing because it looks a lot like what many clinicians reading this are going through right now.
She went into a traditional clinic after graduating and didn't even make it to the end of her two-year new grad contract. The physical therapy burnout was real. She knew the system wasn't working for her but she didn't know what else was possible.
She found the DPT to CEO podcast, reached out to me, got on a call, and was told she had three options: quit, go part-time, or keep doing what she was doing.
She messaged the next day: "Quit my job. Got four weeks. Let's get started."
A year and a half later she had a thriving niche private practice physical therapy business working with tennis and pickleball players. Then she joined the team as a coach. Then she stepped into sales. Now she works completely remote as a cash based practice owner who helps clinicians build their own practices every single day.
That's what the clinician to entrepreneur path looks like when you stop waiting for the right moment and start a cash based practice before you feel completely ready. For women entrepreneurs especially, Sam's story is proof that the path exists and the timing is always going to feel imperfect. As an ADHD entrepreneur myself, I built DPT to CEO specifically for clinicians who need a clear structure and a real community to make this leap successfully.
The Bottom Line on Sales and Coaching Skills for Physical Therapists
Nobody is going to teach you this in PT school. They're not going to tell you that sales is a human skill you already have. They're not going to tell you that coaching and selling are almost identical. They're not going to prepare you for leaving corporate healthcare and building something of your own.
But here's what's true: if you can listen well, ask good questions, summarize back what you heard, and present a clear plan to solve someone's problem, you already have the foundation for both great sales skills and great coaching skills.
The rest is structure. Practice. Repetition. And having people around you who have done it before.
And when you're ready to stop figuring it out alone, Join DPT to CEO and become part of a community of practice owners who are building something real.
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