AI & LinkedIn Strategies for Cash PT Practice Growth

Automation & Technology, Hiring & Building a Team, Practice Growth & Expansion

How Smart Cash PT Owners Are Using AI and LinkedIn to Win More Patients and Hire Better Therapists

Introduction

What if you could send a prospective patient a personalized three-month treatment plan before they’d ever set foot in your clinic — and close the sale before your competitor even called them back?

That’s exactly what Dave Kittle, owner of Concierge Pain Relief Physical Therapy in New York City, has been doing. And it’s working.

In this episode of the Cash Physical Therapy Headquarters Podcast, Ben sits down with Dave to break down two game-changing strategies that most cash PT owners haven’t touched yet: using AI to create provisional treatment plans that convert hesitant leads, and using LinkedIn cold outreach to recruit top therapists who aren’t looking for a job. They also get into packages, patient retention, and what it actually looks like to have a client spend $66,000 with your practice over 18 months.

Here’s everything from the conversation, broken down and ready to use.

The AI Treatment Plan Strategy That's Closing Patients Before the Eval

This is the one idea from this episode that could change how you handle leads immediately. Dave calls it the provisional treatment plan — and as far as he knows, nobody else in the industry is doing it.

Here’s how it works.

Step 1: Go Deeper on the Intake Call

Most intake calls end when you’ve gathered the basic information and booked the evaluation. Dave’s team goes further. After covering the standard questions — what’s going on, what have you tried, what’s your goal — they keep the patient on the phone and ask clinical questions. Think of it as a lightweight phone evaluation: symptoms, history, what’s worked, what hasn’t, what’s coming up in their life that makes this urgent.

The goal is to extract as much context as possible: their condition, their goals, their fears, their timeline, and what matters most to them.

Step 2: Feed It Into ChatGPT

Once the call is done, Dave takes everything gathered and puts it into ChatGPT with a specific prompt: write a three-month provisional treatment plan for this patient based on their situation, goals, and preferences. He asks ChatGPT to structure it in phases — month one, month two, month three — with clear language about what the patient can expect at each stage, what the therapist will be doing, and what the patient’s own responsibilities are.

The output is clean, phased, benefit-focused, and written in plain language. No jargon. No feature lists. Just a clear picture of the journey from where they are now to where they want to be.

Step 3: Send It With a Human Touch

This is the critical detail: don’t automate it. Don’t send it within 10 minutes of hanging up the phone. Tell the patient at the end of the call that you’re going to work on a customized game plan based on everything they shared, and that you’ll get it to them later that day or the next morning.

Then send it when it feels natural — as if you sat down and wrote it yourself. Because as far as the patient is concerned, you did.

“We went with you because of this — because you sent us this plan.” — A patient’s husband explaining why they chose Dave’s practice over a competitor they were also interviewing.

Why It Works

The provisional treatment plan does several things at once. It differentiates you immediately from every other practice the patient is considering. It demonstrates that you actually listened during the intake call. It gives the patient clarity and a sense of what working with you will feel like — which reduces anxiety, builds trust, and removes friction from the conversion.

It also helps with retention. When a patient can see a structured plan from day one, they’re less likely to drop off after two or three visits. They understand where they’re going and why each step matters.

Dave pairs this with a separate value stack email — a breakdown of everything included in working with his practice and what it’s all worth — sent as a companion to the treatment plan. Together, the two emails build a compelling case without ever feeling like a sales pitch.

One important note: Dave tried sending peer-reviewed research citations to one patient as a third email in the sequence. It didn’t land. Patients aren’t looking for evidence — they’re looking for confidence and clarity. Stick to the plan and the value stack, and let those do the work.

How to Use ChatGPT to Build a Better Treatment Plan

If you want to try this yourself, here’s the practical setup:

Start with a detailed prompt. Tell ChatGPT the patient’s condition, relevant history, goals, timeline, what’s worked before, what hasn’t, and any personal context that matters (an upcoming event, a fear they expressed, a previous bad experience with PT). Then ask it to write a three-month treatment plan broken into phases, written in plain language, focused on benefits and outcomes rather than clinical features.

You can also ask ChatGPT to pull peer-reviewed research on the condition first — not to send to the patient, but to inform your own thinking about what interventions to include. Dave did this for a patient with post-surgical hip pain and a functional leg length discrepancy, and ChatGPT surfaced muscle energy techniques from the research that he incorporated directly into the plan.

For the call to action at the bottom of the treatment plan, Dave prompted ChatGPT specifically to write something that didn’t sound desperate or salesy. What came back was something along the lines of: “If you find another physical therapist with a better plan, I absolutely want you to take that route — the only thing that matters is that you get results.” That kind of confident, non-needy close is exactly what attracts the right patients and positions you as the specialist rather than the salesperson.

As a next step, consider building a custom GPT trained on your own treatment notes and clinical approach. Upload 50 to 100 of your past notes so the output starts to sound like your actual style of practice — not just generic ChatGPT output.

The LinkedIn Recruitment Strategy That Actually Works in 2025

Hiring has changed. The days of posting a free listing on Indeed and getting a steady stream of qualified applicants are over. The best physical therapists aren’t browsing job boards — they’re comfortable at their current jobs and not looking.

So if that’s where they are, that’s where you need to go find them.

Cold Outreach via LinkedIn InMail

Dave uses LinkedIn Recruiter (roughly $88/month), which includes a set number of InMail messages — direct messages you can send to people you’re not connected with. He sent out about 145 messages to physical therapists in his area, personalizing just the opening line (their name and a brief reference to their background) while keeping the core message consistent.

The response rate was 4 to 6 percent — which doesn’t sound massive until you realize that from 145 messages, that’s several warm conversations with therapists who weren’t actively looking and would never have found a job posting.

Here’s the copy Dave uses:

“Hi [Name]. You’re probably comfortable at your current job and pay. At Concierge Pain Relief PT, we have PTs earning $128,000–$170,000 and we’re hiring PTs and OTs in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

— Salary, PTO, health insurance — Mentorship, coaching, advancement opportunities — Treat 4–5 patients per day, VIP clients, motivated high performers, make your own schedule

Know any colleagues who might be interested in speaking?”

The Psychology Behind “Do You Know Anyone?”

Notice the last line. It’s not “are you interested?” — it’s “do you know anyone?” This is intentional, and it works on a specific psychological principle.

When you ask someone if they’re interested, they either say yes or no. When you ask who they know, you’ve created a subtle implication that you’re being selective — that you’re not necessarily recruiting them, you’re looking for the right person through their network. That dynamic makes people lean in. The ones who are on the fence suddenly want to be considered. The ones who genuinely aren’t interested often still pass it along, which expands your reach for free.

Clinical Marketer uses a similar approach, framing the message around shared values and practice philosophy rather than a hard pitch — and ending with “do you happen to know anyone in your network who might be a good fit?” Same principle, different angle.

Build a Bench, Not Just a Hire

The goal of this outreach isn’t just to fill an immediate opening. It’s to build a pipeline. Connect with therapists even if they don’t respond to the InMail. When you post about your practice on LinkedIn three or six months from now, they’ll see it — because they’re already in your network.

Dave also reaches out to therapists on Instagram using a similar message, especially since LinkedIn’s InMail limits cap how many people you can reach in a month. On Instagram, he uses his practice page strategically — pinning content at the top that shows the team, the culture, and what it’s actually like to work there — so that when a therapist receives a cold message and goes to check out the account, what they see reinforces the message.

A new tactic worth testing: LinkedIn’s Smart Links feature, which lets you hyperlink to a hiring page and track who clicks on it. It gives you data on how many people engaged with your message beyond just responding, which helps you split-test your copy and optimize over time.

Packages, Retention, and What $66,000 From One Patient Actually Looks Like

Dave has been implementing care packages in his practice and shared some honest reflections on what’s worked and what takes getting used to.

The pros are real. Late cancellations become a non-issue — the visit simply comes off the package rather than requiring an awkward conversation about a cancellation fee. Packages also create flexibility: one patient with multiple homes across the country ended up doing several sessions via telehealth when she was out of the city, and the package structure made that easy to accommodate. Cash upfront is also just good for cash flow.

The main challenge is the re-commitment moment at the end of a package. When a patient finishes their 10 or 12 sessions, asking them to purchase another package is a meaningful financial decision — one that often involves a spouse or some deliberation. One approach that works well: once a patient finishes their initial package and is clearly committed to continuing, allow them to keep coming at their package rate on a per-visit basis, no new commitment required. They’ve already demonstrated they value the care. The package has done its job.

On retention: Dave has a patient who has spent $66,000 over 18 months — averaging roughly $3,600 per month. He started with a significant surgery, progressed through gait and balance work, and is now in a strength and wellness phase. Multiple therapists on Dave’s team have worked with him at various points. He’s not staying because of a package structure — he’s staying because the care keeps meeting him where he is.

This is worth sitting with. There is real wealth out there among the populations that cash PT practices serve, particularly older adults who have spent decades accumulating financial security and are now deeply motivated to protect their physical health and quality of life. The book Die With Zero by Bill Perkins makes this point compellingly: many people reach later life with significant assets and a body that limits what they can actually do and experience. Cash PT, delivered well, is one of the few things that genuinely helps them close that gap. You shouldn’t feel uncomfortable about that exchange.

Key Takeaways

On AI treatment plans: Use the intake call to gather deep clinical and personal context, then use ChatGPT to build a phased, benefit-focused provisional plan. Send it with a human delay. It differentiates you, builds trust, and improves both conversion and retention.

On LinkedIn recruitment: The best candidates aren’t looking. Go find them with cold InMail, ask for their network rather than pitching to them directly, connect with them for the long game, and reinforce your outreach with a social media presence that shows what your culture actually looks like.

On packages: They work. The end-of-package re-commitment is the main friction point — consider letting committed patients continue at their package rate per visit rather than requiring a new purchase.

On pricing and patient lifetime value: When you serve the right clients at the right price point, the numbers can compound in ways that are hard to imagine when you’re just getting started. Build the foundation right and the ceiling is higher than you think.

Want Help Implementing Any of This?

If you’re a cash PT owner ready to sharpen your conversion process, tighten your hiring strategy, or figure out what your practice is actually worth — book a free Practice Audit Call with the Clinical Marketer team. We’ll look at where you are, identify what’s holding you back, and give you a clear path forward.

👉 Book Your Free Practice Audit Call

And if this was useful, sharing it with another cash PT in your network is the best thing you can do for them.

Watch and Listen to the Full Video

For a deeper dive into a cash physical therapists’ journeys, make sure to listen to the full video: How AI Treatment Plans and Strategic Hiring Can Rapidly Scale Your Cash Physical Therapy Practice

About Author:

Jordan Mather got started in the entrepreneurship game at 18 with a medical software startup that revolutionized the physical therapy patient experience. As CEO for 5 years, Jordan participated in top Startup Accelerator Programs, collaborated with a major Wisconsin hospital, raised over $250K in funding, and earned a spot on Wisconsin’s ‘Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25’ list.

Although the company eventually failed, it provided Jordan with invaluable learning experiences. He became passionate about designing world-class patient experiences and building efficient marketing & sales funnels for cash physical therapists. Utilizing this expertise, Jordan became the CMO of a well-known physical therapy media company, and consulted for and built marketing funnels for some of the top physical therapy business coaches.

Eventually growing tired of the typical agency and consulting grind, Jordan, alongside Max Zirbel, founded Clinical Marketer. They infused it with the hands-on support and mentorship that they benefited from in their initial venture. The company was a success from the start, aiding clinics in scaling to 6 and 7 figures in revenue. During its first launch, Jordan and his team met Dr. Ben Bagge, whom they later partnered with after helping him grow his business from $200K/year to over $1M/year in three years.

Now, Jordan is focused on empowering clients in the cash physical therapy space, sharing his accumulated skills, processes, and hiring strategies to help them increase their revenue and impact without proportionally increasing their workload.