Driving Referrals to Your Clinic With Jamey Schrier, PT

“How are you showing up in the world?” is always a central question in marketing.  F or  Jamey  Schrier , PT , driving referrals is an essential first step in building up your business authority and reputation. Joining Nathan Shields once more, he talks about the best way to present yourself to referral sources, patients, and communities, which is an essential part of your marketing message. Nathan also discusses how to be clear with your goals, choosing the proper target market, and how to come across the public in the most engaging ways. He also explains why it is important to focus on delivering tangible solutions than mere therapeutic methods, making your PT practice more than just what is happening within your clinic.  

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I’ve got   multiple – time guests coming back  to  be on the  show .  Jamey  Schr i er ,  I  appreciate you coming back.   

I appreciate you having me, Nathan.  

Thanks for coming on.   W e’ve been talking about a bunch of different topics and trying to figure out what the connection was.  W e want to talk  about  how we make more connection with the audience .  How do we provide them  w hat they need ? H ow do we prepare our messaging so that they want what we’re giving?  M aybe I’m not saying it the right way because we were thrown a lot of things out there.  F irst of all, let me say, if you haven’t heard my  show  with  Jamey  in the past, go back to those. I’ve had you on what  2  or  3  times now.    

I think so , at least  2 , perhaps  3 .    

Marketing is all about how you show up in the world.    
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Jamey  ha s  got a great personal story.  I f you can find his  first  show  from our first year of doing  shows   in  2019, go back and listen to it and what drove him to become a coach and consultant now for PT owners .   M ake sure you go back and  read  those because he’s got some great wisdom to share and great value for you.  W e want to talk about how to connect.  W here do you want to start this of f ,  Jamey ? I don’t have a certain direction I’m going with this because we can provide some great value with simply the discussion, but where do you want to start here?    

L et’s start by   grabbing people’s attention. What we’re going to do is talk about driving referrals to your business.  T hat’s  the  essence  of  what we’re going to discuss because a lot of this comes down to how do we connect .  How do we bring in referrals to our business starting with understanding how to connect with the people that we want to come in to  our business ?  W e’re all   caring and compassionate people that went out on our own to start a business. I’ve never met a business owner that wasn’t busy ,  overwhelmed ,  and stressed in doing that  b ut yet ,  we all have this challenge of getting   consistent referrals in our business that of course convert into new patients or new clients.  Wh at we were talking about before  is we’re  discussing where’s the real problem here.    

Not necessarily the tactical thing, which I can certainly provide some tactics, some tools  and  some tips, but where is the problem in doing it and what can typically   be done?  T hat’s an area I’ve spent a lot of time and personally being   a former private practice owner for years and now the  F ounder and CEO of  P ractice  F reedom  U ,  this is what we discussed. This is what we live for  and   t his is what we do every single day .   It’s  providing this business knowledge to help people grow and flourish knowing that we haven’t been taught this ,  we’re out there ,  and there’s a million clinical courses to help you treat your back better.  T his stuff  is  a little  rarer .  W here would you like me to begin? I can go  in  any direction you like .    

We can  talk about driving referrals and start with where you were with your workshops.  M ost people are going to go once they get a referral for XYZ  Physical Therapy and  sit in their car with that prescription, they’re going to Google XYZ  Physical Therapy  and see your website  o r they’re going to say,  “M y back hurts. How am I going to get over my back? ”   L et’s start with  the  webpage  because  a lot of people nowadays are going to see your presence online .   As  your experience  with   what  you shared with me, 99% of those physical therapy websites  is  hard to tell exactly what they can do for me, the patient .  They’re focused on saying,  “W e’ve got this certification, we do this service, we do that  service.  We do this kind of thing.”  T he messages   seem to be off ,  they’re highlighting themselves ,  and not highlighting the result or the product that they’re producing.    

I f we take a 30,000 – foot view here before we dive into the ground level and get into the weeds a little bit, the 30,000 – foot view is marketing is all about how you show up in the world. That’s what marketing is .   H ow  do  you  and  your company show up in the world ?   It could be  your  personal  brand, but even your  personal  brand is still about you ,  your practice,  and  how are you showing up in the world .  How do other people see you?  W hen you look at it from that perspective, you want to consciously and intentionally show up in the world the way you want to show up in the world  bec ause if not ,  other people will pigeonhole you  and  stereotype you that,   “ Y ou’re a physical  therapist, you’re   good at doing some stretches, ”  but we’re the ones that take care of people with back problems. We’re the ones that take care of this.   

T hat has happened to   physical therapists for 50, 60, 70 years.  T he reason   is  because  we are not communicating clearly and effectively how we want to show up in the world. It’s confusing. We have a great saying at  P ractice  F reedom   U and it says ,   “C onfused  people,  don’t …”   Wh at it means is any time there is confusion, you are going to have someone that does not make a decision or  i f it’s your staff  is  confused,  they’re  unproductive.  I f there’s someone out there in the world that’s thinking,  “ I have a back problem .   W ho should I go  s ee ? ”  If y o ur message is confusing  and   i t’s not clear on whether or not you can help me, then I’ll go somewhere else. I’ll go to someone else that’s speaking a   loud er  message ,  a clear message,  or  maybe a message that’s showing up either on the website.   

T hat’s one of the big things from a higher – level perspective which   as owners, we have to take that perspective  f irst. We never want to dive in first. We have to look at it from that perspective first so we could make sure we’re moving in the direction that we want.  T hat’s number one, marketing equals how we show up in the world because if you don’t ,  someone else will have a plan for you and start to dictate how you show up in the world.   

How do you help someone get clarity on their message?  T hat can be a difficult one. I know for  W ill  and  I   with our practice, it  took  some work   talking it out. We had to get back to what was our purpose and get clear on  w hat were our values .  S tart there before we can start talking about what we can offer to the world ,  how we present to the world ,  and that it derives from that. That’s where we came from. What do you recommend?    

Nathan, that’s not fun. I don’t want to do that.  Read  books ,  y ou start with  that,  that ’s n ot fun  and   y et here you are saying,  “Do you know what w e do in our program ?   W e start with  a  mission, vision values. ”  Do you know  where  Donald Miller, Michael Hyatt, Tony Robbins ’  people and other s  start ?   A  mission, vision ,  values .  Now ,  you might call it something unique. You might wrap it up in a different bow, but that’s where you have to start. You have to start with,  “W hat are you about ?” B efore you communicate that out in the world, you have to ask yourself .   I’m going to be very honest with everybody. The world does not need another physical therapy practice. We will survive without you. However ,  the world needs you.  W e want to make sure that you are bringing  something that’s  impactful and important.    

Y ou have th e  ability to do that  but  I don’t want you to show up  as  someone else .   B e unique  and  communicate at least to yourself ,   “ What  is  your practice about ?   Y our vision or your mission ?  What are you about ?   W here are you going? What are you trying to do? What impact are you trying to make in the world? What impact are you making in your community? Why did you get into physical therapy?  W hy did you open up your practice? ”   T hese are the questions that make you think. I get that  m ost of us are  impatient and we want this now but these questions are going to come up again  a nd again as you start marketing ,  building your referral sources ,  building your presence online ,  and doing the other things that we do to drive referrals.  W e have to start there for sure.    

If you don't get clear in what you're about, then other people will just tell you what you're about.  
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I’ve had marketing people on in the past  and   t hey say ,   “I f you can improve the customer experience and create a culture ,  that can improve your marketing efforts three times. ”   T hat’s where this starts from. When you’re clear on your message, your purpose, mission, vision, values  and  all those things ,   t hen that drives the culture of the business  and   then y o u start developing something that people can get behind and people can buy into.  R emember ,  when people buy, they never buy logically, they buy on emotion.  I f you can translate that into your message, that means the connection becomes greater .  It’s hard for me to work with PT owners  bec ause many of them don’t have a clear purpose .  I don’t know if you’ve had the same experience, but that’s where we’ll start. As I’m working with clients ,  i t’ s okay, let’s get clear on this and their purpose.  Y ou’ve probably seen this as I have .   W e’re going to be the best physical therapy that provides hands-on treatment and a one-on-one approach.    

I was yawning when you said  that.   “ W e’re going to be the commitment to excellence  and  the best therapist place. ”   T hat was mine.  I  got it from the Oakland Raiders back in the day.    

N o surprise that we’re a commoditized entity at this point because we all say the same thing.  P hysical  T herapy is not your purpose  and not your why .  P hysical  T herapy ends up being the vehicle through which you’ve live d  out that purpose.  Y ou could be a roofer and live out that purpose as long as you’re clear on that purpose ,   w hat it’s doing for the community and those around you.  I t’s important to get that clear in and that then drives the marketing and can improve referrals because people buy into that culture. They buy into what you’re doing so much more than the services  you provided .    

T he way your prospect, your client  and  your patient  are  going to look at it as they have a problem  and  they want a result.  W hat you’re providing as a therapy provider is the solution to that. You’re the bridge.  T here  are  lots of solutions.  As  you said ,   Physical Therapy  has been considered a commodity which means  Physical Therapies  are  Physical Therapy . We’re grouped into  “ it’s all the same. ”  It doesn’t matter.  I t’s interesting  if  you ask any physical therapist that they would not say that at all but if you ask other outsiders, they may say that .   That  g oes back to my point that if you don’t get clear in what you’re about then other people will tell you what you’re about.    

T o your point ,  if you provide a better customer experience or customer journey  as it’s often called ,  it comes from the  H ero’s  J ourney ,   t hat is critical in how you can generate referrals.  W hat you have to understand before that, after the vision, after the mission, after you divide those values  and this  principles in which you live by ,  what you understand ,  and what your business is about ,  the next most important step is understanding your audience. That means you have to   first of all,  figure out who is your audience .  Let me tell you a quick story.  We  have something called the  V elvet  R ope  P olicy.  I magine this .   If  COVID is over ,   y ou go down to Miami ,  you’re walking along ,  and you see this club .   Y ou hear the music on  and y ou see this  V elvet  R ope. What’s the first thing that you think when you see the  V elvet  R ope and there  are  people on the other side of that ?   W hat do you think, Nathan?   

There  have   got to  be some special people in there.   

T here  are  special people on the other side of that rope .   They’re  VIPs.  Y ou’re thinking,  “ T hey must be important people . ”   Y ou might also be thinking,  “A m I one of those very important people ?   Am I  VIP ?”   H ere’s what happens. Here’s the psychology behind the  V elvet  R ope.  T he  V elvet  R ope is the target audience of that club. These are the celebrities, the big people, the big spenders,  and  the people that will attract other people to the  club .  T hat’s their audience, but here’s the mistake that people make in our businesses .   W e’re not clear on our target audience.    

O ne of the things that we discussed in our  P ractice  T ransformation  W orkshop  that  came  up is ,   “ I’m afraid of becoming too niche. ”   “ I can help many people and they go wide. ”  They say,  “ I can do this. ” W hen you do that, nobody knows exactly ,  c an you help them ?   B y having that  V elvet  R ope  and  by being very clear, not only do you dial in your messag e  to your ideal audience  but ot her people go into that club too .   N ot  just  the VIP s .  M ost of the club is not made up of the VIPs .   M ost of the club  are  the regular people outside .   T he false misnomer ,   t he myth that is happening is that if you spend your time focusing on your niche audience, your target audience  then  you’re not going to attract other peopl e and t he opposite is true.  

I have a couple of examples. One  is  Amazon .   W hen Amazon first started, what did they sell?  T hey sold books. They did not start with selling 42 billion items as they do  n ow. They focused on books. They dialed in their messaging. They dialed in their operations. They dialed all of that in.  O nce that was dialed in, they started to expand what they offered.  T hat’s a perfect example of  a  niche. Another example  that  came up  in  our conversation  is  Lululemon . I t came up funny   and  s omeone brought it up .  I bought a pair recently of ABC pants.  Have y ou ever heard of ABC pants?  

I’ve got a couple of them.   

P eople were cracking up because what does ABC stand for?   

Anti- B all  C rusher .   

A  couple of friends of mine were wearing them. They played golf with them. They went out to dinner with them. They hung out with them. A lot of times, all  o n the same day, they never changed. I’m like,  “T hat’s cool to complete  in  their stretching. ”  Do you think I’m Lululemon’s target   ideal customer?  Heck , no .  I’m the furthest from them but it doesn’t matter. I understand who their customer is. My wife wears some of that stuff but I still paid them money to purchase something.  W hen they do an ad specifically on the ABC pants, that ad  i s going to be reaching their particular audience, which is you and me, basically your 30, 35 – year – old to 60 -year- old male .   T hat’s who they’re going to target.  O ne of the things that we have to do  right  from the get – go  and  after where we established our vision ,  mission and values  is  to  dial in our audience.    

W hen you dial in your target audience, you’re clear on their fears ,  worries ,  wants ,  needs and frustrations. When you are clear on that, that becomes gold because that’s the messaging that you will use. You can use it in workshops. You can use it when you speak to referral sources that I know seem s  to be a dying focus with people and our profession .   W e are specialists. People are referred to a specialist.  That’s a fact.  W hat we’re talking about a lot  of  is that messaging online .   “ W hat is our website’s message? What are we putting out there  i f you’re using social media, Facebook or whatever ?  I  don’t think you need to be an expert at being  a  social media person .   As  you’ve mentioned ,   y ou’ve had a lot of other internet marketers or internet people on .   T here are talented people that can help you do it.  O ur job is to understand our audience and be able to speak clearly in our messaging to our audience no matter what medium it’s in.  Y ou hire someone that can help you put all the tactical stuff together in  order to do that.  T hat’s the next step, Nathan ,   that w e need to begin before diving into all the other stuff.    

I had a bad experience with a website designer that I was sharing with you prior to our conversation and  as  I was discussing that experience with my coach, it led back to the fact that I wasn’t clear on my message. They’re lost in the woods as to what to design for me because my message wasn’t clear and the same can be said for the physical therapy teams. If they’re not clear with their message and who that specific avatar is, get it down to,  “I s it a man or a woman?  H ow old are they? What are their cares and concerns? What  are  their family and community look like? ”  All those things .   G et detailed so that you can speak to that.  As  you said, the fear comes up then what about everyone else .    

As  you said, I don’t know how many times I’ve seen it. My friend, Angie  McGilvrey  down in Florida   had the hurricane come through. They had to start all over again. They decided ,   “W e’re going to do it this way. ”   T hey  are  going to focus on social media, but their focus was going to be on 30 -year- old female CrossFit athletes. That’s their avatar.  They’re  busier than they’ve ever been before now  because  they treat those CrossFit athletes well. CrossFit athletes have families. They have friends who are CrossFit athletes . Y ou and I both know if I have a rotator cuff issue, I want to get my rehab from the guy that works with the  M ajor  L eague  B aseball operations. I want the specialists. I want the guy who’s known for being good with  the  athlete rotator cuffs .  I’m nowhere near an athlete and I’m not going to throw a ball more than 50 miles an hour  but I want that dude.   A s you r  niche ,  y ou aren’t limiting yourself. You’re saying,  “H ere’s where we focus. ”   Y ou can also be part of the group .  We’re still going to take you that it allows you then to focus  o n your messaging.    

The more information you know about your audience, the more you'll be able to connect with them.
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T his is an example that will hit home. Surgeons have done this .   E verywhere across the country ,  i f you look at   multiple place s  that do, let’s say orthopedic surgery, what you will see on their site, you will see very clearly the surgeon and the specialty, the back guy, the knee woman, the ankle specialists  or  the shoulder specialists.  W hat they realized is that people are referred to a specialist. Nobody wants to  see ,   “ I have a back problem. Can I see the generalists? I want to see the generalist, not the specialist in shoulders. ” H ere’s what you don’t  see , “ I have a good friend, Dr. Goldsmith . He’s   a  great guy on the site. He’s the back guy .   W hat’s interesting is he tells me that 60 %  or 70% of his patients are not back problems.   

I said,  “ You’re the  back  guy. ”  He goes,  “ Yes  but  they call me for everything. ”  As  you said,   they refer their frien d,  neighbor ,  kids ,  and their spouses.  A s a business owner, it hits me. I’m like,  “T hat’s brilliant. ”  I n the workshop, I was telling you, we had one of the participants and  they’re  pediatric   therapist s . We went on the site and there was a picture of a child on the site.  T here was nothing verbally saying what their niche was. There was  just  a picture of a kid  and   they  had all of the different diagnoses  and  all the different treatment techniques.  I t was way too much information but it never answered the question , “ C an you help me with my problem? ”   I t became confusing and she’s been doing this a long time.   

S he was like,  “ I never realized that. ”  I was like,  “H ow much time have you spent getting clear on who your audience is and what your message is ?  W hat do you want them to kno w that  is important to them ,   n ot you ?   W hat’s important to us is our certifications. What’s important to us is how much information we know. We want to throw up on people  of  how many years we’ve been doing and how many certifications . ”  T hat’s fine. Do that at your next conference with your other colleagues .   Y ou can show off all that stuff. Your audience doesn’t care.  T he person that has back pain wants to know,  “if  you help them with their back pain  so t hey can go back to playing basketball . ”  If the answer is, yes, they come to you. If the answer is no, they don’t .   E ither way is fine.  W hen the answer is,  “ I’m not sure, ”  then you are  potentially losing, who knows how many potential referrals.  I t’s not a financial thing. You’re losing the ability to help somebody, which is what we do, which is why we do all this.   

T hey may go somewhere else and maybe not get the help or they may go nowhere  and   t ry to look for the magic pill even though you could help them so well but they don’t know that .   T hey don’t know what you know .  If you do those first two steps, that mission, vision values, and start getting clear on your audience, start diving in  li ke you said,  “T ell me everything about them.  Where  do they live? How much they make ?   W hat do they like? Do they have a dog or do they have a cat? Are they marrie d or ar e they not?  W hat kind of car do they drive? ”   T he more information you know about them, the more you’ll be able to connect with them.  T hat’s what this game is about. That’s where the art of marketing comes in. It’s the ability to connect with people.  You have to start there.  I f  yo u start there and find a good reputable perso n , let’s say your website or other digital things, you are going to be much more successful at generating referrals consistently because you know how to connect with your audience. That’s the part that’s missed. We take a bunch of money that we don’t have. We give it to somebody in the hopes that they’re going to do  a ll of this work.   

The expectation is ,   “ I give money ,   t hey give me a bunch of referrals. ”   W hat they’re saying is,  “Y es, I can help you get referrals but I can’t answer all these questions . ”  H opefully ,  they can do what they promised to do which is the links ,  connections, put the images up   and all the stuff up.  T hat messaging I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars. I won’t call it a waste. I will call it a lesson. It was an expensive lesson I had .  I went to school .   I paid $50,000. I got  an F  but I learned .   I learned  that   there were some things that this person in this company did that I wish I knew but a lot of it was .  I wasn’t being clear in what exactly I wanted. That was the problem because  I  wasn’t clear .   T hat’s on me  and   t hat’s on every single owner. We have to start focusing on that  w hich of course begs the question  we’ve  talked about in the past, which is,  “ I’m busy .  I don’t have time. I’m dealing with all the stuff. ”  I’m like,  “T here’s the real issue .   W hat do you focus on and how do you carve out time? ” T hat could certainly be for another time management  topic.  

That’s completely  another  episode.  A s you’re talking about that ,  I remember   I had  Aaron LeBauer  on.  I f you don’t know Aaron , h e  has his own cash – based or out -of- network private practice and is successful at coaching others in setting up their own cash – based private practices.  I nterestingly ,  in his practice,  t hey don’t bring up the words   physical therapy .   T hey talk about what they can do for their patients.  T hey  have  an  ala  carte menu.  P art of what we can provide you is physical therapy. That’s one of the menu items.  T hat’s interesting because I brought him on to talk about how to market an out -of- network owner to ask someone to pay cash when they could go down the street and have their insurance pay for it all.  T hat’s a higher level of marketing acumen that you’ve got to attain to get people   to pay cash for something that could be for free.    

Yes and n o, Nathan ,  so give me a chance to respond.    

I was going to say, it’s interesting though that his focus wasn’t physical therapy. That’s not what we provide.  I t’s a service that we offer but that’s not what we do per se. What we do is we live out our purpose ,  providing you a pain-free lifestyle, getting you back to the functional activities you want to do, helping you enjoy your family ,  your friends ,  and your neighbors,  and  helping you play with your dog. That’s what we do. Physical therapy happens to be a vehicle.    

Stephen Covey in his book,  The  7 Habits of Highly Effective People  said ,   “B egin with the end in mind .”   It’s  one of his famous sayings ,  and everyone grabs and uses  it  like me . W hat does that mean?   I n this case,  the  end is the outcome  and   w hat people want .   T hey are coming to you with a problem ,  pain ,  a disability ,  balance issues ,   and  their kid not able to play a sport.  What  they want is the outcome .   C lear as day. That’s what they want  a nd that’s what you want  w hen you do the same thing .   Y ou want the outcome. What is not as important is the part where we spent our whole life, which is learning the solution from the problem that they have to the pain.   That’s not where the  conversation  begins. Is it important that they understand? Yes, perhaps .   I t all depends  i f they have those questions .   

A  lot of times ,  they don’t ask every little thing that you’re going to do. They connect with you, build rapport, trust you and say,  “T his is the place for me. ”  Sometimes ,  they want to know so exactly what the process is.  Y ou can share that with them, but what has to be clear first is, can you help them solve their problem?  T hat’s the biggest problem .  I know Aaron, I’ve been on his  show. He is  smart  a nd he understands the fact that the less you can talk about the widget of how you help somebody. A widget can be a product   or  a service. We’re going to talk about the widget  service , the dry needling widget service, the myofascia l  release widget service, the exercise widget service,  and  the pool therap y  widget service. These are solutions to help people get what they want.   

People don’t care about that initially .   T hey may or may not care  e ventually .   W hat they care about is ,   “ I’m in  pain. Are you going to help me get here?  If so, w hat do I do? How do I get with you? ”   W e have to be clear on that.  A s an owner, potential director ,  manager of your business, and as a clinician, it is very confusing in our heads that that’s how our people are thinking.  W e need to make sure that when we’re looking at marketing  and  our business   that we step out to that 30,000 – foot view and make sure we put this marketing hat on to start looking at our business from their perspective .   F rom the perspective of our avatar of our ideal client .   W hen you do ,  things will start to become so much clear and you will start to be able to get more people coming to you because they will understand the question . Can  Nathan helped me get what I want ?   Y ou  said  something about cash – base d .  C an we operate out of network?  I’d love to dive into that.  

T o add on there in my conversation with Aaron   and  also  to what you’re saying is one of his first questions in that initial evaluation goes back to   imagine six weeks from now and completed your physical therapy, what would have happened? What does your life look like to say that this interaction with us and what we’re doing to help you with your shoulder ,  back  or knee  has been a success ?  What does that look like?  S tarting with the end in mind, he takes that so far as to put it in part of his initial evaluation process and to get compliance, to get buy-in to say,  “ I can help you do that. ”   O n subsequent follow-up visits is that’s what they’re going to allude to .  

Remember on our first visit, you said at the end of our treatment, we want to get here. How much closer are  we ?  T his is what we needed to get there.  I t’s less, so much about  mini me ,   my OCS ,  ECS ,  CSC S  and CSS .   N o one cares about all   the letters but it’s   what can you do to help me get to that goal . H e takes it   not from his marketing and getting that message clear then putting it into his first initial visit with that patient is,  “T ell me, what are you here for? What do we need to get to in order for this to be successful ?” K eeps compliance that way .  

You don't need many relationships to blow away your numbers.
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T here  are  three ways to get referrals in your business  to  step out of the fray. You can get referrals onlin e.   W e know about that through your website and different social channels.  Y ou get referrals through referral sources .   It  do es  not necessarily mean  just  doctors. There  are  lots of other people that have influence over your audience.  W hen you’re clear on your audience, you’ll know who those people are.  T he third way to get referrals is one of the ways that we love to get referrals which is word of  mouth . It  happen s  when you’re delivering an amazing experience to people, and we want the experience to be consistent and to happen regardless of who they are when they come in.    

That’s  what you’re talking about with what  Aaron  was saying .   W hen you start focusing on the experience,  it  starts when they call your office ,  they come in ,  and go through the evaluation.  Y ou’re always looking at the experience that you’re delivering from their point of view.  W e can go into lots of detail about how to do that and all the different touchpoints of that experience, leading up to the discharge and then the experience after the discharge.  T hat increases the ability for one patient to turn into multiple patients by referring others and shouting on the mountaintops   h ow great you are .   T o the one point about begin ning  with the end in mind   and  the evaluation  is  a funny story. I had a mentor for many years, Dan Sullivan , strategic  coach.   

It’s a great book he put out.  Who Not How   is crazy awesome.    

O ne of the most powerful things that he always talked about is delegating and the  Who Not How .   O ne of his biggest things that he developed was something called the R -F actor  Q uestion. It’s called the  R elationship  Q uestion.  T he  R elation ship   Q uestion says ,   “I f we were sitting here blank time from now and we were going to look back on  now , what would have to happen personally, professionally, depending on who you’re talking to for you to feel good about your experience or do you feel happy ?”  O nce you see that ,  you realize that there  are  lots of ways to take that question  to  that perspective and use it throughout your thing.   

Aaron  is  using that question,  “I f we’re sitting here eight weeks from now, what would have to happen for you to feel good about your progress here? ”   Y ou’re taking people into the future and into the possibility of what is going to have you feel good .   T hat’s some tactics and strategies of how to connect with people   build rapport . W hen you do that ,   you reduce cancellations.  T he key is driving the referrals to begin with.  T hat happens in  1  of those  3   areas through a referral, an internal referral or word of mouth.  P utting out there in that digital world and allow people to come to you and come to your website.   

I t’s more important than it has been in the past.  W e saw that with the pandemic where we couldn’t visit doctor’s offices ,  and there was no way to connect with our community unless we did use other avenues to get to them.  It ‘s important that we’re clear on that message  so   w e can connect with our community directly and have more of that connection without relying specifically on the physicians all the time.    

You  and I talked about this. I want to caution people not to jump ship and  say, “I t’s not where  the doctor  i s   at. It’s all online. We ’ve  got to go online. We ’ve  got to get the people online. ”  People are referred to a specialist. People ask their friends. I have this thing called  L istserv in our community. We have a community of 400 houses .   E very day ,  t here is someone saying,  “D oes anyone have a recommendation for blank? ”   M any times a week, it’s always something health-related.  W hat’s amazing  is m ultiple people then provide the solution or provide the answer   l ike, “Y ou ’ve  got to see my person. ”   S ometimes they’re so adamant about their person.  T hey’re like,  “Y ou ’re  going to go see them? I’ll give you their information. I’ll call them for you. I’ll help you set up  an  appointment. ” T hese are your raving fans. This is how people are referred to  a  specialist.   

Now ,  they may then go online to do it  o r the reverse will happen. They’re online   in  your Facebook  A d or social media post comes up and they go,  “W hatever , ”   t hen the person mentions that   and  y ou’re like,  “I ‘ve heard of them. ”  They don’t know where, but they saw you out in the univers e and  their world.  M ost of us are within a community ,   w e’re not trying to promote ourselves nationally. We’re in a community  where  it ‘s easier for you to do that because it’s a confined area. I want to caution people not to stop building relationships with referral sources, with referral partners.   

Here’s a tip on that. I want you to look at your referral relationships. People that have a n  influence over your audience, you have to identify your audience  before we’ve  spoken about that  and  I want you to look at them as they’re your clien t and  your patient .  I want you to start looking at the referral partner as they’re your target audience, not who they’re referring ,   t hey are.  W hat would you want to know about them? Would you show up?  I have a blog that  talks about  one-night stands.   You’re going to love it. It talks about w e treat a lot of our   referral sources  l ike one – night stands .   I t’s a one-way relationship and we want to get what we want  w here we want to call them up.  “ I’d like to meet with you because I want you to send me some referrals. Can you do that please? ”   T hat’s not a relationship.   

T o your point, COVID said,  “W e can’t visit doctors anymore. ”  I’m glad that happened because we have to wake up. People have been asleep at the wheel and not woken up to the fact that it’s about relationships ,  and   i t’s always been.  I f you start to focus on these doctors ,  try to create a relationship ,  truly try to be interested in them ,  see how you might collaborate ,  and serve them better  which  ends up meaning helping them somehow with your expertise and your solution to their clients and patients .   That  mindset shift will help you develop key relationships.   

F or most practice owners, let’s say  $500,000   or $1.5 million  in revenue ,  y ou don’t need many relationships to blow away your numbers.  G et a handful of people .   G et five good relationships sending you a couple  of  people a week. That’s 50 new patients a month. Most likely you would blow away your numbers beyond belief.  Y our next problem would be hiring therapists to see everybody or getting a bigger space, which isn’t a problem because there’s plenty of space out there available.  T hat mindset shift s  of looking at them the same way you would look at your patient.  Y ou want to have two avatars. You want to have a referral source avatar and a patient avatar .   S tart there.    

I love that  bec ause you never try to think about who your perfect referral source is or   what your message should be, what do they want to know and who is seeing your perfect avatar patient ?  That’s a good mindset shift as you’re considering your marketing strategies  b ecause  those  guys and girls that I know that did fairly well through the pandemic got through it  okay .  T he people that they had the doctor’s cell phone numbers because they had developed that relationship over time .   T hey didn’t have to rely on going into the office and dropping off candy. They had got the relationship with the physician to the point where they could say,  “H ow are you guys doing? Do you need anything from us?  W e’re still open.  FYI. ” T hey could market to them directly   because they had taken the time to develop relationships with these people.    

U nlike a one – night stand, when you develop a real relationship, it can withstand things like this. It can withstand competitors .   P eople  are  trying to move in a little bit. It can withstand a lot of things.  I t  c omes back to   why haven’t we looked at it that way?  O ur perspective with doctors is they have served one purpose and that purpose is to feed  me,  people.  I f they don’t, there’s something wrong with them.  T his is a systemic problem that we need to shift the way we think about this. That could be the greatest collaborators with us. If we step up our game and start to look at it as how we can work together, how  can I provide a service and help to you?  T hat means increasing our own communication skills, ability to connect ,  and build rapport.    

T hese are things we haven’t been specifically taught in that we have to learn.  W hen you do, there’s not a lack of people that need us.  W hat was the latest AVTA number?  Eight percent  of the population comes to physical therapy but 150 million need or could benefit from physical therapy.  W here’s the other 92 % ?  It’s not because we’re not good at what we do  and  you’re not knowledgeable enough or smart enough. It’s because we are not spending time educating and learning how to connect with them with their wants and their needs. When we start to do that, there is plenty for everyone.    

It’s sad to  know  about physical therapists who worry about the competitor within a couple  of  mile radius.  I t’s understandable to know what they’re doing because it feels like with a mindset of scarcity, then we’re all fighting over that 8%. Whereas if we improved our message and got that out to the community, we could be playing in a much bigger pool that is 92% of 150 million  and n ot fighting  “ over the 8% ”  that are getting the therapy that they need.   There’s so much more to be had  i f we got clear on our message and focused on those people who need it.    

T he shameful part of it is a lot of these people that you’re referring to are very smart, talented people that are providing in a very small way  and  amazing services .  They don’t look at it as a business.  M ore importantly, they don’t look at themselves as an owner  or  as  the  CEO.  A s the CEO, your job is to  100%  focus on not only where the company is going but servicing your customer.  Y ou have at least two customers .   Y ou have the patient that comes in and you have the people that refer patients that come in. If you spent a little bit of time and did some basic stuff, you can’t get any  less  people  c onnecting with people, building rapport,  and  showing them value.   

You can only go up.  T hat’s what we’ve seen with our program and with our clients. I’m sure you’ve seen the same thing.  T his is why we do this . M y mission is to help every single practice owner and practice that want s  to build and grow to do it because we have an endless number of people who need our services. It’s not because our high is only  ten  people. That would be a problem. It’s a blue ocean out there. It’s endless.  W e do such great work.  W e need to have a little B-School for the practice owners .   We  need to get a little business education  with  the practice owners and that’s what we try to provide and help them in.    

We’re  going on for a while now and I appreciate you taking the time . W e could go on for more. We had many tangents   if  w e could have gone down there .  I f people want to get in touch with you,  Jamey , how do they do that?    

I f you want to get in touch with me, go to  P ractice F reedom U .com .  Y ou can check us out .   A lso on there, you can download my book,  T he  P ractice  F reedom  M ethod :   T he  Practice G uide  to   W ork  L ess,  E arn  M ore ,  and  L ive  Y our  P assion .   It’s  not a bad three things to do.  I t’s about my experiences as a practice owner and all the trials ,  tribulations ,  and disasters I’ve had but I was able to figure out a path and now trying to impart some knowledge to help some others.    

Thanks again for taking the time. I appreciate it as always.    

It’s m y pleasure . I  appreciate you and what you’re doing, Nathan .  

Thanks ,   Jamey .   

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The post Driving Referrals to Your Clinic With Jamey Schrier, PT appeared first on Physical Therapy Owners Club.