GrossmanAACTTPHD04202022Thumb

9 Growth Strategies To Build A Referral Based Practice

 

 

Click here to download the transcript.

Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.  Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.

Hi there, Jeffrey Grossman here. And I’m thrilled that you took the time to join me here today. Today, I’m going to talk about nine growth strategies to build a referral based practice. So thank you again, the American Acupuncture Council for inviting me back for yet another installment on business and marketing and how to grow your practice on a Facebook live.

I’ll be talking about the K L T factor and how it’s going to be key for the longevity of your practice. And I’m going to talk about the main hub for your practice and how to maximize its usefulness. . Excuse me to help land qualified new patients into your practice. And I’m going to share nine different strategies that can help you build a referral based practice.

So my intention is to lay the groundwork for long-term growth, and I want to help you plant the seeds, not just for now, but for the long haul, not something that’s a one hit wonder. I want to really stress to you. The fact that marketing takes time, all marketing is about building relationships and planting seeds.

It’s a myth to assume that a referral will occur right away. So keep that in mind things take time. You won’t see the results overnight and. If you’re just starting, or if you have a small practice, keep in mind too, that you may not get the same results as another practitioner who has a larger practice that also gives them a larger referral base.

Okay. So I just want to say that your referral volume is proportionate to your referral network and referral based marketing is just one piece of the marketing puzzle. Because there are many aspects that make up a solid and quality marketing plan for an acupuncture practice. So I hope this makes sense.

My hope is that you walk away from this talk with just one or two actionable items, something that resonated with you that you’ll actually do. Just one simple tweak to the way you do things can make all the difference in the world. For those of you that don’t know me. My name is Jeffrey Grossman. I started my acupuncture practice in 1998.

I’m the founder and owner of Acupuncture Media Works, Accu Perfect websites. And after you downloads and like many of them. I’ve struggled in my practice. I had no idea how to grow my practice, how to do marketing, how to talk to patients, how to give the report of findings. And none of that was part of my forte.

And I didn’t have the savvy or the mindset to do that. And I noticed that there was a huge. I didn’t know how to run a business. I knew all the techniques and all the tools to help me become a successful practitioner, but I didn’t have what it takes to run a business. And as an acupuncturist, you are an entrepreneur, you are a business owner, and you’ve got to wear both hats, the hat of the healer, which hopefully you do well.

And the hat of the entrepreneur business person, CEO. These are why the AAC is bringing these talks to you. This is why I’m here to spread this information to you as well. I want you to also realize that if you don’t know this by now, You, my friends are an incredible resource, your natural healers, you know how to help people become balanced and healthy.

You’re use safe, natural drug-free methods and you’re changing lives every single day on your treatment table. People need you, they need your services and they want your help. But the thing is they might actually not know that you are available. They might not even know that you can help them with condition X, Y, or Z.

And that’s what these talks are about. That’s what I’m here to do is to help you be seen, to be heard and to ultimately bring more people into your practice so you can ultimately make more money so you can live the life that you want. So I want to remind you that your. That I’m here for you. And if at the end of today’s talk, or whenever you’re seeing this presentation that you feel like you need help getting set up or becoming focused or some accountability, or need a little bit of motivation.

Please reach out to me. There’s more opportunities now than ever to help more people, but you have to understand what they’re looking for now. And you also have to learn to understand how this integrates into marketing into your practice. Because like I said today, w use, today’s talk as a resource to help reset your practice because one or two simple things.

That you tap into can make all the difference. Okay. So I’m going to go ahead and start sharing my slides and jump into the nine growth strategies to build a referral based practice. I have a gift for you guys at the end of today’s training, I have a ebook that you can download. That’s got outlined some sample scripts and some sample calls to action.

Examples that we’re going to be talking about today. Today’s presentation is going to be relatively on the shorter side, 20 minutes or so. Yeah. If you want to dive into the details, I will give you a link to download this after today’s presentation. The reason I do that is because if I give you the link, now you’re going to take off, download the ebook, and you’ll forget that I’m even here.

And I don’t want you to do that because I value your time. And I’ve got this gift for you, and I’m going to share it with you towards the end of today’s training. First thing about referral strategy that I really want to get across to you is the fact that you need to identify your perfect patient avatar.

What the heck is the perfect patient. Avatar. Glad you asked. So this is the idea of identifying who your perfect patient is. If you haven’t done this exercise before I encourage you to do this, I do this with all of my coaching clients. And it is important because. Understand who it is that you are perfect patient is, then you can talk directly to that person, you know exactly what their problem our problem is.

And you know exactly what solutions that you have to. That can help address their particular problems. And when you identify your perfect patient, then you start identifying the patients that you really resonate with, that I call your a patients. These are the people that you love. These are the people that when you see them on your schedule, your energy raises as opposed to what certain people on your schedule.

Maybe your energy pulls you down a little bit because it’s going to be a challenging. I get that all the time. So when you identify your perfect patient avatar and what they like and what their needs are, and then you can create an ambassadors, people who can actually go out there and communicate the messages of what you do and how you can help by identifying who your patients are, which are, is one of the first steps to building a referral.

Next thing to do is to really get clear on your core message. Now I’ve been teaching practice management class for the last four years, and I’ve been in this business of helping practitioners grow their practice since 2002. One thing that I’ve come across that is really true is the fact that not many of you have a core message and it’s really important to have this.

Kind of like your elevator pitch, but it’s a little different. Okay. And if you don’t have your core message, I did a workshop on this a couple of weeks ago and I encourage you to really dive into what it means to develop your core message. First thing about that core messages is I D it comes in three parts.

You have to identify what kinds of problems your patients have. What are they coming to see you for? What are their needs? What keeps them up at night? What hurts them? What do they, what are they struggling with in their life? The next part of that is what you need solutions.

Do you offer your clinic? And then the third part is what will their life look like after they come see you? Okay. Now your core message. Should be just three sentences. Here’s the core message for acupuncture, MediaWorks, acupuncturists don’t like marketing. They’ve never been taught how to grow their practice.

They never been taught this, the tools and the skills to to develop a business and entrepreneurial mindset here at acupuncture, MediaWorks, and I could perf websites and Accu downloads. We provide online digital print. And coaching solutions for acupuncturists. So they can go out there and grow their practice, educate their patients, make greater income and change the world.

One person, one needle at a time. That is the basis of what a core message is. Now. It’s not exactly word for word. I’m just going off of my mind here, but that is what you should come up with. Something like that core messaging is important because it allows you to. Brand your practice brand, your website, brand your business cards, brand all of your marketing collateral based upon what your core message is.

Okay. The next part of the creating a referral strategy is connecting with referral sources. Okay. What are your best sources? How are you going to reach out to them and what are you going to supply them? First thing. Who is already referring to you? Are there any doctors, natural paths, chiropractors, massage therapists, dentists, eye doctors.

I don’t know. Who are you getting referrals from now? Write a list of them. And then. Figure out a way and a strategy that you can start. We reaching out to them on a regular basis and also identify the tools like booklets and conditioned specific cards and brochures and gift certificates and other collateral.

That you can share with them that they can share with their clientele. Okay. Referral strategy, number three, referral strategy. Number four is make it easy to get those referrals. Okay. So what tools can you use to make it easy? One thing that’s really important are making sure that you have gift certificates or a call to action cards that have.

Something on there that is a loss leader that motivates people to be like, wow, that sounds interesting. I feel like I need that. I’m going to reach out to Jeffrey too, to get that appointment or whatever that is. Now, what I’ve done in the past was. Was mini stress reduction treatment. So at any event I did or any talk that I did, I would offer people to come in for a mini stress reduction treatments where I would just do 0.0 Shannon, middle ear.

I called them acupuncture, happy hour events. And that was my loss leader to get people into the clinic so they could experience acupuncture, experience me. So I could talk with them, get more information about them and then let them try the treatment. And then from this. Upsell them into the next level of care, which is coming in for the comprehensive evaluation.

And then from there, move them into treatment plans. So what do you have now to make it easy to have other people refer to you? Calls to action are important. I’m going to talk about that in a minute more. Also, it’s important to show Goodwill by referring out to others first. So maybe you need to create a list of other people that you can refer to other specialists that maybe you’re not getting the right the right care.

Sorry about that. The right the right results for your patients that you expect. And maybe you can then refer them out to somebody that you know, and trust. Okay. What resources do you have? Brochures and flyers and how can you make it easy for people to give you reviews and testimonials on your website, on social media and and in the clinic.

Okay. Referral strategy, number five. How do you reduce the risk of people falling out of. Now, if you’ve been in practice for any length of time, you probably have more inactive patient folders and you have active patient folders. So first thing to do is to plant the seeds from day one. Of the, what you what they can expect from you during their care.

And one thing that’s really important to discussed is your treatment protocol, your outlines, and how you have a unique strategy that, that how you can go, you will go about getting them from point a, which is I’m in pain, I’m uncomfortable, or I don’t sleep well to a point B. They they. At night they have unlimited energy.

They can now go out there and ride their bicycle. Cause they’re not in pain anymore. What is the process, the path that you have, or that you can think of, that you can map out for your patients, maybe it’s eight treatments. What are you going to do? Visit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12 treatments and so on. So there are unique and specific.

That you can do where you can set expectations from day one to plant the seeds towards health and longevity. One of those things is making sure that you answer the five questions when you deliver your porta findings again, on the ebook that I have for you, there’s more detail about the report of findings that you can access there.

And the report of findings, you asked the answer, the question is, what’s wrong with me? How long is it going to take? What can they expect? What’s it going to cost? And what kind of other, what things that they should be doing at home. Okay. So when you lay that out for a patient, then they have certain expectations.

Again, that’s important piece of the new patient process of getting another piece of that is what stage of healing do you discuss the different stages of healing with your patients? As in relief care, corrective care, maintenance care, wellness care. I imagine that you’re an acupuncturist. And you assume that you have the knowledge that there are different stages of care.

When someone comes in there and obvious pain, they want to get out of pain quickly, that’s relief care, your ultimate goal, where you plant the seeds during that visit is into. Wellness and long-term care if you’re not doing that, please reach out to me at the end of this training. And let’s get on the phone and kind of consult with how you can make that happen.

Okay. This is other sort of findings that you could should be delivering to your patients. And this is the. This is the the stages of care that you could be reviewing with your patients. The visits here are closer together because obviously in this stage of care, you want patients to get better, faster.

So you have more frequent visits as they get better, the time moves out. Okay. There’s a whole conversation around this. When I talk about the report of findings, better for another. Strategy numb referral strategy. Number six is practice and rehearse your referral dialogue. So again, this goes back to creating your core message.

And this also goes back to how. Educate your patients and patient education is what I found in acupuncture. Media works on because there were no tools that I felt comfortable using in my own practice. I created a whole line of marketing tools and educational tools that I wanted to share with my patients and hence share them with other acupuncturists.

So one thing that’s really important for you to determine where you might be lacking in your educational process, in how you educate patients is by asking them this one question. When you tell your family or friends about acupuncture care, what you tell. Or, if you were invited to a party and someone’s oh, what do you go to see your acupuncturist for?

What would you say, ask your patients that question you could do that today or tomorrow, and you’ll be surprised at what some of the answers will be. And sorry about that.

So nature of doing the live training with dogs in the house. So I apologize. Oh my goodness. Excuse me.

I always have to get one last Barkin. So try this, ask your patients what the issue is here and ask your patients to what would they say and you’ll will understand where you might be falling short with regards to your, for patient process and your education strategies?

Because every treatment, my friends. Is an opportunity for you to further educate your patients around what you do. What acupuncture is, what she is, what seasonal changes are happening. Every time a patient comes in every week, you should change your whiteboard to something that elicits a question to them that encourages them to ask you what’s going on.

Okay. So try that also, you might want to ask your patients, how would they explain what she is? When a friend asked him about care, this was really an interesting process that you would be working on in your practice to really find out where you need to fill the patient education gaps. Okay.

Referral strategy, number seven, tone of five, your practice hubs. What is it? What’s your practice hub, right? So anytime someone refers to you, or anytime you hand out a business card, anytime you do any type of marketing. Oh my goodness. Excuse me.

Anytime you do any type of marketing that. That people will be they’re going to the first place they go to is your acupuncture PR your website, right? So anytime you hand out a business card, anytime you hand out anytime someone refers to you, anytime you place them out on Facebook or.

Where are they going to go? They are going to go to your website. So that is the first impression that everybody will have of you. So every digital strategy, every marketing strategy leads back to your website and not. You need to have a website that works effectively, that communicates the bigger picture of what you have.

And when you identify what your core message is, then you, then when people hit your website, they should have an understanding of what you do immediately as they, when they hit your website. Okay. Referral strategy number eight is be consistent. Okay. So being consistent means that you’ve got your mobile ready.

You’ve got reviews. You’re answering those reviews. You’re keeping current with your website. You’re reaching out to referral networks and you also. Over-delivered you have a process in your clinic that when patient comes in from visit one all the way to visit 12, there are steps and strategies that you go through.

Okay. And then referral strategy. Number nine is make sure you have strong calls to action. Again, if you don’t know what a call to action is, or if you don’t have any of these, you need to get these going up. So on your web. What will motivate a person to raise their hand and be like, I want to come in to see you.

Do you have a download? Do you have a free report? Do you have a gift certificate that they can pull em, start, come into the clinic. Okay. When you do a talk, what will you give them that makes them raise their hand to come in, to see you at? Okay. So calls to action are really important to have in the ebook that I have for you.

You will have some examples that are. So these are some examples. There’s more of them. So types of calls to action or setting up a contact us schedule now downloaded a gift certificate. Sharon social media register for this event. Learn more call now. So these are a couple of examples. There’s more in the ebook that I have available for you.

The key is to have an organized, structured system that you consistently constantly use in order to consistently receive referrals. This is not something that you can just do one off and that, and just assume, but you’ve got to be consistent in asking you’ve got to be consistent in educating and walking people through the particular process on how they can learn more.

Through this educational process about what you do, how you can help in the different conditions you can treat. Okay. So thank you guys for joining me here is the link to the free download, where it has outlines and scripts and samples and examples of calls to action. So you can go to Accumedia.us/growth and download this ebook and it will be available for you, thank you so much for taking the time out to join me. I appreciate you being there. Join next week when the AAC will be hosting yet another live event for you, and it’s going to be great. They just do this and it’s an amazing service to the acupuncture community. Thanks again for joining me.

Talk to you guys soon.