How Not to Set Up MD Meetings | Podcast Ep. 114

Hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. This week we are going to talk about the action steps, the tactics, the strategy, exactly how you can go about setting up meetings with other healthcare providers in your community in a way that works, in a way that you can feel confident and comfortable with. So I am excited about this topic. It gets to the core of what I do each and every day at the Evidence Based Chiropractor and I have a very strong feeling that you are going to be able to utilize exactly what we talk about on this podcast to build some relationships in your community and get more people exposed to your practice, your message, your brand and your in chiropractic care. As I said at the top, at the open, we are talking about the strategies and tactics of how you can go about setting up meetings with other healthcare providers in your community. So a lot of times I distill this down to setting up MD meetings and I'm very aware that there's many people listening that say MD meetings, that's what I want to do and many people listening that say I don't really have that much interest in that. But here's the thing, the concepts, it doesn't matter if it's a medical doctor, a do, a midwife, a doula, a sports medicine provider, a physical therapist, the tools, the strategy and the tactics can be utilized across all disciplines of healthcare. Because a lot of this goes back to just tried and true type marketing and that is about relationship building. And where do we go with that? Well, it's about learning about the other provider, finding out what their current preferences are and seeing if you make things easier and or better for them and their patients and or clients. And that's what it comes back to. A lot of this comes down to asking questions so that you can properly position the answer. And one of the biggest things that I've seen historically as I've spoken with people, probably hundreds of chiropractors, easily at this point in time with the evidence based chiropractors, many docs out there who have kind of reached out in the past and maybe didn't have a great experience, but what I tend to find is that many of the chiropractors I talk to that say, ah, I've kind of reached out to an MD in the past or I kind of had a talk with this doc and nothing became of it, there was no follow up and really they didn't gather any information about that person's practice. They went in to pitch what they're doing. Well, nobody cares as much about what anybody else is doing. Everybody cares more about what they're doing. So being able to engage in an easy conversation, not having to memorize cheesy scripts, but having a naturally flowing conversation that can lead you to, if you are going to be good partners is absolutely imperative. But before you even get that far, you have to schedule and set up that meeting. And if you've never done so, sometimes that can be quite intimidating. If you've never reached out to another healthcare provider, whether you're in practice one day or, you know, 40 years, if you've never done it, you know, that's the area for growth. I mean, that's getting out of your comfort zone, but in a good way. And I think what everybody has to keep in mind is when you're reaching out to these other healthcare providers, it's not about. It's not about changing what you do. So, yes, do you want to be speaking this quote, unquote, same language? Yes. But don't get that mixed up. That does not mean that you have to change your messaging or that you need to change what you do in your practice by any stretch of the imagination. So let's talk about tactically, how to really go about setting up that meeting. So here is what happens with. What I'm gonna give is a bad example first. So this is what many chiropractors do. And even if they don't realize it, if they've gone to set up a meeting in the past, bring, bring, bring. Hi, this is Jeff over at Dr. Langmaid's practice. I'd love to come over, take up a lot of your time, pitch you on exactly what we do. It seems like you have a lot of people over there. I'd like to have more people in. So can I come over and do kind of a pharmaceutical lunch, even though I don't really want to pay for it, and can I do that tomorrow? Because that'd be really good. Because we're looking tight at the end of the month here. So obviously I'm kind of paraphrasing and being a little bit facetious there, but the bottom line is many times docs, when they're doing this and they're not using a strategy, it sounds like that to the other party, that might not be the exact words you're utilizing, but. But it sounds like that is what you're doing to the person you are talking to. And as you can imagine, that does not exactly showcase your practice in the best light nor does it make that person want to open the, you know, throw out the red carpet for you to come into their practice? So I'm going to propose an alternate way to go about that and I'm going to propose a way that we teach within for all of our members of the evidence based chiropractor that's been super, super successful to set up meetings. So the way that I do it focus on a couple different things. Number one is when you can focus on co management of patients, a patient centric approach. Wow, that gives a great common denominator to speak to the other provider. Secondarily, letting them know that you want to ask questions and learn about their practice is also important. And the third component of it is somebody over there controls that scheduling book, somebody controls the doctor's time and you want to get to that person because if you're not getting to that person, you don't have a shot to get over and into that practice. And additionally, it's about peer to peer communication, not about pitching. So I'm going to now give an alternate way to go about that phone call. You're going to tell that I've said this quite a few times, but it's not about the exact words that I use. It's about the concepts of co management finding out about their practice and getting to the right person. If you utilize those three items in your script, in what, however you say it, you're going to find a lot of success. So here's how I might go about that phone call. Bring, bring, bring. Hi, this is Jeff over at Dr. Langmaid's office. We've co managed quite a few patients with Dr. Smith, but we've never had the opportunity to meet. I'd love to come over and learn more about your practice. Who can I speak to in order to set up that meeting? So you can see that is a drastic departure from how we started. I focused on co management. I focused upon learning more about their practice, which is not a bait and switch. You should be asking questions when you get over there. And if you didn't check out the previous episode where we dove into the MD meeting itself, please do that. It's earlier on, I believe last year on the Evidence Based Chiropractor podcast. Or you can check out the MD meeting as a download in our Resources and free Tools tab at the evidence basedchiropractor.com and the other component on that is I asked specifically who do I speak to in order to set up that meeting. So let's go bit by bit. So number one, I talked about co management. So I know the question that many young docs are going to have, well, what happens if I haven't co managed the patient with them yet? You can just alter it a little bit, Be honest, be within your integrity. But you might say something. Hi, this is Jeff over at Dr. Langmaid's office. We've heard fantastic things about your practice from our patients. We'd love to learn more about what you are up to and learn more about your practice. Who can I speak to in order to set up that meeting? So again, very simple scripting there you can see it doesn't have to be a magic script. You just want to hit on the items of again, co management when you can or give a compliment. And bottom line is if you're not willing to give them the compliment, if you don't think they're doing a good job, they're not somebody you want to partner with. So that makes it very, very easy. Secondary component to that is making sure that you emphasize we're gonna ask questions again. Relationship Building 101. Find out what the other person's doing. If you're making that phone call, you're probably not their first choice for patient referrals currently. So you have to be able to find out what they are currently doing before you can best position your practice. And job number three is getting to the right person. So who can I speak to in order to set up that meeting? That makes the individual who answered the phone have to direct you to basically to a singular person in that office that controls the schedule. That also gives you an advantage to be able to set up that meeting. So that's some simple scripting that I don't care if you're an introverted doc, you're an extroverted doc, you're somewhere in between. If you utilize a simple framework, then you can absolutely make those calls and have success setting up those meetings. So as you know, we view meetings as one of the three legs of the referral stool. Monthly updates and touches with value laden research is an important component of that. That's why we deliver it to all members of the evidence based chiropractor. Secondarily, the meeting itself, making sure you're asking questions, finding out your value add. Of course we go through A through Z with that as well. And the third component is accurately sending simplified case notes to showcase the social proof that you exist and also to showcase that people are getting well in your practice. You're working hard, you should showcase that when appropriate. And when the patient gives you permission. So that is how you can accurately and efficiently set up a healthcare provider or an MD meeting. If you have any feedback on that, always hit me up. Jeffeevidencebasedchiropractor.com and one ask if you have not left us feedback or a rating on itunes. It helps us reach more and more chiropractors. I would greatly appreciate it. If you're listening on your iPhone, it is super easy. You can. You can do it from within the podcast app itself. So I hope you have a fantastic week in practice and I will talk to you soon.

We appreciate you joining us for this episode of the Evidence Based Chiropractor. Learn more tips for explosive practice development at the evidence basedchiropractor.com youm can also join the Premier MD monthly membership, enabling you to use what you just heard to maximize results in your office.