How to Build Medical Referrals Through Effective Doctor Meetings | Podcast Ep. 319

Foreign hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. On today's episode we're talking one of my favorite topics and that is how do you bridge the gap and build referral relationships with medical doctors in your community? And to be clear, when I say medical doctors, I really mean any healthcare professional who has your patients in their practice. Sports medicine, midwife, doula, ob, gyn, orthopedist, whoever it may be in the healthcare sphere and space who has your patients in their practice. We're gonna specifically talk about the conversational aspect of that, what I call the MD meeting. Again, this can apply to all healthcare professionals. We're gonna talk it down, break it down, shatter some myths and give you some strategy in order to get out there and have productive conversations with other healthcare providers. Before we get started, I want to say a few words about the smart chiropractor. The smart chiropractor powers your patient journey to provide you with more qualified leads, more new patients, better patient retention, consistent reactivations without spending any money on advertising. How do we do that? We do that through a strategy that we call, teach and invite. Consistent, consistently getting out there, showcasing who you are and what you do consistently across those high power channels. Social media, email, in office, patient education, all of it's included in the smart chiropractor. Head over there if you would like to basically grow your practice without having to spend a ton of money on advertising. But as I said at the top on today's episode, we're talking all about how do you build relationships with other healthcare providers? If you've been following along with the evidence based chiropractor for a while, you probably know that I talk about three pillars, case notes, research and meetings. Those are really the pillars to building relationships. We basically take care of that, give you everything you need with our service called the evidence Based chiropractor@the evidencebasedchiropractor.com but on today's episode we're gonna talk about that third pillar, specifically what I call the MD meeting. And here is just the truth of the matter with where it stands today. The there are healthcare providers out there that are when you reach out to set these meetings are business as usual. There are others that are only doing kind of virtual sort of stuff when meeting other healthcare providers and some that aren't doing at all. It's a little bit of a crapshoot out there right now in terms of getting meetings. However, every challenge is an opportunity and let's talk strategy so let's pick it up right from the beginning. I find that many, many chiropractors out there don't have too much experience in this realm. And if you're listening right now, you might be saying, gosh, he's right. Have you spoken with and met with 50 or 100 providers or more? If not, that's probably an underdeveloped skill set, especially if it's three or four or zero. And I can tell you as a natural introvert, this did not come naturally to me. It was a lot like this system that I'm going to describe was born out of pain. This was having a lot of uncomfortable, unproductive meetings over a multi year period that, you know, you sort of just chisel away and chip away, right there's that block of stone. You're trying to make this, you know, absolutely, you know, beautiful statue. And you chip away a little bit at a time. You start to see that you're getting somewhere and next thing you know, you've really developed something awesome. So this has been a strategy that's worked for hundreds, if not probably more than a thousand. Chiropractors around the world generated tens of thousands of referrals in. And I can honestly say it doesn't matter whether you're an introvert or an extrovert. This is why systems and processes are so critically important. You shouldn't have to rely only on crazy, extroverted charisma to build relationships. As a matter of fact, you don't need that at all if you have a system and a process. So the most important concept when meeting with other physicians is it's not your chance to tell them everything they never wanted to know about chiropractic. It's actually your opportunity to learn as much as possible about their practice. The more that you learn about who they are and what they do, the better you can uniquely position your practice as a referral partner, as a solution to the challenges that they encounter. So you want to be specific. You do not want to be super general. I'm a chiropractor. Chiropractors don't know what that means when somebody else says that to you. What techniques do you do? How do you take care of patients? What's your focus or specialty? You say that to another healthcare provider. You can imagine, you know, how much confusion it doesn't mean very much. So you want to be able to be as specific as possible. Because before you have 100 referrals coming in from a provider, you need that first one. And to get that first one, you need to be specific, not general. So that's kind of lesson number one. Lesson number two is you have to have a strategy and a plan and a strategy and a plan. To me, when meeting other healthcare providers is having a few questions queued up in your mind that you know are going to uncover great information about who they are and what they do. It doesn't need to be an interrogation, it doesn't need to be a soliloquy or a narration where you're just talking the whole time. This really is the opportunity for you to ask questions, learn and discover and then position. So we teach on, within the evidence based chiropractor program, we teach on three primary questions that you want to get to the bottom of and ask. They're super simple, but as we go through these, you'll see they are super powerful. Anytime you meet the provider, one good question to ask is, the first question is essentially you're saying, do you have my patients in your practice? So the way that that might sound to a medical doctor might be something to the effect of, hey, are you seeing a lot of spine and musculoskeletal related issues with your patients today? And that's a key question. If it's no, zero, not at all. I actually do all ear, nose and throat. Well, maybe that's not the right doctor that you should be speaking with. Right. They might not be a great referral partner. Now you can tailor, you know, insert, you know, whatever you want for spine and musculoskeletal to what matches your practice, of course. But in general, that's a great question to ask because normally we know about 30% of the daily volume in a primary care physician's practice is related to spine and musculoskeletal issues. So the answer is usually going to be, yeah, we are seeing some of that. Great, easy way to start a conversation, easy way to ensure that you're not wasting your time and an easy way to transition to a deeper question. The deeper question is question number two. What are you seeing more of in your practice? And when I ask that, I'm trying to get a feel for are they, you know, do they abut a long term care facility? And they're seeing a lot of geriatric, you know, patients. Are they, you know, with and affiliated with a sports team locally and you know, college and they're seeing a ton of young people, you know, I want to get the gist of are they seeing a little bit of everything? What does their patient population look like? And the Reason I'm asking, that is you can probably already start to piece together is that if I'm focusing on this wonderful gym that I have that like is perfect for, you know, a 35 year old that works out four times a week and their patient population is all 85 year olds that, you know, are just trying to ambulate, I might not want to highlight that gym, you know, speaking with them, I might touch on it, but it might not be the biggest part of when I'm describing who I am and what I do. So it enables you to match your conversation and match your practice in an ethical way, in a truthful way, of course, to what's appropriate for them. So what are you seeing more of? It's a great question. And question number three is the clincher, and that is, what do you like to do for these people? What's your treatment protocol? Understanding what they're currently doing enables you to understand what their thought process is and again, further position yourself. So here's the great news. This is not the lottery. There's not 2 billion answers that they're going to give you. There's three answers that you're gonna receive 99.9% of the time. If you're asking another healthcare provider what are they doing for back issues, neck issues, headaches, spine and musculoskeletal, one of three things is gonna come up every single time. You probably already have the gears turning in your head. Medications, referral to physical therapy or referral to another specialist. Those are the three things, right? Medications, physical therapy, referral to another specialist. Especially if you're going into primary care physicians, they're kind of referral quarterbacks. They're not doing too much for spine and musculoskeletal in their practice. They're diverting patients to what they think is best or most appropriate, quote, unquote. So understanding what their current preference is helps inform again how you can best position yourself. And I'll give you an example. We go through this in such detail within the evidence based chiropractor. So check it out if you're interested in really scaling your incoming referrals. And I'm, you know, scaling whether you have 10 coming in a month or zero, like most chiropractors, it's time to get out there and bridge those gaps. So here's an example of one of those. If somebody says to me, well, we usually start with NSAIDs and medication, which is a very common response, you know, I might say something to the effect of hey, a lot of docs we work with have usually started out the same way, but they experience patients that have GI heart issues that are unable to take those medications. We, we work really, really well with those providers. We'd love to be a resource for your practice on those patients that are unable to really start that first line of care that you normally prescribe. Now, with that, you can see I'm being delicate, right? I'm not saying, hey, man, you're guideline discordant. This makes no sense. That's actually the worst thing you can do for the patient. I'm getting in there to build a relationship. So you need to start on some common ground. Hey, a lot of people that we work with start out the same way. That's true. Most medical doctors are starting with medication, so it's an easy bridge and then a transition to, hey, here's a patient that I know that doesn't work with. I'm happy to be a resource for that individual. So you're not trying to change their entire care algorithm within three minutes of meeting them. You're offering yourself as an option and you're just planting that seed for down the road. And that's really what the point of the meeting is in my mind. It's not to close business quote unquote. It's not to get in there and strong arm anybody. You really just want to plant a few seeds during that meeting. So don't put too much pressure on yourself either, especially as an introvert. If you're getting out there in the meetings and you're like, oh boy, I got to do all this stuff. Take it easy, ask the questions, plant the seeds, and then do your follow up with your case notes and your research, which is what we provide of course, as well. You have to have that consistency on the back end. A meeting won't do it on its own, but that's a great. Those are the three great questions to ask. Now, I want to throw out one bonus question that has actually become my favorite question to ask, and that is have you ever worked with or referred to a chiropractor in the past? So you might have just felt every muscle in your body tighten up. I can't ask them. What if they come back and say they had a bad. I love that. And let's talk about it for a couple minutes here. So asking that question, that drives to the heart of why you're there, right? Hey, ever worked with a chiropractor in the past or referred in the past? I love that question. I love it because number one they might say, yes, we have. A minority of the time. They might say, yes, we have. We actually have worked with Dr. Blank in the past. Well, if Dr. Blank is on the other side of town, that's a great way to you to say, hey, awesome. Now I'm on the. He's on the north side of town. I know him or her. I'm on the south side of town. So, you know, any patients that are coming in from that way, you know that that's an easy conversation to have, right? If it's. Yeah, we've worked with chiropractors in the past. That's an easy one. What most chiropractors get uptight about and, you know, clenching every muscle in your body is like the, no, I haven't or no, and I never would. And, you know, most people aren't gonna be rude or that upfront, but you'll get the gist of it, right? We all know, you know, oh, boy. You know, this is not the answer I wanted. I'm actually gonna make the argument to you that the no or a bad experience is a great answer to get here. Here's why. If you don't ask that question, have you ever worked with a chiropractor in the past and their answer was no? If you don't ask that, they were never gonna refer you a patient because they don't clearly either had a bad experience or don't understand, and they're just bucketing you as a chiropractor, whatever that means in their mind. So this is a very poignant question to ask and super powerful now what? So if you don't ask it and they haven't in the past, it's gonna be an uphill battle to get there. Now, if you do ask it and they say no, here is the opportunity. I call this the step to the side, meaning, have you ever referred to a chiropractor or worked with in the past? Yeah, you know what? Five years ago, I referred a patient to a chiropractor. You know, he didn't do. She didn't do this. That my patient came back, didn't like it, but, you know, I don't care what the laundry list is. Don't take it personal. That was not you. Step to the side and simply say something to the effect of, you know, I'm really sorry to hear that. Let me take a moment and describe how we do things in our practice that's really a lot different than what you've experienced with that previous referral. So step to the side. I'm sorry to hear that. I understand that that can be frustrating. Those are great sentences to transition. Right? You're taking it. You're not trying to be defensive about it. Don't be defensive about it. It's not about you. It's not about chiropractic. It's about their experience, and their perception is their reality. So I understand how that can be frustrating. Let me take a moment and tell you about how we do things in our practice. Now, this is your opportunity to showcase direct differences. Oh, I sent that person over there. You know what? I never received a case note. The doc never followed up with me. And, you know, the patient, you know, just was pretty unsatisfied with the care. That's a great. I'm really sorry to hear that, doc. That must have been super frustrating. You know, in our practice, we go through a really thorough examination on the front end to ensure that any patient that comes over is in the right place. We send you those case notes so that you can stay up to date and informed on the care. And if you have any insight into that, please don't hesitate to reach out. But we're going to keep you updated each and every step of the way. One of the other things that we really take pride in in our office is a patient centric approach. So. So we always are very, very cognizant of explaining what's going on with the patient, letting them know what we're doing and why, and highlighting really how they can live their best life with the care that we deliver in our practice. So you can see right there, that was a. I kind of ate it. I understand that's difficult. That's frustrating. And then I stepped to the side and positioned my practice in terms of whatever the truth is of your practice. Right. So using those three initial questions to understand their practice. The fourth bonus question is my favorite. That really gives you the opportunity to understand their mindset in related to referrals to chiropractors. These are just fantastic ways to really crush any meeting you have with any other healthcare provider. You don't need to be. You have a process like that. You don't need to be super extroverted. You can see I talked very little about chiropractic. Now, from there, the conversation might jump into, you know, let me tell you a little bit about our gym space. Let me tell you a little bit about how we. You could get specific after that. But don't put the cart before the horse. You got to get those basics down, ask those questions. This has been a strategy that has worked again for hundreds, if not over a thousand chiropractors at this point to produce tens of thousands of referrals. And if you want the whole system laid out step by step, easy to follow module by module, head over to the evidence based chiropractor.com and get started. We'd absolutely be thrilled to work with you. But before we wrap up today's episode, I also want to talk about growing teams. I know a lot of docs did have great years in 2021. Coming into 2022, if you crushed your goals, you might be looking to expand your team by adding on a chiropractic associate, potentially adding on a CA or a chiropractic assistant. Before you do, please reach out to us@chiromatchmakers.com and speak with one of our CA or DC placement specialists. We we have a saying because we've seen it time and time again. Hiring the right person can produce seven figures for your practice. Over time, hiring the wrong person can be a six figure mistake. We've all seen the mistakes. So you know, with Kyra Matchmakers we use behavioral assessments, a proven process, big data, a big database, and much more to ensure that any provider coming into your practice is a great, great fit. And if you're somebody looking for your next opportunity, we actually have over a hundred open positions. You can check them all out@cairomatchmakers.com and other than that, get out there, build some relationships this week. If you need help, reach out to me jeff@the evidencepacechiropractor.com have an awesome week in practice and I will talk to you soon. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Evidence Based Chiropractor. If you want to grow your practice, come back for next week's episode. If you want to grow faster, visit the evidencebasedchiropractor.com and join our MD Marketing membership today.