Jeff Langmaid (YouTube) outlines strategies for chiropractors to market their services to medical doctors and other healthcare providers by bridging referral gaps through three complementary tactics: sending patient case notes, sharing research updates, and arranging face-to-face meetings. He highlights opportunity metrics (high prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints vs low chiropractic utilization and low formal referral rates), recommends a monthly research-update cadence for physicians, and frames relationship-building as a long-term, low-cost referral strategy.
Chapters
Hi Doc. Marketing chiropractic to medical doctors. Today we are going to break down the stats why it is so important, why if it's something you haven't looked at, you really need to right now. And also get into some tactical tips to make sure that you can hit the ground running from here on out. So to get started, the opportunity to speak with medical doctors has never been greater. And when I say medical doctors, let me be clear, I mean all the, all other healthcare professionals. The multidisciplinary opportunities, the interdisciplinary opportunities have never been better than they are right now. As a matter of fact, a recent research publication showcased that over 90% of primary care physicians have been asked about chiropractic by their patients, yet only 11% of those individuals had made a formal referral to a chiropractor. Think about that gap. Think about over 90% of people, primary care doctors have been asked about chiropractic, yet only 11% have made a formal referral. To me, that gap is opportunity. And it's your opportunity to take a few simple steps and start bridging that gap with the other healthcare providers in your community. And why am I so passionate about this? Why do I think it's so important? Well, we know as chiropractors our utilization hovers around 12 to 15%. Yet 90 plus percent of people will deal with musculoskeletal complaints. Only 1% have red flags. So that means almost everybody on planet earth is going to deal with a musculoskeletal complaint. Yet barely more than 10% are going to come see us. While the research has showcased we are probably and very often their best option. And if somebody is not finding you, they're not being referred into your practice. It is also very likely they're going to go down a drastically different path with neck pain and with back pain. If they take medications that don't work, they're going to be on to injections and then they may even be on to surgical intervention, which could have been avoided if they would have had exposure to your practice early on. And for me, to me, the opportunity to save one person from that path is worth the work that it may take to bridge the gap with those physicians in your community. Because the other fantastic thing is when you start speaking with other healthcare providers in your community, this is a long term strategy, meaning as you bridge the gap and build a relationship, that's a relationship that can last your whole career. It's not like an advertisement that when you shut it off, nobody sees it forever. Again, these Relationships can evolve into hundreds, if not thousands of patients being referred into your practice for a very long period of time at nearly zero cost. That is why this is so crucially important. If you haven't started reaching out to other healthcare providers in your community. So you may be asking yourself, saying, that sounds wonderful, it sounds great. I'm motivated, but I do not know where to start. And I want to break out three distinct categories, three legs of the stool that are imperative when we talk about marketing your practice to other healthcare providers. They are case notes, research and meetings. All three do very distinctly different things, so to speak, but each one is exquisitely important in supporting the others. So sending case notes is a very, very, very important. Sending case notes does a couple very specific things for you and your practice. Number one, it showcases that you're actively co managing with these other healthcare providers. That builds social proof, which is so, so important. Additionally, you very likely work hard to have 80, 90% of the people walking out of your office feeling a lot better than when they walked in. You need to show that off to the other healthcare providers in your community. And there's no better way than to do that than a case note. A case note should be thought of as a patient centric testimonial. So make sure you're sending case notes. Number two is research. Research is a fantastic way to stay up to date with what's going on, not only in our profession, but also to keep the other healthcare providers in your community up to date on what's going on with healthcare at large. So what's the importance of research? Research does a couple of different things. Number one, it gives you the opportunity to have a consistent, consistent message being placed in front of these other healthcare providers. In a professional context. I think that you know that sending a medical doctor a coupon is probably not the best use of your time. So how do you reach out consistently and not aggravate them or become a nuisance? Research is a great way to do that. We recommend a cadence or a frequency of one time per month. Updating a physician on a research update one time per month gives you the opportunity to stay very consistent. It's a controllable asset you can control when you give it out to that doctor one time per month, which is awesome. The other thing that it does is it places your practice in a professional context in their mind those consistency is so, so important in bridging the gap in building that relationship because as you know, case notes will ebb and flow. You can't control who walks in your front door, but you certainly can control that. You get a research update out to these other healthcare providers at least, or at a frequency of one time per month. And third, following it all up are meetings. Nothing builds trust and rapport quicker than meeting somebody face to face. So that is a very important part. Now, meetings are also the most difficult aspect to get. I don't think you need to do pharmaceutical lunches. I don't think you need to compromise your message one bit. But going through a meeting, asking a lot of questions, and discovering the value proposition that you can bring to the table is a very good way to go about bridging that gap and building the relationship. So there you have it. The three attributes, the three legs of the stool that you should focus on immediately if you're looking to reach out and bridge the gap. Send those case notes out, make sure that you're getting research updates out one time per month. And certainly set up some meetings to meet other docs face to face, ask questions, talk and build trust and rapport. If you have any questions about any of this whatsoever, please leave a comment down below. Or if this sounds like something that would be fantastic for you and your practice, you can of course check out what we have going on@the evidence basedchiropractor.com, where this is exactly what we focus on and have helped hundreds, if not thousands of chiropractors generate tens of thousands of referrals by going through a systematic process of building relationships with other healthcare providers in your community. And if that helped one person avoid other surgical interventions and injections, I think we all would agree that it would be worth it. So there you have it. I hope you have a great day and I would encourage you start reaching out to the medical community and in your community right now.
