A couple blogs back we spoke about keeping a master list of potential referring offices that you visit for your referral-based marketing.  As mentioned, it’s absolutely essential to stay organized with your list and updating it as necessary.  In addition, it’s just as important to stay current with your list.  You might be on top of making the necessary edits to the offices already on your list, but every so often, we need to go and actually edit which offices remain on the list as well as adding new potential referring offices to visit.

While the main details of your list should always be up-to-date such as date of last visit, any notes, whether you did a Lunch & Learn or not, we also want to make sure to omit any offices that you’ve repeatedly visited but that don’t show much promise.  It’s a tough call to make but using our best judgment, we need to put our time and energy into investments that will be worth it in the end.  Occasionally, you’ll come across an office that simply is not at all interested in your practice and might even be annoyed by your visiting.  This would be an example of an office I would mark as simply not open.  Rather than completely deleting them, you can highlight them and put them towards the bottom of the list.  As you visit offices, you’ll get a better feel for offices that simply are either not worth visiting as often if at all.

Further, every couple of months or so we want to take a look at our list and see what additions we can make.  While many practices are closing down, many new ones are also popping up.  We want to make sure that we add these offices to our list.  Sometimes, catching a newly opened practice and getting in there early can prove to be one of your strongest referral sources in the long run.  Make it a habit to frequently search the web to see what new practices might have opened up.  In addition, you can re-visit some hospitals to try and obtain an updated hospital directory.  This will also have updated information about all the practices for the physicians on staff there.

While strengthening your existing relationships is important, it’s just as important to consistently start building new relationships with new practices.  Make sure to keep your master list fresh and always seize any opportunity that exists around you.

By Chad Schwarz

So we’ve said time and time again how important it is to get out there and start building relationships with potential referring physician’s online viagra offices.  This is an absolutely critical piece of your referral-based marketing and can have a tremendous impact on your new patient volume.  However, let’s take it back to the basics when thinking about how we approach these offices.

We are all very eager to build these relationships and see the return on our time and investment, however, we need to take it slow.  Think of your main purpose as just making friends with these offices.  With any friendship, you wouldn’t rush to introduce yourself and jump to the next level.  There are stages such as an introduction in the beginning, many smiles, casual talk, and then we progress to deeper levels of relationship.  This is true even in the business sense.  Don’t get carried away trying to prove yourself or explain why you need to have a business relationship.  Before they get to know about your practice or what you can do for them, represent yourself.  Get them to know YOU personally and to TRUST you.  This alone builds a solid foundation and helps to break down any walls that might have been up.

Next, always remember you are NOT SELLING but you are EDUCATING!  As the relationship deepens and there already is a sense of trust and familiarity, you slowly want to begin to EDUCATE on why your practice is the best extension of theirs.  Giving a sales pitch to a friend has done nothing but turn the other person off.  Don’t focus so much on proving why but educate the referring office about what your practice offers, clarifying any misconceptions and enlightening them with new information that could be helpful to their patients.  Think of it as extending a hand to help provide comprehensive care to their patients.  Highlight how you can help them and make their lives easier.  Instead of thinking you need to get new patients from them, extend a hand to them and offer to take good care of their patients.

Lastly, remember to leave out anything to do with “marketing” or “sales.”  If you have someone going out to these offices on your behalf, make sure that they present themselves as a liaison for the practice rather than a marketer.  Remember that you or your representative is there to help them.  Your practice is a

mere extension of their practice and together you can work to provide more comprehensive care for the patients.  You also want to make sure they know how accessible and available you are.  You want to be there to help them with many different facets and work to support them with whatever they need.  When thinking of you, the referring offices should only have positive feelings about you in general and also know why your practice is helpful to them and their patients.

By Chad Schwarz