Marketing Pillar #2 -Growing Your Network of Non-Professional Referrers

You're listening to Podiatry Marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Welcome back to Podiatry Marketing. This is your host, Jim McDannald. I'm here with Tyson Franklin. Tyson, how are you doing today?

I am fantastic. Jim, I am your officially your cohost today because you're leading this episode. Well, actually, you're asking the questions. I'm not gonna be doing much talking on this

Yeah. We just like to grill each other every so often. Right? It just kinda take turns, like, asking each other about areas that we have expertise in. It's kind of a fun way to to have a conversation and to discuss a topic.

I think, you know, a couple weeks ago, we talked a bit about getting a professional referral network. And today, we're gonna talk about a different type of referral network. What are we gonna talk about today, Tyson?

It is pillar number two, and I call it nonprofessional referrers. And I I think it is the neglected referral source for a lot of podiatrists. And and people might say, okay. What do I what's my definition of a nonprofessional referrer? It is somebody that can send you a pay it can be a business or an individual that can will can send you a patient, but they're not necessarily going to write a report when they send you that patient.

But they can still benefit by having your business cards, clinic information, folders, and stuff like that. So classic examples that most podiatrists know, shoe stores, sporting stores, massage clinics, health food stores. They are the classic nonprofessional referrers that I think most podiatrists, if if they switched on, have probably made contact with with those people. But there's another group that I think people don't think about enough, which I could

Why why do you think these people are neglected? Is it just kind of we're we're we're busy focusing on other health care professionals? Or what is the major reason you think that these this group of folks is kind of overlooked by people in our profession?

I I think it's one of those things where we're so used to, oh, we're gonna get a referral from a physio. We're gonna get a referral from the doctor or the chiropractor. You know, they're educated. They're just like like us. We need to look after them.

We need to nurture them. But then I realize your nonprofessional refers need to be nurtured just as much as anybody else. But you I think you've got more chance of getting more referrals from nonprofessional refers than you do from professional refers. When we used to look at our stats and I was really right into the numbers and the and the metrics of everything, our nonprofessional refers four times, five times more than from our professional refers. But you just gotta you gotta nurture them the right way, and you gotta think outside the box.

So I wrote a list of a couple of other ones that people don't normally think about real estate offices. All the real estate offices in your town, they should know who you are. You should know a lot of them by name and drop in them because there's new people moving to town all the time. So when they move to town, who are they gonna contact? Real estate office.

So while they're talking, if it came up in conversation, happened to you wouldn't happen to know a podiatrist, would you? Wouldn't it great if every real estate agent or office went, oh, yeah. We recommend ABC Podiatry down the road. So I think that's a neglected one. Another one is hotels and motels.

Most most hotels have a a directory in in the room, and in that directory, it'll have the local pharmacy, the local doctor. Why why doesn't it have the local podiatrist in there? And the reason it doesn't, because they don't know you're there. You've just totally neglected.

Or no one's asked, right? You know, no one's ever asked a hotel, or no one's ever asked to like, hey, like how about you put in foot doctor in case some, you know, foot or ankle related injury happens, you have someone to to refer them to.

Yeah. I've gone to stayed in so many motels, and they'll have the information folder there, and you'll flick through it. And how many blank clear sleeves are in that folder that they've put together? So your information brochure, if you have one, could actually be in there or a flyer could be in there. And it doesn't mean you're gonna get 10 referrals a day from motels, but how many motels are in your area or hotels?

How many rooms are in every one of those hotels? So potentially, there could be thousands of people in that area being exposed who are there on holidays a lot of the times, and the last thing you wanna be when you're on holidays is have a sore foot.

Well, I think you're actually located in a great part of Australia where, you know, people are barefoot hanging out on the beach. And, you know, it's it's obvious this is this can happen. This would be a good idea in places that don't have beaches. But just the fact that you're in Karen there, like, makes me think, like, you know, people on the Atlantic Coast, Pacific Coast, you know, places with beaches and people, you know, going barefoot is, a prime example of where a hotel or motel, you know, someone steps on a piece of glass or or a shell or something, like, and that gets lodged in their foot. That's not an emergent thing, but it's definitely an urgent thing if you're a source where they can refer someone to.

It could be a nice kind of additional patient into your practice.

And usually, if a patient is relatively smart, they've gone through the information folder from the motel room, which I do it all the time, usually because I'm looking at, you know, what's the what can I order to eat? What's close by? Because sometimes I'll have their recommended restaurants if they don't have a restaurant actually in the motel itself. So I always look through it, and and I do. And there's been times I've said, oh, there's oh, the pharmacy's down around the corner.

There's a little map in there. I need to go down and, yeah, get something for a headache. So I I just think it's the thing is if you go and do it and you set up this non referrer, a hotel, motel, whatever it is, it's it's no harm in doing it. It's not gonna it's not gonna harm you in any way by doing it. It can only be a positive.

Another one I wrote down was legal and financial businesses, lawyers, accountants, because especially a law yeah. Lawyers. All the lawyers need to know who you are because if they want someone to give an opinion on something or have you evaluate a patient who's had a a foot injury through a car accident? And the thing is a lot of the times, we used to write to all the lawyers and say, do you realize that by including a podiatrist in your final proposal could add an extra 20 or $30,000 to your claim. Now most lawyers are paid on a percentage on the claim that they get.

So if they can add an extra 30 on there and it's and we look at what the injury was with the person. And I'm not a legal expert when it comes to writing legal reports either, but we used to write a fair few of them. And you get paid for doing it, but the other part, if it's a big firm or a a large accounting firm, also gives you an opportunity. In Australia, they have a certain amount where they'll spend a certain amount of money on work health and safety. So there were a few times I was called in and I do a talk to say 40 people in that business and not to about podiatry, about common problems that they could be having.

And the way that I got into them was writing to them saying, do you realize how many people have time off of work over a year because of foot related problems? I said having me to come in, I'll charge you $300 to do the talk. I could actually save you a couple of thousand dollars this year. Plus, I knew they had it in the budget that had to spend money in that area anyway.

Yeah. You can kinda target those professions that are always wearing bad shoes as well. Right? I guess before before everyone was working at home like we do now these days, know, definitely people that are on their feet a lot are kind of a prime opportunity to kinda help help them in some preventative ways. And being proactive and being visible in the community amongst those kind of nonprofessional referrals can definitely pay some dividends, I

It does. It like I said, it's something you have to nurture these relationships over a period of time. And the good part with it because they are so neglected by everybody, it's it's perfect. So another one that I I wrote down, and I speak about this one when I do my marketing workshops, I do it with coaching clients is coffee shops. Local coffee shops in your area is just a massive opportunity to one, you can set up to so I'll I'll do two really simple examples.

One, you could sponsor cups of coffee. So say, for example, I said to the coffee shop, hi. You know, you might get a former relationship. You go, I have a podiatry clinic down the road. I wanna sponsor the next I wanna sponsor 10 cups of coffee for the next 10 women that come in between the ages of, yeah, 30 and 45 who are wearing active wear from, you know, nine till midday, the first ten.

Again, that might be who your ideal client is. Or you might say the next 10 people that walk in wearing a suit and a tie, I wanna buy their cup of coffee. Or you're wearing a checkered shirt at the moment. Jim's okay. The next 10 guys that come in wearing a checkered shirt, they don't have any hair.

That could be my perfect American

I I still have hair, but just it's just a receding head hairline.

Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, sorry. Anyway, so you you pick who you want it to go to. You pay your $50 and then when they person comes in, they go, oh, this is one of those ones that he wanted.

They go, oh, no. No need to pay for that coffee today. This is sponsored by ABC Podiatry. That goes, oh my god. Okay.

When that person gets back to work and people say, hey. How's your morning been? Well, I've got a free cup of coffee today. And it's no it's no different to almost like have you ever had anyone do that pay it forward to you through a drive through at a coffee shop? Yep.

Yeah. We happened with my brother and I a month or so ago on the Gold Coast, and we pulled up at Starbucks, and the lady said, oh, no. Don't worry about it. It's been paid forward. My brother had never heard of it before.

And he goes, oh, no. No. I'm here to pay my car. They no. The car in front paid it.

Why do we know them? And I'm gonna tell you, just accept it. It's been paid for. And he goes, so what? They expect me to pay for the bastards behind me?

I'm like, no. No. That's not how it works. I said, just thank you very much. I'll explain it to you on the drive home.

So so that's one thing. Can sponsor the cups of coffee. You can also sponsor the coffee and be in the coffee shop yourself at the same time on your laptop doing some work. And they might say, oh, no. You don't have to pay for that coffee.

It's sponsored today by ABC Podiatry. In fact, the owner is actually sitting over there having a coffee himself. So it's different. Now the other thing you can do once you build up this relationship with this coffee shop, one, you'll get cheaper coffee yourself. So pick a shop that you really like.

Right. Plus this relates back to your ideal client. Survey your ideal clients. What's their favorite coffee shop? If a majority of ideal clients pick a certain coffee shop, then you know there's more of your ideal clients hanging out there, which is why you wanna form that relationship.

The other way you can do it is you could say to that coffee shop, is there any chance we can set up like a referral thing that if I send one of my patients with one of my cards that you'll just you can either give them a discount, or if you got some coffee vouchers done up and some of your best patients, your ideal patients, you say, hey. Here's a voucher for a free cup of coffee at that coffee shop. And if you said to the coffee owner, will you do a bit of a discount if they bring in this this voucher? If you're sending patients to them to get cups of coffee, the patient's happy, they're happy, and you're happy. So it's just it's a perfect relationship.

Well, it's looking for those win win opportunities. Right? Whether it's another clinic or a coffee shop. It's just trying to find opportunities within your community to provide value, but just to kinda find some win wins. And I think that that's a perfect example of, you know, a situation where, like, everybody's winning in that situation, and it just kinda builds positive energy and kind of positive, you know, association with your brand and your clinic, and you're kind of being a a good neighbor and a good kind of fellow business person to someone else nearby.

But it is. It's it's thinking outside the square. You might live in an area or you might hate coffee yourself. Take that idea and think, how can I apply that in my area to other businesses? Could you do the same thing at a at a bakery?

So you might go to the bakery and go, look. Here's I'll buy the next you know, I'll sponsor the next 10 cream buns or buys a pie or you could just pick whatever item is and a description of the person if your ideal patients have already told you where we all use this bakery. So it's it's just think about how can we use it. And a couple of things I've written down here is I think you need to you need to treat them as well as you would treat your professional referrers. Just because your professional referrer has a degree doesn't mean that the person owns a coffee shop isn't as important, especially if they could probably send more patients to you.

So add them to your database, send out your monthly newsletter to them once you've sort of got to know them a little bit better. Give them bottles of wine. It's treat them the same way. Invite them to information evenings so they get to know a little bit about your business. Take them to lunch if there's a lunch on.

Treat them the same way you would treat professional wear. They they don't deserve anything less.

That makes sense to me. That you just have to like I said, it's just trying to pay it forward and, like, find those win win situation no matter if they're a clinic or the coffee shop down the street.

So Yeah. And the what you said then about being win win, I think it's really important. And this is especially to do with say shoe stores, for example. You go to the shoe shop, you talk to the manager, and you want to build a relationship with them. They're more than likely, that probably if you if you're new to town, they probably already have a relationship with existing podiatrists in the area.

But don't be afraid to ask them the question. Oh, by the way, who do you currently refer your patients to? Now if they say, well, actually, nobody. Never met a podiatrist before. Don't need don't even know if there's any in town.

Then straight away, you can offer in house training. You could offer to go in there for a certain number of hours per week or or on a weekend to give advice to customers when they're coming through who could potentially be patients. Now if you offer that to them, they go, oh, yeah. No. If they start to backtrack, more than likely they do work with a podiatrist.

They just didn't want to tell you that. So and I think it's important when you first go and see a shoe store, don't just dump a whole pile of business cards, brochures, all the stuff on them. Because if they're already working with somebody, they're gonna go, yeah. Thanks for that smile on my and they're just gonna put it in the bin.

Yeah. That's gonna, like, take it from from the desk to the trash pretty quickly. But but like you said, there's great opportunities there. I know that there's a lot of running through clinics in Eugene, Oregon where I used to practice in, you know, setting up these little kind of, like, injury prevention nights or marathon injuries clinics, you know, where you talk for in a half an hour, answer questions that people have in the audience for another half an hour. It's a great way to build rapport.

And even if, like, they have a a current relationship with someone, if they've never come and pitched that idea to get more people into the store for one of these small clinics, you know, they're probably more willing to, like, give you the space to let you do it even if they you know, whether or not they're gonna send every patient to you or not.

Yeah.

It's still a good way to show them that, like, you don't see them as, like, a means to an end, that you see this as a long term relationship where, like, yeah, they might have somebody else they work with, but you're willing to do some extra stuff that maybe this other podiatrist isn't willing to do anymore or doesn't have time to do anymore.

Yeah. And that's important that you might find the existing podiatrist that they were working with really nurtured that relationship at the beginning, but then once they got rich and famous, all of a sudden they stopped nurturing that relationship, which is an opportunity for you to come in. But it's all these businesses as well, the nonprofessional referrers, follow their businesses on Facebook and and on social media, like their posts, comment on their posts so they know that you're not there just to to get patients from them. You you really want to interact and get to know them better. And personal trainers are another one.

How many personal trainers are there? They're everywhere. They're all over the place, personal trainers. And a lot of the good personal trainers will usually also have, a running group. So you build that relationship, follow them on Facebook, comment on a few things, and then once that relationship starts to open, offer, hey.

Noticed you have a running group. Any chance I could come in to do a talk? We did some through a personal training here in Cairns, probably 25 people at the talk, and I think about seven or eight of them became patients just just from that one that one talk.

Right.

Because I went in there talking about what is going to interest them, what is probably the most common problems they're going to have, and that's all I focused on. And I talked about, yeah, how we could how I could be of benefit to them. And then they scheduled us to come in each time they had their then and I know we do a couple of running groups a year. Once again, it's just think out think outside the box. But the final point I wanna mention on this, regardless of what relationship you have, whether it's professional or non nonprofessional, shoe stores or, you know, coffee shop, is it's gotta be win win, and it's gotta and the referrals have gotta be reciprocal.

If you're referring a lot of people to a shoe store or you're referring a lot of people to a physio or a chiropractor, a professional refer, and you're getting nothing back, then you need to find out why you're not getting anything back or you need to find somebody else to refer to. Because I know if you're sending a lot of people to a shoe store, it should be coming back as well. Not it shouldn't just be all one way traffic. And the same for yourself. If you're getting all the referrals from somewhere, you should be busting your ass to try and make sure you're referring people back if you know, like, and trust them.

That makes total sense. You definitely have to like, it has to be a win win relationship on both sides of it. So you don't want it to be just a a one-sided affair for sure.

Yeah. And it's it's like any relationship even in your personal life. If it's if if it's all one-sided or all coming yeah. It's all one way traffic, the relationship never lasts. So treat your nonprofessional referrers and your professional referrers the same way.

If if you're if you're giving out a lot and not getting anything back, then maybe that's not the right relationship for you. Maybe you need to move on, find find greener pastures. It'll put a big smile on your face.

That sounds like a good plan.

So I have nothing else to cover on this topic. Think if someone hasn't got anything from this episode, what I used to say on other podcasts, if you learned nothing today, what you need to is give yourself an uppercut. Go and take two panda two headache tablets, have a lie down, come back and listen to it again, and you'll guarantee you'll pick something up the next time. So Jim, I'm I'm done on this subject today. Thanks for having me on our show.

Yeah. No, man. It's been a fun conversation. I think there's a a lot that can be learned from, you know, really building out that network of nonprofessional referrers, and you really hit on some some kind of novel ways to approach it and kinda how to get started. And I'm sure we'll be digging into more of these these ways to, you know, bring more awareness to people's practices and kind of like some surefire ways to kinda get more patients in the clinic.

So so thanks a lot for sharing that info, and I'll see you next time, Tyson.

Yeah. I'll talk to you next week. Bye. Bye now.

Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDaniel. Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.