Physician Referral Strategy Best Practices

Identify one person in your office to work with us to schedule P2P meetings.  

Someone who has access to your clinic and personal calendars and who can block your schedule for travel and meeting time.  They should be available with a quick response time during business hours so that we can quickly respond to offices we’re targeting.

Have professional collateral on hand when you visit. 

You don’t need a lot of pieces or a lot of detail.  Create a few clean, professionally designed collateral pieces that describe the services you and your practice provide.  Generally, a business card, referral form and rack card are sufficient.  lk

Create an elevator speech for your practice and what you do. Then write it down!

This should be a 1 minute or less overview of what you do, what services you provide and what sets you apart from your competitors.  Think about what key messages you want the listener to take away and make sure they are included.  

Create a new contact in your phone for yourself and include a photo. 

Use a professional headshot, include the name of your practice, your cell number, office number and fax.  Include an email if you use one regularly.  List the website and office address as well.  This way you can text your contact to referring physicians and they can easily save it into their phone.  

Be genuine about how you can be a resource to the referring physician as well. 

Find out how you might be able to cross-refer or support their practice.  The goal is a mutually beneficial relationship that both parties feel is productive and helpful.  What are their pain points?  Where do they need the most resource?  Even if unrelated to your practice, if there is something you can help with, that could go a long way in building the relationship. 

Don’t forget the ask!

We are trying to grow your volume, so don’t be shy about asking for what you want.  Present yourself and your services to the referring physician but be sure to clearly say that you hope to be a resource for them and their patients and that you hope to earn their referrals.  Ask them to refer patients to you.  It will be a more clear next step when the meeting is over.