E212 | 3 Low Tech Ways To Get More New Patients

Episode 212 of The PT Entrepreneur Podcast addresses a question I get a lot as a cash PT clinic owner and that is how to get more new patients using very low tech.

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Episode Transcription:

Hey, what's going on, guys? Doc Danny here with the PT Entrepreneur Podcast and, super excited to get into a topic today that, I get a lot of questions about. And, I think any of you that are listening to this that are, either thinking about going into practice for yourself, have a practice of your own, or really just trying to get.

Clients in any other capacity, whether it be training, performance-based stuff, whatever it might be, this is going to be very, very relevant. You know, to what you are trying to do now, before we get into this, first of all, for those of you that have listened for a long time, thanks so much. If you're new, welcome.

Thanks for listening to the podcast. I'm Dr. Danny. I'm a strength coach, physical therapist, and entrepreneur based out of Atlanta. And. You know, I hope, practitioners, cash practitioners move away from insurance and develop, you know, businesses that they can really enjoy running, growing, and make more, live a life that they want and, and on their, on their terms in particular in particular on what you're trying to do.

And instead of just going straight into a high volume insurance practice and getting burned out and wondering why you ever went to physical therapy school, this is what. We get into on this podcast and the topic today is how do we get more people would come and see us, right? So this is something that I feel like is the linchpin for almost anybody in almost any business.

So if you look at it, business in general, Really it comes down to a couple of factors. Number one, do you have a repeatable system to get people in your door or to your website? Do you have a repeatable conversion system in place, whether that be a sales process or if it's digitally moving them along, you know, a pathway to becoming a customer?

And then do you have a repeatable system to retain those people and get them to send more of their friends and family your way? Now, this is. Basically, any business would need these variables. And often, yes, we focus, especially if you're newer into any sort of business like this. And for me, most of the experience I have is, you know, would be with the cash-based practice, performance-based cash-based practice like we have here in Atlanta.

And. The variable is starting out. It's great. You're like, yeah, I think I have a repeatable retention system, and I think I have a repeatable sales or conversion system, but you don't know until somebody actually comes into your facility or you know, reaches out to you to make contact with you. So, so really, you could have the highest sales system in the world.

The most excellent retention strategy in the world. But if you don't have any new clients or customers reaching out to you, you can't even use it. Right. So, it's definitely the variable early on that people are wanting to focus on the most. And I get so many questions about how do I just get more patients?

Like, how do I just get more new patients? How do I get one new patient? Right? I mean. Everybody has to start with one. And, and, I mean, I remember the first person that I saw vividly and, and it's just, you know when you go into business for yourself and somebody actually like comes to see you give you money for a service or a product you have or whatever, it's kind of like, it's really freaking cool.

Honestly. It's, It's a rare thing. And I remember, you know, the first guy I saw, his name was Sam, should I remember his name? I remember where he lived. I remember he came from and where everything about him. And it's because it was that impactful of a moment, you know, for me. So getting these people in the door though can be, you know, it can be a lot of work.

And I can tell you what most people want. And, and, and I would look if I am just wanting to make a bunch of money and just. Oh, unethically, you know, do so in my opinion, I would start an ad agency, and I would just tell people, yeah, this, let me run. Let me run digital ads for you. Problem solved. Yeah. I'm gonna get you so much lead flow.

You're not going to know what to do with it. Now. That's it. A difficult thing to do and not necessarily challenging to get leads, but to get to the, to get the right people that then you can convert. So even if I was to get you a bunch of leads, can you actually save them. If you can't, then it's a massive waste of your time, you know?

Or do they come in once, and you don't understand how to engage with them? This is the sales part we're talking about. And then they, and they leave. So what you paid to get that person in the door with, with direct digital advertising doesn't really equate to much return on investment because they only come in, you know, one time, or maybe they come in for a discovery visit or something like that, and they never come back.

And then that you get frustrated because not only have you wasted your money, but you spent your time. So. What I've found is for those of you that are newer into practice, I recommend you don't even try to go that route initially. You know, once you, you need to really be somewhere in the range of five to $10,000 a month before you have the money to be able to put towards advertising.

I would honestly say over 10,000 a month, in a cash-based practice to put towards digital advertising. And also to understand what your proven sales system is. Your repeat, you will figure these things out. It is, you're going to suck at this for about the first 20 to 25 people. You're going to be a reasonable period.

That's normal. That's everybody. So you know, for you, the best thing to do is to get these people in the door and in the most organic way possible without risking, you know, money on a digital ad that may or may not convert. And there are so many variables with that. The offer, the landing page, the messaging, the image that you use, targeting, even, have a list of reach targets at this point.

So you're just using cold audiences. And I mean, there's a lot of reasons why early on, it's probably not your best that to go with something like that. Versus the things, I'm gonna talk about today. So I'm gonna talk about three low tech ways to get more new patients. Okay. And, this. These work, these work really well.

They require your time. They need you to talk to another human being. And, some for some of you that might make you uncomfortable, I'm sorry. If you want to be a hermit and a sit-in your, you know, in your house all day and, and get. Postmates delivered to you and you know, whatever, Instacart and Amazon prime, and you never actually have to engage in another human being.

This is going to be hard for you, but you then again, you probably also are in the wrong business. So maybe you should look at doing something else. We work with people in person. That's what we do. So these low tech ways work, but they do require your time, and they're required to put yourself out there a little bit.

So, the first thing is networking groups. So networking groups are something that I have a. I have a love-hate relationship with, I can't stand small talk if I don't really think that there's going to be some sort of relationship that, we're going to develop that is more than just, you know, Hey, yeah, Oh, it's, here's going to rain tomorrow.

How's so and so? You know, how's, how's the business? It's hard for me. I don't care. I just would prefer fewer relationships, but those relationships are more, you know, meaningful and impactful. So. But that being said, for my business, I understand that it's more about who knows you than who, you know, and that happens from you getting out and meeting in particular other business owners and, or professionals in the area.

So for me, I've been a part of a group here, locally, called entrepreneurs organization. It's so, it's a worldwide entrepreneurs group. The challenge with this one is there's a. Relatively high barrier to entry. You have to be at a minimum of $250,000 in revenue to be in there, one of their groups and had a minimum of seven figures in revenue per year, to be in another group that they have.

So, I've been in that group for a few years now. I really like it. I get a chance to engage with other business owners. There are some networking events. There's actually a lot of network events. I don't go to as many as plenty of other people in this group, go-to. But, it's, it's a way for you to get around other business owners.

They know people that, you know, we send people their way. They send people our way. It's really not about, you know. Soliciting business from anybody else. Really. It's really more about, kind of business problem solving and, and, you know, getting some, some feedback on your business from other people that are business owners but aren't necessarily directly invested in your industry.

So it's a very nonbiased opinion, which is very helpful. So that's a group that I've been infrequently. And another one that I've had a decent amount of exposure to is BNI groups. So BNI in the group, I think it is a business business. Networking international is where it stands for. These are small chapters, usually throughout the city, anywhere.

I think you can have decent Mount people, maybe upwards of like 40. usually from, in my experience, they've been smaller anywhere between. Six and maybe 25 people. And this group is a little different because they only allow an individual, like, the number of people per group based on their occupation. So like if you're a physical therapist in a BNI group, that specific group there won't bring another one on or a chiropractor.

They won't bring another one on if you're, although it seemed like the group that I was in, there were a lot of realtors, so I don't know if they just like. And there's some gray area there. But it definitely was a lot of realtors, mortgage brokers, financial advisors, people that are, you know, service-based businesses.

So many of them, not necessarily, owning the business, but, like attorneys that maybe work for an attorney, you know, a law firm. There's a lot of that. But, but I would say a mixture is probably about 50%. Business owners and 50%, sort of like service-based professionals for the most part. Now, this is a group where you go, you kind of have to give a little, you know, I guess like minute-long update or 30 seconds or whatever it is that you get about your business and what's going on and what you do, why people would, you know, who's your target audience and why they should send people to go see you.

And then, well, somebody presents. Like every, every week somebody shows for a short period, about, I think it's about 15 minutes on a specific topic. So, but with these groups, again, you're networking with people in your area that know other people. And it's not necessarily like the realtor maybe is not seeing patients every day, but knows a lot of people in the area.

And if somebody starts telling them about their back pain, it's a natural thing for them to say, Oh, we should go see so-and-so. Like, I just learned a little bit about what they're doing. And you know. This is where they're located, whatever. And it's more people start to get to know who you are. Okay. So there's a, your option number one, get involved in a local networking group.

Although I will add like a local chamber of commerce, commerce, options. Like I've been to a few of these. I just really don't like these, that much. I mean, I would think they're beautiful, but. It's just like there's too much small talk for me. It's too much. It's just not the right setting. I hate them, to be honest with you.

I maybe they're beneficial. And if you're the kind of person that just loves talking to random people about absolutely nothing, this is the right place for you to go, definitely gets you into the community a little bit more. But there's always these local chambers of commerce, kind of business groups, BNI groups.

And then if you are at the right, revenue range, then a group like entrepreneurs organization, or like this day or something like that, it could be a good fit for you as well. So, number two, workshops, I talk about this a lot. Mmm. For what you may lack in your ability to, you know, understand marketing.

You probably are a pretty decent educator. You know, we learn how to teach people about, you know, the problems that they're having. Explain what the root causes are. Understand how to use verbiage that, you know, if people have chronic symptoms that don't, it doesn't give them wrong information. I mean, we are typically outstanding educators, which is cool because this is a skill that we can then leverage into being able to help a decent amount of people at once.

If you have a workshop and a workshop, if set up correctly, it can absolutely convert new patients. Like at the time of the workshop, I've had, I dunno, a lot of patients that I've gotten from workshops like the day of, am I doing it in the evening? And they book a visit for, we know, with me that same, that same week at the event.

So workshops are great because they allow you to get in front of, you know, a handful of your target, clients in a place that's convenient to them and familiar to them. And you get to. Basically, expose them to your methodology. And my goal in a workshop is I always want to, I want it to be entertaining.

So I want them to have fun. I want them to remember, you know, me and, or any of the people that are associated with our company that is teaching a workshop. I want them to also. I leave there thinking, wow, I really understood everything that they talked about. So just feel very informed. And the last thing is I want them to feel like I'm significantly smarter than they are when it comes to pain and movement.

So this might sound weird, but what it's essential for you in that window of time to be able to prove to them. That you know what you're talking about. And one of the best ways to do that is via test, retest. You know, techniques. So pick a movement, do something to help improve it. Retest it. Let everybody partner up with somebody and see, Oh, he crap.

Like your arm moves further, or, Oh wow, look at that. Your squad is deeper. And like these things that we know are transient. It's not about that. It's about me being able to show them that I understand how to create change in their body. And I can do so in a group format. Just imagine what I can do when it's one-on-one, and I'm just focusing on you.

So that's always been my intent is I want them to think to themselves, Holy crap, this guy, you know, was able to make a change. That I haven't been able to do myself in all the about an hour, of, of time here at this facility that we're at. So workshops are high, you know, if you structure them correctly, which is a big part of it.

If you don't know anything about doing workshops correctly, you should take a look at our gym PT blueprint course because one of the modules in there is actually. All on workshops and we give you guys the exact templates we use for our top four converting workshops, exactly how we pitch ourselves and exactly how we set up and automate workshops on the back end to include email copy is a plugin place system that's literally made us hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last few years just from workshops and we detail it all out.

So that's basically dummy-proof. You just have to teach what we say. Problem solved. But workshops can be incredible, an incredible way to build your caseload, especially early on because you get in front of people, you're developing rapport with them. There's reciprocity there. You know, as you've just taught them something valuable and then they, you know, they feel like they owe you something back.

And maybe that's not them coming to see you, but they might recommend a friend or a family member. And that happens a lot. People that have never come and actually worked with us, but have attended a workshop that we taught, Come in and see us, you know? And that's a pretty cool thing. I think that's a really cool sign.

So that's the second one, workshops. And then, number three is coaching. Star coaching. This seems like a no brainer to me, but I don't know why most people don't do this. If you want to become. You know, subject matter expert, go-to authority in your area. Sure you can have a little office in the corner with your logo on it, but when you're in front of, you know, 15 people in a class, taking them through, you know, movement warmups and, and the actual program, you know, work for the day.

Coaching, queuing them like she's showing them that. You're knowledgeable and being engaged with them. Like that is such an excellent way to build rapport and trust with people. And if you can do that also at a facility where you know, you, let's say your office is, that's a that is a home run, you know, 'cause it's, it's literally as simple as like.

Yeah. Your coaching hat on and then, cool, well, you have this problem going on. Like I can help solve it and here's my office. It's right there. So coaching is something that I did early on. I stopped doing, I guess, probably like six months into my practice. We've just gotten so busy with my clinical schedule.

It didn't warrant my time, really. You know, to, to coach versus see somebody. So from there, you know, just moved into full-on clinical treatment. But before, you know, I would coach a few classes per week. It didn't have to end up to be all day, but I'm just getting in front of people is, is a big part of it.

And you know, you at least get paid somewhat for it. So, you know, it's not like what you're going to make if you see a patient for an hour, but it's; still, you're getting paid to get in front of your target audiences. And that could be even more valuable than what you're getting from the gym in particular.

If you get a patient or two from, from them. And then they send their friends and family to see you as well. And it snowballs, snowballs from there. But this does things that are, you know, people facing getting in front of them, getting. Your information out there, let them see your personality, you know, and the way that you interact with people.

You're kind of learning about your story. Developing trust. It's a, it's slow, it's a quiet play. It's the right way, honestly, to go about relationship development. And the easiest way to get people to not like you is to try to get them to like you faster. And I think that's really important. Piece of information to remember is that when you start out, and you're just, you want the business to work, so you know so bad, and you want people to come in and see you, and you know, clinically, you can help them.

But the more just like, Hey, look. Come and see me. I'm right here. Like, come see me, I'm right here. And you haven't built the trust yet. It's very off-putting. It's, it's hard cause you to know, you want to do those things, but you gotta, you gotta taper yourself. So, you know, being able to be relevant, helpful, and then at the right time, interject an opportunity for somebody to come in and, and work with you when the time is right is the best way to go about it.

So number one. Get involved in some sort of networking group. Even you feel like you don't really know much about, you know, your business or you just started, whatever. It's still an excellent way to get out in front of people and, and begin to start to make some, develop some relationships with some people that can directly honestly help your business.

Workshops. Get in front of your target audience, show them you're smarter than them, that you know how to make positive changes in their movement patterns. And then, number three starts coaching. So getting in front of people, in a coaching role. So not necessarily workshops, but you actually coach him through some like performance-based work.

So the actual workout of the day or whatever the group is, whether it's your applaud instructor yoga, you know, CrossFit. Anything. It doesn't matter. Like you getting in front of a group of people and using your performance-based skill set is a great way to also drive new patients to come and see you.

So, that's three things. Networking groups, workshops, and then coaching. So these are the things that you can do that are low tech. Don't really cost you anything but your time and, and work and repeatedly work. And it's one of those things that is; also, it's not going to be like, Hey, I joined a networking group.

I did one workshop, and I coached one class. How come I don't have 20 patients this month? It doesn't work that way. It's slow, it's a gradual build-up. And we tend to see is it's about three months. Where you know, we have three months where it's sort of like slowly picking up steam and then around that month, kind of four or so, we see a lot of things kind of come together at once.

And we'll see, you know, typically a big jump in, in the new patient volume at somebody somebody has, and assuming that they have a repeatable sales system on the back end and a retention system, that's the difference between their practice working in their practice. Not working. And then going back to that,  network, high volume clinic that they hate so much with their tail between their legs, wishing that they had just been able to figure it out, you know.

So, I hope this helps. As I said, if you're interested in getting some structured, you know, work with that, the gym PT blueprint is probably your best bet from the workshop standpoint. And we go over, like I said, everything in detail on that. And then if you're interested in getting some individual help.

We can do that as well. We work with a mastermind group of, at this point, over 50 practice owners around the country. If you think you're the right fit for that, it's your physical therapy, biz.com/call and, let's chat. You know, maybe it's the right fit. If you're making somewhere over maybe $5,000 a month.

In your practice as a side hustle or full time, you're looking to scale it up, over 10 to $20,000 a month as we hope people do and then eventually scale past themself and grow into a seven-figure business. So, that's it, guys. Thanks so much for listening. These are the three low techs, low tech ways.

Hope it helps you get more new patients and team to build your business. And as always, thank you so much for listening, and we'll catch you next time.

Do you want more cash, PTbiz help? If so, go get a copy of my book. Fuck insurance. It's your playbook. So successful performance, PT practice, and never having to deal with insurance again. You can get a free copy at Finsurancebook.com. Inside this book, you'll learn the direct techniques that we've used to become one of the fastest 100% cash PT practices in the country.