Are you advancing the relationship on your physician referral office visits?

Recently, I was on a coaching call with a physician liaison. She shared something a mentor had encouraged her to do during her customer visits:

Take whatever next step will advance the relationship.

(📣 Shout out to Emma at Lifetime Hearing!)

I love this way of thinking about physician referral outreach because so often, we feel deflated if we don’t get an immediate referral.

We walk into an office, have a conversation, leave without a referral, and think, “Well, that didn’t work.“

But what if it did?

What if a successful office visit doesn’t always mean walking away with a referral?

What if success simply means advancing the relationship?

So, what does advancing the relationship look like?

Advancing the relationship can look different depending on the practice, where you are in the relationship, and what happened during your last visit.

Advancing the relationship could mean:

Not every visit will end with a referral.

But… Every visit should give you an opportunity to move the relationship forward.

Plan your next step before you walk in.

Before you walk into an office, do you plan what you’re going to talk about and how you’re going to advance the relationship?

And what about when you walk out?

Do you track what you talked about, what you learned, and what you want to accomplish the next time you visit?

These are important steps in advancing the relationship.

Instead of measuring the success of every office visit by whether or not you received an immediate referral, start asking yourself a different question:

Did I move the relationship forward?

And then determine what the next step should be.

So, how will you advance the relationship on your next physician referral office visit? 😉