Don’t Make This Common Physical Therapy Practice Owner Mistake
Alright…
In the last couple weeks I’ve posted parts 1 and 2 on running PT workshops to attract patients…
The first post was on how to magnetically attract the best patients (specifically those patients willing to pay cash or be Direct Access without complaining about time, distance and money) by way of a postcard or print ad and getting these people to raise their hand to register for your Workshop and actually show up at our Private Practice. If you missed it you can click here to read it…
The second covered 2 secret tools to convert your audience into a full plan of care. If you missed that one, you can read it here.
In this post, I’m going to cover the biggest mistake I see PTs make in presenting at a workshop to the public.
(Since the publication of the last blog post – I’ve used the same exact postcard and print ad to attract 28 people to register for a PT Workshop last week. 24 showed up. 19 people scheduled the same day at the Workshop. Another Practice Owner used the same exact copy and did postcard only and had 36 people register for his. Another Owner I just talked with this morning had 18 people pay $10 to register for his Workshop and he did one print ad only – no postcard.)
The copy works and it’s KILLER.
If you’re a Physical Therapy Practice Owner and missed the offer to get a copy of my actual postcard, contact Breakthrough PT Marketing here.
So now we have a room full of people who’ve showed up to hear us say something valuable to them.
We know they have Back Pain, Sciatica, Neck Pain, Knee Pain, are an avid runner or whatever the topic of our Workshop is.
And our goal is to have these people respect us and value our expertise and high quality of care enough that they run to the reception window and schedule an appointment with us.
How in the HECK do you do that?!
What Can Go Wrong?
Well, first let’s talk about what I used to do AND what I see most other PTs do… And is a massive mistake…
(It’s not really our fault we’re trained to present a certain way in PT school and that presentation style may get us an “A” or a degree, BUT it has NOTHING to do with converting skeptical audience members to happy, enthusiastic, paying customers.)
And look at this…
How do we realize we’re making a HUGE mistake and presenting the “PT School” way?
Beware If You Get This Kind Of Feedback
When we present in this “PT School” Style, people will likely come up to us after the Workshop and say “nice” things like:
“That was interesting…”
“You’re a good presenter…”
“I’m going to talk with my doctor to see if this is right for me…”
And when it comes time to pay the bills – we’re going to be at the same exact spot we were before –
NOT GOOD.
And we want to be able to pay our bills especially if we just invested $1,000, $2,000 or $5,000 or more to promote.
(At my lowest point (er) – biggest learning experience, I invested over $5,000 and had zero attendees at my Workshop. YIKES!)
So now we know what an epic FAIL looks like.
And we don’t want to repeat that and have it happen again.
If you’re interested hearing the story about my epic fail and what caused it (it was not the presentation)… or on how I run PT workshops, I’m hosting a free online physical therapy training, you can register here.
So What Does SUCCESS Look Like When We Attract Then CONVERT Successfully?
This is tricky and it can be 2 different responses:
- People run to the window and schedule.
- They ask a question.
Many PTs (and frankly healthcare professionals across the board) will misinterpret this as a “NO.”
It’s as though your potential patient is saying: “Yes. I raised my hand, said I have sciatica and back pain, want help, called your office to register for this event, actually came to the event, paid attention for an hour, BUT I don’t want to schedule.”
MISTAKE…
People who want to schedule – but still have questions?
That’s very normal.
And a GOOD Positive sign is when they ask questions like:
- “Will I see the same Physical Therapist every time?”
- “I have _______ on my X-ray or MRI….can you still help me?”
- “Does my insurance cover PT?”
- “Do I need a referral from my doctor?”
- “I work. Do you have appointments after 5?”
- “How long do I have to come here?”
- “Will you wave my co-pay?”
These questions are all excellent indicators…and you should freely answer these questions.
So how do we set this up?
I’m going to give you 2 tools that will take you from the “PT school” presentation to a Successful Workshop with KILLER conversion numbers. We covered this last time, but they are so important, I’m going to share them again…
- Demonstration.
- A Worksheet.
Let’s take a look at Demonstration First
If someone’s in our audience, the conversation going on in their head is something like this:
“I’ve tried everything. Is this going to work for me?”
At this super CRITICAL POINT, we can do 2 things:
We can “tell” them,
OR We can “SHOW” them.
So here’s what I do:
If I’m hosting a Neck Pain and Headache Workshop (which I now do rarely), I’ll have the audience do this:
- Look up (cervical extension)
- Look down (cervical flexion)
- Turn their head to the right (ROTR)
- Turn their head to the left (ROTL)
I’ll then choose a “random” audience member. I’ll look for someone with limitations or symptoms with a combination of cervical extension and unilateral rotation.
“Random” is in quotes because I’m cherry picking. I want someone who I can easily demonstrate a change in a few minutes using light manual therapy techniques (I never demonstrate Grade 5. Use it, YES – demonstrate, NO).
***This last part is super important. I’d write that down if you’re doing workshops.***
So I’m up in front of the audience, without a net, with a person I’ve never met before and now I’ve got 5 minutes to show the SKEPTICAL audience that I know what I’m talking about and I can back up the talk by SHOWING them.
Uncomfortable?
Maybe the first few times.
(YOU can do this or at least learn to. I’m not anything special as a PT)
BUT no single action, when done properly, lead to a BIGGER jump in conversations.
(Adding this in resulted in more than a 50% jump in my Workshop Conversions.)
On to Tool #2: A Worksheet
What’s a Worksheet?
It’s an outline of your presentation that has fill-in-the-blanks your audience fills out as you go through your presentation.
Why use a Worksheet?
First, it keeps the audience engaged and interested in what I have to say.
(They walk in respecting me and I want to keep it that way. YOU want to do the same most likely).
Second, it makes it super easy to convert people who complete the worksheet (which almost everyone does).
I don’t have space to cover the entire Worksheet here. But the BIG #1 Rule is:
KEEP IT SIMPLE
3 Main Points in your worksheet is key.
And that’s it.
Your Worksheet follows your 3 Main Points.
Super simple, but very key.
If you’re doing workshops and you want them to be Killer, put these 2 Tools into action.
Hope this helps you be a KILLER Marketer,
PS – If you’re serious about hosting Physical Therapy Workshops…and are looking for more in depth information…CLICK HERE…to sign up for a free training where I show you the exact tools I use in my PT workshops, and to get a chance to get a copy of my worksheet, and the postcard and print ad I use to drive traffic to the workshop. You can sign up by clicking here.
PPS – Next time I’m going to cover some really good stuff on the 7 Step Exam. The actual 7 steps we incorporate into our IEs (97001) and Free Screens that improves graduation rate AND prevents patients from dropping off their plan of care.
