How Do I Get More Physical Therapy Referrals?

Build relationships with local businesses that already serve your ideal patient, starting with gyms. Build a list of 100 businesses with the owner's name and contact information.

Contact five to 10 new businesses every week with the goal of one or two face-to-face meetings per week. Run one or two workshops per week with any business that will have you, in person or online, until schedules are full.

Lead with value and no expectation of return. Do not open by asking whether they see value in partnering with a physical therapist, because that wasted a lot of Ben's time.

Approach it like a personal relationship. People sense ulterior motives. Early on, Ben reached out as an interested customer who could help bring them business and only mentioned he was a physical therapist once the relationship was real. Every owner is happy to talk to someone genuinely interested in helping their business grow.

Generate one or two Google or Yelp reviews per physical therapist per week and ask for one or two patient referrals per physical therapist per week. Put both on the weekly scorecard so they actually happen.

Make relationship building non-negotiable per physical therapist, not per owner. Review it in a 30-minute weekly scorecard and game-plan meeting.

What you shine a light on grows.

Yes, once referrals are steady. A paid advertising system brings patients predictably on top of organic outreach, which is what let Ben fill new hires' schedules instead of waiting on word of mouth.