Using the Socratic method during your MD Meetings is absolutely essential for success. The Socratic method is "based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas". In the context of an MD Meeting your goals are to gain insight and position your message.
There are 3 main questions that you should ask during your meeting. These questions will give you the information necessary to match your "message to the market". When you message matches the market it creates a foundation necessary to fluidly build referral relationships. Let's take a look at the 3 questions.
Do they see patients with spine complaints in practice?
What specific complaints?
What are their current treatment protocols?
Believe it or not, the first question is often overlooked by most chiropractors! While most primary care physicians daily case load consists of 20-30% spinal complaints, there are some which do not see any spine patients. This could be due to a variety of reasons. For some, their partner physician may see all the spine patients. Others may have an affiliation with a local spine group. In either case you can see why its important to first confirm that they see spine complaints in practice.
Second, you will want to determine what complaints they are seeing practice. It will very likely be a broad range, similar to your practice. However, you will find that a substantial amount of docs will provide you additional information. It may be an increase in lumbar disc herniation because the snow birds are back in town. They may see a lot of cervicothoracic pain because they perform in-office trigger point injections. Any answer they give will provide you with additional insight to refine your message to their exact patient profile.
Finally, you will want to understand their current treatment protocols. We have found that 99% of the time medical doctors refer to physical therapy, other MD's, or treat in-house (meds) for spinal complaints. Thankfully, chiropractic has distinct advantages over all 3 of these choices. These advantageous are reviewed in detail in our free MD Meeting guide and my book, Marketing Chiropractic to Medical Doctors. By understanding their current choices you will be in the best position to fine tune your message to the market.
As you can see, asking 3 simple questions can give you a plethora of information to accelerate your marketing and outreach. Efficiency, affordability, and elegance.
-The Evidence Based Chiropractor has assisted hundreds of chiropractors around the globe build interdisciplinary referral relationships.
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