How To Increase Client Referrals For Your Private Practice
Are you struggling to get new clients? It’s one of the most frustrating issues most therapists starting a private practice face. How do you increase client referrals and fill your caseload?
I’ve been in private practice for over 15 years and started three successful practices. I have a consistently full private practice. How did I do it?
Here’s the secret. Networking is everything.
I am not talking about your stereotypical networking meetings or going to the BBB meetings in your community. Those are fine, but honestly won’t do much other than making some initial connections. Which may become very valuable if you follow my advice below, but alone these are unlikely to bring you much business.
When I say ‘networking’ I actually mean “developing relationships”. Not only developing relationships, but developing them with the right people. This is everything if you want your practice to grow. It is important to understand that this takes time. Unless you have existing relationships in your community, you are going to have to establish new ones and nurture them.
Build Meaningful Relationships.
You goal is to develop professional relationships with people who will be both intersecting with your ideal clients and referring those clients for therapy. You need to take some time to think about who these people are.
Who are your ideal clients? Who are the other professionals who interact with those clients and are in a position to refer them for help?
For example:
If your ideal clients are new mothers, which professionals are also seeing new mothers AND which ones are likely to refer those women for therapy?
Let’s make a quick list: obstetricians, pediatricians, nurse practitioners, anyone dealing with perinatal issues, medical staff doing genetics testing, and other similar people.
Let’s say you want to work with families who are going through a divorce. Family Law attorneys are now your best friend. They desperately need good therapists to see their clients and are a great referral source.
You get the idea. Make you own list now for your niche or ideal clients.
Reach out to make meaningful connections with these people. Let them know what you do and how you can be helpful to their patients or clients. If you are talking to family law attorneys, let them know how you can help people going through a divorce. If you talk to pediatricians or school counselors, let them know how you work with kids and/or parents. What areas of specialty do you have? What sets you apart? They need resources and will refer to you. If you do a good job, they will hear about it from their client or patient and the professional will not only refer other clients to you, they will tell their colleagues about you which will generate more referrals. This is how your reputation in your community grows.
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What if you could do it without feeling stressed out and overwhelmed?
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Make Connections in Your Professional Circle.
Get to know others in your professional circle. This includes other therapists and psychiatrists. Rather than thinking competitively act collaboratively. Connect with these people and let them know who you are and which clients and issues you work with.
This is where a niche is crucial. I don’t work with substance abuse. If I need to refer a client for that, I need to know which therapists do work with that population. I will refer to them every time I have a client or an intake call I need to refer on for substance abuse work.
On the other hand, I do work with kids. I get a lot of calls for people looking for help for their children. So many that I am often booked in the after-school hours. I have a short list of other therapists who see young kids. I refer to them EVERY SINGLE WEEK. They also refer to me.
Psychiatrists are also an important referral source and many of my clients come from just a couple of psychiatrists I often work collaboratively with. A large percentage of therapy clients see a psychiatrist, so this is a great opportunity to connect with other professionals who routinely refer clients for therapy.
Do the work now to develop an effective niche. You want to draw the type of clients you love to see from day one of your private practice. You can find out more about how to do that in this post, Create a Successful Niche To Bring in Your Ideal Clients. I also cover developing your professional identity, including building a niche, in both the Master Course and the Mini Course, Establishing Your Professional Identity.
Follow up with collateral contacts.
When you get a new client, think about collateral contacts. Find out who their doctor or psychiatrist is. Get a release and call to connect with those professionals. Stay in contact with them during your client’s course of treatment. Not only is this clinically sound practice, it is also a phenomenal way to establish collaborative working relationships. It doesn’t take many calls for them to get to know you and your work. If you are doing good work, you will get a lot of referrals from them. They will also tell other doctors about you, and likewise they will refer to you. This is an easy but powerful way to build your network.
Get creative when thinking collateral contacts. These can include other professionals such as chiropractors, acupuncturists, even attorneys. I get a large number of referrals for families going through the divorce process from attorneys.
Join a peer consultation group with other therapists.
This is also clinically sound practice, but also a wonderful way to easily establish a group of therapists who will refer to you. I am always desperate for names of good therapists to refer clients to when I am not able to see them. The therapists I talk with the most are the ones at the front of my mind when I refer.
You only need a few good sources to build your network.
You do not need a huge list of referral sources. It only takes a few who send you consistent referrals. However, know that you will have to talk to around 20 people to get one good connection. So be prepared to make a lot of connections when you are starting out. Don’t get discouraged. This is where you need to have patience. It will feel frustrating initially as you are talking to people but not getting referrals. Hang in there. They will start to come and then will grow exponentially.
A Word About Telehealth
If you are starting to expand into different geographical areas with telehealth be aware that you need to make connections in the new locales you are trying to move into. Do not make the mistake of believing you can simply post new zip codes on Psychology Today and generate a wave of new clients. Again, this is all about developing and nurturing collaborative relationships within your network. Do the footwork for this. You will need to establish connections in those new regions just as you do in your local area.
To find out more crucial information about the steps you need to take when starting your private practice check out The Master Course, Everything You Need To Know About Private Practice But Didn’t Know To Ask. To get the same information in more affordable, bite size pieces, don’t miss the Mini Courses!
I love helping therapists build successful private practices! For more great information like this to help you build yours, make sure to check out the Master Course and the Mini Courses. I’m here to support you and I want to help you reach your dream!
If you need some individual help with all of this, I’m here for you! I offer mentoring services for those who want some personal attention to help them build their successful private practice. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me. You can find out more on the Mentoring page.
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