MSD Insider 0:00
Welcome to med shark insider with Bill Fukui, your expert host on all things medical marketing, and SEO.

Bill Fukui 0:08
Hello, and welcome again to another episode of med sharks Insider. And today I’ve got the privilege of having a guest that I actually haven’t known really long, but I, I’ve heard of her reputation through other colleagues and such. So I’ve learned a lot about Lisa, Lisa Corbett. And Lisa is the owner of Lisa Corbett consulting. And Lisa has over 20 years of experience in practice management, working with medical and dental practices in terms of everything from that a patient would actually experience going from, from the phone call to actually to the point where they’re referring you more business. So today, I’ve got Lisa, and we’re going to be talking about some of the opportunities that I feel is like one of the most missed opportunities in terms of growing, you know, medical and dental practices. And and Lisa has tremendous insights on and that that’s in networking. So welcome, Lisa, I appreciate you joining us today.

Lisa Corbett 1:20
Thanks, Bill. I’m happy to be here. Super thanks for having me.

Bill Fukui 1:25
Yeah, do me a little favor, and just kind of share your your background with our audience so they can get to know you a little bit better as well.

Lisa Corbett 1:34
Great. Yes. So I’ve been in practice management for the last 20 years in dental specialty practices and plastic surgery practices. Along the way, I’ve basically held every position in a practice, I’ve revamped several practices. And currently I am working with a new doctor in the Cherry Creek area in a startup practice, which is entirely new. In regards of, it’s very different than revamping a practice. So that is what I’m doing now. And I see a lot of parallels between dental the dental world and the plastics world. And I very much enjoyed these last 20 years, I can’t believe it’s already 20 years.

Bill Fukui 2:22
No kidding. Life happens at the speed of light I’m selling Yeah,

definitely.

Well, hey, Lisa, you know, we talked about and this was several weeks ago, we were just having a conversation. And you mentioned, you know, the idea of really what I said earlier about practices, missing opportunities, and you brought up the, you know, really the networking and practices, networking, I just really don’t care a lot of practices, you know, doing a lot of that. Give me an idea. So if you’re talking to a practice, and you’re asking them how they’re growing their business, and you bring up networking, what do you mean by networking went up? When a when you’re talking at that level with a practice? What do you mean by networking, in terms of how that can grow their practice?

Lisa Corbett 3:17
So to me networking is while I was kind of reminded of it with the startup, so basically, it is building your relationships with your vendors, your IT people, all the people that you build your systems with your ad agency, just everybody it’s I call it my toolbox, and utilizing those relationships to help each other so it’s not all just about how can you help me I’m asking people, how I can help them. So it’s it really is a network. It’s an integral, connecting a connection between the community out there in this regard in plastic surgery, in how can my partners that I’ve gathered over the years, truly help grow this new practice or grow an existing practice, even how can we always keep helping each other? And I think it’s a kind of a low hanging fruit, it’s a missed opportunity to just really connect and build and let people know what you’re looking for and ask for help. I think that’s part of networking is putting that out there that you need. You need help with referrals, you need help understanding your IT systems, whatever it is, so that’s where it starts. It’s, it’s just very basic. we all we all have networks, we just might not realize how we can use them.

Bill Fukui 4:46
You know, actually, I’m actually part of a sales training course. A master’s level sales training course. And one of the most difficult what they called It’s, it’s one of the hardest things to do, and practices failed to do this. As well as it’s this asking for referrals. It’s how do you even ask for referrals? I think it’s kinda like what you’re pointing out is just asking for help. It’s not a, it’s not like your, you know, people think of it as being on making myself very vulnerable. When I’m asking for help, I don’t want to be that guy that asked for help. It’s like, Guys, when they’re driving around, they’ll drive around for 30 minutes, never asked for directions or anything like that, you know, I think they’re just afraid to ask for help.

Lisa Corbett 5:41
Yes. And I think as you grow in a business, and you keep evolving, there’s always new new things, for instance, with technology. So I’ll give you an example. With my it. My IT guys that I worked with, in my previous practice, I chose a small local practice local business, I actually found them through a network, and the owner is a veteran. So I wanted to support veterans, and I wanted to support a small business. And he helped me with my it needs, he went above and beyond working with my schedule, and continue to check in with me. And here’s how, here’s an example where he would say, Well, how are you doing? How can I help you outside of the the IT support, you know, what, what’s sort of what’s going on in your world, and he kind of went a little farther with that, and really became a friend, and somebody I could lean on to again, you know, ask him if he knew this other person that I was trying to work on something with. And so I think those relationships carry over, they carry into your personal life, but they carry over as you progress with business as well, I can refer them and feel good about it. So the key I see with really, great reps are really great businesses, whatever they are, IT support ad agency, whoever you’re working with, is going beyond just what you do for them, like, encompassing them as a whole. And those are the people that I keep going back to and continue to work with, throughout my career.

Bill Fukui 7:27
You know, you mentioned, you know, with a startup practice working with a startup practice. So when you’re talking to your, your, you know, to the provider for doctor, when you say they’re going to ask you, how can I, you know, you’re talking about building in this network? How, where do I start? How do I start doing, you know, how do I start building this network?

Lisa Corbett 7:49
So are you talking about with the doctor that’s brand new, like, how do I build his network, or

Bill Fukui 7:55
even and I’ll leave that up to you. I think they’re that doctors, even though they’ve been in practice, they’ve never really invested building a network, even though they’ve been in practice for a long time, they don’t have the same kind of relationship that you’re talking about. Right? With their vendors are almost disposable. It’s almost kind of like, what can I use you for? And then, you know, I’ll then I’ll get something else. So I mean, whether you’re talking to a new new surgeon or even, you know, a seasoned, you know, practice or provider, what can you give them?

Lisa Corbett 8:34
Well, I? That’s a good question. And I think there is a missed opportunity there. And I see it with people coming in vendors or reps where they’re a little bit afraid of the doctor. And I think it benefits the doctor to really those people, the people that come in know everybody in the community, they are going to say what their experience was when they were in our office when they met you. And so, having some opportunities to integrate, for instance, we are a body, we are a body. We focus on body and our plastic surgery practice that I’m in right now. I am, I’ve made relationships with other offices that focus on facial. So we cross referring, getting those doctors together, having them be there to just bounce stuff off of each other. And that goes even farther down to practice administrators. So practice administrators work sort of under their own island. They can’t really the doctor is busy the team, they can’t really talk to the team. So I’ve worked in situations where I’ve organized a practice roundtable with a speaker, for instance, a sponsor, one of the reps or one of the vendors that sponsored the event, and then hosted other practice administrators to speak on a topic that we can all relate to. So we’re not competing with each other. We’re Building and we’re building our community. That’s networking. Same thing with doctors. And I don’t think I don’t see that enough in at least in Denver. I don’t really see it.

Bill Fukui 10:10
You know, I, I would say, I agree, I don’t see enough of that, certainly in Denver, and actually, we’re both in Denver. That I have seen, I will say, I’ve seen a lot more of that in the dental industry, in terms of study of even saying, you know, suburbs, I got a group of eight doctors, dentists, that, you know, they, they’re five miles from each other. And yet, they’re talking about, really, how are they’re going their practices, what are they doing? How are they dealing with employee issues, you know, so it’s, it’s almost kind of like, this mastermind kind of group or, you know, relations, that they have the study clubs, I actually got invited to one it was out in, I think it was actually out in Michigan out in the Detroit area. And I was so blown away at how productive that was. And not only that, the, not beyond the meeting, they were calling each other, you know, on the phone during the, you know, when they’re treating a case, when they’re, and they were, you know, they they built up a resource, that it’s not just them in these four walls, you know, my practice my four walls. And, you know, quite honestly, that’s kind of lonely.

Lisa Corbett 11:39
Yes, it is. And dentistry, dental practices are really, I think, good at getting that concept, I would love to see that translate into, into plastic surgery. And I don’t know why it’s so different. I’m not quite sure why it’s so different. But it really does work. And I’ve seen it work. And with COVID, you know, with a startup practice, it was really challenging this last year, because you couldn’t go into offices, you couldn’t do the social things that we would like to do to build a new practice, you couldn’t really network other than checking in with people. And what I’ve seen on the backside, is, there’s been a lot of changes. So a lot of the people I knew I had relationships with are not there anymore. And we’re kind of starting over in that regard as well.

Bill Fukui 12:26
You know, that’s, that’s actually a really good point is a lot of people when they build up their, quote, community or their, their network, they feel like, you know, I kind of made it, you know, I’m on there, but there’s attrition, whether it’s patient volume or anything else, you know, you’re gonna have some attrition. Face it, you’re just, you just are. So, you know, how what do you have any ideas or strategies? I know, you mentioned kind of a possibly doing an event with with other administrators and things like that, what are some other things that a practice or a practitioner can do to start, you know, creating more of this, and really experiencing some positive things? Because I think, like anything else, you got to start doing it and experiencing some sets. Otherwise, you don’t do it. You try it was then and then it’s almost an aversion to doing it. So what would you you know, suggest to practice that? Okay, let’s get started. What what would be some ideas that I can, you know, hit the ground?

Lisa Corbett 13:36
Well, I think with plastic surgeons, it okay, I’ll give you an example with a new plastic surgeon coming into town is going out with the practice administrator now that we can setting times just to stop by introduce yourself to the team. This is another opportunity where it’s not just doctor to doctor, but really meeting the team that teams that you would be working with referring doctors, general surgeons, whoever letting them know about you, what you have to offer and even inviting them, if there’s the possibility to come to your practice. This is where they’re going to be sending patients. And I always thought that this was a gap as well, in the networking opportunity, where doctors are referring their patients to another office, but they’ve never been there. So they don’t know. They don’t know the people, you know, putting a face to it, seeing where they’re going. Just again, it’s it’s all we’re doing is selling relationships. And we’re doing that with our patients. We’re doing that with the doctors and their offices that we work with. And I’ve seen great success with the referrals, just by building those friendships, those relationships, even having some outside events once in a while where maybe you’re sponsoring a charity event together, a 5k or something that you’re doing together. or even, it’s something as simple as you are working together maybe on a combination surgery where you have the the general, the breast surgeon, and then you’ve got the plastic surgeon, on a reconstruction surgery, for instance, maybe doing something like spending your marketing dollars sending flowers to the patient with both of your names on the card, thank you for allowing us to take to have the opportunity to serve you simple things like that.

Bill Fukui 15:30
You know, there’s a lot of value in what you just said, when I’m, when you’re saying, you know, just be conscious, it’s just not about you. It’s not just about when you start collaborating and working with, you almost have to almost look for those nuggets or those opportunities, because they’re there. But a lot of times we don’t think about the other person. So when you’re even just saying sending a thank you card, and putting the other practice of the other surgeon or the other doctor’s name in there. That’s huge. I think that’s, that’s really, really, you know, a positive thing. And I think that even goes so far as now now you’re actually kind of touching on something that may or may be adding some additional value to a partnership, is CO marketing is what can we do to co mark? You know, and whether that’s, you know, kind of like what we’re doing. I mean, we don’t see you, as a competitor, I see is very complimentary, but I’m here to help you grow your, you know, your agency as as much as anything. And I think practices need to start looking at those opportunities, how can we work together. And when bands, like you said, sponsoring an event that maybe you’re both passionate about? That there’s a cause, or you know, for, say, plastic surgery, hey, let’s face it, when it comes to breast cancer awareness month, man, it’s already time to start planning for that stuff, right? You know, we’re talking June, and you know, October is going to be here sooner than we know it. And if we really want to do something that’s going to make a statement make an impact, we got to start planning that stuff now. And maybe, don’t just think of yourself start thinking about who else can we start getting involved with us, who would be a natural fit that would be equally as passionate about it as we are, and maybe an opportunity to, to maybe get with somebody that we really haven’t really engaged with on any, you know, on a deeper level?

Lisa Corbett 17:43
Absolutely. And it’s fun to do, and it’s fun to get the team involved on each side. And then you kind of get a name for yourself too, as being something other than just doing what you do. You know, you’re just bigger than that. And I think it just builds your brand to have who you are, you can’t be everything to everybody. So you have to figure out what you want to be, and then just refine that. That’s your niche. That’s what you do. And it’s fun. It’s exciting. And I think I think in Denver, there’s a lot of opportunity for that.

Bill Fukui 18:17
Yeah, I would actually absolutely agree that, you know, kind of a separate, maybe a little bit a tangential, you know, opportunity. I use LinkedIn a lot. I use LinkedIn for a lot of things. And one of the things that I’ve been able to do is help, you know, legal as well as medical professionals do outreach to other people within their marketplace, or within their state, etc. And sometimes outside of it, they want to network with people that are outside of their even their state. LinkedIn gives you the opportunity if you use a plot, a version of it called Sales Navigator, Sales Navigator is a great platform for you to do targeting. So I can identify professionals based on their titles based on their location based on the size of the practice, you know, those kinds of things. And then you can do messaging, and I think thought leadership content without any kind of salesy kind of stuff. Yeah. If you’re constantly, you know, you get a connection with somebody, and maybe you don’t know each other personally, but if you stay in front of them, and this is where some of your other marketing ideas that we talked about earlier is is nurturing How do you stay in front of them, and you know, even adding them to your monthly newsletter. Everybody thinks of adding patients, they don’t add any of their own, you know, vendors or referral sources. Up to stay top of mind which is really again, just a Simple but a very missed opportunity.

Lisa Corbett 20:03
That’s awesome. I will look into that I am a big believer in LinkedIn as well, I’ve made some great connections that way as well. And also people reaching out again helping How can I help? I’m just finding me based on my title or what my company is about. I don’t do as much posting, but I do I really am surprised. So that’s a great idea.

Bill Fukui 20:29
It’s, it’s amazing how many people are I mean, it’s a way of leveraging social media. Yes, that is a platform that again, you know, from the, you know, from a competitive side, not a lot of your competitors are doing it. They’re not doing kind of marketing. And I think that’s, again, if, if an administrator brings that to the to the practice, you know, I’m pretty sure the surgeon or the dentist is going to be pretty open to it, simply because it’s how we, you know, practices when when you and I started in this, we didn’t have Google, we didn’t have Facebook, we didn’t have any of the that fell practices built their practices, is through referrals and relationships and passing up their business cards and doing events. Yeah, yeah. It was it was personal. It was personal. Yeah, yeah. I kind of missed that.

Lisa Corbett 21:28
I think maybe we need to go back to that a little bit. So Well,

Bill Fukui 21:32
I’d say I practices that embrace it.

Lisa Corbett 21:35
Yeah. It works. It does. Work.

Bill Fukui 21:39
Yeah. Yeah. So the other thing would be, you know, when, when you talked about, you know, going out doing a lot of the face to face stuff? is, again, I think that’s a kind of No, it’s, it’s a lot of doctors and administrators. They don’t want to put on their sales hat. They almost make it feel like it’s, oh, I’m out here. I don’t know groveling for business or whatever happened, you know, they got head trash, about, you know, about doing it. And there is a wall in front of them that they just need to, you know, push through what would be you know, I know you’ve mentioned you know, administrators going out maybe doing? Do you do anything in like lunch and learns or education base kinds of things that have a different maybe a different angle, so that they’re they’re not feeling like this is a quote sale, or I’m groveling for a referral or something like that. salutely

Lisa Corbett 22:45
Yeah, absolutely. And so going to past experiences, you know, just having a lunch to start with just having a conversation about simple, simple. Yeah, exactly. Just getting to know you kind of icebreaker sort of thing. Not not selling, not pushing anything. Starting with that, and then maybe having some lunch and learns, maybe having some educational events that benefit the doctor that you’re working with the doctors that you’re working with a topic, whatever. I’m just starting with that. More fun to begin with more just building a relationship. And so education is a great place. If you’re known also, as an educator, that’s, that’s a niche for you. I worked with an oral surgeon. And the way that he gathered his referring doctors so to speak was by offering an educational course at a local hotel here in town, a Golf Resort Hotel community, it was a quarterly event, something to look forward to. And they would learn and as a result, they would just go to him because it not only was a social event, but it was something where they would learn and it was something that happened every quarter, and why would they go anywhere else. It just it filled every every checked every box basically. And you don’t need a whole lot of people. You just need to have a good source and then you build from that source you build, again from the resources that you have. It’s just so simple to me, I think. I think I enjoy it. I have a passion for it. So I don’t understand why some people don’t embrace that. But that’s why

Bill Fukui 24:41
you pointed out something I think that’s really important. This is not about volume. This is not about getting 100 different, you know, other referral for what you’re really wanting is to sift through that do do a you know I like the idea of a lunch at I’ve even are my co founder with blue shark digital who’s a, you know, helping me start med sharp. He is really, really connected in the legal community. And he does that mainly just, you know, let’s get a cup of coffee, let’s just, you know, work with so many different people and it starts with just, hey, let’s just meet for a cup of coffee. Exactly. And low pressure, no salesy, just, I just want to get to know you. That’s all. And with if it’s, if it’s a colleague, you’d be amazed at how many of them yeah, sure, let’s, let’s, let’s meet, be happy to meet with you. It’s not that difficult. But I think you’re right. When you find that right one, and you You’ve hit, you’ve covered all the bases. And now you’re, whether it’s an administrator, or whether it’s a dental hygienist, or a tech, a tech or a patient care counselor, whoever it may be. Now they’re connecting you with that, when you do those types of events. They immediately think, oh, they remember doctor talked about this, you did that. And anytime those situations present themselves, you almost are, you’re synonymous, you’re the Kleenex when it comes to, to that in the practice when you know, when you build up that relationship and that reputation.

Lisa Corbett 26:26
Yes, and one more thing I wanted to add is that it translates the doctor becomes more comfortable with the patient relationship as well. So again, going back to we’re just selling relationships. So just if a patient likes you, and there’s other surgeons that they visited for consultations, yes, maybe, you know, the fees are about the same whatever. If they like, they’re going to go with you, they’re going to go with you. And if your team is friendly, and they like the team, they’re going to go with you most of the time. It’s just goes all the way around, it’s full circle.

Bill Fukui 27:07
No, and I think not only will they accept, you know, treatment, or surgery by somebody that has a a level of likability, I guess would be a good word is elevate your likability level, you’ll not only get more conversions and case acceptance, but you’ll get more referrals to

Lisa Corbett 27:26
absolutely. I mean, not to say you don’t need to know what you’re doing. Obviously you do. But I think it’s a trust issue. And if people are real, and if they’re approachable, and if you see them as a person, and you again want to help them and have something to offer, or maybe you don’t have something to offer and you’re transparent, and just being authentic about it, then it’s amazing how fast your patient base will grow to it just every part of your life. So networking, again, you having that gift are learning how to cultivate that helps you in every way.

Bill Fukui 28:04
Yeah, I will have to say my most successful clients. And I’ve been doing, you know, advertising did TV, radio print, you know, advertising now we’re doing, you know, 100% digital, I will say all of the clients that just hit it out of the park when it came to man, they were the busiest practice, you know, always a leader in the marketplace. It wasn’t because they spent more money marketing, right? actually spent more money in their practice. And they were actually, I hate to say it, they were just awful spirit. They liked doing what they did, they had a passion for what they did. And really a there was a connection, a likability about them that I think it showed when they interacted with, with their patients, their vendors, people weren’t afraid of walking in there. Or, you know, when a doctor calls on the phone, it’s like, oh, God, it’s Dr. Calling, I’m scared. What, What’s wrong now? Those are the clients that would call me up and say, Hey, Bill, I had an idea. You know, and those calls, you know, it’s not like you’re in fear of getting calls from that doctors because they had ideas, they they’re always thinking about ways that they can improve. Those were always the most successful practices, by

Lisa Corbett 29:30
far, by far. Yeah.

Bill Fukui 29:34
I agree with everything that you said today, Lisa. And I appreciate all the time that you’ve taken, you’ve taken almost 40 minutes out of your day to to kind of share this with me so I I really appreciate that. And if and I’ll have you if you could all have you end with if there’s one or two nuggets or takeaways that a practice really should be you know, doing I in in in terms of networking, you know, sure that

Lisa Corbett 30:06
well, first of all, thank you for inviting me to be on your show today. I really appreciate it. It’s a lot of fun. And you made it, you made it enjoyable. And I, I like I like that. So thank you very much. Yeah, and I would say, I guess, just exploring ways to connect that don’t require anything other than who can we speak with, you know, build a relationship with me this, maybe just set a goal each week? What? How to what can we do this week that we can reach out in a different way that’s more personal, and find out who in your office really enjoys that. And the people that are, you know, there’ll be people that always want to gather around and help with that. And if the doctor is not great at that, then be that person for him and just help prop him up. And those are the nuggets that I would give as very easy first start things to do.

Bill Fukui 31:06
I think those are simple things that are practice. If they don’t do, they’re falling asleep at the wheel. I think those are simple walk up, you know, takeaways. And I think if they do those things, they will start building momentum. That’s, and that’s what. Well, thank you again, Lisa. I appreciate all your time today. And we’ll look forward to doing another interview on another topic, because I know you’ve consulted on a lot of different things outside of networking. Maybe we can chat about some of those other opportunities.

Lisa Corbett 31:37
That would be wonderful. Thank you so much.

Bill Fukui 31:41
All right. Take care. Bye bye.

MSD Insider 31:43
Thanks for joining us for the med shark insider with Bill Fukui join us next week for another dive into all things medical marketing. All episodes can be streamed at WWW dot med Shark digital.com/med Shark Dash insider

Transcribed by https://otter.ai