Resource

The physician’s pitch, worked through

Your elevator pitch, modified for the one person in the building who signs the prescription — and ending in a close instead of a leave-behind.

Supports Stage III, Step 3: Speak To The Doctor of Frameworks. Read the book →

The first time a doctor gives you a “meeting,” it may consist of her signing charts, walking between rooms, and never once making eye contact while you talk. You will feel ridiculous. Say it anyway. Physicians are trained to listen while doing something else; listening, evaluating and deciding is the job. If she can hear you, she is deciding.

Which means the pitch has to be short, ordered, and free of anything she does not need. Business attire, conservative, no exceptions — even for a doctor who dresses casually herself.

The three things she needs

There are only three, and the pitch is built out of them in this order:

What do you do?
Why are you different?
Which patients should she send?

Thirty seconds, maximum. Be ready to expand any one of the three at length if she gives you the opening — and by expand mean ask questions, not talk longer.

1. What you do

The same core you use at the front desk, in the same clinical vocabulary. Nothing gets softened for the doctor; if anything it gets more precise.

“I run a medical massage clinic called MyoScrip. We work off prescription referrals for patients with muscular conditions.”

2. Why you are different

This is your position point, stated once, plainly. It should distinguish you from the other things she could write on the referral line — including other massage clinics, which she may not currently distinguish from each other at all.

“We specialize in medical conditions rather than massage modalities, so we work from the diagnosis rather than from a menu. We do orthopedic screening on intake, and you get a treatment plan and progress notes back — I keep the paperwork on my side of the line.”

3. Which patients to send

The patient profile, said as an instruction she can act on rather than a category she has to interpret. If you have learned from her staff what she treats most, use it here — this is where the information you gathered on earlier visits pays for itself.

“The patients we help most are the soft-tissue ones — lumbar strains, whiplash, the myofascial pain that is still there after the first couple of weeks. We also see a lot of people while they’re waiting on MRI authorization.”

The close

This is the part that makes it a physician’s pitch rather than an elevator pitch. With everyone else in the office you close by looking forward to the next visit and leaving material behind. With the doctor you close by asking for an agreement to refer.

Tactfully. If you stand there with your hand out waiting to shake on a deal, you will not hear from her again. What works is a suggestion followed by a small, specific, low-cost request: one appropriate patient. Doctors try new approaches all the time, particularly from providers who are professional, well-spoken, and offering evidence-based treatment. The close simply gives her an easy way to do the thing she is already willing to do.

“I think this would fit well with what you’re already doing. Could you try us with one patient — someone with a soft-tissue injury who isn’t moving as fast as you’d like — and see how it goes?”

Then be quiet and let her answer. What you are after is a small affirmative of any kind. She may say yes partly to avoid a disagreement with a stranger in her hallway, and that is fine — the affirmative still ends the interaction on a promise, and an affirmative of any sort makes a referral meaningfully more likely.

Closing is the most important part of the meeting. Prepare it as carefully as the pitch itself. It genuinely is the difference between an office that refers and an office that likes you.

The whole thing, assembled

Referral coordinator“Dr. Whelan, this is Dana from MyoScrip — she’s the one I mentioned.”

You“Dr. Whelan, thanks for the minute — I know you’re mid-clinic, so I’ll be quick. I run a medical massage clinic called MyoScrip. We work off prescription referrals for patients with muscular conditions. What makes us different is that we specialize in medical conditions rather than massage modalities: we screen orthopedically on intake and send you back a treatment plan and progress notes, so the documentation stays on my side. The patients we help most are soft-tissue — lumbar strains, whiplash, myofascial pain that’s still there after the first two weeks. Leo tells me you see a fair amount of that.”

Dr. Whelan“More than I’d like.”

You“Then I think we’d fit with what you’re already doing. Could you try us with one patient — someone who isn’t moving as fast as you’d like — and see how it goes?”

Dr. Whelan“Sure, we can try one.”

You“Thank you — I appreciate it. Leo has our referral pad and my fax number, and I’ll check in with him next month in case anything comes up.”

One warning worth keeping in proportion: meeting the doctor is essential, but it is not the whole game. In many practices the doctor orders a therapy on internal paperwork, a nurse coordinates it, hands back a pre-filled prescription, and the doctor signs it while doing six other things. The nurse is the one who decides where the fax goes. Keep working the whole office.

Your version

Physician's pitch worksheet

1. WHAT DO YOU DO?  (one or two sentences, clinical vocabulary)
   _______________________________________________________
   _______________________________________________________

2. WHY ARE YOU DIFFERENT?  (one position point, stated once)
   _______________________________________________________
   _______________________________________________________

3. WHICH PATIENTS SHOULD SHE SEND?  (conditions, not modalities)
   _______________________________________________________
   _______________________________________________________

THE CLOSE  (suggest, then ask for ONE patient)
   "I think this would fit with what you're already doing.
    Could you try us with one patient — ______________________
    — and see how it goes?"

TIMING CHECK
   Read 1 + 2 + 3 + close aloud: ______ seconds. Target: 30.

AFTER
   Affirmative received?  Y / N     What she said: __________
   Log it in the post-call note before you leave the parking lot.

Before this visit ever happens you need the staff on your side and a goal written down. That is the pre-call, and the front-desk version of this pitch is the elevator pitch.