Build Local Referral Relationships by Being Interested | E191

In short: The fastest way to build local referral relationships is to be genuinely interested in the other person before you ever pitch your practice. In Episode 191 of the PT Entrepreneur Podcast, Danny Matta explains why about 80% of a first conversation should be about the other business owner, and how asking questions and actively listening makes people like you and want to do business with you.

Key Takeaways

• Interest comes before influence. You have to be interested in what other people are doing for them to be interested in what you are doing.
• Use the 80% rule. When you meet someone new, about 80% of the conversation should be about them, their business, and their story.
• Do not lead with "send me people." Jumping straight into why they should refer to you is a poor way to start a mutually beneficial relationship.
• Active listening cannot be faked. People can tell when you are zoning out, so pay attention and engage with what they are saying.
• Likability drives business. Fair or not, people who like you are more likely to want to do business with you.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• Why human nature makes people care most about what is in it for them
• How asking a wine distributor questions turned into an hour-long conversation he loved
• The mistake practice owners make when meeting complementary local businesses
• Why 80% of a first conversation should be about the other person
• How active listening builds trust and a stronger local reputation
• Questions to ask about a business owner's origin story and goals

Frequently Asked Questions

How do physical therapists build referral relationships with local businesses?

Danny Matta recommends starting with genuine interest in the other business owner instead of pitching your practice. Ask how their business works, why they started it, and how you can better support what they are doing, then follow up to keep the relationship going.

What should I talk about when meeting a potential referral partner?

About 80% of the conversation should be about them. Ask about their origin story, why they are doing what they do, and where they are trying to take their business, and focus much less on you and your practice.

Why shouldn't I open by asking for referrals?

People care most about what is in it for them and about being seen as credible experts in their own field. Opening with why they should send people to you skips that, while showing real interest builds a mutually beneficial relationship.

Does being likable really help a cash-based PT practice grow?

Danny says that, fair or not, people who like you are more likely to want to do business with you. Being interested in others and actively listening helps people get to know and like you, which builds your local reputation.

Related Episodes

• E453: The Key To Word of Mouth Referrals
• E433: How To Be More Charismatic
• E551: Why Social Agility Is So Important

Ready to Grow Your Cash-Based Practice?

PT Biz helps physical therapists start, grow, and scale cash-based practices. Book a discovery call with our team to talk through where your practice is today and whether PT Biz is the right fit.

Full Episode Transcript

Danny: Hey, what's going on, guys? Doc Danny here with the PT Entrepreneur Podcast and Thursday's a day we have a little shorter podcasts going on and, and, I'm excited to share this one with you guys, as well. I've got; also, a training coming up tonight that you may or may not be on the waitlist for going over, the five steps that I've found to starting and growing successful performance, cash-based practices. At this point, we've helped people all over the world, which is cool. That'd be able to kind of like take this and decipher it down to these five steps. So, if you're not on our email list, head to physicaltherapybiz.com, you can go ahead and get signed up for that.

That training's going to be tonight at 8:00 PM. So I'm excited to do that. So some of you all see in that, in that training until, until then I want to leave you with, something that's ours. I was actually, I was saying about this other day as I was, I was talking to one of our staff members about.

Personal development and local relationship development. And, you know, they're like, I don't know, I feel like people aren't necessarily interested in connecting with me. You see, I, and I, and I said, well, you have to be involved in what other people are doing, for them to be interested in what you are doing.

Like everyone's selfish for the most part. Like we care about what we want more than what other people want. That's human nature, and there's nothing wrong with that. But we understand that and understanding that you can utilize that effectively to your advantage as well as a critical, kind of skill to develop.

And I'll give you an example. Recently I was at my son's end of the year school party. And there's a guy there that, he's a wine distributor. He travels around the world, buying wine from different places. And, and, and then in Georgia, I guess they have these distributor channels that have to then sell that to restaurants and clubs and, liquor stores, stuff like that.

So, the exciting thing with this guy is just like. You know so much about wine, and I don't even really drink wine. But he was fascinated with it. And, I started talking to him about like, he had this bottle of rosacea he had brought in and was telling me where I was from and the type of grapes and stuff like that.

And I'm just like really interested in people that I think are trying to become subject matter experts or, or subject or our subject matter experts, or trying to like to become excellent in their profession. And I don't care what it is, and I don't care at all. It doesn't matter. I mean, I've had in-depth conversations in, in-depth discussions with people in the corporate world, blacksmith, you know, people that are

chefs this, this guy that's, you know, a wine specialist and I care about to learn about stuff that people find fascinating. Like, the people that I think are interesting are the people that are just really, really good or fascinating about anything. And I just asked him a bunch of questions and no kidding.

This conversation went on for well over an hour. Yeah. The point where afterward asked, he was like, man, you really, Talk that guys year off. And I was like, and I didn't say, hardly say anything. Like I just asked him questions, and he told me all is just like exciting stuff about different types of grapes in different regions between like Argentina and why they have the best Malbecs.

And then like, why there are the best, you know, Brunello grapes that come from Italy. And I remember all this stuff because I was so interested in, I was actively listening, you know, and, and I saw, I saw his wife, the next week we were up there at, at school and, and she was like, man, you know, Ryan really, lucky.

He thought he thought he was so excited, and I was like, I didn't say shit to Ryan. All I did was ask him questions about what he was doing cause I was interested in it. And when you take that perspective, and the reason I tell you this because too often we want to go into somebody else's business.

It might be complementary to ours as a, as a practice owner. And we go right into what we can do for them and why they should send people to see us and why, you know, we're fantastic at what we do. And we forget that by human nature, people don't care as much as they care about what it's in it for them as well as, them being perceived as, you know, an expert in the profession as someone credible.

And being able to let you know what's so special about them and in many people are very, Unique, interesting. Especially business owners, they typically are, you know, have a lot of experience. They've decided to go on their own. They usually have a story around that. That's interesting. Often there, there comes a moment where they decide they're going to do this thing and, and usually, there's some stress around that.

And, you know, for me, I've always found the most success with developing, local relationships and, you know, beneficial relationship, mutually beneficial relationships, not just, Hey, send me people, you know, like. That's not an excellent way to start a relationship, but just thinking when you go to meet somebody new, 80% of what you talk about should be about them and asking questions about them and being interested in what they do, and you can't fake.

You are being interested. I think this is the other key is active listening, like actually paying attention, you know, being aware of what somebody's saying and, and, you know, being able to engage in a conversation with them and not just, you know, blankly staring and zoning out and thinking about something else is very, very apparent.

If you're listening to somebody or if you're not looking to somebody and, people can tell. So for you think, man, I want to learn as much as I can about this person. I'll follow up with them and, and, you know, facilitate the relationship going forward. But how can I learn more about them?

How their business functions, how I can better support what they're doing. And the more you can take that approach with developing these. He's local relationships with other business owners, other people within a similar, you know, same niche or related business, business type. The more success you're going to have with, building your local reputation, people, knowing you, people frankly liking you probably a little bit more.

Which, which, Hey, is it fair or not? I don't know, but it's true. If people like you, they're more likely to wanna do business with you. And if you're, if you're. Know, not very likable, and then they're probably not going to want to do business with you as much as someone else. They might like, slightly more or significantly more.

So take that and use it to your advantage. Ask people about them, engage with them about the things that they find interesting. Find out about where people came from, what's their origin story like, why are they doing what they're doing, where are they trying to do with their business? And, and I focus much, much less on you and your business.

And I know it's hard cause you to want to. Get out all this awesome stuff about what you can do for them and all these things that you've done and, and why you decided to go into business. But take the other road. I'm learning about somebody else, focusing on them and starting a relationship like that and will be so much better for you longterm, in terms of the success of your business and developing genuine connections with people locally in your area.

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