From Elevator Speech to Storytelling: how to ask for dental referrals that actually work

Yesterday's post was about my BNI membership in the early 1990's and how we used the Elevator Speech to introduce ourselves.

As promised, this morning I want to describe how we asked for referrals.

The issue here is that there is little point in announcing to a networking meeting that you are a dentist and then simply asking fellow networkers to "send anyone you know who needs a dentist."

It's too scattergun, it doesn't differentiate you in the marketplace and it doesn't help the referrer to identify a potential target.

So, after your Elevator Speech.......

You must continue with and complete the following phrase:

"The type of patient I'm looking for can best be described by my sharing this brief story with you...."

Then - storytelling.

"Recently, a patient came to see me who was a lady in her mid-50's and told me that at a family gathering, her 10-year old granddaughter has asked - Grandma, why do you have wonky teeth?

She was mortified, embarrassed and came to me to say how she couldn't face any more family meetings until things changed.

Fortunately, by using a combination of invisible braces, and tooth whitening, we were able to give her a clean, white, beautiful smile.

She came back after her treatment to share pictures of her with all of her grandchildren, looking happy and fabulous.

So the kind of patient I'm looking for today would be any grandparent in the room or any grandparent who may have told you that they are embarrassed to smile in front of their grandchildren."

Storytelling is everything in asking for referrals - swap around the type of patient and the treatment modality to create an archive that you can draw down on.

You can create as many (true!) stories, covering as many variations on this theme, as you like - and share them (as we did) every single week at a networking meeting or now and then with patients, family, friends, neighbours and colleagues as circumstances allow.