How to Get Referrals: The Mental Health Professional's Guide to Strategic Marketing [Paperback]

Linda L. Lawless (Author), G. Jean Wright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 1999

Now more than ever, it's critical for mental health professionals to find new ways to succeed in today's competitive marketplace. Written by health niche marketing specialists Linda Lawless and Jean Wright, this book provides step-by-step guidelines to get referrals by building and leveraging relationships with other professionals, community leaders, and the media.

You'll find out how to develop three primary skills that are essential to weaving a sustainable practice:
* How to interact with and relate to the local community and region. From setting up community forums to creating discussion groups, you'll discover new ways to gain clients in your area.
* How to work with managed care organizations and professional associations. Find out how to help your practice grow by taking advantage of the services provided by other professionals and organizations.
* How to network with the World Wide Web community. Learn which sites to visit and how to best reach potential clients.


Each chapter is organized to assist mental health professionals in developing a strategic marketing plan for getting referrals from:
* Physicians
* Attorneys
* Religious Leaders
* Educators and the Educational Community
* Managed Care Organizations
* Mental Health and Complementary Healthcare Professions
* The Community


How to Get Referrals is an excellent guide for getting the referrals necessary for a successful practice. With its concrete, practical advice on building networks and securing client recommendations, this book is a must for any healthcare professional!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Now more than ever, it's critical for mental health professionals to find new ways to succeed in today's competitive marketplace. Written by health niche marketing specialists Linda Lawless and Jean Wright, this book provides step-by-step guidelines to get referrals by building and leveraging relationships with other professionals, community leaders, and the media.

You'll find out how to develop three primary skills that are essential to weaving a sustainable practice:

• How to interact with and relate to the local community and region. From setting up community forums to creating discussion groups, you'll discover new ways to gain clients in your area.
• How to work with managed care organizations and professional associations. Find out how to help your practice grow by taking advantage of the services provided by other professionals and organizations.
• How to network with the World Wide Web community. Learn which sites to visit and how to best reach potential clients.

Each chapter is organized to assist mental health professionals in developing a strategic marketing plan for getting referrals from:

• Physicians
• Attorneys
• Religious Leaders
• Educators and the Educational Community
• Managed Care Organizations
• Mental Health and Complementary Healthcare Professions
• The Community

How to Get Referrals is an excellent guide for getting the referrals necessary for a successful practice. With its concrete, practical advice on building networks and securing client recommendations, this book is a must for any healthcare professional!

About the Author

LINDA L. LAWLESS, MA, LMFT, LMHC, CGP, is a licensed psychotherapist with over 20 years experience in the field. She is the author of Therapy, Inc. and provides practice consultation for psychotherapists.

G. JEAN WRIGHT, Dmin, LMFT, LMHC, has been in private practice since 1988 and has developed niche markets in family and divorce mediation and career counseling with ordained clergy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (December 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471297917
• ISBN-13: 978-0471297918
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #659,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not very insightful, May 10, 2001

By 

"[e-mail]" (Littleton, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Get Referrals: The Mental Health Professional's Guide to Strategic Marketing (Paperback)

I think this book would be good for someone who has never been exposed to any marketing concepts but it is not very original and was mostly disappointing to me. There were defintely not any "a-ha" moments as I read through this book, just the standard encouragements that most marketing books would offer you. It is just a very basic book!

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than a marketing book, February 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Get Referrals: The Mental Health Professional's Guide to Strategic Marketing (Paperback)

The best marketing for professional services is word of mouth. This easy to follow book helped me with a step by step process of connecting with the referral sources that work the best for my specialities. Using the guidelines in this book I was able to step out of my office, comfortably, and connect with the people and organizations that I could refer clients to for resources, and they in turn sent clients to me as they learned about what I did. This is a marketing book written with an ethical professional in mind.

10 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars unhelpful, December 30, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How to Get Referrals: The Mental Health Professional's Guide to Strategic Marketing (Paperback)

It's not clear that the author actually has experience in the mental health field. Her suggestion to make friends with the office manager, offer to pitch in and help are very unrealistic for anyone trying to make a living.