How This Company Grew Dramatically In Just One Year

Ian Altman 0:02

Welcome to the Same Side Selling podcast. I am your host, Ian Altman. On this episode, I'm speaking with Ethan white. Ethan is the CEO of ew motion therapy. They're an Alabama based physical therapy, I'm going to let him get into more detail in terms of what they do, but a physical therapy practice with six facilities in the greater Birmingham Alabama market. They've been adopting Same Side Selling for, I guess, a little over a year now, but I'll give Ethan an opportunity to correct me where I may be wrong in terms of the timing. And I thought that people could really benefit from learning about how they've adopted Same Side Selling and the impact it's had on their business. So with that, Ethan, let me welcome you to the show.

Ethan White 0:51

Well, hi, again, Ian, it's great to be here look forward to kind of sharing our experience with Same Side Selling. And just a little quick tidbit about our company. We're in our 24th year as a locally owned company that has six facilities throughout the Birmingham market, extending from Tuscaloosa to Trussville. And centrally located in Birmingham, we started our business in two little small rooms, and have gradually grown over the years taking a individualized one on one type approach with our patients, we grew to the point where we needed to build a sales team. And we needed to understand a process something that was repeatable, but but more importantly, something that aligned with with who we were. And we were exposed to this approach in a Vistage meeting, actually, and I wanted to learn more about it. And the more we kind of dove in, the more we saw alignment with kind of who we are why we exist that ew motion therapy, and that kind of launched the interest.

Ian Altman 1:54

Yeah, even one of the things you mentioned is that this is something that was aligned with kind of your values. So talk a little bit more about that, because I think it's something that's often lost on people well, sales is sales. So what do you mean in terms it was aligned? Or is aligned with your values? Well,

Ethan White 2:09

well, what's interesting fan is, is when we educate, or we train, or we talk to our people, or we talk about sales, who's on the sales team, everyone's on the sales team. And immediately the mindset goes to what is it that we're selling, or what do we do here at GW, and often what we do physical therapy, wellness, Pilates, yoga, personal training, is no different than what we do is no different than the other 1015 2050 companies and a two mile radius around one more facilities. And yet, that's where the mindset is of our of our team in terms of how they approach sales. And so we have been in business for 24 years, and all we have is the quality of our care, and the reputation that we stand on after that care. And so we're not aligned with a physician group, we're not owned by a company. It's just we are who we are. And so when we talk sales to our people, we had this sales in their mind and didn't never align with our y, which is to teach, empower and transform our people. And why that's so important, because now more than ever, people in health care or wellness deserve somebody that actually cares. And so there was always this, or at least they felt like there's an opposition to why we exist. And you tell me, I'm on the sales team. But I don't want to just tap keep selling that you gotta go do Pilates, or you got to, you know, we were missing this alignment with the system. And so that's the the difficulty of where we started a year ago is how do we have a process or creative process that actually aligns with a Y, and Same Side Selling aligned perfectly with that?

Ian Altman 3:55

So either one of the one of the things are very cool is that one of the challenges was that a lot of your business, in fact, just about all of it comes through referrals, from physicians practices, from athletic facilities, etc. And they might have a dozen different different practitioners in your area who claim to do the same thing as you. How much of a struggle was that differentiation a year ago? And what have you done to change that? Now?

Ethan White 4:22

That's a great question. Because differentiation is our big is our biggest challenge. We are in a commoditized market. And you know, it's one thing to say you are, it's another thing to actually have a process by which if you're in a conversation, you can explain it. Client vision pyramid, effective, enhanced engaged has been a godsend for us in that it's helped a lot. We do two things. Now. When we hire someone, we give them two books, give him a book on accountability, like total accountability mice guy and we give them Same Side Selling now and the first two training modules that we do is with people as we go through while we go through how, and we go through what we do now, and then the second training module is actually on differentiation now. Okay. And so we want to teach everyone within this organization to be able to explain the difference when they're asked, How are you different at ew? How are you different? I've been to eight other other PT practices in this town. And I'm just here because my doctor told me to come here. Sure, and be able, for everyone, even a PT in this to be able to go into a conversation and start it with Are you aware of three different service levels with PT in this market, and to be able to do that effectively is a really, really big deal for

Ian Altman 5:41

us. Yeah. And that client vision pyramid is something that just I'm going to give kind of a quick thumbnail. For our audience that may not be as familiar most people, I think, by now are familiar. But the idea is, is how you're explaining the marketplace of physical therapy. So what does that sound like for your referral sources and for your patients today, when someone comes in and says, well, so how are you guys different or referral sources? Yeah, we already have a PT we referred to what kind of message is your team share, so that they quickly understand the difference between what you do and what other people do? Yeah.

Ethan White 6:16

So that's, that's a great question. It's been a wonderful result, particularly when you're in a conversation with a physician. And it's even better when you explain these three levels. And I go, Oh, yeah, you guys are definitely engaged practice and basically, look, you know, it looks like this. There are three levels in the market in the marketplace today. Effective, enhance engage and effective level can yield great results but typically looks like an injury, say an ankle sprain, see, physician, there may be a physical therapist associated with that physician group, either connected by facility, maybe in that office, the physician refers and PT quick evaluation, maybe an ankle brace show somebody how to use crutches here as a home exercise program, patients very discipline, maybe come back in a week or two for a recheck not dependent upon individualization, any kind of high level specialization. And guess what works great, can work very great. You can also see that think about it my screen right now. Okay, you see somebody come down and sled, what happens to them, they go to a triage, they get an x ray, they get a brace, they get cross train, here's how to control inflammation and pain that you know, they're seeing a physical therapist or somebody for that, get home, go see your orthopedist, effective horse, great, okay, it gets people to that next level. And that next level is where you start to see more and more of involvement with a physical therapist and a care team, physical therapist, typically he's doing an evaluation, surrounded by care team that's helping implement that program. And what you typically see at this level is a lot of protocol. A lot of you no process, you do this for a day you do this for ankle, you do this for a back, and it can work very, very, very well. And what this looks like in the real world is maybe a post operative clinic associated with an Orthopedic Group is doing a lot of ACLs, a lot of total knees and they come in, here's what you do with zero to two, two to four, four to six, it's laid out and guess what, you can get amazing results there. And then you have an engaged level of service, which really an engagement for the right person and engage level that has an injury, but the injury is just kind of the gift by which they come into your into your clinic. But these folks are really on a journey. And the journey goes beyond that injury. And it's really about longevity, it's about independence. It's about returning to some kind of dream. I've got this unbelievable trip in eight weeks. And what this looks like is the therapist does this really cool evaluation, they not only see the injury, but they hear the story. And they become part of that journey, a guy and teacher. And what that really looks like is individualized evaluation, individualized care, and it doesn't stop with the resolution of the injury. It continues on this journey to get to get folks where they want to be and what this really looks like. I just ski with 274 year old men three weeks ago that came to me in their 40s and they're skiing still skiing today. Back goals at Vail and it's that engaged level that started this relationship. Okay. Well service and it has just continued you know, my role in that as a data Teacher Okay, sure. So, so Same Side Selling is perfect alignment is because it's really it was about what was their problem? Problem one in the back pain the problem Last Amen, I see myself doing this, this and this fifth, sixth, seventh eighth, ninth decade. And when you realize that, that's how we practice for 24 years, we didn't have a marketing and sales platform that aligned with that until until this thing came along. And it is it is, it is so simple for us, because it's really, if you're a pro at what you do in terms of physical therapy at an engage level, this is perfect.

That's great. So I want you to talk about kind of the results that you've seen, because all this is something that is, you know, people can look in theory and go, I can help with differentiation this and that. What sort of difference Have you seen in terms of business growth? What sort of, what sort of difference do you see in terms of referrals? And those referrals turning into patients? Like, what are you seeing in the business in terms of those metrics?

So in terms of actual metrics, in terms since we've been doing this a year, we had 34%, growth and referrals, year over year, with this system, we're targeting another 30 plus percent this year, and referral growth. But more importantly, I think it gives, it's not just for our sales team, again, everybody on our team is in sales. But it's allowed us to start building a foundation, actually, with our professional staff, our physical therapists, our trainers to start communicating in a way, it's how they see themselves on this client journey. I am not a you are not a used car. So I mean, not to not to bash used car salesmen, but

they're usually they're usually, it's usually appropriate. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. But you understand, but for them to see that, look, what you're really trying to do here, to really create a raving fan, to create a lifelong customer to do those things. It's you have to, you have to be part of a real solution for a client. That's what we're trying to do as physical therapists and personal trainers. How easy is it when you start to see yourself as your entire existence is built around solving these issues, and who doesn't want not just longevity, but to be healthy in longevity? Who doesn't want to be able to go hiking, you know, with their partner, wife, whatever, into their seven a decade in Switzerland, who, you know, who doesn't want to do those kinds of things. And so, what the platform has done is it's made it easy for us to train people to see that look that your primary role here, guess what, it's not treating people, it's you're a salesperson, and understanding what you're selling is really what matters. And so the how you do it, is it's so so important. You know, we've got big things to come with this thing. We're pretty pumped.

If you want to get top results for your team, take a look at the Same Side Selling Academy, just visit same side selling.com to learn more. So let me ask you this. So I'm sure there's people thinking, yeah. But how easy is to implement this, this has got to be really complicated. So what's the adaption been? What what sort of elements of Same Side Selling? Are you using and reinforcing? What feedback you're getting from your team? Because there are a lot of great systems that I often look at and say, That's a great concept, but I don't know that anyone can actually execute it. And obviously, you guys are having great success. So what's the adoption been like? And what kind of feedback have you gotten from from your team?

Yeah, so So feedback is in to quote, this is the first time I'm understand I understand what you guys mean, that we're all on the sales team is basically putting a framework in law, that not to be insulting or anything, it's a pretty simple system, okay? There are only there are four or five key tools that you need to master, which makes it nice. And for our training, our background being, you know, medical, in terms of evaluating what's the real issue, solving a problem, you know, as you say, elevator rant, same type pitch that alignments easy for us with the professional staff. But the differentiating piece, the client vision pyramid, and actually for our sales team, concise business case that follow up has been putting a process in place is critical. The challenge with it is what you've said is, is you actually have to invest the time in the training, you have to invest the time in the roleplay, which we are still trying to leverage that more and more and more, and the more you put into it, the better the result. Yourself sales, we meet once a week to actually roleplay what he got coming off, and we try to roleplay those situations or if we have a program director, for instance, women's health, they're going out to have a great meeting with a physician group and we sat down and what do you anticipate what are our three biggest issues that we see in the market? What are the you know, how are we approaching that and you know, it's it's preparation and it's the discipline to invest. And when you're in the daily grind of what you do that can be a challenge can really be a challenge. Absolutely.

And I think that your team has taken full advantage of the Same Side Selling Academy also, because they ask questions and and they'll send, hey, here's this email, which we're sending, how do you think we should change that? How's that working for them? And what sort of feedback are you getting in that area?

Well, I think I think the relationship and the responsiveness that you have to us has been remarkable in terms of the service that we're getting and extremely beneficial. Again, our default is to go into what we do not why and how we do it. And having your eyes, your ears, your thoughts on some of the stuff that we're producing, and nudging us in a different different direction our thought process has been has been very good, I would highly recommend it. Yeah,

one of the things you touched on before I think is key people get out of it, what they put into it, we have people who are members of the academy, and they almost never ask questions, they almost never submit stuff. The people who are always reporting, oh, double digit growth, or in your case, 35 plus percent growth year over a year. It's those the people who are constantly asking questions, and hey, can we roleplay a scenario? Can you take a look at this email? And the magic for me is when you see people get dramatic results, because then it's like, okay, much like for you and your patients, where you see somebody who was on crutches, and now they're going skiing to same thing for me if people were struggling before, if they didn't really feel good about sales, and now they're like, oh, wait a minute, I'm just helping people get a better outcome. It works for everybody. And it's something that, you know, it's probably the biggest struggle for me is it's a very small percentage, but it's a small percentage of people who join the Academy, and then almost never show up, and you're like, What are you doing? And we actually, our community manager will reach out to them. And it's like, why are you here? Because you're not using?

Yes, yeah, you're 100%? Correct. It's just, we are going through a process. Now we have actually a lot of those probably relationships that we're not utilizing to the extent that we should, but it's really doing a self evaluation. And in and again, it's, you know, Same Side Selling for us is really about strategic market development. It's not necessarily for us what I would term just sales, its strategic, it's identifying, it allows the amount of time we've saved by taking this approach by saying we're not going to date every potential customer referrals horse, that we're going to qualify them a certain way through the steps of how to put the qualification standards that you set out. It's flipped everything on its head, you know, getting away from coffee, and doughnuts, getting away from all the stuff that everybody else is doing has been has been wonderful. And we are strategically day by day, you know, and again, it's not overnight, nothing good happens overnight. It's just a commitment and understanding. It's part of our strategy. And so that's, to me, that speaks to everything how good this product actually is.

That's, that's great. I appreciate that. Let me ask you this, do a compare and contrast of what were the prior years, like in terms of growth, because you talked about where you're at now. So kind of look to the before and after, in terms of what you've seen. So I

think what we're seeing is the ability to the difference in being an amateur and a professional in terms of our of our sales team, okay, is really, really being competent, we have extremely competent physical therapists and trainers in terms of operations, how they approach a client, how they do this interaction, but in terms of finance, and marketing, and sales, okay, we haven't always had that, okay, in terms of training somebody to truly be a pro, you got to be good in all three of those. And what this allows us to do, whatever your role is, whether it's admin, whether it's patient care, whether it's billing office, it allows us to train them in a way to be a pro at marketing and sales no matter where it is. And so think about that the leverage or the growth opportunity for that when somebody calls him with a billing collections complaint. And they're trained in a way to talk and communicate that they're actually only on the end of that phone to actually solve the person's problem, that they listen that they care. And the result of that conversation, and I hear it in our is I've never had somebody that take the time to explain it like that to me. Yeah. And understanding in its foundationally. It's in this system.

So what's the biggest kind of takeaway or thing that you've gotten out of what you've invested in Same Side Selling? What's the biggest thing you've learned in terms of with your team?

Yeah, I think I think the biggest thing with our team is, again, people need to have a real problem that we need to have a real soul Looking for. And if we can't start there, or they have a real problem, and we can't, we don't have the best solution, we need to be willing to help them find the right solution for them. But that fact or that acknowledgement alone, real problem, real solution. And if those two things exist, then matter what you do, you're going to our trust, make it results, tell this discuss a good result, good outcome, and then what you do, because you've earned trust, if you have the solution, they're going to invest in it. And so that alone is worth every every bit of the training we're doing with our team.

That's fantastic. So, Ethan, thanks so much for sharing your story. It helps for people to see, because a lot of times people will come to me and they're like, well, like we're in a professional services business, or we sell into this market, or we sell through referrals. And I always kind of roll my eyes. I'm like, Yeah, you think you're the only ones who do that. But but you're not. What's the best way for people to learn more about your business and to connect with you? Because I'm sure people are going to hear this and say, Man, I'd love to find out how they do this or that or, or there's probably somebody in your market is like, Man, I should be going to them for PT and Pilates. Yeah.

So a great way to learn more about us is to visit our website, W motion therapy.com. And click on our Learning Center, we have a wealth of knowledge here that is share, it's free, and anything on there, or if you'd like to learn more about our personal experience, feel free to share my my email, or then shoot me a text, and I'll be happy to discuss it with them kind of our experience at a personal level.

That's awesome. Well, thanks so much for sharing it. It's like I said, for me, it's just magic. When I see people, when I work with the people on your team, you've got just great people. And it's funny, because if they're not getting referrals from a certain place, your team isn't like, Oh, I'm not getting this business. Instead, your team will say, Well, I gotta get through to them, because I know they're not getting the level of care that they should be getting. And I feel like I'm not serving them. Well, if I can't get this message across, which is that whole service mindset of how do I better care for these patients? The sale is kind of incidental, it's more like if I can impact their lives, good things are gonna happen. Yeah, I think it's something that you guys just reinforce throughout your brand. And it's why I always tell people I'm like, Look, I'm flattered when people give Same Side Selling the credit. I think that companies that are focused on delivering results for their clients, and are focused on being entirely integrity based, they can follow any system. Hopefully, our system aligns better than others.

Well, for what we do, it aligns perfectly and it just gives us a common language. It gives us a method of teaching and it gives us a method of educating, perfecting and continual learning. So it checks all those boxes, highly recommend what you guys are doing.

Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom. And I'm sure people will be reaching out. Thanks again. You're

very welcome. Glad to be here.