It is important to recognize that dealing with doctors requires us to consider that doctors are different. They are typically direct and to the point, in a hurry, and interested in benefits. The first 60 seconds are important to make an impression and deliver a benefit in listening to you further. Be prepared! Anytime you schedule a meeting with a physician, have your plan for what you want to communicate and your goal for the outcome for this meeting. Also be ready for those chance meetings.

The physician is many times not the person to determine where a particular patient will be referred for home care services. In most cases, the physician is going to “bless” the choice of agency and then someone else will actually make the referrals. For hospitalized patients, the doctor writing the discharge orders will either specify your agency or just discharge to home care and allow the discharge planner or social work to choose the agency. A few pointers in dealing with doctors:

~ No small talk please
~ Do not bombard them with copies of the same orders to sign
~ Service, service service when dealing with doctors
~ Make it easy to do business your agency
~ Always thank the doctors for referrals, especially the non-admits
~ Make your thank you’s personal and special
~ Always be professional
~ Be a good listener
~ Always follow-up quickly
~ Address any problems immediately
~ Build your custom service plan and deliver on it

Excerpted from Field Guide to Selling Hospice Services with Legendary Results by Michael Ferris

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There are always lots of reasons “why not.” You have got to help people just get over them. Things like, “they probably won’t meet criteria” or “they might not be ready” or any other reason thrown out there that would support why we should sit on our hands. Don’t let people try to figure out why things won’t work and just move to get it done. If it doesn’t work out, and sometimes things don’t, at least we know that no one went without hospice care because we “thought” it might not work out!

Right now there is no shortage of bad news, problems, gossip, etc. to go around. You cannot allow this to get in your way of providing Legendary Service. Whatever is negative and potentially distracting, shrug it off. That’s right; dismiss the bad news or it will eventually consume and overwhelm you.

If the bad news or problems get you down, do something that picks you back up. As a referral center, admission team or sales team professional, you can’t afford to be down and negative when you’re working with your prospects and customers. Do whatever it takes, change your routine, exercise more, read motivational books, whatever it takes!

And stay away from negative people because it’s amazing how contagious negativity can be.

Excerpted from LEGENDARY RESULTS: Managing Referrals & Increasing Admissions Vol 1: Referral Management by Michael Ferris and Polly Rehnwall

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Investment in sales training will pay for itself many times over.  The best sales organizations in the world have regular and frequent sales training.  Those agencies that invest in sales training today will see impressive results tomorrow. 

There are many opportunities for sales training, including, but not limited to:

~ Home care- or hospice-specific sales workshops and conferences
~ Sales and motivational workshops and conferences that are not industry specific
~ State and national association meetings and conferences (a recent NAHC Annual Meeting had sales and marketing programs during every one of the educational sessions)
~ Teleconferences that are provided by home care- and hospice-related groups
~ On-site training and coaching
~ Books and books on tape or CD

Any sales training opportunities like those listed above will pay big dividends; a relatively small investment today will result in sustained long-term results.  Furthermore, the retention rate of your sales team may also increase as productivity increases and salespeople see continued results.

It is increasingly important for home care and hospice agencies to provide support for ongoing education for all of their professional staff.  Combine training for professional staff with that for your sales team when appropriate.  This support can be an important strategic advantage when recruiting and retaining existing staff.  It’s a win-win situation.

Excerpted from 101 Home Care Promotional Strategies that Deliver Legendary Results Without Busting Your Budget! by Michael Ferris

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The most successful home health and hospice sales professionals are those that are the combination of:

* Passion
* People skills
* Knowledge
* Service

The only one that you can truly train is product knowledge!  People either have a passion for home health or hospice or they don’t.  They are good with and enjoy people, or not.  They either get service, or they don’t.  Nordstrom’s (famous for customer service) hires people that were raised to say please and thank you.  Then they train their sales people everything possible to know about the product they will be selling.  The same formula works in home health and hospice.

Hire the right people and then train them to be the most professional home health and hospice sales people.  Sales training is a lifelong learning process; the best sales people in all industries seek to improve themselves every day—no matter how many sales awards they have won! 

Set Goals and Seek Training

Anyone can set a goal, but training is what makes them possible to achieve.  Learning the skills necessary to execute on your plan makes the difference.  You can become great at anything, but not without practice.  The key then to greatness is practice.

If you think about it, most people never practice.  They don’t train and don’t seek coaching.  If you invest 30 minutes a day in something, you can become good at it, no matter who you are.  If you spend more time than that and really focus your efforts, you can become truly great.  Tiger Woods hits thousands of practice shots every week.  Piano virtuosos practice for hours every day of the year.  How serious are you and your sales team?

Simione Consultants’ fall Square One and AdmitRight Boot Camp sales training dates just announced!  Click here for more information and to register!

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