Emerging Trends in Home Care Sales and Marketing
Posted by Mike Ferris on Friday, May 16, 2008 and posted in Home Health Care SalesHome care and hospice marketing is constantly evolving, which is reflective of our industry. Each year brings added levels of sophistication to sales and marketing programs. Couple this with a substantial increase in the investment by home care and hospice in sales and marketing, and you’ll see that the major industry trend is towards increased competitive pressures. This week’s column provides some insights from the current marketplace which are intended to collectively enable your agency to meet these challenges.
Agencies of all sizes and shapes are scrambling to protect their flow of referrals and increase them. The level of competition in all parts of the country (with the exception of one or two CON states) is fierce. An appropriate question, then, is “What should I be doing to market my services?”
Why Market?
From time to time, I encounter home care or hospice executives who pose the question, “Why should I market?” My response is a question put to them quite simply, “Do you want to ensure the financial success of your agency so that you can continue to provide your community with the best medical care?” The key way to ensure future success is to create a strong marketing program now that establishes and supports your agency’s “brand” in the community, and one that cements your agency in referral sources’ minds as their home care provider of choice. Do you know what your brand is? Do your customers? What type of service or program do you provide that stands distinct and apart from your competitors? What makes your operation unique? The answers to these questions are ones that will shape the ultimate conceptualization of your marketing plan.
Marketing, after all, is simply just giving the consumer what he or she wants. The art of marketing lies in crafting a message and providing a corresponding delivery mechanism to reach the target audience in the most efficient fashion. The task at hand is to translate sales and marketing best practices to the home care arena, and refine it to fit your agency. Then shape the message to highlight the differentiating factors for each segment of the market you serve.
One very important distinction that needs to be made is between marketing and sales. Marketing is getting the message out to the marketplace, and sales is actually getting the referral. Your agency staff should all be sales people. That’s a statement that gets home care and hospice professionals worried. It was tough enough for them to buy that they were all in marketing; now they are expected to be sales people? A culture change in your agency will take time, so start now.
Next week: What’s currently working in the industry?