Selling in the Sticks
Posted by Mike Ferris on Friday, April 13, 2007 and posted in SalesOne of the biggest challenges facing rural home care and hospice providers is having enough referrals. Sound familiar? The principles are the same for selling and marketing home care and hospice in rural America, the stage is just smaller. Smaller markets typically mean less competition, but for less patients. Sales people working exclusively in large urban areas tend to covet smaller markets because they wouldn’t have so many competitors. Those working in rural areas are just the opposite; it’s the case of the proverbial greener grass on the other side of the fence!
Home care and hospice sales people spend a lot of their time in the car in any size market; the primary difference for the rural representative is that they have longer stretches of open road between calls and greater distances between clusters of referral sources. They must turn these into opportunities! Learning by listening to CDs on sales can always help the sales person improve their skills and there is no better time than when on the road. Carry a miniature recorder and make notes of what you think of that you need or want to take action on in the future. Making challenges into advantages (lemons into lemonade) is one hallmark of great home care and hospice sales people.
People in rural America like to do business with local companies. Therefore, the agency must look for marketing opportunities to create a local presence. Billboards may provide an inexpensive way to provide this presence. Participation and support of local causes is another way to accomplish the local connection. The sales representative must be visible in the community and the field staff should make sure that they wear their name badges and uniforms in the community. The key that the referral sources need to understand is that the agency is supporting the local community, the care providers live in the community and the sales person is visibly providing great service.
With the trend being that small community hospitals are closing, there is an even greater need to call on the urban medical centers and hospitals that serve these rural patients. This brings another group of referral sources to cover into the equation; the case managers, social workers and others involved in the discharge process. Skilled nursing facilities are another key referral source that may be located in another town but that have patients going home to your service area. The key selling point needs to be the fact that the agency can serve all of the rural patients within your service area. Coverage area is a big competitive advantage for the rural agency. Prepare service area maps with a list of pharmacies within that area. This provides the referral source with an easy visual aid to determine that your agency does in fact serve their patient’s needs. By including something of added perceived value, the pharmacy list, you are making their lives easier.
Territory management becomes an important skill set for the successful rural sales person. Since, by definition, the territory is large and sparsely populated the routing of sales calls is critical to success and to avoid burnout. The representative should create geographic zones and then first list all of the “A” accounts within the zone. Analyze which is the best day for the biggest accounts and put that zone on the calendar accordingly. Then prepare a route list of other accounts or prospects within the zone. The “A” accounts must be seen at least once a week while the others will be seen every other week or even once a month. The sales person should supplement these visits with phone calls to check in with the best accounts more frequently. The inside sales team can support the outside sales team by making outbound calls to these accounts.
This will mean that the account ratings must be adjusted to reflect the market. It will take a lesser number of referrals to qualify as an “A” account. The sales person will still need to manage a top twenty or twenty-five list of “A” accounts that they are visiting on a weekly basis. The key activity driving referrals will always be the number of face to face (f2f) meetings. An f2f is defined as a substantive conversation with a decision maker about business. Since there is more driving time involved, each f2f has an even greater value than one in an urban sales territory. The larger the account, the greater the value of each f2f encounter.
For rural referral sources communication is an important element in determining their satisfaction with the agency. The sales person must be actively involved in making sure that adequate, appropriate and thorough communication with the account occurs. For this to happen in a large territory, there must be strong communication between the agency and the outside sales rep as well. The use of customer relationship management (CRM) practices in rural areas will enable and foster the complete team communication with the account. If a telehealth solution is employed to manage the patient’s care, then that should be part of the sales process.
The sales person must focus on areas that are consistent with those that the clinical department can staff. Taking every appropriate referral is central to a strong rural sales program. By having referrals of patients in same area it makes the clinical department’s job a lot easier. Work closely with the clinical team to know where patients are needed and those areas where staffing is a challenge. Don’t push the bounds of what they can staff without their buy-in. This will come back to the sales person many fold. Once an area becomes well developed, then the agency can consider opening a branch office. The sales representatives can and should also assist with recruiting staff in growing areas.
Management should hire sales people that know everyone in the area and that are perceived as being a “home town” product. There is a real premium on ability sales people that can sell to all types of people as the targets are fewer. In addition to great sales skills they should be committed to delivering a high level of personal service. If the sales person makes the lives easier for the referral sources, they will be most successful. It is an advantage to hire a nurse who can sell in rural territories, but, this should not be the primary consideration. They must still be able to perform as a top notch sales rep with or without a nursing license.
The agency and the sales representative have to have a longer term perspective. The relationships take more time to build into “A” accounts. Most rural doctors have a greater focus on patient care issues, are more hands on and enjoy long term relationships with the patients and their families. To meet their needs the sales person must communicate with the referral source about specific patients and their care. This will add to the ability to establish the agency as the only logical choice for home care referrals.
Interestingly enough, technology may actually be an easier sale to the country doctor than their urban counterpart. As an example, Anodyne therapy was originally developed for use with horses. I have had sales representatives tell me that country doctors were immediately familiar with this type of treatment, whereas most city doctors have to have the technology and theory explained to them. Telehealth is more readily acceptable because the doctors can see a real benefit for their remote patients.
Finally, the ability to employ needs assessment selling is essential in rural sales programs. To over simplify the process, it is the determination of the referral source’s needs and then positioning the agency’s services as the solution. While I would contend that this is the most important training for all home care and hospice sales reps, it is especially necessary for rural sales people.
Guess what? Most, if not all of these principles apply to selling home care and hospice in any size market. Happy Selling and Marketing.