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The
Legendary Sales Leadership Letter |
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Mike's Top Picks
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I have always been a big advocate of territory management and if you needed another reason to improve at it, just look at your expenses on gasoline. The better you manage your territory, developing tight route lists and prioritizing your time and energy, the less you will spend on gas! Double benefit, more referrals and less miles driven. Another idea that home care and hospice sales people have not historically focused a lot of time is in making telephone sales calls. Again, in the effort to be more efficient, you can increase results dramatically with strategic use of the phone.
We all have to look for ways to cope with increased energy and other costs. The best way to handle them is to be more successful and more efficient. Look for the positive in everything!
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The CEO as Sales Person Know when the situation calls for bringing in the big gun!
In all industries, including home care and hospice, one of the most effective or ineffective sales people can be the CEO. There are many considerations, but when used intelligently, the CEO can be extremely effective. The key is to use the CEO at the right time, in the right situation, and recognize his or her strengths. You cannot assume that the CEO will know the right time or place. The results can be disastrous, so be careful what you ask for!
So how can a sales person use the CEO's energy and knowledge without risking disaster? The key is to understand the primary strengths of the CEO as sales person, before extending the invitation. Do they like to sell? Are they good at it? How much do they know about sales? These elements all play into your initial strategy.
There is no doubt that involving the CEO or other senior management in sales can provide a breakthrough, and/or raise the level of the sales conversation. But just because the CEO leads the organization doesn't necessarily make him or her effective. In fact, involving the top dog in the sales process with key referral partners can sometimes be a recipe for disaster.
By way of example, in one recent situation, the sales manager decided to bring the CEO to a meeting with a prospective referring hospital. The sales manager was a real sales professional and had confirmed the purpose and agenda of the meeting with her CEO and with the hospital discharge planning department. The sales process had been in the works for a few months and had seemingly reached an impasse. The sales manager asked the CEO to come in to support the process and underscore the importance of the account.
After making the initial introductions, the CEO promptly took over the meeting and, ignoring the agenda, began a detailed discussion of how the head of the discharge planning department should be doing her job. The CEO set about to demonstrate his knowledge in order to prove the prospect wrong, dismissed her questions and points of view, and then couldn't understand why the prospect wasn't receptive to the proposal on the table. It took the sales manager nine months to recover the referral relationship to prior status.
Fortunately, not all examples of CEO sales involvement have such bad endings. There are numerous situations in which a CEO's presence and input helped break down objections and barriers, resulting in substantial sales successes and strengthened strategic relationships.
Not only can the CEO further specific sales initiatives, they are also important in the cultural aspects of becoming a sales organization. The success of the organization in creating and empowering a sales culture depends on leadership's visible actions and statements. Leadership must lead by example and encourage and inspire the works in every position and at every level to be an active part of the sales program. With the CEO involved in selling situations, it will speak volumes about their commitment to sales.
The sales person must find spots to use the CEO (or other key management or clinical experts) to maximum advantage; they should only be booked into situations where they will be additive to the process, well received, and comfortable performing. If you recognize when to use these "Pros from Dover," you will see great results.
There is a right time and wrong time to bring them into the mix. In most cases, the timing is going to be after the sales person has qualified the account and the situation. Never take a CEO into a situation where you are not certain that the account is well qualified, and where specifics are still unknown to the sales person. You cannot afford to be surprised in front of the CEO.
The key to effective use of the CEO lies with very disciplined call planning. This can be time-consuming, and the CEO might need to be educated about it, but the payoff is there. This is a process and will likely require some advanced preparation and role playing. The plan for the call should include: current situation, goal for account, goal for the call, CEO's role in the process, what if scenarios, expected outcome, and next steps. The CEO should be clear on information about the others that are scheduled to be in attendance, and be prepared with personal insights.
Some benefits to bringing in the CEO (or other senior management):
Some considerations:
Your answers to these questions will dictate whether this is a good idea or not! If there are concerns, you should discuss them with the CEO or sales manager and work through them before embarking on a program that will involve the CEO in the process. They can be your biggest asset, but that is up to you and your preparation.
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Tie Your Promotions to Your Mission
As you know, I am a huge proponent of limiting the number of giveaway items and when using them, making them integral to the message and your organization's educational initiatives. As we get into the "dog" days of summer, a good educational message is the importance of proper hydration in the senior population. You can tie that into an educational flyer and if you are going to distribute a giveaway, how about an imprinted, refillable water bottle? You can get a lot more impact and further your mission by approaching giveaways in this manner.
You should Google the topic and do your research to develop your sales flyer/educational piece. You can put hydration in the senior community on one side and the general population on the other. When I was doing some research on the topic, I saw an article about the importance and benefits of proper hydration in a senior population in England. In fact, they found that the participants experienced an improvement in their health status with one 88-year-old woman saying that she was having difficulty walking at all and now, after participating in the "water club," she takes walks most every day.
This particular facility encouraged the residents to drink between 8 and 10 glasses of water per day. The results were remarkable. Elderly people are more likely to become dehydrated because hormonal and other physiological changes reduce the ability of their bodies to metabolize water and balance fluid. They are also more susceptible to fluid deprivation because they tend to be on medications that increase water loss (such as diuretics and hypnotics), they get ill more often, or are stressed for other reasons. Thus elderly people can be prone to dehydration because of reduced intake or because they lose water more frequently.
So, do your research, promote hydration and tell your story to the referral partners in your market!
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Leadership is critical to an agency's sales and marketing success. From the top level of management down, there must exist a dedication to the sales and marketing program. Without the complete and continuous support of the senior management, it is impossible to create and maintain a superb sales and marketing effort. Maintaining a consistent message is also dependent upon leadership. And the success of your marketing efforts is a consistent message. Leaders will inspire their staff to do all that they can to market the agency and make it successful. This they do by leading by example, by always supporting their staff in making the difference; by always believing in the abilities of the employees and their ability to make the agency the best that it can be. Great agencies are those that have strong and memorable customer service programs. These programs enable the marketing efforts to have the greatest impact. They also ensure that the customers of the agency will not go looking for another due to being disappointed by the agency's service. Great agencies have great teams. The primary ingredient in successful teambuilding is leadership. Therefore, the agencies with the greatest leaders will have the greatest teams and they will have the most success. Teams are successful because they are empowered by leadership. Empowerment to make a difference is probably the greatest thing that home care and hospice leaders can do to make a difference in the marketing effort and the overall success of the agency. Strong teams that have great belief in the agency and the leadership of the agency will be the most likely to generate internal referrals. And internal referrals are the most important referrals an agency can receive. That is due to the fact that they are all incremental to the referrals received externally. In other words, if the agency staff did nothing to generate internal referrals then the only referrals would be externally generated referrals. If the agency receives those external referrals plus the internal referrals, then it will be more successful by the order of the internal referrals. In actuality, if the agency receives a significant number of internal referrals it will generate a greater number of external referrals and the total becomes greater with each successive year. To expect your staff to generate internal referrals, you must lead by example and you must reward and recognize positive behavior. So the greatest single thing that you can do as a home care or hospice leader is to empower and support your staff in making a difference. By doing so, you will empower them to market the agency and its services which will generate record results.
So if it's your job to lead and direct the
sales and marketing program or to execute it, you must accept the
leadership responsibilities. Empower those in your charge to be
great sales and customer service leaders. Encourage and assist
those to whom you report to excel as leaders. The focus on quality
leadership will increase your referrals in a dramatic fashion. |
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In each Legendary Sales Leadership Letter, Mike answers your questions. Send them to us or call (800) 293-5471 and we'll make sure that yours are answered in a future issue. Here are this week's questions answered: Question: We see agencies diversifying in both business lines and payer sources. Can agencies use a unified approach in marketing these initiatives, or does it require them to obtain a different sales staff, different collaterals, and contract with different types of media? Answer: First, determine who the customer is for the service you are selling, and how you wish to be perceived. If your goal is to be a one-stop shop, then you can have one sales person sell all of your service lines. If you are trying to establish yourself as an expert in the area for single service product lines, then you should look at having different sales people for each business line. Home health, hospice and private pay are all very different sales messages. If a sales person is going to be selling multiple lines, they must be able to "change hats" and deliver a compelling message for the particular customer and service line. That being said, ALL sales people should be able to cross-sell their company's other service lines to be effective. In all cases, you must match the message with the consumer for the specific service you are promoting. This will affect your choice of media and approach. If you try to be all things to all people, your message can get so diffused that you won't stick in the mind of the customer. Question: How do we get physicians to refer to hospice earlier? We seem to get most patients in the last few days of life. Answer: This is an important issue for the entire hospice industry. All members of the hospice should be focused on making sure with every interaction they have with the community that they underscore the values and benefits of an earlier referral. From the sales person's perspective, there is a process to increasing length of stay (LOS):
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We have expertise in Private Pay Home Care, Medicare Home Health, and Hospice including not-for-profit and for profit organizations. Our services enable home care agencies to understand and capitalize on the opportunities in their market.
The strategic and tactical services offered by Home Care and Hospice Marketing Solutions include:
Call (800) 293-5471 or
write us and see how
we can improve your home care and hospice sales skills! |
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With the second half of the year closing in rapidly upon us, make sure your plans for Q3 and Q4 are tight. Review the results from the first six months, your top five opportunity list, your top 25 account list, your territory productivity and your prospect list. They should all be fine tuned and support your success. Look for the surprises, both positive and negative. Revise your plan to reflect current referral patterns. List all of the questions for accounts and make it a point to ask them on your next visit.
Good luck and Happy Selling!
Best,
Mike Ferris
Managing Principal |
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