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The
Legendary Sales Leadership Letter
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Mike's Top Picks
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I was delivering a speech to an audience at a regional conference recently and coincidentally, it was Earth Day. I thought it would be fun to ask them the question, "How 'green' is your agency?" In other words, what are they doing to be ecologically sensitive? There were a few people who responded, but clearly it has not been a focus for many organizations. My hat is off to those agencies out there who have already focused their attention on being ecological. As an industry we can and should do more.
Since my passion is sales and marketing for home care and hospice, you might expect that I would tie the two subjects together! I believe that you can use the fact that you are the greenest in your community in your marketing. This is a tidal wave in the advertising and marketing world. Green sells! Why not look at how your agency can be the 'greenest'; do something good for the environment and future generations AND get credit for your actions from the community.
We constantly search for those points of differentiation that resonate with our audience to make the case for someone selecting our agency over a competitor. We are always looking for ways to have the referral partners think of us -- not as a commodity, but as the preferred choice for referrals to home care and hospice. Given the growing success of direct to consumer advertising, especially in private pay and hospice, setting yourself apart as a result of being considerate of the environmental impact of our companies will add to your message.
Lest anyone get too excited, however, please know that I am proposing the use of being 'green' as another point of differentiation, but not one that will ultimately carry the day on its own merit. I don't think you can expect the community to make its decision solely on your environmental consciousness.
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It's a New World. Or Is It?
The times, they are a changing. Home health is now subject to the "refined" version of PPS and hospice is being subject to multiple adjustments, as well as gaining increased scrutiny from CMS. To the uninitiated it may appear to be different, but the industry veterans are simply reminded that no matter what, with Medicare, there will always be change.
The most successful organizations are those with leadership that prepares proactively for future change. They are never complacent. If things are going really well financially, they are looking for ways to improve clinically and operationally. They are using their success to breed future success, and they recognized that this is the time to be investing in sales and marketing to ensure this continues.
Much like all areas of operations, sales teams will be expected to have increased productivity. The cost of acquiring a new case must go down as a result. The trend of increased professionalism in home care and hospice sales will continue to be the driver of increased referrals. Training is the single most important thing you can do for your sales team to further their professionalism. The next step is to make sure you have well-qualified and effective sales management for the sales team in order to keep them focused and directed.
Over the last seven years, organizations found they had more competition for cases. Their first step was to hire sales people and put them out in the community. That was, for many, a significant competitive advantage. Once the majority of agencies had sales people, just having them was not enough. Training, support and management of these sales people shifted the balance to those who had this foresight. Once again, the others followed suit. Today, there is an urgent need to any home care or hospice agency with sales people to invest in them if they want to ensure they once again represent a competitive advantage.
Well run organizations will continue to prosper under new payment methodologies, while competitors who were "cherry picking" cases (or serving patients in venues that were most profitable) will lose that ability. To the extent that they were able to play it looser (due to artificially high margins), they will have to rapidly effect changes in order to manage expenses on all fronts.
Sales programs should focus on increasing the number of cases generated per sales person. This is accomplished by making the sales person better at selling, focused on higher volume accounts, and deeply integrated with these practices. Long-term, the most successful sales people will be those who integrate their services with the referral partner such that they become the standard of care. These sales people are constantly diagnosing their account's needs, and looking for ways to integrate their services into different types of their patient's treatment. They become an indispensible resource and trusted partner.
All marketing initiatives (printed materials, advertisements, website additions, etc.) should tie directly to sales efforts and support them. The message being delivered across all mediums must be consistent and designed to drive referrals. If you cannot answer the question, "how does this increase referrals?," then you should either redesign or rethink.
The sales training must include all sales team members -- inside sales (intake, referral center, admissions, customer service, etc.), outside sales team (sales representatives, nurse liaisons, community outreach, etc.), and all staff members. At its core, the organization must be a sales focused, customer centric company. From senior management down, everyone in the agency should be telling its story in the community and bringing in more business. The most compelling way to achieve buy-in by all in the organization is by framing all conversations related to sales with their necessity to further the mission. Pride and sense of mission are the two universal motivators in gaining widespread buy-in.
The other message that will gain universal acceptance is that as an organization, you must get credit for your greatness!
You have many opportunities to further your quest to be the best home care or hospice agency. Make sure your sales team is appropriately and effectively telling your story in the community. Your marketing materials and advertisements should generate a positive return on investment and tell the same consistent story.
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Today we are in Day Two of the Square One Bootcamp and have a great group of students here training to be elite home care and hospice sales professionals. The second day is when everyone really comes together and starts working and learning as a team. It's my favorite day of the three! Thanks for sending us your sales people; they are each very special and unique. It is always my honor to spend the time with them and send them back home ready to hit the ground running. Announcing the Next Square One Bootcamp The next Square One Bootcamp will be held August 25 - 27 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Reserve your seat now as we expect spaces to fill up quickly! You have two registration options: To lock in a seat with a $500 deposit, click here.
To lock in a seat with your full payment,
click here. 52 Week eSales Training Course Our groundbreaking and highly-acclaimed 52 Week eSales Training Course is available for one to one hundred students. It provides a weekly lesson (takes about 30 minutes to complete) that will keep your sales team members' skills sharp. Students have said that the course supported them in becoming better at their profession, increased their referrals and forced them to review the basics. On average, our 52 Week eLearning participants have increased their referrals by over 31%! "With the help of the 52 Week eSales Training Course, I have been able to increase our accounts by approximately 20% and have increased referrals and admits by an even greater percent. Thank you, and my company also thanks you!" -- Barbara Edmisten, Highland Hospice
Special offer for Sales Leadership Letter
subscribers: Enroll up to 10 students for one low price of $599
(does not include audio CDs)!
Click here to take advantage of this offer. |
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Vacation Time Ahead
As we approach the end of the school year and Memorial Day, your accounts are going to be planning vacations. Two elements to this process can be important to your sales planning.
First, keep track of who is leaving, how long they will be gone, where they are going and who is covering for them while they are gone. If the referral clerk (our key contact that calls in the referrals) is going to be out, it is ESSENTIAL that you know who will be covering and that all is in place for you to continue receiving the referrals. You want to position yourself as making both the vacationing person and the replacement comfortable during this time. If you can, position yourself in this manner and have the instruction given, "if you have any home health or hospice referrals, call (insert your name here) and they will take care of them for you." Don't neglect the opportunity to build a relationship with the person covering and educate them on how to expand the practice's use of home health or hospice.
On this note, be very careful! I hear horror stories about how, when the person covering the job sees that you are getting the lion's share of the referrals, they question the process. This can have a major impact on your referrals and relationship. Do your homework upfront and be prepared.
Second, you have another opportunity to tell your customer that you care. Make them a travel postcard or in some way tell them that you are excited for them and wish them a great time. People's vacations are a big deal, in many cases, and you can help them get excited about them. If you use giveaways in your sales process, and they are going to the beach, give them a beach bucket to make sandcastles. Or you can bring them a small tube of sunscreen. Just make it fun and something they will remember you for doing.
If the physician is going to be gone, you should factor this into your referral projections for the account. Many times, you will not see the number of referrals you normally would because they are gone. This is especially true for specialties like orthopedic surgeons. While they are gone, the elective knees and hips stop!
Also be very good at planning ahead when you have a vacation coming up. Introduce your backup to the accounts and make sure they are in good shape to be handled as if you were not gone. Your accounts can get excited about your vacation and in many cases will help out to make sure the referrals don't drop off. If they are a good account and your relationship is strong, send them a postcard from wherever you are.
Don't Forget Graduations!
When your contacts in your accounts have a child that is graduating from high school or college, you should make sure and congratulate them. These are important milestones and much like remembering their birthday, you will tell them that you care about them and your relationship.
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What Makes a Great Agency to Sell For?
Have you looked closely at how well your organization is viewed through the eyes of your sales team? Performing this exercise enables you to keep the team happier, more productive, and will prove to be a win-win for all involved. One of the worst things that can happen is turnover in your sales people -- it always results in a short-term decline of referrals.
The constant question I hear is, "how do I hire, train and motivate the right sales person to deliver more referrals?" The focus in that question is on the sales person being right or wrong. Many times management overlooks the other end of the equation, which is: "what can be done to continually make this a better organization to sell for in the community? How can we make them proud to represent our agency?" The most successful home care and hospice sales people are in their position because they are passionate about the difference their company's services make in the community. If they get disenchanted with the agency by feeling they are underappreciated or that promises the company has made are not kept, referrals can go down.
We asked a cross-section of highly successful sales people in home care and hospice, "what makes a great agency to sell for?" and got these resounding answers:
As you can see, these are not difficult items to provide. And the return on investment is great. Keep on top of how your sales team is feeling about their job, and you and the organization will be well rewarded.
Understanding what makes a great organization to sell for will give you the plan to increase retention and productivity. Sales productivity should be one of your key metrics for success. Understanding the sales team's needs and wants is the best way to get greater performance (increased referrals per sales person) and keep them happier. Start by defining exactly what makes your sales team happy -- by asking them and listening carefully to their communications. Provide them with well-developed realistic goals and timely reporting to monitor their progress. They should have good data support to help them manage their territory and accounts.
Proactive sales management is important to keeping the sales people happily headed in the right direction. It is important they know when they are doing well or if they are behind or off track. The sales manager should be both coach and mentor. It is important to note that top performers need just as much attention as new hires or underperformers do, and many times are not given adequate attention because they are doing well. This can lead to the feeling of not being appreciated and be a cause of dissatisfaction.
Finally, you should be looking for ways to keep the team motivated. The best motivations and those proven to deliver extraordinary results include ongoing recognition, performance-based bonuses and incentives, awards, and rewards. There should be top performers of the month as well as specific achievements that are recognized company-wide. Incentives and bonuses are proving to be very successful in keeping the sales people focused on delivering on their numbers each month. They should include an initial bonus for hitting their goal and then a second amount for greatly exceeding it. This trend is one that will continue to gain widespread acceptance and become the industry standard over the coming years. The last item to consider is one that is widely used in other industries to reward sales people and that includes trips, gift cards, sales meetings at resort locations, etc.
Keep your sales team feeling like they have the best job in the world, working for the best home care or hospice organization. The happier they are and the prouder they feel, the better they will perform for years to come.
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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. Question: I feel that my marketers are just handing out our brochures or just leaving them. How do I get them to use them as intended, as sales pieces? Answer: That is an excellent question, one that should be asked by all sales managers. How do you get the sales people to really use the sales materials to support their sales efforts? First you should make sure that all of your sales people have read and understand the materials produced by your organization. I'm amazed at the number of times I have worked with agencies that have sales people who have not even read their brochures! For each different sales situation, i.e., type of account, account rating, etc., the sales person should be able to point out a minimum of three pieces of information that are specifically of interest to that person. Ideally they should be benefits that are presented in response to determining the account's needs. Teach your sales people to show the person they are giving the brochure to these salient bites of information BEFORE they hand the brochure over to the account. Once it is out of your hands, you lose control. If you don't point out the key elements, there is a good chance that they will be overlooked -- and that is only if they actually ever open the brochure! Question: I heard you speak at the NAHC Annual Meeting. Great presentation! I was curious to find out what should be included in an agency's marketing budget. Answer: Thank you for your kind words. This is a great question because I believe this is an area that should be standardized for our industry. When determining how large your marketing budget should be, it would be nice if everyone included the same elements. Here are the items that should be included: Outside sales people (fully loaded cost with all benefits, taxes, workers compensation, incentives, etc.), mileage or company car expense, sales management, sales training, outside consultants, collateral materials (business cards, brochures, sales sheets, etc.), website, advertising (radio, television, print, etc.), give-away items and public relations costs. In other words, everything that is related to the promotion of your services in the community. Question: Do you think that managing 350 physicians with two marketers (one of them being a director who has other responsibilities as well) is physically possible? Answer: If your question is, "Is this an ideal situation?" then I would tell you that no, it is not ideal, but is fairly normal in our industry. My belief is that we will never have too many sales people and for that reason we must always be looking for ways to best manage our time and resources. This is the basis for all of my teachings. Two people covering 350 accounts is not out of the question -- many of our clients "cover" many more. It is difficult to really manage more than 150 accounts -- depending upon geography, etc. -- so you are not too far off with your situation.
The key to this account management
question is to develop historical referral data for the 350 accounts and
then assign them ratings (A, B, C) and assign primary account coverage
responsibility. You will find that of the 350 accounts, there are
a small group that provide about 75 - 80% of your referrals. Start
with these key accounts and then work down the list. You may also
be able to assign certain accounts to someone in your intake department
if they don't require in-person sales calls. Look for ways to
extend your reach by using direct mail sales pieces, phone calls and any
other way that will enable you to cover more accounts. Make sure
that ALL sales calls are targeted and effective by having clear goals
and objectives for each one. |
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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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If you are ahead of your numbers, then now is the time to step it up to really blow them out. Build a cushion for the year and then keep adding to it! Have fun, be proud and thanks for the difference you make in the community. Happy Selling!
Best,
Mike Ferris
Managing Principal |
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Home Care and Hospice Marketing Solutions
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