Dear Friend,

With the holidays almost upon us, I hope this newsletter finds you and your family well.

This will actually be the last Legendary Sales Leadership newsletter of the year, so we tried to pack it in with as many great sales and marketing tips and information as we possibly could (not to mention finishing out our acclaimed 4-part series on Sales Management)!

Because our next newsletter won't be until January 5, I wanted to let you in on a great marketing strategy to employ in the new year:

As we all know, February is Heart Month, and it's long been documented that heart patients are one of the most underserved populations when it comes to Home Care and Hospice. Go out and spend the month of January talking with your referrals sources about the upcoming Heart month and let them know how you can help make their lives easier -- by taking the burden off their shoulders of managing CHF patients, for example.

Using this strategy will enable you to build new relationships with new referral sources, or strengthen and enhance your existing referral source relationships by expanding your referral opportunities with them. Plan ahead, and you can use the next TWO months to utilize this marketing strategy, and get ahead of your competitors who might not start talking about heart health until February.
Click here to read more...

One of the Most Powerful Home Care and Hospice Marketing Strategies
by Mike Ferris

Here in the Marketing and Sales department at Simione Consultants, we are constantly searching for ways to stretch our clients' marketing dollars. Over time, we found one strategy that has a very high Return on Investment (ROI): Word of Mouth.

There is no better testimony to the wonderful work our industry does, and no greater marketing tool than encouraging and empowering customers to spread the word about your agency. The patients, clients, referrals sources and staff that believe in your agency and its delivery of home care or hospice services should be enlisted and assisted in being the "evangelists" for your brand.
Click here to read more...

The Message Matters
by Polly Rehnwall

1. Keep it simple! So many of the stickers and cards we see have multiple numbers to various locations printed all over the place. In addition, they list different procedures to follow and numbers to call depending on when the call is made (afterhours, weekends, etc.)

When someone panics about dad's breathing, the last thing they need to be thinking is, "Is it after five? Is it Friday? Do I call the local number or the 800 number?" If you're really telling them "We're your 911", then make it as simple as 911: One number, 24/7, no exceptions.
Click here to read more...

SEATS ARE FILLING QUICKLY FOR
FEBRUARY SQUARE ONE BOOT CAMP!

FEBRUARY 8 - 10, 2010
Courtyard Marriott Chapel Hill ($129 per night)
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
(800) 321-2211 for reservations

CLICK HERE TO LOCK IN YOUR SEAT WITH A $500 DEPOSIT (balance due January 8, 2010)

The last few Square One Boot Camps have sold out weeks ahead of the event and from advanced registrations, we expect this one will sell out early, too. DON'T MISS OUT!

We have a strict limit of 18 students per class to ensure the low student to instructor ratio and hands-on training. Send us your liaisons and we will send you back highly trained home care and hospice sales professionals.

Here's what some of our most recent graduates have to say about their Square One experience:

"I had a great deal of anxiety knowing that I was going to have to role play.  However, we were coached through it so well that it was much easier to do by the time we had to.  I wish I had Boot Camp when I first started!"
~ Lori Caldwell, University of Tennessee Hospice Services

"I feel like I have learned so much at this Boot Camp.  The people here have taught me more in the past three days.  Thank you guys so much!"
~ Raleigh May, Patient's Choice Hospice

"I learned so much!  Everything I was doing previously was wrong and I was afraid to ask for referrals, fearing rejection.  Now with the tools I’ve learned here, I no longer am afraid to ask!"
~ Vanessa Mizak, Liberty Home Care and Hospice

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS (INCLUDING THE AGENDA) AND TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT!

The Sales Manager as a Coach and a Mentor:
Part 4 of a 4-Part Series
by Kara Osborne

As we went over in Part 1 of this series, a sales manager wears four hats: teacher, coach, mentor, and manager. As you may remember, there are four types of reps:

~ the New Rep
~ the Rep That's Meeting Expectations
~ the Superstar
~ the Underperformer

In our last issue, we discussed your "Manager" hat. This time we look at the "Coach" and the "Mentor" hats. While there is overlap between all of the hats, the "Coach" and "Mentor" hats overlap the most.

While there is overlap, you will likely find that you spend more of your time coaching than mentoring.
Click here to read more...

Be Genuine, Let Your Passion Show

When you're engaged in conversation with your referral partners, remember to be genuine. It's easy to get caught up in our script of questions, and be so focused on our objective that we forget to let our passion and our genuineness show. Let your passion for what you do show through. In all of our sales training, we teach salespeople to find out what is important to the referral partner and position themselves as having the best solution. This is a critical sales skill, but will be lead to greater success if you approach it from a genuine perspective.

You need to let your referral partners know that you truly care about helping them, that you want to understand their needs and are committed to providing a solution that helps both them and their patients. Exhibit genuine concern. Let people know you love your job because every day you get to bring help to someone in need.
Click here to read more...

In each Legendary Sales Leadership Letter we answer your questions. Send them to us or call (800) 653-4043 and we'll make sure that yours are answered in a future issue.

Here is this week's question answered:

Question:
Do you have any good marketing ideas for holiday giveaways?

Answer:
Instead of using giveaways to market during the holidays, why not focus your efforts on an actual holiday-centric marketing campaign? Develop a holiday marketing strategy that includes a clearly defined message that illustrates the benefits your services offer to referral partners, patients, and families during the holiday season. Click here to read more...