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- Deliver Specialized Solutions for Home Health, Hospice and Private Duty Agencies
Mike’s Message:
Translating Olympic Success to Your Sales Success
The 21st Winter Olympic Games were a huge success for Canada and for the USA. What can we learn from these Olympics?
The US earned an all-time record 37 medals (first time to win the Winter Games medal count) and it happened by design. Twelve years ago in Nagano, the US team won a total of 13 medals (at that time a record for the USA team). Soon thereafter, the U.S. Olympic Committee changed how it funded the national governing bodies that find, develop and train the potential Olympic athletes. It adopted a customized approach specific to each different sport and took a performance based approach to funding. They implemented a funding approach that supported the specific needs of each type of athlete and based funding on their performance. Sounds a little like our formula for success, doesn’t it? Support your sales people, look at their individual needs, hold them accountable for performance and pay based on success.
Congratulations to Canada, they were a great host country, enjoyed success on the medals podium. The logistics surrounding a successful Olympic games are enormous, but let’s look at their efforts to win medals. The implemented a program called “Own the Podium” and this became the central mission, vision and focus of all of their athletic programs. They invested in the success of their team and they delivered. They invested $117 million in athlete training and technology. Canada won the most gold medals (14) and came in third in total medals (26). They are committed to continuing the Own the Podium program for 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Again, sound like a familiar success strategy? Training and technology to support their teams.
Congratulations to Canada also for their hard fought gold medal in hockey. You could not have asked for a more exciting game between the US and Canada for the gold. And, with Sidney Crosby scoring the winning goal in overtime, the script was complete! (Congrats to our ardent Penguin fan readership!)
As you formulate your plans to “Own the Podium” this year, make sure you have dedicated time and resources to train, support with technology and inspire your sales team. Hold them accountable for delivering results and watch the referrals grow!
Don’t forget that March is Kidney Disease month. There are many people in our target demographics who are under diagnosed for chronic kidney disease and home health and hospice can provide the screening and education to identify these patients before they suffer acute kidney damage and require dialysis or transplant.
Hope this helps, and Happy Selling!
Your Agency’s Winter Olympic Games
How great is it to have the Olympics to capture our imaginations and inspire legions of kids who want to be the next winter sports superstar? I hope that you are getting the opportunity to enjoy it with your family and friends. Truth be told, kids aren’t the only ones who can be inspired by the Olympics. You and your sales reps can be inspired too, as this is the perfect time to create your own agency’s Sales Winter Olympic Games!
As a sales manager, its important to keep your reps motivated, and you can use these Sales Olympic Games to both boost your Q1 sales campaigns and your sales reps’ morale. You’ll make everyone that much more focused.
As a salesperson, its important to stay passionate and inspired, so create your own games to set new personal best sales records and bring home your own Gold Medal.
Some events might include:
~ ALF Referral Downhill—The first sales rep to get 50 referrals wins the Gold!
~ Weekly Referrals Cross Country—The first sales rep to get 5 referrals from each of their territories wins!
~ Combine group reps into two teams; first team to get 25 referrals gets first place!
~ Ski Jump—Every week, the rep who gets the most referrals from ONE sales call gets the Gold!
~ . . . and any other combination of events you can think of to make the sales call process fun and competitive.
At the end of the day, the idea is to have fun while adding to your already stellar results!
Please let me know of what creative ideas you and your agency came up with, and the successes they generated!
The single best investment you can make for your sales superstars is the upcoming Square One Boot Camp in Dallas, Texas, March 8th—10th. The CEOs and sales managers of our past students have raved to us about the huge boost in referrals. Wouldn’t you like to be one of them? Register today before your competition does!
All my best and Happy Selling!
Mike Ferris
Director
Marketing, Sales and Customer Service Consulting Division
February is Heart Month
What are you doing for heart month? I know that you are probably getting tired of hearing about this theme, but I cannot emphasize the opportunity too much. Always go with the momentum! One of the basic tenets of martial arts is to use the momentum of your opponent to your advantage. In this case you are using the media blitz and widespread publicity buzz around heart month and heart disease to your advantage. Delta Airlines’ flight attendants, for example, are encouraged to wear all red to promote heart disease awareness. Look around you and you will see what is happening in your community. Be a part of this and a leader in the awareness of the important role that home health and hospice play as a solution for the many patients currently at risk in their homes with heart disease.
Better to spend your time and resources promoting you as a solution than giving away Valentine’s Day goodies. One is the right thing to do and the other is just lazy!
Build Your Personal Brand
Building a personal brand is one of the three things you should be branding. You should be building your company’s brand, its services brand and your personal brand.
Build your brand by standing for something big. You will do better work and build a memorable brand by standing for excellence and making a big difference in your community. Don’t spend your time trying to be just likeable; be memorable for making a difference and taking important stands. Playing it safe and not making waves will put your audience to sleep and set you up as another home care or hospice sales rep. If you play not to lose, you set yourself up to not win.
Your brand should reinforce what you are going to do to benefit the customer, meet their needs and solve their problems. It should make them feel proud to work with you for their home health and hospice needs. Always reinforce the fact that you are all about serving their needs and how you will help them. Be clear on articulating your statement that lets them know who you serve and what you stand for.
Your statement that explains who you are and what you do is the most powerful part of your sales message. Be clear and be bold.
Winter Irony
This past weekend Chapel Hill had eight inches of snow. This is a major snow event for the Triangle area and as a result I got stuck on the west coast and could not get home. (All of the flights into RDU were cancelled on Saturday.) Here’s some irony surrounding the winter weather:
First, the city of Cary, NC scheduled the Winter Wonderland sledding event at Bond Park—which was to feature man-made snow and allow families to sled and play in the snow. It was a fundraiser and tickets were sold for the event. The event was cancelled due to snow! My daughter, a sophomore in high school, had the winter semi-formal dance, The Snow Ball, scheduled for Friday night, and, you guessed it, it was cancelled due to snow.
Hope you are having a phenomenal 2010! We have been so busy that my team and I have been on the road non-stop.
Here are my wishes for much success and Happy Selling!
Best,
Mike Ferris
Director
Marketing, Sales and Customer Service Consulting Division
It’s Down to Four
The National Football League is now down to four teams vying for a trip to the Super Bowl in Miami on February 7th. I was in New York last week where Jets fever was getting going and now I am writing this to you from New Orleans where Saints mania is in full swing. I am sure that Indianapolis and Minnesota fans are equally excited. Great story lines, the Saints have never been to the Super Bowl, the Jets weren’t supposed to make the playoffs, the Vikings have the oldest quarterback to start a playoff game (Brett Favre) and the Colts were on auto pilot to go undefeated until the last two weeks of the season.
We are planning a big Super Bowl party for the students coming to the Square One Bootcamp (February 8 - 10) and can’t wait to see a really good game! Join us in Chapel Hill and take your sales skills to the next level.
This is a good time to look at your “Super Bowl” lineup—who are your top four accounts? What can you do to increase each of their business over the next six weeks? Start by determining how many admissions you had last year in the same time period and then set your goal to increase the admissions. Be bold with your goals—after all, this is the SUPER BOWL!!!
Analyze what the potential is for each of the accounts and then put your plan in motion to realize it. Each of these accounts have the potential to send you more business. The primary reason I can say this with complete confidence is that they are not currently fully utilizing your services. They are not referring every patient that would benefit from, and be appropriate for home health or hospice services. The best way to continue to grow your business and MOST importantly protect your bread and butter accounts is to get them to expand how they use your services.
Each of these accounts, much like a football team, have different players—each with a role to play and a different set of needs and wants. Diagram your playbook and make sure you know all of the key players and what is important to them. Have a plan to have each of them become more inclined to use you and your services. Remember that all success happens at the personal level and this happens by focusing on what is important. The blocking and tackling each and every day is what wins championships!
This marks the one year anniversary of the Obama inauguration; seems likes more than a year ago to me! I watched the inauguration with a large room full of home care and hospice professionals on a big screen. Whether you voted for him or not, there was hope in the air and a sense of history being made. Many had huge expectations for our new President—that he would be able fix the problems and leap tall buildings in a single bound. Now a year later, it is difficult for people to see the progress for all that is in the works. A nation that was united in hope is fragmented and back focused on individual issues. My hope is that this second year will be a successful one for our government and that the health care legislation comes together in a manner that works. In particular for home health and hospice, the need is still great for you to express your concerns and suggestions to your elected officials. Do so today!
Please do what you can to help the earthquake survivors in Haiti. This strong of an earthquake hitting the poorest country in our hemisphere one week ago has created an incredible need. It certainly puts all of our challenges into perspective. Give what you can; every dollar makes a difference. Then send a link to at least ten others. The power of your network will make an even bigger impact. Choose your favorite vehicle to help—here are some options:
Count your blessings, grow your business, have fun and know that you make a huge difference in your community. Good luck and Happy Selling!
Best,
Mike Ferris
Director
Marketing, Sales and Customer Service Consulting Division
New Year, New Decade!
Exciting times for sure! It is time to make plans for making this the decade of home care and hospice. You can make it happen by strategically telling the story in the community. We have been telling the members of Congress that home care and hospice are a solution to the health care puzzle. The best way for that to be seen is to make sure that we are caring for as many patients as possible. We must help the referral partners see home care and hospice in a new light—they need to see that it will keep their patients out of the hospital and more expensive venues of care. It will improve outcomes and reduce costs. You are uniquely positioned to play an enormous and key role in the process.
What do you have planned for February and heart month? Cardiac disease is the great common denominator. All referral partners have patients suffering from cardiac diagnoses in various stages. There is no better conversation to have to help your referral partners see how to better use your services to solve their challenges and problems, meet the needs of their patients and make their lives easier. There is no better time to talk about cardiac than during heart month. Use the momentum created by others during the month to gain your referral partner’s attention and garner more referrals.
Did you know that March is kidney month? If you need information about screening for kidney disease and how you can use this type of campaign to grow referrals and make a difference in the community, send me an email at .
Have fun, stay warm and Happy Selling!
Best,
Mike Ferris
Director
Marketing, Sales and Customer Service Consulting Division
With the holidays almost upon us, I hope this newsletter finds you and your families 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 mid-January, 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.
Happy Holidays from all of us here, and as always—Happy Selling!
Mike Ferris
Director
Marketing, Sales and Customer Service Consulting Division
One month left in 2009 to finish with a big kick and finalize preparations for an enormously successful 2010. We’re here to help! Just let us know how we can help you to plan for the New Year. This is what we do best.
The most successful sales people in our industry understand that they can’t spread their energy and intelligence too thin. They know that they must devote time and attention to a limited number of things. These top performers are very good at focusing on the most important activities and have a solid plan that will blow out their numbers. In the real world, there are too many opportunities out there not to be highly focused on the best.
Studies from all industries show that the happiest and most successful people live in the here and now. They pay close attention to the plan and the next steps to success. They deal with any problems that confront them directly rather than worrying about those that may or may not affect them in the future. Don’t worry about the what if’s; focus on the known and the important.
Successful people, as we’ve seen from countless examples, achieve the things they achieve by solving specific real problems and building strong relationships based on trust and real situations. I was training a group of sales people yesterday and found that they (like many others) are worried about the odd situation or circumstance rather than the key activities developing the best (and more common) account relationships. When we ask for challenging objections or prospects, we hear about all of these really esoteric situational what if’s. We have to redirect the sales people to focus on the more common situations that will result in predictable results. You cannot be Don Quixote and spend all of your time tilting imagined windmills. Don’t worry about the what if’s—focus on the tasks at hand—then handle situations when they ACTUALLY come up!
Stop right now and take a survey of your thinking. How much of it is devoted to events and situations that a) you have no personal knowledge of or b) over which you have no control? Compare that to the time you spend solving real problems and dealing with real people. You should make sure the comparison comes down heavily on the side of reality.
Basketball season is in high gear now with the ACC/Big Ten challenge in progress. Good luck to all of the teams and, of course, go Tar Heels! I thought last night was going to be the big payback—Michigan State with all the reason in the world to come into Chapel Hill and settle a score from last season. It was a great game and the Tar Heels pulled it out. Now it is off to Lexington for next Saturday’s matchup with Kentucky—looks like they may have the advantage. I just hope it is a good game. Good luck to your teams and to you as we hit the most exciting part of the year!
Best Always and Happy Selling,
Mike Ferris
Director
Marketing, Sales and Customer Service Consulting Division
My favorite season is fall. I love the crisp cold mornings, warm afternoons, deep blue skies, red and gold leaves, college basketball season and Thanksgiving! What a wonderful holiday! We have the opportunity each year to give thanks for all that we have, celebrate our national heritage and spend quality time with family and friends. It is also a great time to reflect on what a huge difference home health and hospice makes in our communities. The difference that our staff and caregivers make in the homes of our patients and their families is enormous. In talking with many of you, I know that you are also doing many volunteer activities to help those less fortunate or in need during the holidays. Thank you!
What are you doing to make sure that you have strong referrals coming in for the rest of the year?
You have two choices; you can accept as fate that your business will drop due to the holidays or you can set out to make this the best holiday season ever for referrals and future growth. Start by looking at the historical data. What have your admissions done historically over the last several holiday seasons? Obtain your data by week for the months of November and December by referral partner. Analyze the historical patterns and then research the why behind the trends. Make no assumptions!
Once you know how things have gone historically, you can then set goals for each week and make plans to make each week better. If there are certain specialties that are not referring because, for example, they are not scheduling surgeries, then use that time to bring in other referrals. Work with referral partners to use our services to keep patients out of hospitals and facilities for the holidays. How can your services enable the patient to be at home for the holidays? For hospice, there is no better time for having those hospice conversations than when the families are gathered. Work with referral partners to set up appointments for your hospice to spend time with families to help them understand hospice and making sure that they can make an educated decision regarding their loved ones and end of life decisions.
In short, there are many opportunities to both increase current admissions and make 2009 your biggest year ever and to build the platform for an even stronger 2010. Start now thinking about how you will make holiday season 2010 ever bigger than this year. Every time you come up with an idea or strategy and you think, “too late to do this, this year”, then put it on your calendar to do earlier next year.
Thank you all for all that you do! Thank you for allowing me and my team to help you to tell your stories more effectively in your communities. We are driven by our opportunity to help you to make sure that more people receive the gift of home care and hospice. Please have a very blessed, safe and happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Selling!
Mike Ferris
Director
Marketing, Sales and Customer Service Consulting Division
Happy Election Day!
Please take the time to vote today in your local and state elections. Not only is it our duty and responsibility as Americans, but as an industry we need to be involved at every level of politics. In the years ahead we cannot have too many friends in public office.
What can we learn from successful political campaigns?
Presentation. How people see you is a big determinant of how they feel about you and your company. Dress professionally and appropriately at all times.
Clear messaging. Succinct and clear should be your goal—easy to understand and see the value added. (I saw this sign in Chapel Hill the other day and had to get a picture of it and thought you might enjoy seeing it.)
Building trust. Trust is the cornerstone of building relationships. (See Sales Tip below for more specific ideas.)
Consistency. Don’t be worried about repetitiveness. It takes multiple impressions to have your message stick. There must be an underlying story that is consistent and supports all of the benefits to the referral partners.
Stay on message. Really good politicians know their constituencies; they know what is important to them and they craft their message to benefit them.
Campaigns designed to deliver specific goals. You should develop sales campaigns that will keep your sales team focused on driving referrals for specific programs or disease processes.
And I am sure that there are many more things we can learn from successful political campaigns. Stop and think about how they will make you and your team better sales people. During sales meetings, you can use examples (especially when in election season) to get your team involved and understanding the concept. Sometimes home care and hospice sales people over think sales strategies. Framing them in a different, familiar way can help them see the simplicity! Don’t let them over think!
We are in the middle of the Next Step Advanced Sales Training course here in Chapel Hill today, and I am always so pumped up by the opportunity to work with the best and the brightest! What has you pumped up right now?
Best Regards and Happy Selling!
Mike Ferris
Director
Marketing, Sales and Customer Service Consulting Division
Report from NAHC Annual Meeting - October 20, 2009
The 28th NAHC Annual Meeting concluded last week and it was great to reconnect with many of you, meet new friends and get up-to-date on what is going on in the industry. The general sessions were, as always, a true gift to membership. While much time was devoted this year to the up-to-the-minute status of health care reform (see update below) and its impact on home health and hospice, there were still some very motivational speakers.
Attendance was great and, in general, the outlook was very positive despite potential for rate cuts!
A special thanks to Marcia Reissig, Chair of the Annual Meeting Committee, for a great meeting and very good opening remarks to the meeting. She had the audience participating and managed to set the tone for the meeting and the vision that home care and hospice are the future of medicine. The award for the Physician of the Year was given this year to Steven H. Landers, MD, MPH from the Cleveland Clinic’s Rehabilitation Institute Center for Home Health Services. He shared that he kind of “fell” into the industry when he finished his fellowship. He brought great insight into the value of hands-on, in-home services to the patients in the community. According to Landers, the result made possible by home visits was a more insightful, more complete view of the patient and his or her needs. “This has really practical implications for very common things like how people manage their medications and their disease self management tasks, such as for diabetes care and heart failure care, or understand their nutrition—and just for us understanding their general circumstances.” He is a strong physician voice for the essential nature of what we do and the fact that it is the logical solution.
There were many great sessions including one by Denise Bonn, Esq., Deputy Director, Center for Health Care Law, NAHC, outlining the Ten Principles of Legal Marketing. See Kara Osborne’s summary of her program in the Guest Corner below. Both Polly and I had great audiences for our programs and would be happy to send copies of the handouts to any of you that did not get to attend. .
The final day was highlighted by an exceptional and motivating speech delivered by Colin Powell, as well as the presentation of the initial finds of the Blackberry Study and the heartwarming and motivating words from Peter Samuelson. Peter introduced himself as the semi-colon (he was presenting in between Bob Fazzi and Colin Powell). He is a very accomplished and successful producer in Hollywood and has created some amazing foundations to meet the needs of children and homeless citizens. See his information at www.starlight.org to understand how big he thinks and does!
General Colin Powell shared his life story and was very entertaining, motivating and sent everyone home with a new outlook on what we do and how we do it. He shared stories from his youth, military career, stint as Secretary of State, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and in retirement with his work creating the America’s Promise—The Alliance for Youth Foundation. This foundation (www.americaspromise.org) through the hard work of Gen. Powell and his wife, Alma (who is the Chairperson), focuses on building a stronger nation by supporting stronger youth. Their mission centers around the Five Promises. The Five Promises are those developmental resources—wrap-around supports—that young people need for success in life: Caring Adults, Safe Places, A Healthy Start, Effective Education and the Opportunities to Help Others. He spoke to health care reform as one of our critical national priorities and referenced his experience with “socialized medicine.” He explained that he had received some of the best healthcare in the world from the military coverage he received until he was 65 when he was transferred to another socialized medical program—Medicare.
I am really excited, as our last Next Step Advanced Sales Training of the year is fast approaching. I love this program because it gives me the opportunity to work with the BEST sales people from our training clients. Three things excite me about working with them: first, they are the best (so we don’t have to teach them to be sales professionals); they are eager to learn, refine and hone their skills; and the return on investment for the client is always amazing. It illustrates the point I constantly espouse: the top performers get the least amount of attention from sales management, but have the greatest possible return on investment from training and support. We have a few seats remaining for the program in Chapel Hill, NC which will be held November 2nd through 4th. Send me your top sales people; we will help them take their results to the next level and provide you with stronger admissions numbers in the final months of 2009 and into 2010. The Next Step Advanced Sales Training Boot Camp is a great way to recognize your best sales people, give them the deserved pat on the back and an exceptional opportunity to take their admissions to the next level.
Washington Legislative Update:
The Senate Finance Committee voted 14 - 9 on Tuesday to pass America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009. Now the bill moves to the Senate floor for debate and approval. It looks like this is now officially the bill that is moving. The 14 - 9 vote fell along party lines with one Republican, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), voting in favor of the measure. The legislation, known as the “chairman’s mark,” reduces cuts to Medicare home health providers to $43.2 billion over 10 years, and for hospice providers to $7.9 billion over 10 years, building support for the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, sponsored by the late Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Representatives Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and John Dingell (D-MI), (NAHC Report, Aug. 17), and provisions to improve access to Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS). The message delivered to legislators was “as you work to finalize a health care reform bill, please include the CLASS Act, as well as provisions to improve access to Medicaid home and community-based services.” The CLASS Act is an important piece of legislation that will add tremendously to the opportunity for each of our organizations.
Take one moment, visit your trade association’s website, and let your elected officials know how important home health and hospice are to the healthcare continuum.
Raising Funds for National Hospice Foundation:
Please consider sponsoring Ronald Whisnant in the upcoming Marine Corp Marathon on October 25th. Your generous gift will not only help Ronald achieve his personal goal of completing one of the nation’s premier marathons, but bring awareness of hospice care through the National Hospice Foundation. Please click here to donate; the website is secure, fast and easy to use! At the website, you will be able to choose an amount to donate and receive e-mail confirmation of your donation. Thanks in advance for your contribution! And please forward this link to as many people as you can to encourage them to donate as well.
Winter is here! Early snows falling in Colorado and at Lake Tahoe will allow for early opening for many ski areas this year. What are your plans for taking maximum advantage of the time between now and Thanksgiving? What are your plans for increased referrals over the holiday season?
Thanks for all that you do! Have Fun, Much Success and Happy Selling!
Mike Ferris
Director
Marketing, Sales and Customer Service Consulting Division
Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Part Two - October 8, 2009
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, as discussed in the last issue, and WOW, the visibility continues to increase. Over the first couple of days of the month, you could not look anywhere without seeing something related to the cause. NFL games had coaches with ball caps with pink bills on them, players sported pink shoes and gloves, stadiums had large pink ribbons, Delta Airlines has flight attendants with pink dresses, ribbons and pins. They even sell pink lemonade onboard the plane for $2.00 with the proceeds going entirely to the cause.
It is wonderful that this much needed awareness is finally permeating our society. The numbers of survivors continue to increase and the someday cure must be closer to realization. Thanks to all of you for all that you have done to heighten awareness and increase support in your communities.
Kim from Neighborhood VNA in West Chester, PA submitted the photo showing the pink pumpkins outside of one of her hospital accounts. Thanks, Kim for the great photo. Let us know if you see a good/timely idea and we will include yours in a future Legendary Sales Leadership Letter or on our Facebook page.
I am looking forward to seeing many of you at the NAHC Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. Please come by the Simione booth (Booth 634) to see us and talk about your successes and challenges! We will have a sample of the new look Legendary Sales Leadership Letter for you. Polly is presenting on Monday at 4:15 to 5:45 (Session 508: Easy Ways to Build Brand Identity in a Crowded Marketplace), and I am presenting on Tuesday at 8:00 to 9:30 (Session 608: Who Says You Can’t Teach Home Health and Hospice Nurses to Sell?).
Thanks for all that you do and Happy Selling!
Mike Ferris
Director
Marketing, Sales and Customer Service Consulting Division