Sales Leadership

Sales Leadership: The Toughest Job I Never Knew I’d Love (Part 2)

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Last time we discussed how tough but rewarding sales leadership is, and some tips to help those in the position. This is the end of that article:

Effective messaging has proven to be extremely effective and elusive.  Organizations who can tell their story in a succinct and compelling manner are many times more effective, in all industries, than those who can’t.  In home care and hospice there are few companies who possess strong, differentiating messaging making this a potentially huge competitive advantage.  Once developed, the sales team and the entire organization must be trained to deliver these high powered messages effectively.  An organization with great messaging but limited ability to deliver them is only slightly better than those who have not refined their message.  (And this applies to the bulk of your competitors.)

Define your assets.  Start with your own self inventory and then evaluate the other resources in your organization.  Build upon strengths and get help with the weaknesses.  Outside experts can expedite the process and help you gain the necessary skill sets to turn the weaknesses into strengths. There are many excellent consultants in our industry today that can help with any of these areas for improvement.  Build a network with others at other agencies and trade expertise and ideas.  Collaborate with other providers in your community and seek synergistic relationships to strengthen your program.

Know what your resources are for delivering the message consistently across everything that you do.  Many times we see hospital-based or affiliated agencies feeling ignored, having to fight for dollars and resources from the health system.  Tap into those resources but don’t depend on them to deliver the message.  The fight should be to keep your needs at the top of their list - you just need their marketing and design expertise.  Hiring good help to develop the look and feel of your message will translate into superior graphics and design.

The good news is that you should be having more fun than ever before.  If not, then that may be your diagnostic tool that you need to get some help to freshen things up!  The toughest job you never knew you’d love is also the most important single element for your organization achieving its mission and vision.  Without predictable growth, it becomes very difficult for all areas of operation.  Good Luck and Happy Selling!

Sales Leadership: The Toughest Job I Never Knew I’d Love (Part 1)

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Most in home care or hospice sales management today ended up there accidentally.  This is a reflection of the progression in our industry from non-existent sales and marketing programs to a critical success factor.  I have found that most profess to love sales and marketing and many wish they could dedicate more time in that area.  This is where the fundamental decision comes into play; you cannot pay short shrift to the management of this area any more.  You must choose to delegate these duties or others to enable the level of focus required.

Somewhere along the way, as you have risen through the ranks and/or worked with different organizations, you have undoubtedly been asked to manage or assist the sales and marketing efforts.  And if you haven’t already, then in all likelihood you will!  This is both a reflection of an industry in transition and increased integration of sales programs.

Knowing that thanks to your efforts more people are receiving home care or hospice services is extremely gratifying.  Not only are you growing your program but also expanding utilization within the community. 

So if this sounds like you, here are some tips to make your job even more fun:

Reframe the conversation; differentiate your organization and its services to avoid selling a commodity.  Bring excitement to the process!  Help your sales team get excited about the difference their agency can make for each referral partner and each patient.  This keeps it fun and makes your agency a preferred choice to work with.

Using quality indicators in your sales messaging is a great example.  You are able to graphically depict the differences between you and the competition.  This has proven very successful and it promotes improved home care compare scores in competitive markets.  A rising tide raises all boats.  So at the end of the day, by telling your story in the community and shifting the referral partner’s focus to quality and outcomes, all patients in your community win. 

Be cautious, however, that you are not only selling your grades or scores.  It is our observation that the others in your service area will start to focus on improvement and could pass you.  If you are too focused on just the “best care available” then you are living by the sword and could die by the same sword.  This is why you must use this as one piece of your sales message.

Inventory all of your specialty programs and package them to be demonstrably better than the competition.  If certain initiatives have made your great quality scores possible, then make that the conversation.  Build a message that lets the entire community know why you are the best and most logical choice to provide home care and/or hospice services.

How Your Passion For What We Do Can Translate Into Sales (Part 2)

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The Customer Comes First

Putting the customer first will pay big dividends - this includes the agency putting the needs and wants of the patients first, as well as those of the referral sources.  If you ask 100 referral sources what is most important to them when selecting a home care or hospice, 95% of them will respond “that they take good care of my patients.” But when you ask what that means to them, you start getting actionable insights that can be used to build strong relationships.

Train the sales team to ask how they can make a referral source’s life easier.  If you can make it demonstrably easier to refer to your agency, you will get the referrals.  Find out how the referral source would like to be treated, and then create a customized “plan of care” for each of them.  We create individual care plans for our patients - why not for referral sources?

Communicating Quality

The best way to communicate quality is to personify it - make it tangible.  How you communicate quality is a determent of successful home care and hospice sales and marketing.  The key lies not in just talking about quality, but in demonstrating it to referral sources in a way that is meaningful to them.  Every agency claims to provide quality services - it’s become presumed. 

Use tangible examples that demonstrate how quality shows up at your agency.  Here are just a few ways to do this:

Use benchmarked data in graphical format to show how your outcomes compare to others.

Utilize telemedicine and explain that your agency feels that this represents the new standard of care for many diagnoses.  That you have made this investment because it’s consistent with your approach to patient care.

Patient and family testimonials that speak to the wonderful care they received from your company.

Endorsements from local, well respected physicians

Demonstrate how easy you are to work with - attention to these details translates to quality in the eyes of the referral source

Introducing clinical field staff to the physicians, and offices of the patients they serve - the proverbial ‘putting a face’ on quality

Lest you get hung up with the “S” word (sales), remember that we are all in sales!  The secret to sales success lies in building a reputation for doing the right things for the right reasons.  Approach all sales opportunities with pride in the value added that is brought to the community.  Be respectful, easy to work with and trustworthy.  Demonstrate your passion for home care and hospice, act with integrity, and keep smiling.  Until next month, Happy Selling!

How Your Passion For What We Do Can Translate Into Sales (Part 1)

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The best way to create a solid business foundation is to foster a sales focused organization that is customer centric. If the agency approaches every decision with the question “what’s best for the patient?”, then everything else will fall into place.  Acting in this manner does not run contrary to operating a good business - it simply keeps things in proper perspective.  And, it empowers all members of the agency to focus on selling its services, increasing referrals and pride for the company.

Customer-centricity marries sales with customer service.  Training teaches your customer service (intake) personnel how to recognize and respond to sales opportunities, customers are recognized as the organization’s most important asset, and the sales approach and management of customers takes a long term orientation.

Customer centric sales techniques are built around needs assessment.  The sales people (both outside and inside) ask purposeful, relevant questions.  They have meaningful conversations with customers, and offer solutions directly related to their needs.  This then empowers referral sources to make the only logical choice - your agency.

Selling home care and hospice services requires the perfect balance of sales and people skills, product knowledge, enthusiasm, and ethics.  Long term success will elude those who are not passionate about home health and hospice.  There are easier places to make a living than selling these services, but none more rewarding.

Passion is contagious and produces sales results!  Having a positive image and visualizing success are essential to maintaining an enthusiastic attitude.  The sales team must feel that they are empowered, appreciated, respected, and heard.  This is true in all realms of sales, but is especially true when selling an intangible such as the services we provide.

Next time we will talk about how to put the customer first and how this will pay you dividends, as well as in the following weeks go over how to communicate quality to the community.

Father’s Day and Our Industry

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While Mother’s Day has long been a holiday to show appreciation and love towards those that brought us into this world, Father’s Day has kind of gotten the short end of the stick. While I’m sure we love both of our parents, Mother’s Day has been practiced for hundreds of years longer, is practiced in more countries around the world, and holds the record for more money and time spent picking gifts.

So while everyone says they appreciate their parents equally, it’s the Mothers who get all the focus and attention.

The same could be said for our industry. While medicine has been practiced since ancient Egypt, Home Care didn’t get any real traction until 1886, and Hospice didn’t begin in earnest until 1967. The focus of health is always on medicine, and it is a much harder fight to prove the necessity of Home Care or Hospice. As such, it is harder to gain attention and appreciation in our industry - and I think it’s high time to flip that around.

Home care and Hospice as industries have never done a good job getting credit for their greatness.  Further, many agencies have not done much, if anything, to get credit specifically attributed to their agency for the deeds they perform in the community.  As a Sales Manager, it is vitally important to do this in order to keep up morale and keep your team inspired.

The best way to accomplish this is a concerted effort that starts with senior management and works its way down through the organization.  There must be recognition of those doing the right things and accountability for those who do not.

When the organization receives thank you letters or cards from patients or families, make sure they are circulated to the staff members involved in their case.  Additionally, you should take those thank you letters and, with patient identifiers removed, use them to create a “brag book” for the agency. This “brag book” can then be used as a marketing tool to share with the community, among other promotional uses.

When recognizing a staff member for going above and beyond the call of duty, you can issue them a certificate and have the physician that referred the patient to your agency sign it along with your director. This will get your Reps face time with the physician (as they need to sign it), and it reinforces to the referral source how important both they and their patients are to you. It shows them the care with which your agency treats it’s own employees as well.

We all love stories - people will tell and retell stories that resonate.  Make sure that you translate victories into stories, and help your Reps to spread them throughout the organization (to help them bond with other teams), and with their referral sources so that they can market effectively to the community.
When you have hospice patients that are discharged alive, you can create graduation certificates for the patient.  There is the opportunity to create a lot of goodwill in this process - and if your Reps don’t manage this type of situation properly, you may end up with unhappy referral partners.  When creating the certificates, again, I would have the referring physician be one of the signatories.

Celebrate birthdays with patients and take photos.  These photos can be sent to families and then shared by the Reps with the referring physician and their office staff.

Those are just some ideas on how Home Care and Hospice can enjoy the same credit for the community’s health, and your sales people can use and enjoy the appreciation they merit by your agency’s actions.

And in the spirit of our industry, while fathers on Father’s Day may have received less, they reported greater enjoyment then mothers did of their Mother’s Day celebrations. Home Care and Hospice people don’t need recognition in order to do their jobs well, as they have an extraordinary passion for what they do. But because of all the passion we have, the community deserves to see that as much as possible.

Sales Is a Marathon, Not A Sprint

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Around 6am this morning I was doing some stretching exercises and getting ready to go out for a 20 minute run, when my mind, as it inevitably does, started thinking about hospice and home care sales management. I thought about how not too long ago the thought of running for 20 straight minutes seemed thoroughly daunting, but after a few weeks of slow and methodical training for my first 5k, it didn’t seem like such a big deal anymore. I thought about how I got from there to here, and how all of that was surprisingly directing related to our industry’s most effective sales methods.

As we are fond of telling the attendees of our acclaimed Square One Boot Camp - “remember, this is not a sprint - it’s a marathon. Each call will build on the previous one, and that building will help you turn that referral partner into an ‘A’ account, as well as keep your current ‘A’ accounts happy.”

In this 3 part series, we will go over how your Sales Reps can use this process on their calls, how your Sales Reps can use this philosophy to pre-call plan and prepare for each call, and how you as a sales manager can use these principles to drive your numbers higher and higher.

While a Sales Reps’ goal is pretty straightforward - getting referrals - the path they take can be winding roads and dead ends, or it can be a straight path from A to B. That straight path is finding out what your potential referral sources need, and then making you and your agency the logical solution to those needs. It’s called Needs Based Selling, and one of the most important parts of this proven method is that each call builds upon the last. For instance:

Say it’s your Reps’ first call going into a discharge planner’s office at a hospital, and they find out from the discharge planner that her biggest problem is getting the frequent flier COPD patients she discharges to stay healthy and not keep coming back to the hospital every other week. Now, your Rep obviously uncovered a need, and it’s one your agency can help with - the key here is that you don’t want your Rep to just jump to the solution and start giving a dissertation on how your agency can help with that exact problem. Instead, your Rep should tell the discharge planner he/she can definitely help her, and would like to set up an appointment for the following week to outline exactly how he/she can take that stress off the discharge planner’s shoulders. Before your Rep leaves, they should close by asking for the referral, something like “in the meantime, which COPD patients come to mind who might benefit from our services?”. Now, the next time your Rep sees the discharge planner, they have something of value to bring with them (helping relieve the stress of the referral source), and can use this next call to find out what other needs the discharge planner might have as well. It’s a building process, one call feeds into the next, and they build up together to create a strong relationship with the referral partner, with every call having some value added benefit to the referral source. This is how you turn prospects into ‘A’ accounts, and keep ‘A’ accounts happy and steadfast about using your agency.

So next time we’ll talk about how to use this successful method for pre and post call planning, and then later we’ll get into how to use all of this as a sales manager to increase your Reps’ referral numbers.

Know When To Bring In the Big Gun: CEO as Sales Person

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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 recognizing their 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 manager use the CEO’s energy and knowledge without risking disaster?  The key is to understand the primary strengths of the CEO as salesperson, 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 when it comes to sales.  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 their job.  The CEO set about to demonstrate their knowledge in order to prove the prospect wrong, dismissed their 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 workers 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, and they should only book them 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, CEOs 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):

-Possess strategic knowledge about the industry
-Experience and personality
-No one knows the organization’s story better
-Lets an account know how important they are
-Have authority to make a decision and promise on the spot

Some considerations:
-Do they have sales ability and are they realistic about their limitations?
-Do they get defensive when things don’t go as planned?
-Do they empower staff (you specifically) to be creative and control the process?
-Will they be additive to the process?

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.

NHPCO Has Everyone Pumped Up About Sales and Marketing (Part 2 of 2)

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Washington D.C. was amazing last week, and it was fantastic catching up with old friends at the NHPCO conference, as well as making new ones. The atmosphere at the conference was electric.

You’ve probably heard one of our team say recently that Sales Manager is the fastest growing title in the hospice and home care industry.  If there was any doubt, the evidence was clear in DC last week.  The sales and marketing sessions, particularly the Peak Performance Pyramid session that Mike presented, were all very well attended.  And standing in the booth, I found myself repeatedly in conversation with individuals looking for ways to take their sales and marketing efforts to the next level.  The industry is clearly becoming more sophisticated from a sales and marketing perspective, and agencies are consistently investing in sales and marketing.  Whereas in past years, the questions were more about “how do I get my agency to understand that sales is a critical component of our success”, this year the questions were more centered around “how do I build the right sales team, and the right customer service team, and how do I get the most out of my teams?” The agencies in our industry that are growing the fastest have found that investing in sales, marketing and customer service makes sense.  The ROI is significant, and recognized very quickly.  And just think about how many more people we’re helping as an industry?  Patients and families are accessing hospice services that otherwise may have gone without.  It was an exciting and rewarding week.  And while I’ve never doubted my decision to enter this industry, last week’s conference just fueled my passion for what we do.  I know there is still so much work to do, still so many people going without the services they so desperately need, but we’re headed in the right direction.

So as I flew home from the conference, I started thinking about what’s next.  How do we maintain this momentum?  We go to a conference, get really excited about the direction of the industry, learn some new things, and leave pumped up and ready to go back and change the world.  Then we get back to our reality, the notes from the conference sit on our desk for a while and eventually move to a drawer because we need the space on our desk for the latest project.  The day-to-day activity takes over again and our grand plans get further and further away.  Months go by and something keeps tugging at some part of our brain that we need time to focus on strategy, and long-term planning, but there just isn’t enough time.  I get it.  It’s a universal pattern we’re all familiar with.  But it’s time to change it.  Let’s make this the year when we maintain our momentum from the NHPCO Management and Leadership Conference.  Let’s not lose sight of those grand plans we made in the lobby of the Omni Shoreham hotel after a long day.  Let’s not lose the passion for what we do and the potential for what we can do that made us talk late into the evening with our peers about how we could apply what we learned in the day’s sessions to take our agency to the next level.  Let’s change the pattern.  The only way to change a pattern is to make a conscious decision to change our behavior.  It won’t be easy, but we’re hospice professionals.  We don’t do this because it’s easy.  Who better to conquer a challenge like this?  I’m game if you are.  And I’d love to hear about your plans to maintain momentum.  Email me, call me, but let me know what the conference meant to you, and how you’re going to break the pattern.

On a side note, there was quite a bit of excitement going on just up the hill from us in DC.  While it’s not really a lesson in Sales Leadership, I felt compelled to share it with you.  While out for a morning run with a team member in DC, we went up from the hotel to the National Zoo and stumbled upon the CBS news crew there to report on the possible pregnancy of the Giant Panda.  We discovered that it is actually deemed impossible to tell - the zookeepers don’t know if she is or she isn’t - just that the conditions are right.  Nature is certainly fascinating, and you can learn all about this by going to the National Zoo website, and by mid May there should either be a new baby panda or the announcement that it was a false alarm.

Check out the National Zoo Pandacam at http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/default.cfm

Are Your Sales People Asking The Right Questions? (Part 2 of 2)

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Are your salespeople asking the right questions?  We know that in our industry building good relationships with our referral partners is the foundation for long-term growth.  We went over last week in part one what the right questions to ask are. This week, we’ll finish with more examples and wrap everything up with a further explanation of this skill.

Using the earlier example, a great salesperson would continue the line of questioning in this manner:

Q: And Mary, those calls that you’re getting, what do they look like?  Who’s calling?
A: It’s a lot of things, but mostly it’s our highly symptomatic patients calling for help.

Q: And those highly symptomatic patients, what do they look like?
A: They’re mostly our COPD and CHF patients. You know, the frequent fliers.

Q: Ok.  And what kind of help do they typically need?
A: A lot of the time, their symptoms are exacerbated and they want to go to the hospital or come into the office.

Q: And what options do you have to offer those patients?
A: Well, we use Home Health and/or Hospice from time to time.

Q: That’s great to hear.  And what do you look for when selecting a provider to work with?
A:  Responsiveness is the most important thing, and the doctor hates paperwork.  He prefers to sign all orders electronically.

Wow!  Look at all of the great information related to this customer’s needs that was uncovered in this line of questioning.  By starting broad in his questioning, this salesperson was able to help the referral partner to identify their needs.  And he now knows exactly how to position his agency and its services as the solution for this customer.  He can help this Referral Coordinator with those COPD and CHF patients, helping to keep their symptoms under control, and reduce the phone calls into the office.  Does that sound like a benefit?  One that would be meaningful to this customer?  Absolutely! 

Asking good Needs Assessment questions positions your salespeople to present solutions that include benefits that are specific to their customer’s needs.  You no doubt have been in the field with a salesperson that sold benefits all day long, but did the benefits match their referral partner’s needs?  If they’re not asking good Needs Assessment questions, the answer is undoubtedly no.  Without good Needs Assessment, we cannot position ourselves as the resource our customer needs.

So, we keep talking about GOOD Needs Assessment questions.  Does that mean there are bad ones too?  Are there things we shouldn’t ask our customer?  Yes!  When asking Needs Assessment questions, consider the possible answers.  If your salespeople are asking their prospects “Who do you use for home care or hospice,” what answers are they expecting in return?  What they really want to know is “what makes you choose a specific agency?” When they ask a referral partner who they are currently referring to, we want to know why they are referring to that agency.  The temptation is to ask who, and what do you like about them.  Don’t let your salespeople ask those questions!  The answer is almost always “we refer to ABC, and they’re great.  We like everything about them.  They just do a really nice job.” That conversation does not progress the sale.  If anything, it just solidifies in the customer’s mind that they are making the right decision.  So now your salesperson has wasted time asking bad questions, and reminded their customer that they’re happy with their current provider. 

The better question is “What do you look for in a home care or hospice provider?” Those are the types of questions that get at your customer’s needs. 

Keep your salespeople focused on asking good Needs Assessment questions.  Coach them to start broad and then narrow their questioning, to anticipate the answers to their questions, and to always be gathering needs.  This will allow them to build solid long-term relationships, and generate sustained business.

Are Your Sales People Asking The Right Questions? (Part 1 of 2)

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Are your salespeople asking the right questions?  We know that in our industry building good relationships with our referral partners is the foundation for long-term growth, right?  Well did you know that building long-term relationships depends largely on asking the right questions?

It is absolutely critical that we understand what is important to our customers in order to present our agency and its services as the solution to meet their needs.  How do we find out what our customers’ needs are?  Will they just come out and tell us if we ask them?  Believe it or not, they will: if you ask the right questions.  We call these “right” questions ‘Needs Assessment’ type questions.  Asking good Needs Assessment questions is the best way, and arguably the only way, to really find out a referral partner’s or prospect’s needs. 

The goal of a good needs assessment question, or line of questioning, is to understand the needs of your referral partner: the challenges they face, their pain, what keeps them up at night, etc.  And while we may have a fairly good idea of the challenges our customers face, we can NEVER make assumptions.  In a physician’s office, for example, it is most likely true that one of the challenges they face is the number of phone calls they deal with.  A great salesperson, however, doesn’t assume that is the case.  Instead, they ask needs assessment questions that validate or negate their suspicions.  So how do you validate an assumption?  The strategic approach is to ask questions to get your referral partner talking about their pain, getting them to recognize their challenges. 

Using the phone call example, a great salesperson would ask a line of questioning that looks like this:

Q: So tell me Mary, what are the biggest challenges you face on a daily basis?
A:  Well, it’s really just trying to keep up.  We’re a very busy office.  The phone rings constantly

Q: I noticed that.  And what challenges does that call volume create for you and the rest of the office?
A: Oh just trying to stay on schedule and get out of here on time.

In just two questions, this salesperson has validated his suspicion that this physician’s office is challenged with managing the daily call volume.  He didn’t put the words in the referral partner’s mouth, but got them to identify the challenges for him.  This helps to solidify the impact of those challenges in the customer’s mind.  But a great salesperson won’t stop there.  A great salesperson will keep asking questions to further identify needs, and to ultimately engage in a conversation about a specific patient.

Now, we’re going to get deeper into this discussion next week, with more examples and tips. Until then, happy selling!

CRM Solutions: How to Get Buy-In From Your Team

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As a sales manager, we consistently fight the battle of account and territory management.  We know how important it is for our salespeople to know their territory, know their accounts and prospects, organize their time, and maintain an effective routing schedule. 

We have some Reps who just get it, and others who struggle.  Some Reps keep all of the information about their territory in their head, others take diligent notes.  Some even have home grown excel applications where they’re storing pertinent account information, as well as their progress through the sales cycle.  And then there are the calendars. 

Some use day planners, some use blackberries, others use Outlook, while still others just “know” where they’re supposed to be and when.  As managers we know we can’t do it for them, but is a little consistency too much to ask?  At some point, if it hasn’t already happened, you will likely throw your hands in the air and declare “We need a Customer Relationship Management Solution!”.  You’ll start to explore your options, finding the choices to be many, the functions varied, and the prices all over the board. 

As you begin to research your CRM solution options, consider how you will get buy-in from your team.  As with the introduction of any new technology, buy-in is CRITICAL.  The technology may present endless benefits, but if its users are not convinced, you may not see the return on your investment.  For salespeople, the technology needs to represent an easier, more effective way of managing their business.  If they are not currently using a system of some sort, paper or otherwise, introducing a CRM solution may just feel like more work to them.  So if you are considering a CRM solution at some point in the future, consider implementing a paper-based account and territory management system now so that once the CRM system gets put into place, it will seem like much less work to your reps. 

Develop paper-based, or low-tech account profiles, visit logs, calendars and strategic planning tools for use by your sales teams.  Establish standards for how and when to use each tool, and hold your teams accountable.  Get them used to working this way while researching your CRM solution options and plan for implementation.  Your teams will quickly discover that it’s very helpful to have these tools in place, and that they are able to work more effectively by using their new system.  Over time though, they will also find that the system could be even more powerful (and easier!) if it was electronic.  You will hear things like “It would be so helpful to pull up an account on an electronic device in the field, see patient updates, add notes, and assign a future visit to their calendar.” Now, when you introduce your CRM solution, your teams will A: already be used to managing their territories systematically, and B: the new technology will be a tool to make the process even easier more effective.  Instant buy-in!

It’s very important that you know (and remember) as you consider a CRM solution that this is typically not a small, quick project.  Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that by merely implementing a CRM solution, your referrals will go up, but do know that by picking a solution that best meets your needs, working with a reliable business partner, and following best practices for selection and implementation, a CRM solution will become a critical component to your sales team’s success! It will positively impact your business, and as your business grows, a CRM solution will be a critical component in managing that growth.

When to Take a Prospect Off Your List
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How do you know when to take a prospect off of your list?  So often, we spend months calling on a prospect account to no avail.  The prospect was qualified well, there should be opportunity there, but the referrals never come.  How long is too long to work an account with no return?  While there is no magic time frame, here are some guidelines to help you determine whether to remove the prospect from your list and focus your efforts elsewhere.

To begin, we have to first talk about the prospect list itself.  Your reps should be working from a finite prospect list.  While everyone in the community is a potential referral source, we cannot effectively call on everyone in the community.  So how do you pare down the never-ending prospect list? 
To begin, determine what a workable number of prospects is.  This number will be based on the number of A, B, and C accounts your rep is currently calling on.  The more referring accounts a rep has, the fewer prospects they will be able to effectively manage.  Reps should identify a finite number of prospects they will work on for 90 days.  This becomes the prospect list.

During the 90 days that your rep is working their prospect list, they should be working the sales process:

-qualifying
-needs assessment
-solution presentation
-overcoming objections
-and closing

The goal is to build a relationship with the prospect, one that will turn into a referring relationship.  There are times however, when no matter how hard or smart we work, we are not going to turn a prospect into a referring account.  It is important that you dont let your reps jump too quickly to the conclusion that a prospect will never refer, and consequently take them off of their prospect list.  There are only 3 guidelines to consider when deciding whether or not to remove a prospect form the list: 

-The first reason is the best reason: the prospect becomes a referring account.  Once a prospect starts referring, they become an account and the strategy for working the account needs to re-evaluated.

-The second reason is that the prospect ceases to exist.  They may move, or retire, close their doors, or even pass away.  For whatever the reason, the prospect no longer exists, thus making it impossible to call on them.

-The final reason is a little more complicated:  When a rep has called effectively on a prospect for 90 days, and worked the sales process, but has received no referrals, it’s time to ask the question “What is it going to take to get a referral?”.  This is an assertive question, and definitely not one to ask in the initial stages of a relationship - but it is very effective.  You will likely be surprised by how honest your customers will be in response to this question.  By asking this question of a prospect, the rep knows immediately whether or not an opportunity still exists.  If it is determined that no opportunity exists, then it is time to take the prospect off of the list.  Once removed, that slot on the list should be filled back with another prospect from the Rep’s territory. 

It is using this structured process that will get your Reps to work their territories most effectively and get the most referrals. This will help to identify every single referral and referral partner within each territory in a timely and efficient manner - and unlike other methods - without inadvertently losing a single referral opportunity in the process.

The Secret To Sales Success: The Need For Role Playing
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For some reason, most salespeople we encounter tell us that they hate to role play. Why is that? We hear all the time that reps would rather try out a new skill in the field, where there is real business at risk, rather than in a safe environment where they can practice perfecting their message in front of their peers. 

As a sales manager, it is important that you encourage role playing within your team, and create an environment where role playing is common practice. When used effectively, this practice can boost your sales reps’ confidence, skills, and referrals.

So what constitutes an effective role play? There are 3 critical components to a successful role play:

1. The participants
2. The skills practice
3. Appropriate feedback

There are typically 3 or more participants in a role play: the salesperson, the customer, and the coach providing feedback. The role of the salesperson in a successful role play is to practice ONE specific skill in a realistic scenario. It’s important to use situations each sales person has already encountered, or knows they will encounter in the field.

The customer’s role is to respond appropriately to the salesperson, using commonly heard responses and objections. Again, realism is the key here—what objections would actually be used, what needs would actually be heard, etc. It may be tempting for the customer to let the salesperson off easy, but that accomplishes little. Conversely, the customer should also be careful to not be unrealistically difficult on the rep. Role playing is an exercise in skills practice, not an opportunity to embarrass one another. 

Lastly, the coach and/or others providing feedback have arguably the most important task in the role play. It is their feedback that will shape the future messages the rep will take to their referral partners. If the facts in the coaching are wrong, or if the coaching is presented in a way that gets the sales rep defensive or shut down, then the entire exercise will soon become futile. 

The second critical component to conducting successful role plays is the skills that your reps are practicing. Role plays should focus on one skill at a time. Each role play should not be an entire sales call. Many agencies get tempted to cram everything into one big sales call when role playing in order to save time and/or be even more realistic. While realism is important, what’s far more vital is that each key skill used in a sales call be learned and practiced individually. While piecing it out like this may end up taking more time in the role playing meetings, it will end up being far more efficient and effective because the sales reps will not only truly learn the tools, but integrate them much quicker into their actual sales calls. Practicing each skill is an essential element to your salespeople’s success.

The last piece of the puzzle is appropriate feedback. This includes creating a comfortable but serious environment to conduct the role play session. It is very important that all parties—the sales rep, the customer, and the coach do not break character. The moment any of you break character—laugh, make frustrating comments/noises, or start using bored or apathetic body language, the entire exercise for everyone in the room, becomes null and void. 

Lastly, and most importantly, the coach needs to use POSITIVE language when providing comments. There is a BIG different between “That call wasn’t very good, and you need to do this, this, and this in order to do something that works” and “The introduction piece was good. I might look at tweaking A and B by saying “x” instead because it will make your customer think you’re listening to their needs….” If your sales reps feel you respect their effort, and highlight what they did right BEFORE going into what needs work, they will be better inclined to listen. Then when you highlight what needs work using reinforcing language rather than negative language, and give them a reason for why changing something would work better, they will listen, respect it, and focus on changing their habits. 

Role playing is all about practicing each of the many sales skills your reps will use out in the field. As with anything, the more you practice the better you get at something. And the more you practice in as realistic a way as possible and with the proper positive coaching, the better your agency’s sales reps will be, and the more referrals they will bring in. 

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Building your Team (Part 2)—Interviewing for Legendary Results
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One of the most important tasks of a Sales Manager is to build a great team focused on growing referrals. Identifying, evaluating, and selecting internal and external talent are essential skills for leading an extraordinary sales team.  In our previous column, we learned the steps to take in preparing for the interview, but now we get to the fun part: the interview.

While many of you do not think this process is fun, by now you are much more prepared and not having to “wing it” should at least make things easier.

Some of the fear of interviewing comes from apprehension about asking the wrong questions, either from an evaluation standpoint, or legally. While I’m about to go over which questions to ask for evaluation purposes, with the latter it is always advisable to talk with human resources at your agency as there are many important legal guidelines to follow.

To start, first you need to pre-plan your interview and analyze the questions you’re thinking about asking:

- Is the interview based on a thorough job analysis?
- Do the questions probe for job-related skills?
- Is the interview information related to job requirements?
- What characteristics are required for this position?

Next, you need to cross off any questions that ask about:

- Sex
- Race
- Religion
- National Origin
- Disability
- Age

Then, your next priority is to make sure you have a designated place for interviews that will allow for uninterrupted time with the candidate. A room without a phone (or your Blackberry) is ideal. Have you ever been interviewed and the manager spends more time answering messages? How did THAT make you feel? Allow enough time; usually 30—45 minutes is enough. Remember, you have a very important task ahead.

Now, your next step is to realize that the candidate will be assessing you as a manager as well, and take steps to be given a “passing grade”. You don’t want to identify the perfect candidate only to have them not accept the position because they felt you were not focused. Make them feel comfortable and that you value their time. The best information comes when they are comfortable with you. Make sure the room is comfortable, your phone is off, and that your attitude is pleasant and focused. Now, you want them to do most of the talking, but we’ll go over more about this later…

Know that hiring people with the right attitude cannot be over emphasized. If you hire people with the right attitude to begin with, then the most difficult part of the sales manager’s job is done.

So what is the right attitude for home care and hospice sales people? They should be:

- Enthusiastic
- Caring/empathic
- Personable
- Competitive
- Motivated

On top of having the right attitude for the job, when evaluating sales candidates it is important to hire people that possess an innate knack for sales. The ideal candidate is one that has sales ability as well as knowledge of the home care or hospice market. If faced with a decision between one or the other, hire the candidate with the strongest sales skills. It is possible to teach a sales person about our industry, but very difficult to get a knowledgeable home care or hospice person to learn to sell.

Here are some of the skills and attributes to make sure the candidate demonstrates. Remember, the best indicator of future performance is past behavior. Look for what the candidate has DONE, and not what was on their last job description.

~ Sales ability. What sales experience does the candidate have? What results can they share?  A good question to ask is “Tell me about a time you were not at your quota/budget and how did you remedy that?”

~ Self Starter. Are they motivated to go out and set the world on fire? A good question could be “Tell me about a time you were in a new territory and how you opened and grew that business.”

~ Knowledge. Do they know home care or hospice? If not, are they willing to learn? “Tell me about a time you needed to learn a new program or process in the past and how you went about it” could be one of several questions you could ask.

~ Experience. This can be obtained from those questions you crafted before the interview, based on the resume.

~ Connections. Who do they know in the community? Are they able to carry these relationships with them?

~ Personal characteristics. Are they neat and professional in appearance?

~ Attitude. IT is all about attitude!

Now, more about letting the candidate do the talking! You have spent the time to prepare, you have crafted great questions that give the candidate a chance to tell you about past behavior: now focus on listening and taking good notes. The candidate will both feel like you value what they are telling you, as well as helping you decide between top candidates later—it’s a win-win situation.

Lastly, after interviewing everyone, don’t make any snap decisions. Review your notes, compare all candidates, and make the best decision for your team.

If you utilize this entire process, you’ll end up with the best candidates for the job, for you, and for your agency.

Building your Team—Preparing for Interviewing
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One of the most important tasks of a Sales Manager is to build a great team focused on growing referrals.  Identifying, evaluating, and selecting internal and external talent are essential skills for leading an extraordinary sales team.

Let’s go into more detail on preparing for the interview.  Interviewing for sales positions can be very challenging, but good preparation is the key.  In the past, candidates have been hired for many reasons, some that had absolutely nothing to do with the potential to grow referrals!

Here are the steps to making sure you are not hiring the wrong people:

First, review the job description and have a clear idea what you are looking for. Remember, you are not just filling an empty slot but are looking for ways you can grow your team and achieve or exceed the agency’s goals. It is a good time to see if the job description accurately reflects the needs of your agency.

Next, take a few minutes to jot down the key characteristics you want in this position. 

Then, develop questions that will get candidates to tell you what they have demonstrated in the past that show these characteristics.  These will be questions you ask all of the candidates applying for this position.

Although you may not realize it, you begin the interviewing phase as soon as you start receiving resumes.  Reviewing the resume is your first opportunity to “meet” the candidate.  Your goal here is to review each resume and sort into three stacks; definite, maybe and no.

Here are a few things to look for:

~ Look for relevant work history that would indicate the candidate has experience in a similar position or field
~ Note the names of previous employers—does the candidate list actual names?
~ Look for frequent changes or “job hopping”
~ Identify indicators of achievement, career progression and job stability
~ Recognize gaps in employment—(You can explore why later)
~ Check for spelling and grammatical errors—this could be an indication of lack of accuracy/attention to detail
~ Review educational background—legitimate schools? Degrees relevant to position?
~ Note awards/achievements
~ Organizational involvement
~ Professional affiliations
~ Consider candidate’s distance from the work location. Consider the territory they will cover

As you review the resume, write down questions that come to mind. For example, if you see a gap in work experience, make a note to ask the candidate to fill in the gap. Perhaps you see a mention of an award. Make a note to find out what behaviors attributed to this award.

Now you have your definite, maybe and no stacks complete with individualized questions to ask the candidate.  Preparation is the key here!  How many times have you been in an interview where you realized the interviewer is reviewing your resume on the spot?  How special did THAT make you feel?  Could you tell his/her questions were prepared?  Probably not!

A little note on the applicants you choose not to interview:  Send a thank you/no thank you letter.  You never know when you might have a position they would be suitable for.  They could go to work for a referral source or have a family member that needs your services.  The same is true for applicants that you do interview but do not choose for the position.

Here are a few hiring “Red Flags” to be aware of:

PAST EXPERIENCE OR CURRENTLY WORKING FOR A COMPETITOR

~ You cannot expect that their referral partners will immediately start referring to your agency. (This almost never happens!)
~ Look at the real reason they want to come to work for your agency. Maybe their agency requires 10 calls per day and they think you won’t!
~ Make sure they are willing to do their job YOUR way and not the way they have done it in the past.
~ If they have worked for more than one of your competitors—BE REALLY CAREFUL—you don’t want to hire them only to see them leave for a better offer or find out the reason they left the competition is that they weren’t producing results.

PHARMACEUTICAL REPRESENTATIVES

If an applicant has prior pharmaceutical sales experience, you must make sure that they have the aptitude to be successful selling hospice or home care.  The key differences between selling our services and being a pharma rep include:

~ We sell an intangible, a service. There are no samples and no product.
~ The primary customer in a physician practice is the person who calls in the referrals, not the physician.  We want the physician to be on board and we want to expand how they use hospice of home care in their practice, but they are not the only customer.
~ Facilities and hospitals are important referral partners for us.  Many pharma reps have never called on these.
~ There are more service-related problems to deal with in our industry.  Many are not good at problem resolution and do not see that as part of their job.
~ Most successful pharma reps are data driven.  They are used to having extensive prescribing information for both their drugs and those of their competitors.  The data in homecare and hospice is very limited.
~ Pharma reps are used to having set schedules with call cycles and route list established.  It is unusual that they are not able to complete their days as scheduled.  In our business, changes are the norm rather than the exception.
~ Pharma reps are used to having extensive sales and product training—most new orientation training programs are six weeks of intensive training.
~ Pharma reps are used to having extensive amounts of data at their fingertips to determine if their efforts are paying off and where.  We typically don’t have that kind of data in our industry. 

Follow these steps and you will be prepared to go to the next step with confidence and never go back to “just winging” it and making bad hiring decisions.

Stay tuned for our next Sales Leadership topic: Building Your Team - INTERVIEWING. 

Goal Setting
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As we ring in the new year, it’s time to think seriously about our goals for 2010.  You’ve likely already set your budgets for the year, but what will you do next?  You know what you need to accomplish as an organization this year, but how will you get there?  As a manager, you should set specific goals with each member of your sales team in order to help them to understand how they contribute to the overall mission. 

In terms of development and productivity, it’s important to establish goals for your salespeople in order to give them direction and purpose.  Goals also let your salespeople track their progress, showing them where they stand at each step, and how far they have left to go.  Goals also enable to you to achieve your end of the year targets by breaking them down into manageable pieces.  A goal of growing your census by 60 by the end of the year can look overwhelming, but breaking it down into goals of growing your census by 5 per month is much more manageable. 

Goals also help to motivate your sales team.  People are more productive when challenged to reach a specific goal.  They also help to clarify your salespeople’s role in reaching your organizational goals as well.  Particularly in large organizations, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle and forget how each individual success impacts the overall success of the organization.  By setting the right goals for your team, you motivate them, give them ownership, and help them work together to accomplish the overall mission.

So what do good goals look like?  To begin with, they need to be SMART goals.  SMART is an acronym for the five characteristics of well designed goals.  Follow these rules for setting SMART goals:

Specific—Goals should be clear, telling your sales people what is expected of them.  Specific goals can be measured against, which is important as it allows your salespeople to see their progression towards completion.

Measurable—Goals should be measurable.  If you can’t measure progress towards your goal, how will you ever know if you are on track to complete it?  Also, salespeople lose motivation very easily when they don’t have milestones to celebrate on their progression towards their goal.  Milestones are only evident when your goals are measurable.

Attainable—The best goals require a bit of a stretch to get there, but are realistic when related to the salesperson’s expected performance.  Your only worry should not be about setting goals too high, as goals that are set too low are as meaningless as those set out of reach, and thus end up ignored.

Relevant—The goals you set for the salespeople in your organization must support the overall mission and goal of the entire organization.  Relevant goals help salespeople take ownership over their success and recognize their contribution to the overall success of the organization.

Time-Bound—Goals should have a starting point, an end point, and a defined duration.  Goals without deadlines will get pushed aside by daily “stuff”, and will likely never be accomplished.

So how many goals should each person have?  Having too many goals is as ineffective as having no goals at all.  When setting goals, less is more.  Pick two or three goals to focus on at any one time.  Once those goals have been accomplished, pick three new goals.  Salespeople should have two or three goals they are working on at all times, and any more than that will be overwhelming and de-motivating.

When selecting your current goals, pick the ones with the biggest payoff.  Focus on those that will get you closest to your goals as an organization, while supporting your mission.  And remember to revisit and update your goals often.  Sit down with your salespeople on a weekly basis to discuss their progress towards their goals and how you can support them.  Individual goals should be discussed one-on-one with each team member, while team goals should be discussed together as a group. 

Ask for input from your sales team on their goals as well.  Help them to make sure the goals they set for themselves fit the SMART criteria.

Finally, get excited about the goals!  Remember if you’ve set goals appropriately, and everyone reaches their goals, your organizational mission will be achieved as well.  So get your teams excited about setting and achieving SMART goals!

The Sales Manager as a “Coach” and a “Mentor”: Part 4 of a 4-Part Series
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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 week 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.  I say this because all reps need coaching, some more than others.  The Underperformer rep and the Meeting Expectations rep will need the most coaching.  Mentoring, on the other hand, is most effective with your Superstar reps. 

As a Sales Manager, you will spend time helping your reps overcome obstacles, and supporting them in their sales efforts.  This is what we mean when we refer to “Coaching”.  As the Coach, your goal is to help your reps be the best they can possibly be, help them recognize their potential, help them practice, and keep them motivated.  A successful “Coach” understands that they must empower reps to do their job, not do it for them.

So isn’t coaching the same as teaching, then?  Not exactly.  Teaching educates your reps on the skills they need to be successful, while Coaching helps and supports them to execute those skills in the field. 

Coaching requires facilitating practice.  Use every opportunity you can, in the field and out, to practice your reps’ skills with them.  Provide feedback on the practice, both positive and constructive, and most importantly ask the rep for feedback on their own performance.  After leaving a call, or practicing through a role play, the coach should ask the rep how they thought they performed before giving any feedback of their own.  And then listen. 

Asking for feedback is only half the battle.  If you don’t listen to the response, your efforts will be futile.  When giving your feedback, start by emphasizing the positive aspects of the call or role play—and involve the rep in your feedback.  Saying things like “what could we have done to get past that gatekeeper?” will encourage your rep to objectively review the call and plan a better approach for the next time.  This format will also let the rep know that your goal is to work through obstacles together and support their efforts, not to just dictate behavior.

The role of the coach is not to hold the rep accountable, but to help them be the best salesperson they can be.  Be careful when practicing in the field with rep