https://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/chirstmas-2023-sp.jpeg788940Melanie Stoverhttps://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/HCS-Logo-GENERIC-01-300x74.pngMelanie Stover2022-12-21 21:23:122023-02-22 19:48:16You Are Either Excited About 2023 Or Terrified…
However, if they make a few mistakes, it can cost them and their agency dearly.
Unfortunately, these mistakes happen quite often and most reps are unaware of the impact that they can make. If you are an owner, you need to help your sales team avoid these mistakes.
If you are a sales professional who might be making these mistakes, don’t worry! You can quickly and easily pivot on a path that will drive more referrals and keep your referral sources happy and active in the lives of their senior patients.
Mistake 1: Being a Professional Visitor
How do you know if you are a professional visitor (or have a professional visitor on your team)?
First, Are you stopping by to see a referral source and treating them like a friend without discussing home care (or Home Health or Hospice)?
Well, I have some bad news. This is a no-value sales call. Imagine instead that you had expanded their knowledge about which patients to refer!
You will get so much more in return for your time and effort by positioning yourself as an expert.
Mistake 2: Talk too Much
I really hate this one. I have had to deal with calls from doctor’s offices and skilled nursing facility administrators about my sales reps hanging around gossiping about Game of Thrones or talking about sports scores (and other examples, the list goes on and on…)
No one wants their staff to not be doing their jobs because they are too busy “BS”ing with our sales folks. It makes accounts mad and makes your agency look unprofessional.
Remember less than 2 mins, and they should be talking to you, not you to them!
Mistake 3: They Brochure Vomit
So this one sounds gross, but it happens all the time (especially to new reps). This is another one where I wish I could duck-tape some rep’s mouths shut!
Everyone remembers when they were somewhere and someone was vomiting. It’s gross and you can’t wait to get away from the vomiting person. It’s the same feeling for me when a salesperson is brochure vomiting.
If you already did a qualifying sales call (Learn how by purchasing the High-Performance Sales Academy Program) you know that this particular account can already refer to your company. You brought them brochures during your second visit.
Now, you do not need to spend time on a sales call to tell them the services you offer. Instead, ask them trigger questions to identify patients they can refer right now. This will elevate your conversation and provide you with an opportunity to serve their specific patients.
Mistake 4: They Don’t Handle Objections
One of the most common errors made by sales reps is not handling objections. Let’s face it: One of the main functions of office staff is to deflect anyone who might waste their team or physician’s time.
Objections from referral sources can be difficult to deal with and many sales reps struggle to respond adequately or at all. This lack of skill in handling objections leads to lost referrals and underserved seniors.
When dealing with objections, it is important for sales reps to remain calm and professional so that they can address their referral source’s concerns without making them feel uncomfortable or ignored. Good listening skills are also beneficial since this allows reps to better understand what their customers need before attempting to resolve any issues that come up during discussions or negotiations.
Speaking of good listening skills…
Mistake 5: They Present Information that isn’t important to the referral source.
For any sales representative, success is dependent upon their ability to make the right connections with their referral sources. Unfortunately, one of the most common mistakes they make is presenting information that doesn’t matter to their specific referral sources. This lack of focus will often lead them down a path of failure, as the information may be too general or irrelevant to the needs of their referral sources.
When it comes to discussing services for seniors, it’s important for reps to understand how they can help solve a problem for their physicians or referral partners.
They should also ensure that the information they bring is tailored specifically for each individual referring partner in order to create meaningful communication and engagement opportunities. If salespeople fail to do this, then they risk losing both trust and credibility which will ultimately result in lost revenue.
https://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/5-Mistakes-That-Sales-Reps-Make-That-Cost-Them-Referrals-logo.jpeg6751200Melanie Stoverhttps://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/HCS-Logo-GENERIC-01-300x74.pngMelanie Stover2022-12-06 23:44:462023-02-22 19:48:375 Mistakes That Sales Reps Make That Cost Them Referrals
It is often we find ourselves in this position. We have a three day work week coming up, and we have to prioritize our marketing efforts.
I have felt the “crunch” of a short week. You have too much to do and not enough time. Perhaps you have had that feeling also where there is just so much to check off your to-do list that you feel overwhelmed.
The answer to overwhelm is prioritization.
In setting up our teams for success, we follow this simple cadence that has delivered results.
It will work for you too.
Monday: Prewritten “open for the Holiday Blasts” emailed out for the holiday. (make sure you have staff and are “open” for referrals)
Tuesday AM: Follow up on the Focus 50 accounts from your High Performance Sales Academy Step One.
Tuesday PM: Step 3 of the High-Performance Sales Process – “WIN” The referral generator – follow up and report out on any referral from Friday- Tuesday. Make sure to use this as a patient vignette in your follow-up “Ask”.
Wednesday: Sales Message of the week to generate conversations for high-value patients or clients.
*52 Week RoadMap of Referrals members November 21st week on your calendar: Holidazzle – Help them to prepare and get ahead of any challenges that may keep them from truly enjoying the holiday.
Friday (if working): Clean up anything outstanding. Follow up on any referrals from the week. Finish your week strong! Make one extra call today!
A short week is your opportunity to compress time and maximize your productivity in 3 days!~
Happy Thanksgiving! Here at Home Care Sales, we are thankful for you and the many ways you help seniors and the fragile around you!
https://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/pexels-martine-savard-265036-scaled.jpg17072560Melanie Stoverhttps://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/HCS-Logo-GENERIC-01-300x74.pngMelanie Stover2022-11-20 09:58:302023-02-22 19:48:51What to do in a short week
So you know we always have these accounts that typically they were in that history where the maybe they’re referring four to five patients, a month to you.
And then, all of a sudden, they dry up there’s no business coming from those accounts and when this happens, hopefully, you catch it really fast,
the first month that you don’t see them referring you’re able to jump in, but if it has been that full 90 days before you catch it you want to immediately start to do an investigation.
So typically one of the first things I love to do is just ask everybody in my office, start with my nurse managers, was there any complaints that came in that maybe we’re tied to patients that came from that account.
Ask intake, did they have any interaction with the account and find out if anything negative could have happened. I may even pick up the phone and actually call
one of the nurses or the clinicians that we’re providing services to the patient that was last referred and make sure that everything was good that they had a good experience with our agency.
Once I’ve done my internal investigation again, talking to intake, talking to the clinical leadership, looking at that complaint log,
I’m speaking to the clinicians that service, the last two or three referrals that came from there, I would then take the steps of going over and meeting directly with the account,
and meet with my contacts there and ask them, hey you know I just spoke to some of the patients, it seems like things went really well with the last several referrals,
and yet I haven’t gotten any over the last 90 days.
And then be as quiet as a church mouse and wait to see what is their response, right. Find out what is actually the reason that they haven’t referred.
But do your homework, first because you don’t want to get caught surprised or not knowing that there was a customer service failure. If you do learn when you’re doing your investigation that a customer service failure did occur,
make sure that you then take the next steps to identify how can you make sure that that’s not going to happen again.
And once you have that understanding now go back to the account and explain, yeah hey I heard about the customer service failure, and I want you to know that my leadership has taken these three steps to make sure that this never happens again.
And can I ask you to trust me one more time with your next patient that needs services?
Process is key and as we always say at HCS, “With Structure Comes Freedom.” Now more than ever, it’s important to make sure your accounts are bulletproof. The High Performance Sales Academy is designed to help build lasting relationships that lead to consistant, predicable referrals.
If this is speaking to you, reach out to Mike for a quick consultation with the contact info below.
https://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/insights-logo.jpeg6751200Melanie Stoverhttps://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/HCS-Logo-GENERIC-01-300x74.pngMelanie Stover2022-11-05 15:43:092022-11-05 15:43:09Insights: I have an account that was referring 4 patients a month. They quit referring. What should I do?
One of the biggest challenges your organization faces is in getting enough referrals to remain profitable. That is a simple truth. Many times, organizations think they can get enough business from just websites and word of mouth, and I will tell you, these are the agencies that typically don’t succeed.
If you look around at the top 5 agencies in your market, I guarantee you that they have a sales representative or a team of sales representatives.
If you ask them, “what is the biggest challenge that your sales representatives face today when out trying to gain new business?” the answer is usually the same.
Getting past the gatekeeper in the Hospital
Today I want to share with you a few tips so you can get past the gatekeeper and gain more private duty, home health, and hospice referrals. Let’s start by talking about getting into the hospitals in your service area.
Hospitals can be a real challenge to gain access to. In fact, we teach a whole class on how to access the hospitals in our High Performance Sales Academy and spend time role-playing out the situations every month on our group coaching calls and really take the sales reps through all the what-if scenarios.
You may also need to get a vendor clearance and your organization may also have to share in referral exchange EMRs. However, one way that almost always works and doesn’t require any special referral software is to have your sales representative go visit any of your active patients that get admitted to the hospital.
The sales representative can go visit the patient and after they see the patient, stop at the desk and ask them to page the discharge planner that has your patient’s room assigned to them.
When the Case Manager arrives, you now have a chance to do your qualifying sales call and find out if this hospital discharge planner has both the willingness and ability to refer to your organization.
You want to be prepared to ask several questions so you can then easily position your organization to obtain referrals.
Here are a few examples of what I would ask:
What is most important to you when selecting a hospice to care for your patients? This question typically gets an answer that is something like: We offer patient choice, or we provide the patient with a list.
Can you show me if my organization is on your list? If you’re not on the list, you can write a letter to the hospital corporate compliance officer to request to be on the list. If you are on the list, you can say something like “Great, I’m so glad that you offer freedom of choice.
Could you share with me how you help your patients receive guidance on how to use the list? How do they know what providers are great at wound care? Or How do they know what providers take their insurance? Or how do they know who can provide 24-hour care at home?
Can you share with me the last time that you had to give a referral to a different agency other than the hospital’s own?
What types of patients do you refer to hospice?
Do you have trouble getting services provided quickly in any of the counties?
Could you share with me 3 things that you love about referring to your preferred agency?
Could you share with me 3 challenges that you have experienced in working with your preferred provider?
Would you be willing to try my organization if I can solve any of your challenges?
Is there someone else that is going home today that is just like my current patient, Mrs. Jones that I could also provide care to?
Who else should I speak to regarding hospice referrals?
If they do refer, great job! If not, thank them for allowing you to collect the data. Tell them that you will be back next week around the same time so you can share some brochures and a price list, or an insurance list.
If they say a different date and time, document their request and let them know you will see them next week!
Important: Leave nothing behind but a business card.
Do not give them any brochures as this is a reason to see them for another sales call.
Document your answers to all the questions that you asked before you forget them. Remember to review what they shared with you and plan your next sales call content based on their answers.
Remember to be prepared on what you will say next week!
Besides visiting active patients that are hospitalized, you can also get past the gatekeeper by partnering with someone who has access. Look for another sales rep that you see that is getting in. Maybe they offer oxygen or DME or maybe they are a hospice vendor, and you are selling private duty services.
Ask the rep to help you gain access in exchange for introducing them to your favorite account(s).
A third way to get past the gatekeeper at the hospital is to go into the hospital with a physician that is willing to introduce you to the discharge planners. We just had great success with this strategy.
I walked into a hospital that was almost impossible to get past the front desk. They wouldn’t let in visitors unless you were family. You had to be an approved vendor to go in with another rep that had access.
I asked one of the physicians who makes rounds at the hospital if he would be willing to introduce me to the case managers. He said, he would be happy to introduce me to the head of case management. It worked!
Today we are getting overflow referrals from this hospital.
https://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2a49d919b605d481bd5cefeb208b1bf7.jpeg6751200Melanie Stoverhttps://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/HCS-Logo-GENERIC-01-300x74.pngMelanie Stover2022-11-03 02:33:282022-11-03 02:34:02How To Get Past the Gatekeepers At The Hospital
So a lot of reps will come to me that last week of the month and they’re like oh my God I’m not going to hit my numbers what am I going to do?
And my answer is typically the same I usually say well, what worked for you this week, what worked for you this month?
Go back and look at those week of the trigger questions and how did you ask for the business and they delivered a result.
I also will typically say go to where you know has the referral. So the ones that have given you the most volume over the last several months.
Go back and share with them hey my numbers are down a little bit this month is there anybody else that you think maybe can qualify or benefit? Because typically your biggest referral sources are also one of your biggest fans,
and they want you to be successful, so they will typically help you find another patient to work on.
I also usually will look at the account and see if I could increase one of my calls, like maybe I’m only going there every Tuesday.
And I’ve got this last week of the month, you know what maybe I’m gonna hit them Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this week.
Because now, if I have a conversation with them Monday I maybe will be able to uncover someone that’s going home by Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and be able to land those referrals if I see them more than once that week.
So typically I will increase my presence, by increasing my sales calls to those high prior priority accounts, the ones that are probably going to have a referral for me.
I also will take the time and take a deep breath to make sure I put on my mindset put on my superhero costume and role play my trigger question.
What questions, am I asking so that I’m getting them again to uncover a patient that’s going to pop into their mind.
If you are not part of the roadmap to referrals you may not understand that, but if you are, use your roadmap to referrals information.
Pop into your classroom rewatch the training videos watch me and Melanie doing the role playing watch the other members of the of that group the sales reps role playing using trigger questions on each other and grab something that you love from that video.
So you can do this I’ve got faith in you.
As a salesperson, hitting quota is par for the course. But there are times where the clock is ticking and you realize you need to drive more business. If you are an owner with a sales rep on your team that is struggling to hit the number, let us help. We can offer tools to take them to the level you are expecting and we can even take over coaching and management of those reps for you.
If this is speaking to you, reach out to Mike for a quick consultation with the contact info below.
https://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/insights-logo.jpeg6751200Melanie Stoverhttps://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/HCS-Logo-GENERIC-01-300x74.pngMelanie Stover2022-10-22 17:03:352022-10-22 17:03:35Insights: It’s the last week of the month and I don’t have enough referrals
You know, we have an incredible program called Community Calls.
Community Calls is one of those programs where, if you could figure out, ask yourself this question, think of it this way.
If I could talk to myself my 20 year old self my 25 year old self to be honest, when I was just getting ready to open my first agency, and I could tell myself,
how to get to success faster, it would be to use the Community Calls program. And what I mean by Community Calls program is,
we each have in our service area one of those wonderful big large Assisted Living or personal care facilities that we absolutely want to work with.
You know they’ve got the best the best location in town, the best parking they’re clean they’re bright they’re new they’re shiny and they have a wonderful reputation and we know that we could get staff to love being in that building.
Yet they’re not referring to us. So one of the ways that you can break in there is that every single one of these buildings is filled with seniors and these seniors are bored.
They are lonely they get to go play games and have fun with some of the activities people.
But other than that they’re just sitting around and the pressure is on the staff at the Assisted Living facility to keep them engaged to keep them happy to keep them feeling part of involvement.
Imagine now you are the facility owner and somebody comes to you from in home care or from home health or hospice,
and says hey we would love to be able to come in and least once a month and for an hour bring all of your residence together and give them a conversational talk,
just about home health and hospice services and,
you know we’re going to have a little bit of a conversation too about maybe how to make the most of their next doctor’s appointment, or how to keep your brain healthy and smart.
How to eat choose the right foods to eat and the good news is is that we will even provide them with a flyer and a handout.
And now we even have the opportunity, if you would like you could offer some tours at the end, we could put a couple posters up at the local, you know pharmacies.
Maybe, even at like you know target at the return area who knows anything that’s local to the building where we could say hey we’re doing these health talks for seniors.
And for caregivers and we would love you to attend and we’re also offering free tours of the facility at the end.
This could be an opportunity now for the building to take care of two problems. One is, they’re taking care of the bored people that live in the building,
that are looking for something new to do. Now if you do a great job with this talk, which we do teach how to do this, by the way, in our Master’s Program.
But if you do a great job of giving a presentation, meaning you engage the audience, you know you could maybe have a couple of gifts from the dollar store that you said, who can share with me, one of the reasons that people fall.
And they raised their hand and they say Oh, they tripped over there sneaker or they fell over their dog or they couldn’t see where they were going, because it was nighttime and they tripped over something, whatever their answer is.
You give that little dollar store gift to these people that are in the audience keeping them engaged.
And they’re excited they’re happy they love your talks they’re going to tell their neighbors and their neighbors from the building are going to come down to the next month’s talk
if you give away little prizes like that. Now if you also have posted the signs and you put them up at the local pharmacies, you are attracting people to come into that building and be able to have a tour.
Now you are a business partner to that Assisted Living personal care home that you want to so desperately serve patients at.
If you were bringing in people to have a tour of the building every month,
do you think they’re going to want to partner with you to be their provider? Absolutely. In addition, if you have already done, for your salesperson,
this is a script and the script is written on a ninth-grade literacy level anybody can do this presentation it’s not in high language. I mean
let’s be honest, I do not have the broadest vocabulary in the world and thank God I don’t need it right, I could just talk to you in common sense and you understand what I’m saying.
That’s the same thing about these presentations, they are written on a ninth-grade literacy level.
And so, these presentations are just enough to engage with the audience and then each of them have a little tiny gift that they give, and that is what we call the call to action.
Where during this little fun interaction with the community and by the way, sales reps, when they are asked who used the Community Calls program, how do you like it?
Nine out of 10 times the sales rep says, I absolutely love it. Some of our car companies that we work with that have used this program,
they actually have a dedicated person who is now just doing nothing but the Community Calls program every single day going to different facilities in their drivable areas and delivering it. That’s how much some sales reps love this
program or this package I should say. So now you go in you do your little presentation, but the gift is that at the end you have an amazing call to action.
Meaning, something that is taught that asks the people that are attending the program,
who needs care, who would like to receive services? But it’s done in a way, without saying “who needs care?” And so that’s the thing that’s inside the program.
So if you want to break into a facility, go and have a call with Mike. Mike@homecaresales.com.
Figure out if the Community Calls program is for you, try it at a couple buildings you’re going to love doing it. The seniors are going to love you and the building is going to love you because
they get paid to keep us in bed, and if you’re providing them butts to come in and get toward to potentially move in.
As well as you’re providing them with services that keep people from falling, keep people out of the hospital, it’s a win win for them. So they want you there, they want these programs, they want these activities for their bored seniors.
I use this program not just to do it as a live session, I even did it for radio. So I got on my local radio station using the Community Calls programs, I call it the Health Matters series.
And every single Friday did a live radio show for 15 minutes talked about the lesson and for 15 minutes took calls.
And I did that for a couple years and talk about stress. These programs can be your example of how you’re giving back to the community.
It is marketing without you paying to market it is free marketing where you are getting in front of hundreds of people at the facilities and being able to share your message about your organization. So thank you so much.
As Cheryl discussed, connecting directly with seniors and facilities can be challenging but super rewarding. We have created a full program with handouts, scripts, and presentations made for you and ready to be edited/individualized for your usage.
https://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/insights-logo.jpeg6751200Melanie Stoverhttps://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/HCS-Logo-GENERIC-01-300x74.pngMelanie Stover2022-10-08 16:53:562022-10-08 16:53:56Insights: Is there a good way to get into an independent living facility?
Sales representatives often ask questions about trying to attract patient types that they know their organization is great at treating.
Today, I got an email from a new salesperson who works for a large private duty organization. Johnny asked if I knew how he could capture more diabetic patients. He explained that the admission coordinator was a diabetic and that she really felt that she would be able to create a plan of care to support diabetic patients.
I suggested that he go to speak to the local Certified Diabetic Education Coordinators (CDE) that are having classes in his service area. Then I gave him a roleplay example to help him understand the very “words to say” to gain a diabetic referral.
Here is the role play that I provided Johnny to follow:
In this scenario, Mike is the Clinical Diabetic Educator (CDE), and I will play the role of the salesperson.
Cheryl has made an appt with the CDE to learn about his classes and how they support their students.
Cheryl: Hi, you must be Mike – good to see you – thank you for making time to meet with me.
Mike: Yes sure – how can I help?
Cheryl: As I shared on the phone I am interested in learning about your offerings – we have clients and a number of them have diabetes and I am interested in learning how I can better support them and how I can get them to you.
Mike: Ok yeah great – so I hold classes for folks with diabetes – and then one on ones with patients who are struggling to manage their diabetes. I hold them here at the office and the hospital. I would like to hold them in other places too, but it seems like there is never enough time.
Cheryl: Wow you really do a lot for the community – this is great. May I have a few brochures?
Mike: Absolutely, please let me give you at least 20.
Cheryl: I am curious – what do you see as some of the challenges that your patients face?
Mike: Oh, you know – they don’t eat well – they don’t check their blood sugar – they like to sit on the sofa and not move. Many of them are overweight and they don’t want to come to see me because they don’t want to get weighed. Folks report that they feel like they are going to “get in trouble”.
Cheryl: Wow – It sounds like they sure do need help at home. The good news is that my agency can help with all those issues. Our coordinator is a diabetic herself. She meets with each of the diabetic patients and builds a plan of care to support their diabetes, that’s why I wanted to meet with you. I know we are the company to service diabetic patients!
Mike: Yes, I know a little about home care services. However, most of my patients are on Medicare and you don’t take insurance
Cheryl: That’s true we do not take Medicare, but we still can help. We work with the patient and their families to build a plan of care to support them at home and that plan of care helps keep their diabetes in check. If folks don’t have the money to pay for a caregiver, we try to connect them with resources.
Mike: That’s nice. But I don’t know, I must think about how we might work together. I haven’t been referred to in-home care before. I just think about the cost for the patients. I am not comfortable talking about private pay expenses.
Cheryl: I can understand that and that’s exactly why I am here. To take that burden off your shoulders. How about if I come to one of your classes and as you go to break give me 5 minutes to share about my agency and what we do. Then we let the patients decide who would like to talk to me afterward.
Mike: Yeah, I like that better. Let’s look at a date – how about (insert date and times)
Cheryl: Perfect I will see you then. Before I go. One of the things that may not have thought about our patients that can’t get to your classes. Which patient has missed their appointments with you?
Mike: Oh I have a couple. We just keep calling them and rescheduling for another date.
Cheryl: How about if we offer a free in-home assessment to see if we can help get your patients here?
Mike: Oh – you would do that?
Cheryl: Yes, we would love to call them – ask if we could help and see where it takes us.
Mike: OK, I am open to that idea. I have one patient I would like you to connect. Let me get his info for you
Cheryl: Perfect – got it and I will let you know what they say – what’s your cell and I will text you
Mike: 333.333.3333
Cheryl: Great ok now you have mine too. Talk soon!
Now let’s review this roleplay.
First, I love to provide you with new referral sources (the CDE) to call on. I also love that this expands the CDE’s vision on how you can support private duty patients.
In the roleplay, Cheryl removes the stress of discussing costs, by offering to do the selling directly to the attendees.
In this example, the salesperson has access to direct consumer selling to the diabetic patient population.
I also love to show you how asking questions is more important than the rep telling the account about the agency.
Here in this example, the brochure vomiting is illuminated and replaced with specific information to differentiate the agency by just stating, “Our Coordinator is a diabetic herself”.
If you want to learn more about how you can sell by a diagnosis, we can help. We have a program called the Road Map To Referrals, 52 weeks of sales calls that expand the referral sources’ knowledge on whom to refer.
PS: Here is a link to a diagnosis-specific selling process video done by my business partner Melanie Stover. Be sure to click the Like and Subscribe button while you are there!
https://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/b7dae08bf33c62901181ad02e10cb6d0.jpeg6751200Cheryl Peltekishttps://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/HCS-Logo-GENERIC-01-300x74.pngCheryl Peltekis2022-10-05 18:05:482022-10-05 18:05:48How Home Health and In-Home Care can gain Referrals for Diabetic Patients
You know, unfortunately, one of the problems that we bring to our clients is that when they’re using our tactics, such as the roadmap to referrals and the high performing sales Academy, they end up bringing in so much new business that sometimes they have to start to pick and choose the clients that they wish to serve, and maybe clients that they don’t necessarily want to have on service.
So sometimes you were going to have to turn down a referral or there’s just maybe not a caregiver available and you can’t serve that patient.
Maybe you don’t have an aid that’s got time that’s available that day that the client wants to have service.
Whatever the issue is, this is a problem that you’ve got to handle professionally.
And I want to caution you on one thing that I have seen owners and sales people do over and over again, and they do this the wrong way, when you turn down a referral don’t lie.
Just tell the truth, unfortunately we don’t have staff to cover that patient.
Unfortunately you know we’ve got tons of medicaid patients on our service right now and we’ve got to stay budget neutral, so we really only have room on the schedule tomorrow for medicare patient.
Tell the truth, the truth is going to first of all set you free and you’re never going to have to remember what you said, if you tell the truth.
I also want to make sure that you are confident in knowing that when you were saying no you’re saying no just to this patient but ask for another patient to serve.
You know, for example, let’s say I can’t take a patient today and 19121 that’s just a zip code I’m just too busy right there I don’t have another nurse or another staff member that can get in that zip code today or tomorrow and I’m just so sorry, however, you know over in 19154 and North of that I’ve got a nurse that’s available, I’ve got an aid that’s available.
We could easily do somebody in that area, maybe there’s somebody else’s referral that you could switch around give them this one that I can’t handle and give me the one I can.
So ask and be honest and be transparent, it happens to me all the time that there’s somebody in one county that I can’t cover,
but boy I wish I had 10 more patients over here in this other county where gobsmacked just bittin at the bits, right there just dying to get that extra referral.
I think that just again making sure whenever you say no only say sorry once. You lose your authenticity at saying sorry that I can’t accept a patient
when you say it over and over again. I was listening to a phone call just the other day for one of our clients,
and it started off with oh I’m so sorry but we’re not going to set Mrs. Jones then they gave the reason why I’m really sorry I just too terrible that I can’t accept it, you know
we’re just so busy, and I just can’t take it, and then going on and on, I could see that the referring account was losing their mind listening to the long repeated over and over again apology so apologize once be consistent be sincere and tell the truth.
Looking for staff? It’s a huge issue for everyone these days, but we’ve seen some agencies have much more success than others. This quick action course can help!
https://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/insights-logo.jpeg6751200Melanie Stoverhttps://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/HCS-Logo-GENERIC-01-300x74.pngMelanie Stover2022-09-24 19:02:552022-09-24 19:02:55Insights: When we have to turn away a referral because of staffing, how do we maintain credibility?
Which referral sources do I focus on to get the most referrals?
This is a GREAT question. The way you are going to get more referrals is to focus on those who are WILLING and ABLE to refer to you! Are they WORTHLY of your time?
Read that again. Is THIS account WORTHY of your time?
Most representatives are often subservient to their referral sources. We challenge that paradigm at Home Care Sales.
The owners and representatives we coach and work with KNOW their VALUE! They have significant knowledge in the senior care space through experience and our programs. They ARE the post-acute care experts.
This means they are not “begging” for referrals. They are TRUE care partners with their referral sources and, therefore, MUST prioritize who they spend their time with so that they can make the MOST IMPACT in their communities! When you have the knowledge and the experience, YOU become a resource to your referral sources, helping them get care to the seniors who deserve it! Your care!
Back to the question – which referral sources do I focus on?
These are “A” accounts – that are currently referring to you and have the potential to refer MORE!
These are the accounts that you HAVE to defend and protect!
2. Prospects who have qualified and refer between sometimes and your “A” accounts – We call them “B” accounts.
When I am coaching, I tell the reps that if they gave you “1,” they have two or more! They just don’t know how to use you. They don’t know the breadth and depth of what you can do for their patients or residents.
This method expands the referral sources mindset into which diagnoses you could care for and how you would care for them. Most clinicians – myself included were not taught about home care, home health, or hospice in college, and if your mentor didn’t use these post-acute care services, then you didn’t learn about it in your clinical practice either! You know this to be true.
How often has a client or patient’s family said, “OMG, I WISH we would have known about you SOONER!” The power of selling by Diagnosis is that you reach into the current caseload of your referral sources and pluck out the EXACT high-value referral type that YOU want for your agency.
3. What about those “onesies,” twosies” referral sources? …Or Referral sources that you KNOW have patients or residents to refer but “Just don’t get it.”
In the past, we would have had to be ruthless with our time, and these folks just would have been at the bottom of our list, and we would not have been able to call on them much. But COVID taught us a VERY valuable lesson!
YOU CAN MARKET REMOTELY! Woo Hooo!
All those accounts you could not justify getting in your car and going across town – NOW you don’t have to! You can simply use remote marketing tactics – phone and digital have changed Home Care Marketing FOREVER!
During COVID, we honed our copyrighting and messaging skills so that the same weekly message we deliver in person in the roadmap to referrals, we have created email, voicemail, and pdfs of our unique selling point for that week!
We can reach so many more referral sources with our message!
This is the BEST time to market Home Health, Hospice, and In-Home Care!
We can change lives together!
Make a bigger impact and income by serving more seniors!
Here are three ways we can work together when you are ready:
https://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/bbaf5dd64cff472b584721b55f2b9236.jpeg6751200Melanie Stoverhttps://homecaresales.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/HCS-Logo-GENERIC-01-300x74.pngMelanie Stover2022-09-14 12:48:412022-09-21 07:58:23Which referral sources do I focus on to get the most referrals?
Important: Leave nothing behind but a business card.
