Tag Archive for: Leaders

I have been working now for 26 years in post-acute care, specifically home care, home health, and in-home care, and over 10 years using my operational experience to support business development. 

I have done so many sales calls with reps, and coached or managed thousands of reps around the country and I have made the list of the things that sales executives do that just drive me crazy.

#1.  Just Don’t Go. 

They identify an account that could be a leader and they just don’t make a sales call to the account. They’re too busy organizing, searching the CRM, looking for a script, thinking about what you’re going to say, trying to find what Cheryl or Melanie said…

MAKE THE CALL!

48% of all salespeople don’t make the call. ALL you have to do is make the call! And then you’re at least better off than the 48% of people who don’t. They put it on their call log, and yet at the end of the week, they didn’t get there. 

When I ask reps why this is the reason I hear over and over again. “I didn’t know what I exactly wanted to say”  Well folks, if you show up at an account you have a chance to at least get a referral if it’s top of mind. If you never go, you will never get a referral. JUST SHOW UP! If you don’t know what to say, just buy The Roadmap to Referrals and you will gain a valuable reason to walk into an account every single week of the year!

#2.  Not Enough Sales Calls to an Account!  

Not enough contacts with an account OR frequency OR not often enough volume… You get the idea. All of these describe the second most commonly made mistake in sales: not enough calls.

80% of all sales are made between the 5th and the 12th contact. The average salesperson doesn’t make enough sales calls to the same account. The data is ridiculous.

You see I have spent time researching through tons of sales reps’ call logs, and I see it all the time. Not enough visits to get them the referrals. You see sales reps need to make at least 5 sales calls all that include requests to make the sale.

If you think it’s going to be one, two, three, or even four calls you aren’t going to make it. Trust the data! Know that you are going to have to do the 12, to really know if you have potential.  Follow the High-Performance Sales Process, and you will get the referrals you long for! 

#3.  Calls that ARE NOT on a regular basis. 

Your calls need to be on a regular basis. Randomness, one call now…another call in 30 days, 3 months now, another one-you need volume and you need frequency.

It’s like dieting. You can stick to your diet once a week, different days every week, skip weeks-who cares? You aren’t getting results you’re just getting fatter. Just stop saying you are on a diet and eat cookies.

The way for the diet to work is to do it every single day. You’re going to feel better about yourself, create a discipline, it’s going to create a different self-esteem. The same goes for follow-up, the calls the emails, and the contacts must be regular. Be consistent and regular, there all the time.

When you call people back with regularity, you will start to build your persona in the marketplace and take you out of obscurity. You become dependable, trust­worthy, and become the contact to give a referral to. In order to do this, your reps need to focus on a smaller number of targets and really give them that week to week visibility to put them through the 5 step selling system.

Remember folks, this system has been tried over the last 10 years, and over and over again has proven to work! All you have to do is follow the program.

#4.  Run out of reasons to call.

Lacking variety in reason to follow up is a major mistake. In a transaction, you can’t just keep repeating the same thing over and over to get a deal.  You need variety or you’ll get bored or worse the contact your calling on will start to dodge you when they see your car pull into the parking lot. 

You can’t be dependent upon one mechanism. It doesn’t matter if you like handwritten notes. It doesn’t matter whether you like phone calls. It doesn’t even matter if you like leaving a message! This is for them, not for you. Use all that is in your arsenal, but don’t use it all at once. 

I have seen reps, do a qualifying sales call, and they provide the account this amazing branded folder filled with every flyer they have about all their different programs. Folks, you just gave away the reason for you to walk in there for the next 11 weeks. 

Now I know some accounts you need to do what I call a personal visit. Rapport building visits are a must with some of our accounts for sure. I hate personal visits. I hate getting into the car, driving across town,  and walking into chit-chat. However, I do them because personal visits are so powerful. You have to make that investment.

You have to be willing to do the things you don’t want to do and use the full variety of sales call types. That is what will show your client that you are there for the long run. You’re creative, you have solutions, and you’re willing to do whatever it takes – whenever it takes – however it takes – to get the job done.

Use variety. Don’t get too comfortable and too reasonable with the same old mechanisms. Add variety to your reasons to follow up.  If you are struggling you need to get the 52 week Road Map to Referrals! It schedules out a variety of sales calls for you!

It can also 5x the volume of referrals from accounts that are already referring to you! (Check out this link to the 5x Your Referrals Without Breaking Your Budget Free Webinar)

#5.  No purpose sales call. 

I have been on so many ride-along sales calls to observe patient care liaisons (fancy name for sales representatives in the private duty, home health, and hospice sales space) in the field visiting accounts and I see this all the time. They use this phrase, “I just was stopping in to check on you.” 

What!? I don’t want someone just stopping by to check on me! Instead, I want to feel that someone comes to see me with a purpose.  So folks please announce, in the first 30 seconds, why you are there.  

“Hi Donna, you look amazing today. The purpose for my call today is to discuss patients that are at risk for making a mistake with taking their medications.” 

Now that is a reason to call on any one of your accounts. My intention wasn’t to be there to ask about the kids and how everyone is doing. Some people like that. Maybe that’s good for your client. If it is, do that but make sure you are there with a clear intention and purpose. Was your clear purpose or reason to find out about the kids? If it was, don’t present your services…

Do you see what I’m saying? If your purpose was to make contact and teach them something about how you can help their patients in hopes to get a referral then why don’t you make your attention clear up front?  Just be honest and forthcoming on what your intentions are.

If you make a call about their kids, you are a visitor and not a salesperson. If you make it about a benefit a patient can receive when they are getting cared for by your agency, it is a sales call. This is why we teach the TADA sales call!  Because it works. If you need to learn how to do it, then go to www.homecaresales.com and purchase the High Performance Sales Academy. It costs less than $500, and it will teach you this plus a repeatable sales process that is used by the best in the business!

Go change lives and be a solution to someone’s problem, TODAY.

Cheryl Peltekis, RN “The Solutionist”

What makes someone a growth leader?

When working with private duty, home health, and hospice organizations around the country, I have found that business leaders that work in the post-acute care space have several traits in common.

First, they put growth at the top of every agenda.

From board room meetings, to clinical care meetings and performance reviews, growth is the number one priority.

Growth leaders demonstrate this kind of commitment by constantly scouring for funds to invest in more growth. They have a clear vision on what they will do, say, or buy that will help their organizations continually grow year after year. They also keep raising the bar. No matter how ambitious growth targets are, growth leaders do this by setting targets that seem almost impossible to reach – forcing teams to strive for greater impact. These leaders see stagnation as death of the company.

Second, they unite the business around a culture of growth.

Growth leaders make growth the principal emphasis of everyone in the business by creating a common belief and language.

For example, they co-create growth goals and metrics with their leadership teams and then help translate them into metrics for every individual at every level.  For example, sharing that the company has a friend and family referral bonus plan.

Establishing this kind of shared and co-created language binds employees together to think about how they can contribute to top-line growth.   This can be done with just a weekly call with all department heads and sales representatives to ensure that everyone knows what the goals are, how close they are to hitting them, and identify if there are any barriers that are restricting growth.

Third, they take customer service very seriously.

By making it personal, they own customer satisfaction…and it always shows.

Many of the best companies have strong customer-insights organizations. Customer insights and analytics are crucial to supporting growth. However, growth leaders go the extra mile by embracing complaints, building committees to work on performance improvement, and taking the time to focus on building empathy with the customer.

As an owner of a home health, hospice, and a private duty, I have had the opportunity to experience the flow of receiving care from my agency with my own family members. I experienced the level of customer service touch points that I want my family to receive and identified areas for improvement as well. I have been blessed to see incredible care from my team that surprised my family (in a good way).

Spend time at your intake desk with the mindset that every referral that arrives is your own mother. If you like your mom, it will give you so much insight into what your patients need, what are your patients fears, and what we could do as a company.”

Follow the leader

Creating a growth culture begins with your leader. You need to have a growth-minded leader and the rest will fall into place.  Remember, we have a mastermind group that will help you grow as a leader.

If your interested check out this brief video:

You can also learn more and complete the application at www.homecaresalesmastermind.com

The Solutionist, Cheryl Peltekis, RN.

Some of us have employees who go around complaining about someone else. Some of them tell us they are just venting and blowing off some stream. But I want to share some information with you on what they are really doing.

One of my mentors, is  the legendary executive coach Marshall Goldsmith, who interviewed more than 200 of his clients and what he discovered matched previous research he read, but found hard to believe: “A majority of employees spend 10 or more hours per month complaining — or listening to others complain about their boss or upper management. Even more amazing, almost a third spend 20 hours or more per month doing so.”

And that doesn’t even include the complaining they do about their peers and employees! Which would be hard to believe if not for the fact that, if you pay attention to what you experience during your day, you’d find it’s pretty accurate.

Imagine the productivity gain of reducing all those complaining hours.

Why do we complain about other people?

Because it feels (really) good, requires minimal risk, and it’s easy.

Here’s what happens: Someone annoys us. We’re dissatisfied with how they’re behaving. Maybe we’re angry, frustrated, or threatened. Those feelings build up as energy in our bodies, literally creating physical discomfort (that’s why we call them feelings — because we actually, physically, feel them).

When we complain about someone else, the uncomfortable feelings begin to dissipate because complaining releases the pent up energy. That’s why we say things like “I’m venting” or “I’m blowing off steam” (But, as we’ll see in a moment, that dissipation doesn’t just release the energy, it spreads it, which actually makes it grow).

Additionally, when we complain to people who seem to agree with us — and we almost always complain to people who seem to agree with us — we solicit comfort, camaraderie, connection, support, and justification, which counteracts the bad feelings with some fresh, new good ones.

Complaining changes the balance of negative/positive energy and, for a brief moment at least, we feel better. It’s actually a pretty reliable process. Addictive even.

Which is the problem (beyond even the wasted time): Like just about all addictions, we’re feeding the spin of a destructive, never-ending cycle. The release of pressure — the good feeling — is temporary. In fact, the more we complain, the more likely the frustration, over time, will increase.

Here’s why: when we release the pent up energy by complaining, we’re releasing it sideways. We almost never complain directly to the person who is catalyzing our complaints. We generally complain to our friends and family. We’re not having direct conversations to solve a problem. We’re seeking allies. We’re not identifying actions that could help. We’re, almost literally, blowing off steam.

Why is complaining such a bad move?

Complaining creates a number of dysfunctional side effects (again, beyond the time wasted): It creates factions, prevents or delays — because it replaces — productive engagement, reinforces and strengthens dissatisfaction, riles up others, breaks trust, and, potentially, makes the complainer appear negative. We become the cancer we’re complaining about; the negative influence that seeps into the culture.

Worse, our complaining amplifies the destructiveness and annoyance of the initial frustration about which we’re complaining.

Think about it: someone yells in a meeting. Then you go to the next meeting (where no one is yelling) and you complain about the person who just yelled. Now other people, who weren’t at the initial meeting, feel the impact of the yelling and get upset about it too. Encouraged by their support, your brief, momentary release transforms into righteous indignation and, becoming even more incensed, you experience the initial uncomfortable feelings all over again.

In other words, while the energy dissipates, it expands. The amount of time you spend thinking about it extends for hours, sometimes days and weeks. And you’ve multiplied the people who are also thinking and talking about it. Meanwhile, our complaining improves, precisely, nothing.

In fact, that might be the biggest problem: Complaining is a violent move to inaction. It replaces the need to act. If instead of complaining, we allowed ourselves to feel the energy without needing to dissipate it immediately — which requires what I call emotional courage — then we could put that energy to good use. We could channel it so it doesn’t leak out sideways.

In other words, let the uncomfortable feeling you have — the one that would otherwise lead you to complain — lead you to take a productive action.

What’s a better move when we feel like complaining?

Go ahead and complain. Just do it directly — and thoughtfully — to the person who is the cause of your complaints.

Talk to the person who yelled in the meeting. If that person doesn’t listen, talk to their boss. If you don’t like that idea, then, when it actually happens, say “Hold on. Let’s respect each other in this conversation.” If you missed the opportunity in the moment, then meet with them afterwards and say, “Please let’s respect each other in our conversations.”

That, of course, also takes emotional courage. It’s a scary, more risky thing to do, but it’s why it’s worth developing your emotional courage. While scary, it’s far more likely to be highly productive. It holds the potential for changing the thing that is the problem in the first place. Rather than become the negative influence, you become the leader.

If you want to brave this route, let your urge to complain be the trigger that drives you to take action in the moment (or, if you missed the moment, then shortly after).

The following advice can help:

• Notice the adrenaline spike or the can-you-believe-that-just-happened feeling (e.g., someone yelling in a meeting).
• Breathe and feel your feelings about the situation so that they don’t overwhelm you or shut you down. Notice that you can stay grounded even in difficult situations (e.g., feel, without reacting).
• Understand the part about what’s actually happening that is complain-worthy (e.g., it’s not okay to yell and disrespect others in a meeting).
• Decide what you can do to draw a boundary. Ask someone to shift their behavior or otherwise improve the situation (e.g., “Please let’s respect each other in our conversations.”)
• Follow through on your idea (e.g., actually say: “Please let’s respect each other in our conversations.”)

It’s not nearly as easy as complaining. But it will be far more productive and valuable.

“But wait,” you might protest, “the whole reason I’m complaining is that I’m powerless in this situation. I can’t tell the person to be respectful because they’re my boss.”

You may be right. It’s true that most people complain because they feel powerless.

It’s also true that most people have more power in a situation than they believe they have, even with their boss. And, just maybe, it could be worth the risk to say something. You could say “I see that you’re very angry and I can feel how it’s shutting me down. Can we go a little more gently here?”

It’s a risk because the person may blow up even more…

…Or it may gain you their respect and, in one sentence, change the direction of the leader and the organization. That one moment could transform what could have become weeks of complaining into a moment of productive engagement.

More than once I have seen someone gain the respect of everyone in the room because they were courageous enough to be direct — caringly, compassionately, and truthfully. Almost always, everyone is surprised by the offending person’s response. Most times, the offender was more open to the feedback then they thought. Not always. But almost always.

Let complaining — and the feeling that leads to complaining — be the red flag that it should be: something wrong is happening and you are probably not powerless to do something about it.

I know we usually always blog about sales and business development, but I wanted to share this, because I know someone reading this, right now, needed this!  Now go have a great day.

The Solutionist, Cheryl Peltekis, RN.