For some agencies we work with, it’s been a struggle to gain referrals and grow during this pandemic. For others, they are seeing a sizable increase in referrals. What is the difference?
The Culture and the Message
Right now people are scared. Sales reps have to find alternative ways to reach referral sources.
Here are some things that are working:
- Phone Outreach with a Message
- Email Outreach with a Message
- Personal videos shared via mobile devices, email and social media
- Clever “snail mail” campaigns
- Setting Meetings “over-the-hood” of a vehicle
- Zoom/Facetime Meetings
The key here is that you are direct in your approach, bringing both education and value to your connections. If these referral sources saw 50 reps a week during non-pandemic times, then they are most likely receiving 50 calls. That doesn’t mean you should call. It means you should call with a message.
The message can be simple or complex. You can simply help them identify patients that are at risk and could use your help or you can get into the specific ways you can take care of their diagnosis-specific patients.
You can almost guarantee that most salespeople, business owners, and other outreach folks are calling just to see if your physician’s offices and other referral sources will give them a referral. That actually sends a message too. The message is that YOU want YOUR quota of referrals reached and YOU would like them to help YOU reach it. There is nothing in it for your referral sources.
This is where Culture comes in. Your sales team should not have a “culture” of just hitting the number. You should have a culture of getting patients served. You should believe that every patient who comes under your care gets to live a better life because you stepped up and helped them get identified.
This means that you aren’t calling to schmooze, charm, beg, or influence a referral. You instead go with purpose. You don’t want to entertain the thought that seniors are living at-risk because you didn’t help provide the education to your referral sources to help identify the needs that your agency serves.
You can represent years of happy memories with a loved one that would have been stolen away if you had not provided them with the care they needed at home. You represent holidays spent with family that a fall would have made impossible. You represent the hope that aging doesn’t have to be a horrible experience, with a little help.
To encourage that culture, you need to celebrate new referrals. You need to get the entire company in on successes and make sure that your team is committed to making new referral sources feel the highest level of customer service. That can only be done if you work to keep your agency from being heavily divided between your operations and your sales team. That can also be further fostered through improved communication company-wide.
If you don’t have a Message, we can help.
Our 52 Week Roadmap of Referrals gives your team a script to follow, education about specific diagnosis (even if they are not clinical and you are non-medical), and personalized handouts for you to print and use to grow your business.
We also have a remote marketing program called our High Performance Inside Sales Program that can help you to know HOW to reach these referral sources. If your team is struggling to gain access to accounts, this program is only $65 to gain access.
If you don’t have the Culture that gives your sales team purpose BEYOND just receiving referrals, then take a minute to realize something the can change your entire outlook during these COVID-19, trying times. In many cases, YOU ARE THE SOLUTION to many seniors contracting the Corona Virus.
Seniors should not be in the hospital. They should not be at a physician’s office. They are the most at-risk demographic of our population right now. We have the ability to help them stay safe, comfortable, and happy at home. When our referral sources understand that message, then the floodgates of new referrals from seniors who NEED us will open.
– Jason
About the Author:
Jason Lewallen is Vice President of Marketing
for Home Care Sales
He can be reached at:
Email: jason@homecaresales.com
Phone: 615.815.7907
