Focused Marketing Gets Measurable Results

HHT Banner 1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Increase medicare referrals that turn into admissions

February 24, 2010

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In this issue...

-- Focused Marketing Gets Measurable Results

-- Marketing Strategies Get You Moving In The Right Direction

-- Training Your Sales People is Critical to Admission Growth

-- The Academy for Private Duty Home Care Is Coming To Seattle Washington!

-- Getting A Referral Isn't The End - It's Just The Beginning!

-- Strategic Marketing: The Top Ten Techniques of Highly Effective Home Care Marketers

-- About the Author

-- Permission to Reproduce

Welcome,

...to Home Health Care Today! the leading electronic newsletter for CEOs and executives of Medicare Certified Home Health Agencies and Hospices.

Home Health Care Today is brought to you as a service of Leading Home Care ... a Tweed Jeffries company. We work with Medicare Certified Home Health Agencies that want to grow the number of medicare referrals that turn into admissions, and with agencies that want to grow their private pay business.

Focused Marketing Gets Measurable Results

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the years, you've heard me talk about the importance of FOCUS, and the benefits of concentrating your efforts and energy. Perhaps you've read my first book, Strategic Focus: A Gameplan for Developing Completitive Advantage.

Well, here's a real life example of how focus pays off.

Last Thursday, I was on a coaching call with a client that we have been working with for the past four months. She began our conversation by saying, "I have good news for you."

"Great! Tell me the good news. " I said.

"Since we started working with you last September our community referrals have increased by 39%, and the percent of Medicare patients that are discharged from the hospital who are referred to home health has increased from 16% to 20%. We're making a bigger pie."

This is a hospital affiliated home health agency with three offices serving a number of rural counties and two medium sized cities in the southeast. They were already doing a great job of serving their communities and their hospitals, and have a very well run home health agency.

They recognized, however, that they could do more to bring in referrals that turn into admissions. So we began a sales and marketing planning, training, and coaching process to develop new growth strategies and train the members of the sales team.

This reinforces one of the fundamental rules we have at Leading Home Care:

"We only work with the winners, because the losers don't call."

The folks who call to discuss our services are leaders of home health agencies that are already doing a great job, yet they recognize that there is room for growth and performance improvement.

This process of planning, training and coaching has seven phases:

Assessment - Where is the agency today in terms of sales & marketing performance.
Direction - Where does the agency want to go in terms of growing the agency.
Competitive Advantage - What makes the agency different from the other agencies in the community.
Training - What are the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to increase admissions.
Coaching - What follow up is needed to make sure the team stays on track to implement the new learning?
Follow up Webinars -What additional information and ideas can we provide remotely to more effectively execute the sales and marketing process?
Measurement - How will we know we have succeeded? What are our Critical Measures of Success?

Marketing Strategies Get You Moving In The Right Direction

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once you have a clear assessment of where your agency is in the marketplace, then developing and implementing an effective marketing strategy is critical. It begins with defining your competitive advantage. Then you need to identify and select your primary and secondary marketing techniques. And finally you want to work on the language of your marketing message.

If there's one thing we've learned in 25 years of working with home health agencies, it is that the wording and language of your sales and marketing message is critical. Words that sell are important.

In the case of the client mentioned above, they refined their marketing strategy to focus on their specialty clinical programs. They realized that their clinical expertise enables them to work closely with physicians and hospital leaders to develop programs that get outstanding outcomes, help reduce hospital length of stay, and avoid rehospitalization.

Since hospital discharge planners are emphasizing freedom of choice and patient choice, they are not making referrals but allowing the patient to decide. The home health agency recognized they needed to work with discharge planners to increase the percentage of Medicare patients who are referred to home health. Then they needed to continue building their brand and creating name recognition so the patients would choose their agency.

The result has been that in one hospital, the percent of Medicare patients discharged who were referred to home health increased from 16% to 20%. The agency's share of those referrals has remained steady at around 63%, but the total number of patient referred to them has increased.

So this agency's increased admissions came from:

1. Increasing the size of the pie by increasing the percent of Medicare patients who are referred to home health from 16% to 20%.

2. Keeping the same size slice of the pie by holding their share of referrals to 63%.

3. Increasing the number of referrals that come from the physicians and the community by 39%.

When you sit down and look at the gross margin dollars for each new episode of care, multiplied by the number of new admissions, you easily see a very quick return on your investment for sales and marketing planning, training, and coaching.

Training Your Sales People is Critical to Admission Growth

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of the elements of an effective sales and marketing strategy is defining your primary and secondary marketing strategies. We suggest that you define two primary marketing strategies, and three to four secondary techniques to support your primary strategies.

Our research at Leading Home Care over the past six years shows that the top two most frequently used and most effective techniques are networking in the community and making direct sales calls on referral sources.

If you are going to use direct sales calls to physicians and other referral sources as part of your primary marketing strategy, then you absolutely need to train your sales reps on an ongoing basis.

The three areas we find are most important for home health care sales representatives are:

1. Mastering the Seven Step Home Health Sales Process

2. Building Relationships with Physicians

3. Time and Territory Management

If you can focus your sales training and coaching on these three areas, you will see measurable increases in referrals that turn into admissions.

The Academy for Private Duty Home Care Is Coming To Seattle Washington!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seattle Academy

Join us on Thursday, April 8, 2010 at the Doubletree Guest Suites in Seattle, Washington for The Academy for Private Duty Home Care.

The morning of April 8th, you can join dozens of other owners and CEOs of successful private duty home care companies for a continental breakfast, starting at 8:00 a.m. and then meet with us at 8:30 a.m. for the beginning of the Academy.

There will be a break both before and after lunch, with the mid-day meal starting around 12:00 pm. We will rejoin immediately after lunch until 4:00 p.m.

During this Private Duty Academy you'll receive all of the strategies and insights you need to grow your private duty home care business.

A special thank you to the Home Care Association of Washington, our home care association sponsor for the Academy for Private Duty Home Care in Seattle, WA!

If you're a member of Home Care Association of Washington OR want to become a member and receive their member's special discounted pricing for the Academy, give Wendi Lynagh, Executive Director a call at 425-775-8120 or visit www.hcaw.org.

In addition to the HCAW's membership discount pricing, you also receive an additional discount when 2 or more employees from the same company attend!

You may also call our offices at 502-339-0653 and ask for Julie Raque, Client Services Coordinator, if you have questions or need more information.

Getting A Referral Isn't The End - It's Just The Beginning!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Despite what many inexperienced home health care sales representatives and clinical liaisons think, the first referral isn't the end of the sales process. It's the beginning of the next sales cycle.

What you do after you've received the first referral determines whether you get the next one or any additional referrals. A new referral source has a tendency to evolve through three phases once they decide to refer to you.

First, they feel very excited about their decision. They begin to experience the value that you and your agency bring to them and their patients and they make the first referrals.

The second phase can be a potentially vulnerable time for a new referral source. Without the benefit of an established relationship and in the face of possible problems, no matter how minor, referral sources are tempted to change their mind. The process of referrals has four main components that all customers will evolve through.

They:
1. have to be motivated to want to refer to you.
2. make a decision to refer to you.
3. want to feel convinced that they have made the right decision.
4. look for reassurance that they are doing the right thing.

Once the referral source has made their initial referral they are at the second stage in the referral process. If a sales representative or clinical liaison doesn't provide the relevant reassurance that validates the benefits of their decision, then the likelihood of the referral source changing their mind regarding future referrals increases dramatically. Therefore, it's important to provide tangible evidence and reassurances that the referral source has made the right decision.

The third phase of the relationship can involve regular contacts and updates on previous referrals to stay connected to this new referral source. There are a number of additional ways that can improve the post referral part of the process:

· After the call send a hand-written note thanking them for their referral. This is a personal touch that only takes a moment to do, yet leaves them feeling valued and special.

· Ask each referral source for their preferences in the way you manage their referrals and ensure that they have all the information they might want. Identify what areas in particular the referral source feels is vital to the way you manage their referrals so that you can stay involved if they are so inclined.

· Set a service agenda for the first thirty days after the referral so that your referral source knows exactly what they can expect from you. This may include visits and phone calls with updates on the individual referral. This enables you to have established contact frequency at important times when the relationship is in the initial phase.

· Document all successes and evidence of your value in writing.

· Actively ask questions to check their satisfaction. For example, "Was everything as you had expected?" "Is there anything we need to change?" This helps to flush out problems and manages the referral source's expectations. If there is a problem, the earlier you know about it the sooner you can remedy it.

· Finally, resolve any complaints quickly and to the referral sources satisfaction.

What are your sales reps and clinical liaisons doing to stay connected to that new referral source after the first referral? What are you doing as a home care executive to help them continuously develop new skills and talents for nurturing your referral sources?

About the Author: Mark Kleier is Director of Marketing for Leading Home Care... a Tweed Jeffries company.

Strategic Marketing: The Top Ten Techniques of Highly Effective Home Care Marketers

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Question: How many home care marketing executives does it take to identify 10 proven techniques that grow businesses?

Answer: 177
That's how many marketing executives and chief executives completed our in-depth survey about the specific techniques used to market their businesses. Several years ago, Leading Home Care conducted a survey of the executives in charge of marketing for home health care and Private Duty Home Care companies from across the U.S. The results of this study even surprised us! We asked, not only what marketing techniques they use, but we also focused on what marketing techniques were most highly effective. This research identified the current top 10 techniques based both on frequency of use and effectiveness.

The result of this new body of knowledge is The Top 10 Techniques of Highly Effective Home Care Marketers. This 90-page electronic manual can be downloaded to your computer today and immediately impact the way you market your products and services. The manual features in depth discussion of all thirteen techniques, as well as an executive summary of the research study.

Order Your Copy and Download it NOW!

About the Author

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stephen Tweed, CSP, is Chairman and CEO of Leading Home Care ... a Tweed Jeffries company. For over 25 years he has been a recognized leader in strategy and leadership development for home care companies and associations that want to grow and get ready for the future. He is the author or co-author of five books, four of which were written specifically for the home care industry. He has served on the boards of directors of three not-for-profit home care agencies, and has served as interim President & CEO of a $25 million home care company.

Stephen is a past-President of the National Speakers Association, a 3500 member international society of experts who speak professionally. He is also the father of a 39 year-old son who is physically disabled and uses the services of home care on a daily basis

Grow Your Business, Get Ready For The Future

Permission to Reproduce

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Permission is granted to healthcare publications, associations and companies to reproduce this article in your publication, or to distribute copies to your leaders, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Home Health Care Today. Copyright 2009 Leading Home Care . . . a Tweed Jeffries company. To receive a FREE subscription to this newsletter, log on to www.leadinghomecare.com."

Quick Links...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

· Our Website

· Products

· Services

· More About Us

Contact Leading Home Care

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

email: editor@leadinghomecare.com

phone: 1-866-209-5101

web: http://www.leadinghomecare.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~