...to a Special Edition of Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report. This special report is for CEOs and senior executives of America's leading home care companies. I bring you my observations and perspectives from the 2006 National Association for Home Care & Hospice Convention and Exhibition in Baltimore, Maryland.

This year's update is in a brand new format. Instead of giving you all the details in this newsletter, I'll give you the hot topics, and then link to my BLOG at Home Health Care Leadership Minute.

You'll be able to give our readers your reaction to the convention in the comments section of each posting. If you have an item you'd like to post, hit reply and send me your article.

Enjoy the Journey!

Stephen

• The Best Ways to Expand Your Business
• Congratulations to Warren Hebert on his Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship
• Here's the Law Described by Governor Romney
• Home Health Care Provider Plead's Guilty to Medicare Fraud
• Delta Health Technologies Announces Strategic Partnerships with CellTrak Technologies

I'm amazed at the new developments in technology, and how they will change our industry. During the morning general session, Louis Burns, Vice President and General Manager of the Digital Health Group for the Intel Corporation gave an amazing demonstration of what Intel is doing with technology that will change healthcare.

It's my observation that home care as an industry is several years behind the times in applying technology to our business. We need to work hard to catch up.

I did spend some time in the exhibit area with HomeCare HomeBase looking at the new Customer Relationship Management module they have added to their back office software system. I was very impressed with how they enable home care sales representatives to use a Dell palm top computer or a PDA to interface their sales contacts and referral sources with actual referral and admission data. This tool will create a huge competitive advantage for the users.

I also talked with several technolgy companies about how we can integrate their tools with the services we offer to help you grow your business and get ready for the future. Stay tuned here for further developments.

Click here to link to the BLOG for article updates

You're charged with building a sales team, or even simply training yourself to be a better sales person. If you are like many home care direct sales reps, you probably have little sales experience, little home care expertise, or maybe little of either.

• So, how do you shorten your learning curve?
• How do you approach physicians and discharge planners making a powerful first impression?
• Most importantly, how do you become the home care sales pro you want to be, starting from your very first call?

Whether you've been selling home care for ten years or ten days, Michael Giudicissi will help you become better at your job. If you're the director of a sales department, he'll help you train your current sales reps as well as new hires.

In this 92 page e-Book, you'll learn to:

• Make a good first impression
• Reverse a negative first impression
• Avoid the "office trap" and "hit the bricks"
• Prospect for new referral sources
• Secure your first appointment
• Build trust, rapport, and respect
• Get referral sources to make the switch from their favorite home health agency
• Close more sales
• Add value, not calories
• Get more repeat and word-of-mouth business

Click her for more information and to order your copy

How should you measure the performance of home care sales representatives?

How can you easily connect the admission reports from your back office software with yoru CRM database?

How do you reward sales reps for increasing referrals and admissions?

These questions and many more will be answered through a brand new weekly e-mail magazine written expressly for home care sales and marketing managers. If your job is to plan, organize, lead, and manage sales performance in a home health agency, private duty home care company, HME company, Home Infusion company, or hospice, you'll want to subscribe to Sales Manager Interactive.

This complimentary sales letter is published by Leading Home Care . . . a Tweed Jeffries company, and edited by Michael Giudicissi, our Home Care Sales Training Specialist.

If you would like to receive weekly tips, tools, strategies, and insights to grow your home care business, then click on the link below and register for a complimentary subscription. Or pass this email along to the person in your company who is responsible for sales & marketing. Invite that person to subscribe.

Register Today for a complimentary subscription!

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 37 year-old son who is physically disabled and uses the services of home care on a daily basis.

Meet the entire Leading Home Care Team