LHC #142 - Home Care 2020: Another Look at The Agency Of the Future
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Home Care 2020
Another Look at the Agency Of The Future
August 20, 2008
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In this issue...
-- The Agency Of The Future Revisited
-- I'd Like to Speak More in the Coming Year
-- CONGRATULATIONS 28 CHCSP GRADUATES!
-- Building Relationships With Physicians
-- About the Author
-- Permission to Reproduce
Welcome,
. . . to Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report, the premier online newsletter for CEOs and executives of America's leading home health care agencies. (For strategies and insights on how to grow your Private Duty non-medical home care business, we invite you to subscribe to Private Duty Today, our newsletter for non-medical home care.)
The Agency Of The Future Revisited~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On Monday of this week, I was in St. Simon Island, Georgia speaking for the Georgia Association of Home Health Agencies. It was a beautiful setting in a wonderful hotel right on the beach.
As I opened my keynote presentation, I said to the audience, "Isn't this amazing. Here we are sitting in this beautiful hotel right on the beach with a hundred of our friends from home health care. We have this amazing opportunity to do work that we love to do, making a difference in the lives of our patients, our employees, and our community."
"And the best thing is, they pay us to do this!"
I don't know about you, but sometimes I believe we lose sight of all the blessings we have been given in our lives and our businesses. I know that I am truly blessed.
As I spoke to this wonderful audience, I realized I was really talking to myself. I need to step back and look at the message and apply it to my own life and my own business.
So let's revisit the Six Pillars of The Home Health Agency Of The Future.
- What are you doing to improve Quality for the future?
- What are you doing to provide exceptional Service for the future?
- What are you doing to create a great place to work for your People?
- What are you doing to apply Technology for the future?
- How are you preparing for Growth in the future?
- What steps are you taking to improve your Finances for the future?
Here are a couple of things you can begin working on right away to move toward becoming an AOTF - Agency Of The Future:
Take some time out this fall to step back and take a snapshot of your agency as it is today. Assess your current reality in three ways; intuitively, anecdotally, and quantitatively.
Look at your agency at three levels; strategic, managerial, and operational.
Bring your senior team together for an Executive Strategy Retreat to focus on a new direction for the agency and develop strategic plans for the future.
Plan and conduct a Leadership Training Institute to help your middle managers and supervisors create a great place to work for your people.
Bring your sales team to San Antonio, Texas in September for the Certified Home Care Sales Professional workshop presented by Dr. Tray Dunaway, Michael Giudicissi, and myself. Grow your business and get ready for the future.
Take these strategic actions now to become a home health care Agency Of The Future.
I'd Like to Speak More in the Coming Year~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was such a joy to be with the wonderful people in Georgia on Monday as their opening keynote speaker. We had a great time and they seemed to get a lot of value from our time together.
My experience there reinforced something I've been thinking about this summer. I'd like to speak more. Over the past 28 years as a professional speaker and author, I've spent from 60 to 130 days a year on the platform in front of appreciative audiences. It's always special.
This past year, I've continued to speak frequently, but I've also been involved in other aspects of running our company. I've been writing newsletters, editing e-books, conducting teleseminars, and leading executive strategy sessions. I've also done a lot of one-on-one coaching in Private Duty Home Care.
I want to continue doing all of those things, but I really want to speak more. So I'm asking for your help. If you or someone in your agency is planning a leadership retreat, board retreat, association conference, or some other type of meeting, would you please think of me as a potential speaker for your event? I'd love to talk with you or whoever is planning the meeting about the results you want to achieve.
For a complete list of speech topics, visit our web site and review our Hot Topics for 2008. We'll be updating the list shortly for 2009. There's also a short video there to wet your appetite. Take a look, and then let's talk about your next meeting, executive retreat, or conference.
CONGRATULATIONS 28 CHCSP GRADUATES!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All of us here at Leading Home Care would like to say, "CONGRATULATIONS!" to our 28 CHCSP Graduates!
Almost one year ago, we conducted our first annual Certified Home Care Sales Professional TrainingTM Program in San Antonio, TX. Attendees from all over the states spent three days learning from the best in the field, Stephen Tweed, Dr. M. Tray Dunaway and Michael Giudicissi. As a result, we now have 28 graduates who have demonstrated proficiencies in home care sales at four levels: Experience, Education, Knowledge, Results.We've heard from many of them as to how this training program has improved their skills, expanded their knowledge and helped their business grow. Listen to what Vickie Shoopman with Tucson Bayada Nurses had to say about our CHCSP training program.
"Our whole team attended the training in San Antonio, TX last September and everyone completed 15 hours of sales training, had a passing score on the written examination, and demonstrated proficiency in acquiring home care referrals that turned into admissions over the last several months for Tucson Bayada Nurses. We have all practiced the proven sales techniques and have mastered the power of persuasion. We learned how sales professionals can approach a physician's office, build rapport with a doctor, determine his or her needs and wants, and present the sales message effectively and monitor our results.
We learned seven sources of competitive advantage that assisted us in crafting our message, sell uniqueness of our agency and sales process for prospective referral sources. We are now using a sales tracking tool to monitor our successes on a weekly basis in our agencies here in Tucson. Overall, this was excellent training that fine tuned our sales skills in the areas of selling to physicians while meeting the client's needs, relationship selling and persuasion skills, learning and mastering through video taping individual presentations, getting past the Gate Keeper and finally tracking sales performance.
Kam Guthrie, Christina Emmerich and myself are excited and proud of our accomplishment and the success we are seeing in Tucson!"So, if you are wondering if you and your sales representative team should make a significant career move by attending this training program and become a part of this distinguished industry group, our 28 CHCSP Graduates would say, "YES!"
To learn more about the training program and to register go to Certified Home Care Sales Professional.
Building Relationships With Physicians~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One of the most effective ways you can grow your home health care business is to build relationships with physicians. Research shows that the #1 source of home health referrals is hospitals, and #2 is physicians. If you want to grow your business, learn to effectively connect with physicians.
In this interactive audio learning program, you will hear Stephen Tweed and Dr. M. Tray Dunaway discuss in detail specific techniques you can use to grow your business. Recorded live during a series of audio teleseminars, each CD gives you 60 minutes of valuable information, followed by a question and answer period with Dr. Dunaway.
The four programs are:
- Special Skills for Communicating with Physicians
- Marketing Techniques that Work with Physicians
- Building Relationships with Physicians' Office Staff
- Marketing Specialty Home Care Programs to Physicians
In addition to the four hours of audio instruction, you will receive a web link to download a participant learning guide, a discussion leader's guide, and CEU forms for each program. Continuing Education hours are provided for nurses and other professionals.
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. 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 homecare 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 an adult son who is physically disabled and uses the services of home care on a daily basis.
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 Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report. Copyright 2008 Stephen C. Tweed. To receive a FREE subscription to this newsletter, log on to www.leadinghomecare.com."
Contact Leading Home Care~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: stephen@leadinghomecare.com
phone: 1-866-209-5101
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