HHT #151 - Home Health Care Executive Strategy

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Executive Strategy for 2009

How Will You Create Competitive Advantage and Grow Your Agency in the Coming Year?

January 7, 2009

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In this issue...

-- Home Health and Hospice Strategy for 2009

-- Setting Strategy with the Executive Strategy Retreat

-- Changing Our Look and Title

-- Join us in the Home Care Sales Professional Winner's Circle

-- Making the Approach: Advanced Sales Training for Home Care Professionals

-- About the Author

-- Permission to Reproduce

Welcome,

... to 2009, and the newest issue of Home Health Care Today! This special report for CEOs and senior executives of America's leading home health care companies is published every other Wednesday by Leading Home Care ... a Tweed Jeffries company for our clients, friends, and advocates who want to grow their home health businesses.

For ideas to grow your Private Duty Home Care business, subscribe to Private Duty Today, the bi-weekly newsletter for non-medical home care CEOs. Your complimentary subscription is available at www.privatedutytoday.com.


Home Health and Hospice Strategy for 2009

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As the CEO of your agency, you have two very important jobs this year; grow your business and get ready for the future.

In spite of the challenges in the economy in the rest of the world, the home health care marketplace remains strong, and this is an excellent time to capitalize on the opportunities out there.

Let's look at four areas of strategic opportunity in 2009:

1. Sales and Marketing

This is an excellent time to beef up your home health care and hospice sales force and marketing team. There are lots of people out there with great sales experience who are looking for new opportunities because of the general economy. If you have the capability to teach new sales people about home health care and hospice, you can take experienced sales people from other service business sectors, and teach them home care sales.

2. Recruiting and Retention

The staff shortage has been a huge barrier to growth for many home health and hospice agencies over the past eight years. Now, with the economy faltering, and unemployment rising, there will be more nurses looking for work. Some are currently working in businesses that are affected by the economy. Others are married to spouses who work in other sectors that are affected by the economy.

In either case, the downturn is creating motivation for nurses to go back to work or to change jobs, and this is an excellent opportunity to recruit, select, and hire some terrific people.

3. Service Excellence

In 2008 we received an increasing number of calls from home health agencies wanting to increase their customer service and referral source satisfaction. This makes sense, since many referral sources consider your level of service and how easy you are to work with, when deciding which agency to refer.

An opportunity in 2009 is to create a customer service culture in your agency by developing a clear philosophy of service, defining the behaviors associated with exceptional service, and by providing education and training to your home health and hospice team members.

4. Technology

If you had a good year in 2008, you will want to consider reinvesting in technology. Whether it's updating your software, adding some laptops to the field, replacing desktop computers that are out of date, or using cell phone and GPS technology to make the job easier for nurses in the field, this is a great time to invest.

Ten years ago as we monitored the trend, we realized that as home health and hospice makes more use of technology, an increasing percentage of expenditures will go for updating and replacing technology. The more you can automate, and the more carefully you can define your processes, the more effective and efficient your agency will be.


Setting Strategy with the Executive Strategy Retreat

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In October of 1982, I began my career in home health care and hospice by leading an Executive Strategy Retreat for a not-for-profit home health agency in western Pennsylvania. That first engagement was the beginning of a journey that has taken me over a million miles back and forth across this great country of ours working with some amazing and gifted home health care professionals.

Although my business has changed dramatically since then, adding e-books, teleseminars, webinars, e-tools, and electronic scorecards to our tool kit, I still enjoy working with home health agency executives and boards of directors. The Executive Strategy Retreat is a great opportunity to bring together the leaders of an agency for two or three days to set direction and create a clear vision for the future.

There are four major cornerstones of leading a successful Executive Strategy Retreat:

1. Assessment - Where are you and your agency now? You need to assess your agency at three levels; intuitively, anecdotally, and quantitatively.

2. Direction - Where are you going? What is the long term strategic direction for your agency? One tool we use in setting direction is the "Growth Matrix," a tool that helps you decide how to grow your business.

3. Competitive Advantage - How will you differentiate your agency from your competitors? This is one area that many agencies take for granted. They do not devote enough time to clearly defining what makes them different, and why a referral source should prefer them to their competitors.

4. Measurement - How will you measure your success? Everyone looks at the dollars. What are the non-financial measures of your success, and how do you compare to your industry and your competitors?

Making Ideas Visible

One of the critical ingredients in running an effective Executive Strategy Retreat is making ideas visible. You want to have a way to get great ideas up in front of your whole executive strategy team so everyone can see, hear, and experience the discussion that is taking place. We use a tool called "Storyboarding," from the Walt Disney organization. We use index cards, push pins, felt markers, and other assorted materials to stimulate creative and critical thinking, and to make sure everyone is on the same page.

There is nothing like getting away with your executive team for two or three days to help create a clear vision for the future of your agency, and to define the strategic actions you will take to make that vision become reality.

Click here for more information on Storyboarding


Changing Our Look and Title

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Beginning with this issue, Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report will become Home Health Care Today! The purpose for the name change is to more clearly focus the audience and content. The rapid growth of "private duty home care" or "non-medical home care" has created some confusion in the industry. Many people think the label "home care" means private duty.

To make it more clear, this newsletter will be focused on providing ideas and information for CEOs and executives of Medicare Certified Home Health Agencies. We'll do our best to provide you with the latest ideas and information to grow your business.

Our sister e-newsletter, Private Duty Today! will continue to serve CEOs and owners of non-medical, private duty home care companies.

If you are a leader in a private duty home care company, and are not interested in home health care information, please let us know and we will adjust your subscription. You are also welcome to receive both newsletters.

Please don't "unsubscribe."

As a word of caution, if you are a subscriber to this newsletter, and you do not wish to continue to receive it, please hit reply and let us know. DO NOT hit the "safe unsubscribe" button at the bottom of the page. It will permanently remove your current email address from both mailing lists, and you will not be able to subscribe again using that email address.

Thanks so much for being a subscriber, and we hope you will find added value in the new name, new focus newsletter ... Home Health Care Today!


Join us in the Home Care Sales Professional Winner's Circle

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Derby Twin SpiresThere's no place like Louisville, home of the world famous Kentucky Derby, in the spring time. This year, you and your sales team will want to come to Louisville in April.

The 2009 Certified Home Care Sales Professional workshop will be held in Louisville, Kentucky on April 1, 2, and 3, 2009 at the luxurious Brown Hotel. If you, or someone in your agency, wants to participate in the most in-depth sales training program in the home health care industry, you will want to be in Louisville in April.

Participants who complete this 15 hour training program will be on their way to earning the Certified Home Care Sales ProfessionalTM designation. This is the only earned designation for sales professionals in the home health care industry.

Learn more about the 2009 CHCSP workshop in Louisville!


Making the Approach: Advanced Sales Training for Home Care Professionals

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NAHC Annual MeetingYou'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 and make 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:

  • Avoid the "office trap" and "hit the bricks"
  • Prospect for new referral sources
  • Research potential referral sources
  • Secure your first appointment
  • Get a follow up appointment
  • Get referral sources to make the switch from their favorite home health agency
  • Close more sales
  • Get more repeat and word-of-mouth business
  • Lock up your territory

This e-book is more than just bedtime reading! It's truly a sales training manual and workbook with exercises and examples for individuals as well as teams of sales people. You'll find:

  • Ten exercises, worksheets, and resources
  • Dozens of real life illustrations and examples
  • A blend of theory and practical tips
  • Writing that is clear, concise, and conversational

This manual is ideal for both certified home health agencies, as well as non-medical or private duty home care companies.

Order Making the Approach today!


About the Author

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Stephen Tweed, CSP, is Chairman and CEO of Leading Home Care ... a Tweed Jeffries company. For nearly 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 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 38 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


Permission to Reproduce

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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 2006 Stephen C. Tweed. To receive a FREE subscription to this newsletter, log on to www.leadinghomecare.com."



Contact Leading Home Care

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phone: 1-866-209-5101

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