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One part of last
week's article on
setting sales goals
apparently hit close
to home with many of
you. I had the
highest response
I've ever seen to
the part of the
article that stated
that salespeople and
sales teams should
be judged and
compensated based on
admissions... not
simply referrals. It
wasn't 30 minutes
after the newsletter
hit your email boxes
that the feedback
began. This is
positive discussion
that will move our
profession and our
industry forward...
so I encourage more
of it.
The central question
was this.
Michael, how could
you say that we
should be judged on
admissions... we
have no control over
staffing, hiring or
productivity... it's
not fair. We bring
in more than enough
referrals to meet
our admission quota,
it's the clinical or
ops team that can't
make it happen.
Well said... and I
truly do "feel your
pain".
Here's the thing. I
spent the past five
years of my career
in homecare on the
other side of the
monthly financials.
I saw the impact of
not having enough
clinicians, of not
achieving
productivity levels,
and of course, of
not taking all the
referrals that were
made to us and
turning them into
admissions. The
financials don't
care how many
referrals you bring
in. The financials
don't care that
there is a nursing
(and therapy)
shortage. The
financials don't
care that good
private duty
caregivers are hard
to find and retain.
They simply don't
care.
The financials are a
brutally honest tool
to examine how your
business is
performing... and if
you're getting 100
referrals per month
and only converting
25 of them into
admissions, your
business isn't doing
well.
Ok, so the
financials tell one
side of the story...
what else?
There is no reason
for a sales team to
claim success when
the rest of the
company has fallen
short of its goal.
Walking around with
your chest puffed
out while everyone
else is licking
their wounds from
the previous month
isn't going to
engender good
feelings among the
team. Another
downside to the "pay
us for referrals"
philosophy is that
the sales team winds
up "selling hard"
into a dwindling
supply of clinical
availability simply
to get the requisite
number of referrals.
Having your good (or
even not-so-good)
referrers calling
your intake group
time and again
because you asked
them to, only
to get turned down,
is going to cause
bad feelings from
intake AND
from your referrers.
You're not the only
agency in town, so
people will look
elsewhere for a
provider after
they've been turned
down a few times.
Once you look
objectively at these
areas, a logical
question might be
"well... what can we
do about it"?
I'm glad you asked.
1. Build
Teamwork -
Nothing will go
farther in improving
your agency's
performance than to
have a tighter knit
of teamwork among
all departments. I
task my sales team
with taking the lead
on this. Yes, we
must be in the field
selling, but when
caregiver capacity
is low, how about
helping intake or
ops out with some
catch up work? How
about taking
accurate news about
availability out to
your referrers so
everyone is in sync?
How about taking
your intake staff
out to lunch to
thank them for the
hard work they do
every day?
2. Maximize
Productivity
- Productivity is
sometimes a dirty
word among
clinicians. I know
it... and so do you.
An administrator I
was working with was
so afraid to broach
the subject that I
wound up in a
ridiculous
conversation where
we coined the term
CaRE Scores
(Clinical Ratio of
Effectiveness) to
replace
productivity. Can
you imagine? We all
have expectations in
our jobs...
caregivers are no
different. How can
you help? Form, or
sit on, a committee
to analyze
paperwork, offer to
help clinical
managers with
territory planning
(you're an expert...
right?) to keep
clinicians from too
much windshield time
or adjust your sales
focus to concentrate
your referrals to
areas that you have
clinicians that need
patients.
3. Stop
Selling From An
Empty Cart
- If you can't take
patients on for some
period of time, the
best thing you can
do is let your
referrers know. I'm
of the mindset that
when capacity to
take admissions is
tight, you need to
be in front of your
best referrers MORE
than when it isn't.
That vital link from
agency to referral
source is why you're
there! Don't run and
hide when you don't
have anything to
sell. Keep in touch,
keep informed and
make sure that as
soon as you're ready
to take another
patient on... you
get the very NEXT
referral.
4. Help In
The Recruiting
Effort -
Offer your HR
department your
services in posting
flyers, helping to
arrange an open
house or asking
questions in the
field about the best
place to find
caregivers looking
to make a change.
Your efforts are an
investment in the
future of your
career... and of
your agency.
By their nature,
great salespeople
are going to want to
be judged on their
own effort. It comes
with the territory
and the personality.
Homecare, however,
is a team sport...
delivered in
precision doses to
patients in need by
a highly skilled
team of
professionals. You
joined a team... now
it's time to play on
it, practice with
it... and invest
your energies in
making it better.
When you win on your
own you slap
yourself on the
back. When your
agency wins as a
team, the whole
organization
celebrates... and
the most important
win of all is
delivered to the
ones who deserve it
most.
Our patients......
