• We've tested it on our sales coaching clients and sales managers.
• We've seen it help reps go from 80% of quota to over 150%!
• It's easy to use and implement.
• It provides strategic tracking and planning for ANY sales territory.
• IT WORKS!

Now it's time for YOU to be using the Leading Home Care "Supersize Your Sales Executive Guide" electronic tracking and planning system for your sales team.

Here's what you get:

1. The LHC electronic RepRatio Form
2. The LHC electronic Sales Managers Roll Up Form
3. The NEW "Supersize Your Sales" eBook describing the use of these tools and the ratios they create
4. A personal, one hour call with the Sales Coach, Michael Giudicissi to help you get started

The "Supersize Your Sales Executive Guide" is quite simply the easiest to use homecare sales tool available. Don't let the "easy to use" fool you though! The system generates the sales per hour ratio, conversion ratio, percentage of current and prospective referrers ratio and more. Use these tools along with the Executive Guide (and Michael's LIVE coaching) and watch your results improve and your salespeople become more efficient right away.

The cost of this powerful package is only $499. Learn more by visiting the "Supersize Your Sales" page on the Leading Home Care website.

You can order your package right now by calling Diane West at 888-668-9333 or emailing Diane here.

If you've got a sales team that's in the field selling... help them out... help them SUPERSIZE their sales today!

My Ballot Box How Does Your Sales Team Track Its Account Activity? A book full of business cards Handwritten notes Microsoft Outlook CRM Software We don't track any activity not available View Results

Last Week's Results
Does Your Agency Buy Lunch for Physician's Offices?

• Sometimes we do, but we're selective about it - 57%
• Yes, whatever it takes to get some face time with them - 19%
• No, never - 14%
• Rarely, only when we've exhausted every other possibility for meeting them - 10%

How many sales reps do you have at or above quota?

• All of them?
• Some of them?
• None of them?

If the answer is all of them... we might need to reexamine your goals to see if they are too low. If you answered "none of them" then either your team or your quota could use some attention. If, however, you answered "some of them" you're in the same boat with about 80% of homecare sales teams across the country.

I recently had a conversation with several members of a homecare sales team that missed a recent monthly goal by less than 10%. My first question to them was "could you have hit this goal as a team this month?" The first reaction was "no, we did all we could".

As usual, I pressed further. I asked, "If you knew how far you were behind with 10 days to go in the month AND there was a $10,000 bonus for you when you hit the goal, could you have hit it?" Very quickly, the answer changed. All but one of the people I talked to changed their tune and said, "Well Michael, yes, I could have gotten a few more admissions under those conditions."

My personal feelings aside (since I can't print that kind of language in this family newsletter) I found it to be a valuable exercise in human behavior. How many months has your team "just missed" its goal and told you "we did all we could"? If you frame your questions as I did mine, do you think you'd get a different answer? I do.

So what can we learn from this lesson?

1. Sales reps want to succeed - I truly believe that virtually everyone that enters the sales profession does want to succeed. I also believe that people quickly decide whether they believe they can or cannot succeed and begin doing things to guarantee either result.
2. Even when someone says "I've done all I can" they probably haven't. Be honest with yourself... when is the last time YOU did EVERYTHING you could to finish a particular project or solve a problem? You might have done enough to finish, but did you do ALL you could?
3. Some people carry motivation with them (intrinsic motivation) while others rely on you (extrinsic motivation) to keep the energy flowing. Those who rely on you would be (and could be) better served by learning the techniques of intrinsic motivation so you do not have to be at their beck and call when they are having a low energy day. I teach a class called the "Master Motivator" that gives managers the techniques and skills to be their own, internal motivational speaker/manager. The idea is that YOU can learn to be a more motivational leader, but that you can ALSO teach your charges to motivate themselves as well... after all, you're going to want to take a vacation someday, aren't you?
4. Money is the root of all evil... and the root of many sales successes. If your people cannot tie a tangible benefit to getting three more admissions this month, they probably won't get them... in fact, they probably won't even care.

So what do we do with this groundbreaking insight? Well, I believe that you can set up a system of regular motivation, information and feedback that will keep your under-performers hitting on all cylinders and generating more business tomorrow than they did yesterday. Here are a few tips:

• Make sure you keep score. Let people know on an ongoing basis how they and the team are doing. DO IT FOR THEM... even if you believe they should do it themselves. Send the results out via email, post them on a common area bulletin board or call each rep 3x per week and personally tell them "how we're doing". You can't figure out what play to run in the Super Bowl with 17 seconds left if you don't know the score is 23-17. Get it?
• Make the prize for getting over goal worth it. Let's face it, if a rep is over goal for the month, you're probably making substantially more profit on those "over goal" admissions than you are on the "up to goal" admits. Why? Simple. All of your rep cost is amortized into the first 30 admits (for example) so each extra admit is much closer to pure profit after direct cost is paid. You're not buying any new desks or cell phones, hiring new staff or paying any extra benefits for that extra admit(s), so there is more of the pie to go around... slice off a big piece as an incentive for your troops and watch them respond.
• Check YOUR language at the door. Are you using leadership language when you address your team? Do you let them off the hook when they fail and tell them "census was down everywhere, I don't think we could have made it anyway" or " we're bound to have a bad month sooner or later, let's try to bounce back next month"? I hope you're not saying anything like this to your team. They need a leader, not a friend. Your sales team needs a rock solid impression of who you are and what you expect from them. Going easy on them is the ultimate injustice because it simply trains them that mediocrity is acceptable to you. Is it?
• Set clear guidelines and show consequences. Do you remember the episode of the old sitcom "Happy Days" when Fonzie told Richie that the reason people were scared of him was because of his "rep". He went on further to tell Richie that the only reason his "rep" meant anything is because he actually did hit someone at one point to prove that he could (and would) do it. What's your "rep" amongst your team? Are you a fair, firm leader who gives people direction and expects it to be followed? If so, that's great. Maybe you're a person who "confides" in your reps that although you missed goal, the company financials still look good due to a longer average length of stay or higher re-episode rate. What message do you think those conversations leave your people with? People WANT rules and WANT to know the consequences of breaking them. They want order and a predictable leader. If you're expecting your team to invest in a career with your agency, invest a bit of yourself in the team and see the results grow.

The ultimate goal of the homecare sales manager is to deliver the admissions. There is no perfect formula to use with any one sales team or any group of sales reps. Different people need different things. If it's worth your time each to day to come to work, it's probably worth the investment of time to clearly examine each person on your team and find out what "makes them tick". The more closely you can match your delivery to their motivational needs, the better result you'll get.

Remember, if you have someone on your team that constantly NEEDS you to motivate them to succeed, you must ask "at what cost am I doing this?" Are you taking time from other reps or important tasks to keep just ONE rep afloat? How much more valuable could this time be if you could use it on your entire team?

Motivation is a key component in your arsenal of sales management weapons... keep it with you always and fire (the motivation... not the rep) at will!

Check back here often to see where Michael will be speaking next. If you'd like Michael to speak at your organization or present a Sales Boot Camp in your area, e-mail us or contact your state homecare association.

Sales Training Boot Camp (1/2 day)
May 16, 2007
Lexington, KY
Kentucky Home Health Association Spring Meeting
Visit the KHHA website for more details.

Sales Training Boot Camp
May 23, 2007
Richmond, VA
Visit Virginia Association for Homecare & Hospice website for more details.

Sales Training Boot Camp
June 14, 2007
Maryland - National Capital Homecare Association
Handelman Learning Center, Columbia, MD

Build Your Sales Team From The Ground Up
June 21, 2007
Orlando, FL
Associated Home Health Industries of Florida Annual Meeting
See the AHHIF website for more details.

Last week's poll shows that almost 30% of the agencies responding have a sales team, but no sales manager. A strong foundation of sales leadership is vital in establishing a high functioning sales team that brings in a steady stream of referrals that lead to admissions. Now, Leading Home Care and Michael G. can help!

We've created the Interim Sales Director Program. By bringing Michael G. in to run/establish your sales team on an interim basis, we'll work on such things as:

• Sales Training (both in the classroom and in the field)
• Run the sales meetings
• Create the sales plan
• Implement the LHC RepRatio tracking and planning system
• Track sales activity and results
• Write and implement an effective compensation plan
• Work with your HR department to recruit and hire new sales reps
• And much more!

The Interim Sales Director Program is PERFECT for agencies that have yet to hire a dedicated sales manager OR agencies that are between hires and cannot find the perfect candidate. Contract terms range from 3-12 months. Depending on the scope of work and number of reps, Michael will spend a set number of days at your agency (and in the field with your sales reps) each month.

Michael can only work with two agencies at a time (in separate markets) via the Interim Sales Director Program so contact Diane or Michael now to discuss your agency and set up a confidential phone appointment to discuss the program.

Michael G. gets results with the sales reps and sales managers he coaches... documented results. Now you can have Michael help you build your agency's sales effort too!

Call us today at (502) 339-0653.