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Home Care Marketing & Sales Mastery by Approved Senior Network®
Dawn Fiala, Lisa Marsolais, Annette Ziegler, and Valerie VanBooven RN BSN provide insight into home care marketing strategies. They cover in-person, in-field sales and online marketing every other week. These podcast episodes are part of the Home Care Marketing Mastermind, sponsored by Approved Senior Network®. Find more information at https://ASNHomeCareMarketing.com
Home Care Marketing & Sales Mastery by Approved Senior Network®
The Science of Selling Home Care - More Clients, More Referrals
Ever wonder what truly separates successful home care marketers from those who struggle to generate referrals? This candid roundtable discussion brings together three powerhouse veterans with over 60 years of combined experience who've helped grow agencies from startup to multi-million dollar operations.
Annette, Dawn, and Lisa reveal the psychology behind building trust with referral sources and why the strongest relationships can withstand occasional hiccups. They explain why being "pleasantly persistent" trumps aggressive sales tactics, and how taking those dreaded Friday afternoon discharges that other agencies avoid can put you on a social worker's speed dial.
You'll discover why qualifying referral sources and organizing your routes by zip code dramatically increases efficiency, and why your agency needs a genuine differentiator beyond the usual "our caregivers really care" messaging. The panel shares honest insights about what personality traits make someone successful in this role, why internal teamwork is critical to marketing success, and how even experienced marketers can struggle with asking for referrals.
For agency owners, this conversation offers a blueprint for identifying and nurturing marketing talent. For community liaisons, it provides practical strategies to increase referrals immediately. And for anyone considering a career in home care marketing, it paints an authentic picture of the challenges and rewards of this uniquely demanding role.
The panel concludes by sharing information about Approved Senior Network's 12-week sales training program, which provides structure, accountability, and peer learning to transform marketing efforts. Ready to take your home care sales to the next level? These experts reveal exactly how to do it.
Continuum Mastery Circle Intro
Visit our website at https://asnhomecaremarketing.com
Get Your 11 Free Home Care Marketing Guides: https://bit.ly/homecarerev
Thanks for joining us everybody. We're going to talk about the science of selling home care and the first thing we're going to do today we did a little housekeeping, so I know you can hear me and see me and I know we're recording. So we are going to talk introductions next, and I want to just quickly introduce myself, because I'm really not the person that is the star of the show today. It's these other lovely ladies and Annette, who is our main trainer she is amazing who are going to talk about themselves and their experience.
Speaker 1:I'm Valerie Van Boeven. I'm the co-owner of Approved Senior Network. I'm a registered nurse and I've had every role and job as a nurse you could possibly imagine. And yeah, but 18 years ago or 17 years ago, I started Approved Senior Network, or at that time, was called LTC Expert Publication. So I'm old, I love digital marketing. It's my game, it's my thing, it's my thing I love to do, and these ladies, however, are amazing at sales in home care, so we're going to talk to them amazing at sales in home care, so we're going to talk to them.
Speaker 2:Annette, why don't you introduce yourself a?
Speaker 1:little bit. Don't say too much, because I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions, sure.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody. I'm Annette Ziegler and I have been with ASN. In about a week or so it's going to be a year. Woohoo, went by quick. I've been in home care not to age myself either. 20 plus years.
Speaker 3:I teach the sales training courses here and I just love what I do. Yay and Dawn yes, hi, I'm Dawn Fiela. I've also been in home care for a long time and I will be here three years in May, so that's also coming up and it has just flown by. I love working with all of the home care agencies. We are always helping them with just about everything, not just digital marketing. Feet on the ground how do I hire? Why are my caregiver applicants poor quality lately? Like we are an all in one. Help you as much as we can and I love my job. I miss home care sometimes, but I get enough of it with you guys. Thank you for being here today. You're going to learn quite a bit. Lisa, you're up.
Speaker 4:Okay, my unmuted Okay. Hi, I'm Lisa. I've been here for two years and before this I had two different loves. One was it was newspaper and the internet came around, and then I learned internet advertising as well as home care. I did everything and anything in home care imaginable, from client care to marketing to 3am shifts, you name it. I've been in the trenches of home care and I just love home care. I really love being a part of it every day with you guys, no matter what it is, and I really love watching the growth and all of that. So I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me and looking forward to this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too, okay. So now I'm just going to say this I didn't put a lot of work in this PowerPoint because it's really about the voices on the screen and the people that are going to talk to you. So look at this dingy AI. It's set in history and it gave me world history. Ai history that gave me world history. We're not as old as people in Mesopotamia, but we will talk about history a little bit, all right, and all of you can answer this. We're going to start with Annette Sure, and because she is the person that almost everybody talks to, or everybody does talk to, if they go through sales training along with Lisa and Dawn. But tell us about your history with selling home care, who you worked for, how it started.
Speaker 2:Okay, so actually it started back in 2004. There was a really large CCRC that was continuing care community that was being built right around the corner from my house. I used to drive by it often. It was not built yet. They had a big trailer and senior. I was always in marketing. Senior living always interested me. My parents had me older in life and younger with my children. I had to take care of them. So I went through a lot moving hospice, moving to assisted living. So it interested me lot moving hospice, moving to assisted living. So it interests me. So I started working for it was called Cherry Ridge.
Speaker 2:It was a St Ann's community, a very large community here in upstate New York, as a Bermudan representative and I actually started in the trailer and we looking out the window it was just land and this community was going to be built. But we could. They would not build it until we sold a certain amount. So we had cottages, independent living apartments, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and we had to sell a certain amount of people, have a certain amount of people sign up before they can even start building. So fast forward they built the whole community. They finally built a couple cottages and then we moved in the cottage and that was my office. It was beautiful and I worked there for 13 years.
Speaker 2:I was in the marketing. I moved people in independent living, assisted living, memory care, and during my tenure there I referred home care agencies constantly to help these residents that needed extra assistance. And then it was like I said, I was there about 13 years and I had. I wanted to do something different and I connected with a home care agency that I used often at this community and the owner offered me a position as the community liaison marketing manager. So I started there and I worked for this home care agency for about seven and a half years. I helped them grow from one million to four million.
Speaker 2:It really helped me when I moved into that role because I knew I had a lot of connections. I knew what senior living was all about and, again, having older parents, I understood about needing home care and so forth. Trying not to go too long winded, but I just so you can understand my history I really love home care. I liked working in a CCRC, but it's so nice to see people age in place at home, wherever home may be, but to have them stay at home and live in their house and see all their treasures and be able to stay there and get the care they need. That's really where my heart was, so it's a little bit about me.
Speaker 1:Awesome and I knew you had such an amazing history with all of this, but I never heard the whole story, and that's lovely to have. You've got a lot of tenure in all these places that you've worked, so that's awesome. I understand it all. Yeah, you've seen everything. So, dr Lisa, how long did you guys work in home care?
Speaker 3:I was at Home Instead Senior Care. We were the number one office for 10 years, started in sales, outside sales, community liaison, and then was promoted to operations manager and we grew by millions and millions of dollars. There were probably a thousand offices when I left there across the country and even in other parts of the world, and more recently an independent home care agency who couldn't get the private pay side of it. They had a pretty good Medicaid side. As we know, the margins aren't great with Medicaid so they were trying to break into the private pay and we did get to about 3.5 million in under four years in private pay. So in that company I was over recruiting, retention and sales and so we grew quite quickly and all the things that worked for me through the years we are doing in the sales training class. So yeah, that's a little bit about me.
Speaker 4:All right, lisa, for me, gosh, it started way back when I was a little kid.
Speaker 4:I want to say I have that, that story that people bring up, that I lived with my grandmother and so I saw firsthand what she needed and I did a lot of those things as a little kid and from there it just was built into where I knew I've always been a, I want to take care of people and I want to help, right. But then I was like I also want to help in these other ways where we can grow, and so I worked for quite a few smaller boutique style agencies to help them get from the ground up. And then I've also worked for some a couple of different franchises as far as the marketing or the branch manager or, just again, doing just everything, especially when you're building from the ground up, when you're starting a new business. I've done all of that. So getting it to where it's established and then branching out to new locations and things like that, all of that stuff super fun. It's all a part of things that I love to do. So, yeah, started when.
Speaker 1:I was a little one, so you got. You have a hundred years worth of knowledge right here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and in home care it's rapid speed by fire too. It's not just it's, it's just really fast. Everything is very fast paced, so it's even more than that. Probably one day feels like a week. Oh yeah, home care for sure.
Speaker 1:I always say I'm 200 years old in nurse years. It's the same thing.
Speaker 4:It's, yeah, it's more than dog years. For sure, for sure, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So what do you think made you a great home care community liaison, miss Annette.
Speaker 2:I would say I have compassion, I have empathy. I loved helping seniors. I loved helping families. I loved helping people solve their problems and helping them, providing them with home care. I've always been a very mission-driven person. I like to succeed and I loved the drive and making sure that I was helping our agency grow with lots of referrals. So I really had a drive in me that excited me. If somebody called me with referrals, I would for a skilled nursing facility called me. I would be there, I would make it happen.
Speaker 2:So I think and also too, I was able to multitask. In this kind of business Things change day by day, hour by hour. I think because I was able to accept that and realize that I could be doing one thing and get a call for a 24-7, and I was able to switch what I was doing and help people. So I think I had everything that I needed to make me succeed and I really did. I really loved what I did. I loved meeting the families. I think my what I love the best was meeting the our clients that we signed up and hearing their stories. That was one of my favorite things doing the assessments and our clients.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you gotta love. You gotta love this business. Yeah, really do. And Dawn, what made you? I know I think I know what made you great home care, community liaison. You're very organized and you're very good, and I know that. But that's true.
Speaker 3:I'm very, whatever that is I am. I have a lot of the social workers and the people that you're going to meet out in the community. For those of you that are doing this right now, you can't come off like a used car salesman. You have to be driven, you have to have that sales ability to make it, but you also have to have a love for the mission, because that's what keeps you going. And when they see that heart come out and you can sell, that's a win. It's the two things combined. You can't fake it in this business If it's just about the money and the paycheck and the commission, they're going to see right through that and they're not going to refer to you. They need to see your heart and your passion and the fact that you are willing to drive 15 miles to go meet with a family right now because all of a sudden they're discharging today at four o'clock and it was supposed to be three days from now.
Speaker 3:The fact that you'll do that not because of the commission and the money, but because you want this person to come home with a caregiver and to have a successful discharge. You're a part of the successful discharge that social worker's counting on and whatever drives you to do that. They need to see the mission and the passion for the business and the care for the seniors in order for you to be a really great community liaison. And you need to juggle, as Annette said, the multitasking I hired somebody in my early days maybe one of the first marketers I hired didn't really know what I was doing yet and she literally spun in a circle in the office Like she didn't know what. There were like three things to do and she didn't know what do I do first?
Speaker 3:So the multitasking you're balancing a bunch of stuff over here and you're on the phone and you're just running. That's adrenaline, that's fun for me. I thought it was fun. There's other people that can't succeed in that environment at all. Yeah, I don't know. I think that's what helped me. I really did have a very. I still have a strong passion for the industry and the seniors and their wellbeing, and they've earned the right to stay home if that's what they want. I feel like they've aged. They've done all the right. Maybe they didn't do everything right, maybe they're not eating well, I don't know, but they've earned the right after all of these, years took all the shots as long as it's safe to do so, definitely.
Speaker 4:That's great. And, lisa, I agree with all of those things that you guys are saying. I have like super high ADHD and that's what helped me just be that, be able to juggle, but in in anywhere I just floated, floated around, that's maybe the. That's Dawn's like deep, mine is like floating around like a little butterfly everywhere I can describe it and just got to know everyone and build relationships and I think the secret is knowing that little detail that no one else would remember about people. That always helps me and I truly care about whatever it is, whether it's getting the senior home, making sure that they have a good caregiver not just a caregiver, but a good, great caregiver and just talking to people like I would want to be talked to, treated that way. So I think that resonates with people just being real, getting in where you fit in and just figuring it out from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and detail is definitely. That's a golden nugget right there. Pay attention to detail, and Lisa's a master at that. I got a lemon meringue pie for my birthday. Who knows that? Who does that? Who knows that I love lemon meringue pie? We don't work in the same office every day.
Speaker 3:You mentioned it for a brief split second and she's a liaison. She got into it and went for it.
Speaker 1:That's part of the challenge, and she ordered it and then she had somebody else on the team delivered to my house. I was like what, what, and it was so good.
Speaker 4:Anyway, I'm glad.
Speaker 1:No, okay, all right, great, all right. Okay, we're going to talk a little bit about trust here, and all of this that we're talking about is we are going to talk about at the end here what sales efforts and some more tangible things, but everything these ladies are telling you is you are the skills, the attitude, the place you need to be in, or that you need your sales person to be in in order to really close the deals. So, thinking back, what were the events and efforts that you think made the most difference in building trust with referral sources? So, things that you organized, things that you did, what was it that really helped? Just think of one or two things that helped them believe in you and go ahead.
Speaker 2:I'm not even going to interject For, like events, having in-services and lunch and learns, having them understand what we offer and how we can be there in a split second, come to see their patients on the same day that they're discharging, showing them always being available, letting them know this job. It's really not nine to five. You do get calls, sometimes after five around the weekends, If they call you and they're in an emergency situation, that you're going to be there and you're going to help them with their patients, their residents and do whatever it takes. But I think having them see you in action you know how quickly you can sign up a patient, letting them see you, help them. This patient go home with the services before they're discharged from, say, a rehab, a hospital, and them seeing you in action I think builds the trust and always have been a good communicator, I think, with your referral sources.
Speaker 1:Like taking those Friday discharges, those late afternoon Friday afternoon discharges that nobody else will call back.
Speaker 2:Yep, Four o'clock on a Friday or on a weekend, I I'll tell you, myself and our scheduler, it was like a. We thrived on it. They would call and we would make it happen and it was just exciting. Sometimes we were able to get there, have a caregiver there in an hour or two. That's amazing they had maybe they had a resident come home to an assisted living that was in rehab and they were really unsteady on their feet and they didn't know how they were going to make it on the weekend. So they called me, I made it happen and I solved their problem. But I was happy to do that and that's part of the business. And then by doing that I was on speed dial. They called me on my cell phone because they knew if they call me on a Friday or a weekend, I was going to answer and I was going to help them.
Speaker 3:And Dawn, yeah. So I think if I were watching this I would be thinking how do you get them to think of you on a Friday, or how do you get the trust for them to even try the first time? And so there are five impressions to get them to trust you. We have it down to a science now, and a lot of it is about the relationship you're building. You're building a foundation of a relationship, not a one and done. It's about consistency, it's about reliability, it's about being different. You have to have a real differentiator, not a.
Speaker 3:My staff stays till the job's done. So what my caregivers really care about the clients. They all say that you have to have something that really makes you stand out. It could be your caregiver training. It could be your backup plan. If the caregiver calls out, that's a negative thing, but you can make it a positive thing. People get sick. It's life, it could be all kinds of things. But you have to have a differentiator to get in the door in the first place so that you can build trust.
Speaker 3:The kind of trust you need is deep embedded trust. If you have a caregiver in their building doing an overnight awake and that caregiver falls asleep, your relationship should be so good that they pull you aside and say, hey, your caregiver, last night she fell asleep and you should be able to bounce back from that. That's the kind of relationship you need and it's about being consistent. You have to go every eight to 10 days. There has to be some sort of contact with that referral source every eight to 10 days. It's not going to be a face-to-face every time. Once a month you get a face-to-face. What are you going to do in between? It can't be a brochure. You have to have a leave behind something important, something that matters, something fun, something different. So there's a lot going on with this to get that trust built, something different. So there's a lot going on with this to get that trust built. So I think it's just the. For me it's the consistency, the reliability and just always being there, being respectful of their time.
Speaker 3:Don't be a plopper. I had a referral source call me about marketers and she's she's a plopper. I don't want her coming in and plopping down in front of my desk and just sitting there. I have to work late now because she sat here for 20 minutes. Don't sit unless they ask you. Be respectful of their time. Don't expect and make them come out and see you every time you come into the building. So it's just a mutual respect and they need to start seeing you as a partner, more than a vendor or referral source, someone who is a home care source for them. They need to see you as a partner. They're the social worker expert and you're the home care expert. Someone needs home care. I'm calling her. That's what I would say melissa marceau, yeah I'm just gonna agree with all of that.
Speaker 4:I just letting someone see you in action is just a really big deal. If they see you and they see you just handled everything like they're going to come back to you always, they're going to trust you. So I agree with everything you guys said, for sure yeah, I, yeah, that is.
Speaker 1:I've heard this enough times now that I know all of that is true. I think consistency is where some folks start falling off the mark, and that is one thing that we all.
Speaker 3:I can tell you here in the summer and probably in other places in the winter, no one's outside like it's miserable. That's when you go. That's you're going to get in and get to see them. It's Christmas week Go, no one else is going in there. You want to face the face with your social worker? Go when no one else is going.
Speaker 3:That consistency and that always being there and it works, because when I wasn't there for a week because I was on vacation, guess what Phones were dead the next week, dead Cricketsickets because I left for a week. That's how quick it changes. You have to go every week and if you go on because you tell them ahead of time I will be gone, but I am coming back and you double time it and get in front of everybody right when you get back. It's that quick because they have people coming in behind you saying the same things and maybe bad things sometimes, and dropping off something better. Maybe they brought them donuts, maybe they did something that wowed them. Now they're going to get a shot right, and then you've got to earn your way back in. So you got to go consistently, especially when nobody else is going.
Speaker 4:Great, and I think that's a differentiator to people that are consistent, because I would bet that probably 20% actually are consistent, consistent going back all the time, and so those are. That's your real competition is those people who are just like you.
Speaker 3:And you see their stuff, you see their brochure. Oh, she was. I saw her stuff last week. What are we following each other? You start to know real quickly who your stiff competitors are. You just have to find a way to stand out.
Speaker 1:All right, great stuff, great nuggets of wisdom. If you were starting all over again today, what would be your first priority of the week or of the month? So what do you do first, right out of the gate?
Speaker 2:So brand new, just starting this position. I would qualify referral sources in my area, making map out see who's out there who would be where I would get private pay referrals. Mapping out all different types of referral sources that I would see in my area. Make sure I have a community presence. Connect with, maybe, referrals sources that I already know. Thinking about what my agency. I think, just like Dawn said, you have to have a differentiator. So thinking about how I can present our agency and that it could be different from the 10 different home care agencies that I had competition with. Why are they going to listen to me? Why am I different? How can we help? So I think this is what I would do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dawn, I would qualify my referral sources. There's a Medicare website. You can go on and look at all the SNFs in your area anyone getting paid by Medicare and see what they're all about. I would do that. First I would build myself a route sheet. I would make sure I had a really good elevator speech with a differentiator. I'd make sure I could roll that off my tongue in my sleep if need be, and then I would hit the sniff. If all I had time to do was go to sniffs because there's a lot here in Phoenix where I'm at lots and lots of them that is where I would be spending a majority of my time. Skilled nursing facilities get to know them. When I get someone face-to-face, get a lunch and learn scheduled because I may never see their face again, they're very hard to get in front of. Get in front of them, schedule that lunch and learn, and you're golden. It's harder than that, but if I were starting over knowing what I know now, that is where I would start.
Speaker 1:Perfect, Lisa. Anything to add to that? Are you floating around like a butterfly? I'm floating.
Speaker 4:I was going to say I would just case the joint. Make sure I know what everyone else is doing. My competitors are doing too. Out there.
Speaker 3:Oh, yes, call them Secret shop.
Speaker 4:I shop them a little bit and then I'm going to set up a plan of who are my top 25 that I'm going to go out to right now Sniffs for sure, Medicaregov also for sure Just to compare and see what I'm dealing with and just create that route. When I first started, I remember a lady that I worked with said you can't just be pinging around like this. You got to create. And I was like you know what? You're right, Let me create this.
Speaker 3:Sort your referral sources by zip code. Do it now. Do it now Because if you're over here, I'm going to talk about where I am, if I'm in Phoenix and I'm marketing and I'm getting it like I'm being real successful, it's going really well. And then I get a call in Mesa. Can you come talk to this family? They're discharging tomorrow.
Speaker 3:I'm going to drop everything and go talk to the family in Mesa, not only because it's incentive, but it's because it's the right thing to do. This person's got to have care when they get home. And this is your opportunity to prove yourself. See the social worker on your way in to see that family. I'm done with the family. It's one o'clock. Am I going to drive all the way back to Phoenix to keep marketing? No, I'm going to pull up my zip code locator and I'm going to look for all the sniffs or my referral sources in Mesa by zip code and I'm going to keep marketing there. The back, like Lisa said, the back and forth is so inefficient, such a waste of time and gas and everything. It really is.
Speaker 3:Sorry, Lisa, I didn't mean to cut you off, but that is really good.
Speaker 4:That is perfect and that's I think we're good.
Speaker 1:Cool, all right, that's a great answer. Oh, annette, you've been training community liaisons for almost a year now. I guessed at that and I was right, because it's about a week away. What makes this the greatest job ever, and the reason I ask that is because you get to see seasoned folks, you get to see owners, you get to see brand new people. What is it about training others? That is just. I know you like this and it's a wonderful thing to do for others.
Speaker 2:I think, because I was a community liaison too I love seeing them grow and learn and get referrals. It is a great job. You're out. You're not in an office nine to five. You're out meeting people. You're helping families. You're building lasting relationships with referral sources. To this day I'm still friends with some social workers from back in the day when I worked as a community liaison, that we have become close friends with Families, that I actually had a family call me last week that I helped when they lived in the senior living. You're building lasting relationships. You're a problem solver.
Speaker 2:Every day is different In the sales training. We have new community liaisons. We have experienced community liaisons. The exciting thing that I see is if I have somebody really experienced that we're in a class and I teach them something that they're like wow, I never thought about that. I've been doing this for years. I didn't know that we could do bed sitting at a skilled nursing home. I never went to that side of the nursing home.
Speaker 2:And also seeing these community liaisons, usually by halfway through our sales training, if they're doing everything we say, they're getting referrals. So it's exciting. They're setting up lunch and learns. They're setting up meetings but it's a great job up lunch and learns or setting up meetings. But it's a great job if you, if every day is different you have to go with the flow If you're, if you like meeting people and I think again, like helping people, like Lisa Dom, we all said, you have to have that compassion and not be. It's good to have some sales ability. Of course you want to like close, seal the deal, but you don't want to be a salesy, you want to. They have to see that you care first and that you're passionate about helping people and everybody that comes through the classes.
Speaker 2:We have all different types of people and it's just, it's really exciting, especially the community liaisons that we have that come to our classes that are maybe they've never done this before, they've never been marketing ever. They're afraid. They're like oh, I don't know what to say, I don't know what to do. We give you all the tools, we tell you what to say and I just always remind everybody you're not trying to talk them into something they don't need. Everybody needs home care that you're talking to. They're patients, they're residents, so you're not trying to walk in and sell them something they don't need. So just, most people in home care they're casual, they're nice. It's just a. It's just a great job. I think so yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think being a problem solver is one of the best I don't know. It gives you a good feeling when you're able to do that for families, helping them, social worker, whoever. Yeah, yeah, absolutely All right, I'm I and I know you. Ladies, I'm going to try to go to the next question so we don't run out of too much time here. Let's see, oh, this is a great one no-transcript.
Speaker 2:You can't be really shy or afraid or be unapproachable. If you can't overcome that, it's going to be a little hard for you because it's really boots on the ground. You're getting out there, you're connecting, you're asking to talk to the social worker or your referral source. So you have to be not too shy, you have to be okay with that and I think somebody personable to be not too shy, you have to be okay with that and I think somebody personable that's likable not too pushy, pleasantly persistent.
Speaker 3:We were pretty much the same. That's my word. I love that word.
Speaker 2:I got that from Dawn. It's so true. It's so true because you have to have. You don't want to be that pushy car salesman Of course you don't want to be but you have to be pleasantly persistent and sometimes you got to know when it's right to go after that client, maybe a little further. Or reaching out to that social worker and saying I really do think this client is okay for us, let me come and see him, maybe pursuing that a little more. But if I would say I don't know, dawn, if you agree with me about three months or so, I would say you can tell if somebody's going to do it.
Speaker 3:I think you can tell and Annette's good at this because people have been in the sales training class and she'll say Dawn, this person's just not, they're not cut out for this. And then I have to call the owner and tell the owner guess what? It hasn't happened a lot. But she tells me and why waste money on a community liaison and the cashflow of paying that person if it's not going to work out? And when I call the owner, I think it's happened twice. Maybe they're like we have the same reservation. Thank you so much for letting us know, Because not everybody's cut out for this and this is a twofold job.
Speaker 3:It's not just out cold calling and marketing, which is difficult. It's also selling that senior and the adult children when it's time to sign up for the job. And sometimes most of the time you are piggybacking with the adult child to convince mom or dad. This is how it, this is the scenario, and so you have to get a little. You want to fall again, mr Smith? You have to keep bathing. You can't stop bathing. Your daughter just wants us to make sure you're safe while you're in the shower. Let's not fall again. How many times do you bathe a week? Sometimes this is. You have to make sure that it's okay to be that way.
Speaker 3:But there is that compassion that has to come through for the betterment of the client. And when a social worker you come back and say, yeah, mr Smith signed up three daysa week, blah, blah, blah and she's I can't believe you did that. He's going to fall in the shower again. Of course I signed him up. So sometimes they're counting on you to be the person that can get this senior to see the reality of their new life right now and maybe it's not a permanent change, but maybe it is. And so the fact that they can give you a referral and you can make it happen Also it makes their job easier. It makes the adult children's job easier. So that's a piece of it too is being able to be in charge when you need to be in charge. I'd say that's a big piece of it as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I so agree. If you're meeting with that senior, you're signing them up and they're refusing. We don't want you to just walk out and close the door. Sometimes you have to make're refusing. We don't want you to just walk out and close the door. Sometimes you have to make compromises. If I had somebody that was I knew they were not going to sign they were I'd say you know what? Let's make a deal. How about we try this for two weeks? Why don't we just try it for two weeks? Let's see how that works? And you know what. They agreed to that and then, after two weeks, maybe they said no, I still don't want it, okay. But many times they said you know what, it's going okay and we like that. That Susie you've sent, or I don't know.
Speaker 3:I don't remember life before Susie, it's so much better. Thank you so much. Yeah, yeah, getting them to just try it for a couple of weeks, although the schedulers didn't like when I did that, I'm like I promise it'll be good, they'll stay, they'll stay. But yeah, that having to be able to do that and I've had things thrown at me Get out of my room, I'm not talking. Yeah, now I'm like okay, I'll come back when you're ready, you have to have thick skin too. I would say another piece of this they don't, I don't want to see big piece of it too is knowing when you have to be firm and really just point out the obvious and when you don't, when you can't.
Speaker 1:there are some situations where you just can't Any other words of wisdom about being great, someone who's going to be great at this job you can tell, because they're a social butterfly.
Speaker 4:I agree with everything they were saying for sure, just being able to be very fluid, I feel like you just have to be able to weave in and out. I don't know any other way to say that. You just have to take the punches as they come and know what to give back and know how to deal with anything at any time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, definitely roll with the punches. That's a good one. All right, let's see what else I got here. What would you look for we just talked about this. Actually what would you look for if you were hiring a community liaison today?
Speaker 1:I think we've answered that someone who is willing to take charge a little bit, someone who isn't shy. And we'll have those hard conversations with families. I think I can remember as more of it as a case manager, but saying, or a care manager saying talking to the senior about that their daughter or son was really worried about them, and when the senior would hear those words, they don't want their family to worry about them. They definitely don't. So maybe implementing a few services or trying this for a couple of weeks is a great idea. So, anyway, just being able to talk the talk and help the senior and the family understand this doesn't have to be forever, but let's get you through the next couple of weeks or through the next month or so and see how you're doing, and then we can reevaluate from there. That kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Let's see here, Okay, what's the best advice for getting a referral quickly? You have to be willing to do what, and we've talked about some of this consistency, but if you really are, you're starting out and you want to get a referral quickly. What are some things that you would tell somebody to do? Get that in-service scheduled or that. How are you getting that referral quickly? I?
Speaker 3:think the very first thing is they have to know that they're going to step out of their comfort zone and they're going to be really uncomfortable for a while. For a while like five in in services in they're still going to be uncomfortable and there's a new building or a new social worker. Even if you've been doing this for two or three years, you still get a little nervous because is it going to work this time? Am I going to get in this time? Is it going to happen? So I think being willing to step out of your comfort zone and knowing you're going to live there for a while, if that's what it takes until you build those relationships, yes, and it doesn't happen overnight and it can take five, six, seven times before you even get to talk to the social worker, and that is totally normal I'd say.
Speaker 1:Being confident without being pushy is also like pleasantly persistent. I think that is a great way to get that.
Speaker 3:If you have your differentiator, you know what it is and you know that it's a meaningful one. You lean into that. When they say I'm working with these XYZ home care agencies, I don't need another one, yeah, you do. You don't know about me, you don't know about this agency and what we do, that's different. So you do need to hear about what I'm doing, and it needs to. So when, whatever that is, it's got to be worthwhile, right? Because you've just said hold the phone, listen to me, I have something different for your patients. It better be something really different.
Speaker 1:What is it Huh? What is it that's different? I think home care agencies have a hard time. They do have a hard time with the differentiator it can be your caregiver training.
Speaker 3:It can be your backup plan. It could be we had a lead caregiver program so we could start service in an hour if we needed to. God, I'm trying to think of other things that that I have done as differentiators. We had a discharge package. I've done invented all kinds of rapid response program. So if you call my office and you say I have a rapid response, you talk to nobody but the person who's coming out to sign that client up immediately, Like we've reinvented ourselves a million times. But it needs to be important to the senior. It needs to be something that the discharge planner is gonna go oh, my seniors will buy. A discharge packet is beautiful. That's a great way to get a discharge package. That's all they do is discharges all day long. When you say the word discharge package and the senior likes it and buys into it, you're golden. There has to be something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's tough for a lot of folks. But I also think discharge package is one I think you guys teach and talk about and it works really well With a flat rate, and we can talk about that in sales training too. Yeah, certified or pick your poison, whichever one, whichever thing you think is most important, but being doing dementia live training there's a million of them out there and making sure your caregivers are all or some subset of them that deal with dementia clients are all trained specifically, or maybe it is that you specialize in 24 hour care. Maybe you specialize in live in and 24 hour care. Whatever it is, come up with something, and I know in sales training class we talk about that and don't people come back to you and tell you what their differentiators are. They try to come up with something to give them one.
Speaker 3:Some of them do have their own, but we do give them one that works quite well as well, that's awesome, All right.
Speaker 1:Who are the people in the office? I think this is often overlooked. Who should be the salesperson's biggest supporters? Owners, schedulers what kind of relationships helped you close more sales? I would say that's the real question there.
Speaker 2:I would say every single person in that office.
Speaker 2:If you're out on the road all day, you're not in operations. If you're a full-time marketer out on the road which I was, and they're in the office going crazy, but you might have to call at a minute's notice and that scheduler has to be able to help you immediately. The owner, the care manager, the executive director, the office that I worked in, we were a team and we all, we all worked together and if I wasn't out there getting business and they weren't able to fill the shifts and they didn't hire caregivers, we wouldn't have a business. So I think my biggest support is was everybody in the office. We had a really good connection and if I didn't, like I said, if I didn't get the business, if our HR person did not hire caregivers, if our scheduler wasn't scheduling doing well at the scheduling, nothing would work. And also, our owner was very involved and I think it's really important when you have an owner that is involved and that is even willing to go do a shift if they have to Once in a great while.
Speaker 3:We would all do shifts, but I would say I think everybody I don't know if Dawn and Lisa agree or Yeah- I agree, I think everybody too because when you're out in the field all day, some days you just get beat up all day long. You do. You just feel completely destroyed from your visits. It just no one would let you in. They looked at you like, oh God, here she is again and you are getting beat up and you do need their support.
Speaker 3:The worst thing that ever happened to me was I had been working in an area called Sun Lakes very tough to break into. It's very community, deep root community. We even had to get a phone number with the prefix of Sun Lakes to just get them to take our calls Very community. And I finally got a job. I got a referral, went out, signed it I was so excited called the schedule and she goes oh God, how am I going to ever get that staffed? We don't have caregivers out there and it was so deflating and she always reacted that way and I finally went to the owner. I'm like I'm out here killing myself and I'm excited Like I need her to be. A fake it. If you're not excited, just fake it for me Like I was.
Speaker 3:I needed a high five. So bad that day and I did not get one. It was a slap in the face. It was so bad. So your schedulers, even though they're stressed and they're like today, right now, I have to find someone now Like it does. It needs to be a team because every part affects the other Recruiting, marketing, scheduling they all affect one another and they all have to be moving at the same speed, same momentum, constantly and supporting them, because no jobs are easy, definitely.
Speaker 4:I'd like to just add that working in a company where there was no one else but myself and the owner, versus working where they're and this is probably where I learned how to be able to schedule on the fly and also do my client care duties and also go out and shake some hands right, so being able to have that support oh man, what a weight off of your shoulders to be able to go. Okay, I have. I'm going to send you this synopsis over to my scheduler. This is what the person needs, this is what they want. I already have a caregiver in mind, but being able to push that over to someone and get that support is huge. It's just it's like night and day and I've experienced both sides, so it's definitely everyone in the office, but that scheduler, client care and really helpful to have that support being able to call your office and instead of we actually had a client care coordinator once.
Speaker 2:She didn't stay long, but I would have she'd go. We're not taking them, they're too hard, or something like that. I'm like wait a minute, I just got this referral. We are going to make it work, let's go.
Speaker 3:You just trusted me enough to send me a referral and you're not taking it.
Speaker 2:This is the first referral I had from this resource. The first referral has to happen.
Speaker 3:This is the first referral I had from this resource. The first referral has to happen, guys, has to happen. The first referral. I'll go myself, exactly. You finally have trust for them to send you someone and you're going to say oops, sorry, we can't stop it.
Speaker 1:No, that's it, you can't do that Sounds to me like if you're working with people who are burned out, have become toxic and they just aren't the yes people that you need or the optimistic people that you need, then it might be time to definitely raise your hand and say something about I'm working this hard and here's what's happening. I'm being defeated by my own team, and it's definitely worth speaking up and saying something about that, because people do get burned out.
Speaker 3:Come on, Scheduling is hard. I always understood why I got the reactions I got and they're like we told you we didn't have people in this area. Why are you marketing over there? And I would say I'm not marketing over there. The person in this sniff is staying 30 miles from their house and now they're discharging to the area I was not marketing and there's nothing I can do about that. We've got to make it work. I'm sorry, you don't always have control over that. They could be at a sniff 30 miles from their house and you're marketing where you're supposed to be because you got caregivers over there and then they discharge home 30 miles away. You still have to make it work and so I get that. It's tough for scheduling. It's a tough job.
Speaker 2:Oh it is, and if you have a great we had a great scheduler and I just think it's a tough job, but everybody has to work together and it really it's just a team effort. You're out there getting that business and they have to, and I think that's how the best agencies I think that are the most successful is everybody working together and making it happen 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah and making it happen 100% yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I'm going to put a little commercial in here. But you guys have accumulated 40 or more video testimonials this year alone, and not this year in the last year alone, and they're amazing. They're amazing testimonials, you guys, and we have all of them. If you go to sellinghomecarecom, forward slash. Yes, our website address is much longer than, and she's just so full of golden nuggets and great ideas, and I don't want to promise anything that's outside of the scope of what we do, but you guys even text back and forth with people who are having challenging days and things like that, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course I see them. They'll text Annette and say my lunch and learn is in an hour and I know we went through it. But I have one quick question and that girl is on the phone with them in seconds. Like she, annette is diehard.
Speaker 2:But I do want to say too, like Dawn created this program and we all live in different States and it's just amazing how, when I saw the sales training, I was like this is what I did, and it doesn't matter where you live. You may have different rules and regulations with your state, but it's all the same. It's establishing those relationships, being different from the other home care agencies. It's all about being there and having them see you. They need to see your face and you have to connect with them and we teach that all and it's nice to see everybody. Like by week six, if people are following what we tell them to do. They're getting private pay referrals, they host lunch and learns in services. They've never done that before. So it's really exciting to see even somebody that's never done marketing before. You can have somebody with no marketing experience and they do phenomenal. So it's not like it's you know, if you have somebody that doesn't have any sales experience. I've seen people do very well that don't have sales experience.
Speaker 3:Yep, I think too the reason that this works is because it's 90 days. I've trained lots of marketers in my time. It's not a one and done, it's not a one weekend bootcamp, it's not even a week long bootcamp they need, and this is what we do. We teach all about skilled nursing facility. This is exactly who, what you say, what you bring with you, what you can expect. They're thinking about you. So you're ready for those objections when they come flying out of their mouth. You are ready to overcome them.
Speaker 3:We do all of that about skilled nursing and then you go do it, and then you come back next week and we talk about it and you not only get to, we deal with what happened with you the good, the bad, the ugly and we do the same with everybody in class, with six to seven people. So you're learning from that. And then the next week we do the same thing for independent living, and then we do memory care, and so it's the back and forth and it's that mentorship. We hold you accountable with homework. It's that is making this work. It's not a one and done. It's impossible. One and done doesn't work with this. It's too involved and you can't anticipate everything that's going to happen. And so when you come back with something that's happened, you need help with what do I do? Just quit going there, because that's what we want to do as humans. I just don't want to go back there ever again. That's not an option.
Speaker 1:So anyway, I think that's why it works. I would totally agree with that. And just little things like didn't somebody go to a skilled facility? She was brand new and she took them some kind of cookies from Starbucks, but the little bags weren't closed, the kind like a. You stick it to that.
Speaker 2:Fell out of the bag. Fell out of the bag.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the social worker had a complete fit about that, I think.
Speaker 3:So she came back and we helped her with that. We walked her through that. She didn't quit going there and we walked her through that problem. And Annette has people who have been through sales training and done that even reached out. This has happened and we don't like just disappear, we're just, we want to help. That's who we are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we have training classes starting all the time and the next two that are starting are April 15. And April 30th. So when we say that, what we mean is that the April 15th class is every Tuesday at 1.30 pm Eastern. You're going to have to calculate what your time zone is and you meet once a week for 12 weeks and an hour each time yes, for one hour. So wherever you are hopefully somewhere quiet where you can listen and talk in, and it's small groups of people and you are not in a class with someone who's a direct competitor of yours in the same territory. We try to make that very clear so that you don't have to feel like you can't talk about what you were doing or where you were because somebody else this next story is also in the class. We don't do that Very careful about that. So it's a really nice way to have some colleagues once a week and you're learning, but you're also like in counseling.
Speaker 3:And I don't know if you know this, but they stay in touch with each other. The people that stay in touch with each other and're just. They help each other. It's so exciting to see what's happened.
Speaker 2:I just love it. Lisa helps me on the week 12. She's always in my week 12 classes and we it's we've we've all grown to know each other more and they're always sad it's going to be over. But, like Dawn said, people share their emails and their phone numbers, their different agencies from different states and also in the classes they share. Maybe they have a different way of doing things and something that's really worked for them. I love how everybody shares their personal experiences and it also gives we have all different levels in our classes. When they see somebody that's doing really well and there's maybe somebody that's newer at this, I think it gives them more ambition to get out there and do better too.
Speaker 1:I just made the screen all crazy. Where did I go? Oh no, everything's crazy, it's all gone. So, anyway, hopefully we can see each other. Yes, okay, and what else was it?
Speaker 1:Oh, so we have two classes coming up April 15th and 30th, and there'll be some more in May, and then also we have continuum, which is twice a month, and we talk about all kinds of different things during continuum, including digital and in-person sales, and Lisa creates handouts for four months in advance that you can take advantage of. They are not she creates them, you have to customize them yourself advance that you can take advantage of. They are not she creates them, you have to customize them yourself, but you can do all of that. She gives you ideas for leave-behinds. Everything is put together, so all you have to do is print it, get the goodies and go. You don't have to think about anything, just have everything available to you.
Speaker 1:A continuum is also a great way to stay in touch and stay involved or, if you've never been through sales training, participate in that. You can sign up for that. So does anybody have any questions for any of these ladies about sales training? Closing the deal? I think one of the things that people ask about is or maybe people have trouble with is asking for the referral, and that's sometimes tough to get past. So I think training really helps people get through all of those reservations.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would think that is the hardest challenge probably is well, being out of your comfort zone, but then asking for the referral can be difficult, but we work through all of that. There's a one liner for every type of referral source.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have a whole class on that where and it's pretty simple. Once we go through the class, you know they're like OK, I just ask if they have any patients discharging today. Ok, I didn't think about that. And then the social worker just starts thinking about everybody she has that you can help her with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely All right. I think that's it. We've used our hour. We're like right on time. So thank you, ladies, for having to chat with me and for all the other folks that signed up to listen.
Speaker 2:And then I just want to say Tam Tamara has a question, but we can get back, we can.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I was okay yeah, I was just messaging her. We'll get back to her thanks for coming everybody thank you everyone, bye-bye, see you later.
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