By Stephen Tweed
What’s the best way to generate referrals that turn into admissions in private duty home care?
All of our research over the past ten years shows that “networking” and “direct selling” are clearly the two most effective techniques.
Networking is:
“an organized method of making links from people you know to people they know, gaining and using an
ever-expanding network of contacts.”
“the personal process of linking up with others to exchange information, advice, contacts, and support.”
Selling in home care is:
“making face to face contact with high potential referral sources to have a meaningful conversation about their needs for assistance with elderly clients and your company’s programs and services that can meet those needs.”
Get Your NET Working
Research conducted by Leading Home Care gives us facts and data about which types of referral sources generate referrals that bring the highest revenue per client. Using this data, we can begin to focus on the types of people we want to add to our network. It’s clear that the category we call “Trusted Advisors” generate the most valuable clients for a home care company. We also see that certain types of health care providers, such as SNFs and ILFs also generate high value clients.
The best way to make inroads into these high potential referral sources is to tap your network of contacts to get an introduction to the key decision makers. Then you can follow up with a focused sales process to engage the person, understand their business, learn about their cleints’ needs, and present your programs and services.
Curiosity is the Key to Networking
To build an effective network of referral sources, you need to be interested in other people. You need to be curious and ask great questions. Then you need to engage in conversation to understand clearly how your programs and services can provide a benefit to the referral source.
Here are seven steps to get your NET Working:
1. Fish where the big fish live
2. Get the name right the first time
3. Ask great questions and listen intently
4. Five your undivided attention
5. Become an “Introducer”
6. Give without expectation
7. Have a system to follow up.
To get more in-depth information on how you can use these principles to Get Your NET Working, we held a live web conference on Thursday, July 25, 2013 at 4:00 pm eastern time. We discussed in detail how to make networking work for you. If you missed the live event, you can purchase the recorded version in The Academy for Private Duty Home Care Store.
