Shelle Womble is the Sales Champion of corecubed, an aging care marketing company with a focus on home care, home health and hospice. With over 25 years of multi-state experience in the aging care arena, Shelle has held a variety of sales management positions, from District Regional Manager of a single unit agency, to Director of Operations/General Manager for 50 branch locations in 11 states for a large home care franchise, and most notably, as National Sales Director. As corecubed’s home care sales expert, Shelle provides professional sales training and coaching services to home care agencies across the country.
Articles and Webinars
by Expert Contributor
by Expert Contributor
Articles and Webinars
When you think of your sales team, the front receptionist answering the phones is most likely not the first individual that comes to mind. But the reality is that all inquiry calls are a vital part of a home care agency’s sales process.
In today’s fast paced world where decisions are made based on Google searches and Internet reviews, any call is critically impactful to the final decision — whether a family member is calling to inquire about your services, or you are making an outbound call in response to a lead. You can make or break a sale in a matter of minutes based on how a call flows and what the individual you are talking to feels as a result of the conversation.
We like to think that being friendly and helpful is enough – we answer questions as they are asked and allow the potential customer to set the tone and flow of the conversation. But this lack of deliberate sales strategy makes for lackluster results.
Wise agencies know that all staff should be trained on how to handle inquiry calls with the use of consistent scripting. The use of well developed scripts that are employed by everyone who picks up the phone provides:
Brand cohesion – Your agency has a message that you trying to portray in all you say and do. Each time a person interacts with your agency, he or she should get an accurate sense of who you are and what you stand for. If all staff members greet callers, describe services and answer objections differently, your branding is confused, diluted, or worse case, not recognized at all.
Empowerment of staff – When staff members don’t feel confident and equipped to answer people’s questions on the phone, they either don’t come across as helpful, friendly and professional, or they take matters into their own hands and wing it – most likely providing inaccurate information and possible confusion. Instructing staff to refer calls to more equipped personnel or forwarding to voicemail can also backfire in today’s want-it-now culture where a caller may be more inclined to move on to the next agency as opposed to waiting to hear back from you.
Demonstration of expertise – Many people looking for home care services have very little information and don’t know enough about the industry to ask the right questions. A well scripted call provides you the opportunity to showcase your agency’s strengths, lead a caller into productive next steps and truly help the person to make well informed decisions for the care of his or her loved one.
Higher close rates – When you have a defined process in place and have properly trained staff to use the process with every inquiry call, your inquiry conversion rate will improve. And who doesn’t want that?
As corecubed’s home care sales and operations coach, I’ve developed a five-step sales process for sales scripting that can transform your inquiry calls and empower your staff. I offer both customized training as well as two-hour, single session home care sales classes that provide participants with actionable steps to put into practice right away. So what are you waiting for? Let us help you equip your staff with winning words that produce results.
***Related Info:
Let’s face it: the days of letting our fingers do the walking through the Yellow Pages to find the services we need are long gone, replaced by the wonderful World Wide Web. In the blink of an eye, we can now access hundreds of millions of helpful resources online by simply typing what we’re looking for into a search bar and hitting the Enter key. Pretty astounding if we stop and think about it! And, that instant access to information is a game changer.
If your home care agency has not yet embraced Internet marketing to the fullest, you’re likely losing both potential clients and high quality caregivers to the competitors in your area who are. A recent Pew Internet & American Life Project study revealed that as many as 80% of all Internet users – 93 million Americans – are searching online for health-related information, which includes in-home senior care. Armed with the education they’ve discovered online, consumers are able to make a decision about the type of home care services they want, and the type of agency they want to provide them, before ever picking up the phone to formally inquire.
If you’ve has crossed all the T’s and dotted all the I’s in your Internet marketing efforts (including an informative, easy-to-navigate website, active social media presence, SEO services, and regularly adding fresh, relevant content such as through blog postings), you earn a gold star! And yet, once consumers find you and all of that helpful information, there still remains the need for basic, foundational good sales techniques. These tips can help bridge the gap from inquiry to client:
Make sure you’re interacting with a sense of urgency towards the inquirer’s needs. While Caring.com offers pre-screened leads for in-home care agencies, Internet referrals will not typically come vetted, as the consumer has, in most cases, taken a do-it-yourself approach and will be faced with information that may be confusing, such as home health vs. private pay services; medical needs vs. safety needs; and who pays for what? Your agency’s inquiry process needs to be at its sharpest and best to successfully assist families who, although armed with education, need clarification. What this requires is patience, time, and savvy handling. Anyone who may potentially answer a call needs to be equipped to help the caller sort through the myriad of choices to arrive at what will be best for his or her senior loved one. In this sense, the sales process becomes more of a shepherding approach.
Use solid methods of tracking the information you’re gathering. Although Internet referrals can certainly be in need of immediate home care services, in many cases, online inquirers are in the beginning stages of facing changing family dynamics and are in the process of educating themselves and shopping for options. Good sales techniques require “owners” in your agency who dedicate time each day for follow-up with Internet referrals. Brush up on how your team handles the tough questions, particularly those that focus on cost of services. A good CRM program is crucial for diligent follow-up, note taking, and tracking. Be aware also that it’s very common for community agencies and referral sources to find you and engage your agency through the Internet, particularly if they’re calling for a patient who may be in a hospital away from home. These referral sources can become new targets for your community salesperson to follow up on, so tracking these interactions is very important in the sales process.
Follow up, follow up, follow up. Consumers are going to want to partner with agencies that have taken the time to make their situation a priority. Follow-up is as simple as calling and/or emailing (if preferred by the inquirer) to ask how the family is doing and if they’re ready for next steps in the care of their loved one. Genuine concern and persistence pays off in our industry, making follow-up especially critical.
In a nutshell, keep in mind that the process is twofold: optimize your Internet presence through SEO and online marketing, in tandem with good old-fashioned handholding and problem solving. A quick, knowledgeable, and timely response, solid method of tracking conversations and sending out additional value-added information to the inquirer, with a precise commitment to follow up, enhances your ability to win over Internet referrals.
Shelle Wombe
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