7 Not-So-Obvious Strategies for Boosting Home Care Sales
Below-the-surface-level ways to bring in new business to your home care agency
You know the basics of good sales, and you’re likely pulling all the right levers for your agency: running digital marketing campaigns, taking out print and television ads, networking, incentivizing referrals from clients and colleagues, hosting community events, and refreshing your site content on the regular and keeping up with your SEO strategy.
By executing these strategies, you’re playing in a crowded market where your competition is doing a lot of the same. Advanced home care sales strategies call for differentiation. Here are seven of our favorites.
1. Stay abreast of current events
Keep up with local and national news: What’s happening—or might happen—that affects your clients? This could be short-term concerns, like a flu outbreak, or long-term ones, like major changes to Medicare coverage.
Consider other events and circumstances not directly related to health. For instance, let’s say your city is rerouting a bus line or taking a metro line out of commission for several months for construction. That will affect residents’ ability to get where they need to go and creates an opportunity for you to step in and provide transportation services.
2. Rethink the way you reward business development
Does your evaluation and reward system incentivize your business development team to simply bring in revenue, or does it encourage your home care sales reps to invest in their clients’ long-term wellbeing?
If the goal of your home care agency is to provide exceptional care to clients, then everyone in the organization, from sales reps to caregivers to receptionists, should be measured against KPIs in the service of client care.
In the Harvard Business Review article “Performance Management Shouldn’t Kill Collaboration,” author Heidi Gardner recommends moving from numerical ratings to qualitative ones. Rather than scoring home care sales representatives on the revenue they bring in, score them on measures like customer satisfaction or how long a client sticks with your agency.
3. Invite clients to customize their services
According to a 2021 report by consulting firm McKinsey, “71% of consumers expect companies to deliver customized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen.” Personalization drives better business outcomes, according to the report. In fact, McKinsey found that “companies that grow faster drive 40% more of their revenue from personalization than their slower-growing counterparts.”
Just think of all the apps you use that remember your preferences and provide personalized recommendations.
In home care, customization could also mean bundling services. For example, clients may want to pair post-operative care with transportation services or memory care with nutritional planning. Give them the ability to bundle services for a better price and determine the amount of interaction they have with their caregivers and service providers.
4. Invest in learning and development for your home care sales team
Make sure your business development team is the best in its class.
- Offer mentorship and coaching. This might mean matching senior sales reps with junior ones or investing in third-party coaching services, many of which offer personalized one-on-one digital coaching as well as self-guided training.
- Get a LinkedIn learning subscription. You can design learning plans for each team and allow them to explore new skills that pique their interest.
5. Involve the whole company in sales
No, don’t ask your customer care team to sell, don’t ask your caregivers to sell.
But the next time you have a community event, an intro call with a potential client, or an informational meeting with a local healthcare clinic, invite team members outside the sales team to join. Cross-functional work improves rapport within your agency and keeps everyone aimed at providing the best care possible.
Your caregivers hear things from clients and their families your sales team never does. They’re as close as it gets to client needs, so invite your caregiver teams to join sales team meetings—they’re your best source of information about opportunities for new services and upselling.
6. Invest in differentiating tech
To close the distance between your clients and your agency, invest in digital tools and apps that let you more easily communicate with clients, keep up with care plans, and share health data.
Easy-to-use apps let clients renew services with a single tap. And you can use it to send push notifications that encourage clients to check out your new service offerings, trials, or customization options.
7. Don’t close the sale, solve the problem
People know when they’re being sold to, and people who need home care services are often in vulnerable positions or going through major life changes—they don’t want to feel like a dollar figure on your balance sheet.
Once your clients reach the decision phase of the customer journey, your job is not to close the sale, it’s to ensure you’re meeting the client’s needs. This means that in some cases, you’ll need to let go of the sale and refer that person to another provider. That’s reputation-building: Better to help a bad match find the right caregiver than to pursue a bad match and leave them unsatisfied.
Do your home care sales need a boost?
For help with improving your home care sales process, Home Care Marketing Pros can lend a hand. From personalizing the process with unique marketing automation, to tech that helps you keep in touch with leads and clients, our tools can provide the boost you need. Book a 30-minute, no-obligation call here.
