Unlocking Success in Home Care Sales: Strategies, Qualities, and Daily Practices
The sales teams (or salesperson) at home care agencies carry a huge responsibility on their shoulders to generate business and revenue to keep these agencies running. However, being a successful salesperson in this industry comes with many unique challenges. ASN’s upcoming Home Care Sales Accelerator: 90-Day Mastery Program turns the tide and helps sales reps succeed in home care sales! Our next class starts the week of March 4th. Apply now!
Why Home Care Sales Reps Often Hit Roadblocks
Many well-intentioned salespeople in-home care still end up underperforming or leaving the industry. Some common pitfalls include:
Fear of Making Mistakes
For example, calling a prospect too frequently or saying something awkward can paralyze new reps with anxiety. They may avoid picking up the phone at all to avoid messing up, severely limiting productivity.
Setting the Bar Too High
We all want to succeed quickly, but unrealistic first-year sales targets like closing 50 deals for a startup agency only set people up for frustration when the deals don’t instantly materialize.
No Clear Sense of Direction
Without specific revenue targets broken down week-by-week and key activities tied to hitting those marks, it’s easy to feel lost in the shuffle of a busy workweek. Reps benefit hugely from crystal clear goals and direction.
Thrown In Without Sufficient Training
Unfortunately, most home care sales training is often on-the-job and inconsistent. Sales concepts like effective qualifying questions, common objections, competitive advantages, and relationship selling require formal training through reps’ early months. Without this foundation, they miss opportunities due to a lack of preparation and confidence.
Not Learning from Peers
Many home care sales teams lack opportunities to regularly listen in on calls with top reps and managers, missing the chance to model successful approaches.
Outdated Methods and Mindsets
Sales fundamentals evolve, but rigid perspectives from hiring managers used to 1980s tactics handicap the potential of leveraging modern sales technology and social selling.
But the good news is overcoming these pitfalls is very achievable!
Strategies to Set Up Salespeople for Success
Home care sales leaders would be wise to implement strategies like:
Enhancing Prospecting Skills
This starts with foundational cold calling, warm calling, email, and networking tactic training. Then monitoring rep activity daily and reviewing calls weekly ensures proper execution.
Fostering Drive and a Competitive Spirit
This looks like leaders getting to know reps personally, understanding their motivation style, publicly praising wins, and fostering team collaboration. People feed off positive momentum.
Efficient Time Management Systems
Reps should block their calendar proactively for dedicated prospecting blocks rather than getting constantly derailed by administrative tasks and high-touch clients. Proper systems lead to proper focus.
Additional examples include:
- Comprehensive product and market training,
- Competitor awareness coaching,
- Promoting ongoing learning,
- Tightening Sales Processes: Documenting the ideal sales workflow from lead handoff to contract signed ensures consistency across the team.
- Technology Utilization: Equipping reps with video messaging capability and prompting them with next best action alerts based on algorithms supercharges productivity.
- Instilling a Growth Mindset: When leaders reinforce that sales ability is a muscle to build rather than fixed outcome, it promotes ongoing skill development.
Traits of Stand-Out Home Care Sales Reps
The highest-producing home care salespeople often share attributes like:
Empathy and Listening Skills
They ask thoughtful questions, listen intently to uncover true care needs, and convey genuine concern for the prospect and their family.
Confident Communication
Whether on a sales call or giving a home care demo to a community group, they confidently articulate their solution’s value, handle objections smoothly, and exude trustworthiness.
Persistence in the Face of Rejection
They don’t take “no” personally but probe further into concerns or circle back persistently, knowing deals require multiple touches to close.
Adaptability
They can pivot sales conversations based on a prospect’s background, condition, financial situation, or family dynamic to best resonate. Flexibility is key.
Becoming a Subject Matter Expert
Top reps voraciously read industry publications, listen to leader podcasts, and engage in associations to become true senior care advisors, not just salespeople.
Goals Orientation
Monthly, weekly, and even daily micro-goals fuel motivation and reinforce the progress being made little by little.
Resilience and Optimism
The highest performers interpret rejections neutrally as data points rather than personal attacks, analyzing what went wrong to tweak approaches for the next call.
Build Sales Muscle With Daily Practices
Consistent days make consistent weeks make consistent months of production. Home care salespeople can adopt habits like:
10 Minutes of Targeted Prospect Research
Whether researching potential referral partners or skimming through new client intake documents, little bites of effort compound.
Role Play to Practice Pitches
Trying out a new conversation opener or close technique with a peer sales rep breathes flexibility into communication abilities.
Analyzing Sales Funnel Metrics
Digging into lead tracking reports or grilling down on specific objections faced identifies useful patterns to capitalize on and improve.
15 Minutes of Industry Reading
Whether an article about family caregiver burnout or Medicaid integration models, regular reading keeps the sales brain sharp.
Networking Checks
Reaching out to 2-3 fellow industry connections on LinkedIn weekly expands referral pipelines.
Social Prospecting
Crafting personalized messages to new senior housing contacts or hospital discharge planner prospects found on LinkedIn opens doors.
Mental Focus
Quietly working through deep breathing, visualization, or mindfulness exercises in the morning centers focus before prospecting kicks off.
Evening Self-Evaluations
A quick bullet journal entry identifying what messages and closes got positive traction channels learning.
Conclusion
With intense emotional and financial needs on the line, home care salespeople carry an incredible responsibility. Surfacing why sales reps commonly struggle is the critical first step agencies must take. Once the pitfalls are identified, addressing them through tailored strategies, leading with the right character traits, and embedding consistent sales-focused daily habits sets both individuals and organizations up for sustainable success. Sales performance has a direct impact on patient lives – and that is powerful motivation.
ASN’s upcoming Home Care Sales Accelerator: 90-Day Mastery Program turns the tide and helps sales reps succeed in home care sales! Our next class starts the week of March 4th. Apply now!
Valerie VanBooven RN, BSN founded the company after years of working in many different roles from ICU Nurse to Discharge Planner, Home Care, Care Management and more. She wrote her first book in 2003, called “Aging Answers”. After that came “The Senior Solution” in 2009.
Valerie and her staff grew as more home care agencies and senior service businesses realized the undeniable value of being found online.
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