Record low unemployment levels have changed the face of recruiting & hiring. With US unemployment levels holding at 3.5%, hiring has become a unique challenge for many home care and home health agencies. In most major markets, final candidates are showing up to interviews with 1,2 or more job offers in hand, and negotiating from a position of strength as never before. The past 18 months have driven up salaries in the home care sales space by 15-25% and they may not come back

Managers at assisted living facilities (ALFs) and independent retirement communities (ILFs) are often committed to keeping residents in their facilities for as long as possible. There are, of course, costs associated with filling vacancies. In addition, if residences remain empty for any length of time, the profitability of these types of entities can be severely adversely affected. Consequently, to the extent that agencies can assist residents to remain in their homes, ALF

Wait, what? I know, you're thinking that every one of these articles should be about successful salespeople, or managers. What to look for, who to hire, who to avoid...right? Well, it's just as important to understand who the BEST customers are, and why....so let's dive in. 1. They are available - In our industry, you need face time with your customers. You need time for education, for follow up, and for relationship building. Those customers who won't give you time to do tha

The homecare industry has generally been highly profitable for some owners. Providers welcome this profitability and the resulting viability that it has brought to the industry. Private equity groups have become frequent purchasers of homecare providers, a sure sign of profitability. At the same time, the environment for the provision of services of all types has become difficult and perhaps even dangerous for providers. The consequences for violations of regulatory requi

The science of sales relationship building If you talk to any sales rep in the home care space, they'll tell you "relationship building" is one of the keys to success. I completely agree with them in this industry, and in any other. That said, many of these same reps use faulty logic when it comes to relationship building that actually hurts their long term chances of sales success. So then, here is a sales business tenet that you should internalize and use at every "relation

Hospital Discharge Planning: Insights A recent study of the experiences of patients and their caregivers with transitions from hospitals to other care settings, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, reveals the following insights: 1. When physicians show compassion toward patients and their wishes, including taking the time to talk with them openly about their conditions, patients and their families may make the best decisions about care. 2. Patients and their car

In the home care arena, we often call the sales function of the job "marketing". That stems from a long term belief that "sales" is bad, and "marketing" is somehow less bad. Ask any successful company if "sales" is bad and they'd probably laugh you out of the front door. Sales is the key component to growth, closely followed by a strong and well formed marketing plan. So, how can these two titans of business development work together? Relatively simply actually. Your marketin

Once upon a time, sales managers and directors looked for a quick, easy way to determine the effectiveness of their reps and sales teams. Quota achievement is obviously the easiest measure, but even that number doesn't tell you how effective your team is, it only tells you the end result. Besides, if you're NOT achieving goal, then you have very little to go on when trying to determine how to develop your team. Enter....the Sales Per Hour (SPH) Ratio. SPH is a very simple mea

Enforcement Action in San Francisco: What Happened? Federal Criminal Complaints have been filed against thirty defendants in the San Francisco area who are charged in a “patients-for-cash” kickback scheme. The complaints center on Amity Home Health Care, the largest home health care provider in the Bay Area, and Advent Care, Inc., a hospice. Under the leadership of Ridhima “Amanda” Singh, Chief Executive Officer, the federal government claims that Amity and Advent paid kick