As the United States begins to plan how to reopen its states and economy, the home care industry....specifically the sales & marketing function, cannot lag behind. It's time for us to establish how we will safely move forward with reintroducing ourselves into the community and the facilities that we call on. Phase 1 - Now 1. Understand and respect the rules of your state as it pertains to non essential work, social distancing, masks and gloves worn in public, etc. This is not the time to buck the rules. We are inserting ourselves into facilities that have the most vulnerable population of patients. This virus is opportunistic and it's our FIRST responsibility to protect those who cannot prot

Much of the focus thus far in the treatment of COVID-19 patients has been on hospitals and rightfully so. Practitioners on the front lines of treatment of COVID-19 patients and policy makers are now beginning to advocate for the treatment of COVID-19 patients at home instead of in hospitals. Are home care providers ready to run toward the fire? Italian physicians led the way, as reported in an article, “A Plea From Doctors in Italy: To Avoid COVID-19 Disaster, Treat More Patients at Home,” by Sharon Begley that appeared in STAT on March 21, 2020. The article says: A dozen physicians at the epicenter of Italy’s COVID-19 outbreak issued a plea to the rest of the world…, going beyond the hea

With so much of our industry's sales and marketing efforts taking place online, or in digital format, it's a good time to explore how to make those messages more effective and more likely to be acted upon. Active versus Passive Messaging The key is understanding what the intent of your message is. An active message requests or expects the recipient to take some action. A passive message simply provides a piece of information that the recipient might access at some point...now, or later....no immediate action is expected or implied. Why It's Important To Know The Difference I spoke with an executive in the home care industry last week. He relayed that he is now receiving up to 200 emails per

May 1st....or June 1st, or some month of some day, the lockdown we're under is going to be lifted. When it is, many industry people expect that our sales and marketing effort will slowly go back to the way it was before. I don't..... I believe the post COVID sales and marketing landscape is going to look dramatically different than what we were experiencing just 2 months ago. In fact, if you look at little more deeply at the changes that have swept the homecare industry in the past few years, you'll see that we were already heading down this path....COVID is just accelerating it. How different will things be? First and foremost we should realize that COVID-19 is a robust virus that preys (mo

American Home Healthcare System, Inc.; a free standing home health agency in Indiana; has sued Floyd Memorial Hospital and Baptist Healthcare System for violations of antitrust laws related to patients’ right to freedom of choice. In a recent Memorandum Opinion and Order, the U.S. District Court refused to dismiss the case [American Home Healthcare Servs, Inc. v. Floyd Mem’l Hosp. and Health Servs, No. 4-17-cv-00089-TWP-DML, (S.D. on Mar. 5, 2018)]. In this case, American Home Healthcare claims that the Hospital engaged in tortious and anti-competitive conduct specifically intended to monopolize home health agency referrals from the Hospital to Floyd Home Health and to interfere with patie

If you missed registering for this week's Professional Growth Series of live webinars on Closing, Behavior, and Presentations, don't fear....we're putting them on again. The programs were such a success that you have another chance to join Michael Giudicissi for these powerful learning programs from the comfort of your home office. Each live program is only $49 per person, or save and register for the entire series for only $139. If you don't want to wait, you can order the replays of this week's sessions for only $139 and watch them right now. Visit the Professional Growth Series page for more information and to register today! You've got time....use it to get better for the next phase of h

You've heard this 1,000 times "This business is about building relationships"...right? I agree, by the way, that without the relationship your chances of any long term success are almost nil. Now, while I don't need to teach a relationship building course to most of you, I would like to separate two key parts of any sales interaction with your referral sources for you. Relationship Building - The part(s) of the sales call where you engage in dialogue that is likely to help you better understand your prospect, help them better understand you, and begin the process of building "like" and "trust". As such, there is no certain amount of time that you will spend doing this in each call, because i

Based on the common law or court decisions, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA), and regulations of the Medicare Program governing discharge planning in hospitals, patients clearly have the right to freedom of choice of providers. Both providers and patients seem to agree that this right is important to patients. This right has, however, generated considerable conflict between referring providers and recipients of referrals. Recipients and potential recipients of referrals express continued doubt that referring providers honor patients’ right to freedom of choice. Referring providers often say that they scrupulously abide by requirements related to this right. The real problem, however,

Can you make progress in your sales and relationship building during the pandemic? Yes, you can. I received this text late last night from one of the participants in our current 10 Week Home Care Marketing Accelerator program: "Hi! I’m sorry so late. I wanted to thank you for all of the positivity and guidance during this pandemic. Your strategies and guidance have been very helpful. I had a doctor give me his word on referrals today. I’ll celebrate when the referral is in hand but appreciate your help getting to this point!" In challenging times you should celebrate EVERY win to keep you focused on the goal. Here was my response: "There we go! Making progress. There’s no way for us to fail

As we've talked to sales teams around the country, the one thing we continue to hear is that during this time, people are going to "get better" by using their free time to take some classes. To that end, Michael Giudicissi would love to help you "get better" so we're offering these 3 online learning classes on April 8-10. Take one or all of them! Each class lasts 60-90 minutes. April 8, 2020 - Noon EDT - Master The Close! REGISTER Become a master closing and learn how to ask for the business the right way. You'll learn tips and techniques to improve you closing ratio and get more referrals. You'll be confident while learning multiple ways to ask for and get the referral ​ April 9, 2020 - Noo