Growing Your Business

“Said Simple Simon to the pieman, let me [see] your wares.” We all recited this line when we were children. Today, this one sentence is still the cornerstone of all marketing. This is what every marketer does, or at least should do, whether it is a giant like Wal-Mart or Target, or your store’s location in your hometown.

Since the turn of the year, I have received many calls from providers and associates about marketing ideas. The following are some of the interesting ways in which HomeCare magazine readers have developed new sales programs.

• From Upstate New York: “There are several rehab clinics in my market as well as many hospitals. We have been working together with several of our preferred vendors to put together a ‘traveling’ demonstration team. “When we make calls on these locations, we offer to do a demo for the [physical therapists] during their lunch hour. We bring sandwiches, chips and soda pop. The average number of techs we see is usually between 12 and 15, so the cost is not excessive. The expense is usually borne by the manufacturer’s reps who travel with us. “We show the latest in wheelchairs and all the basic equipment we handle, both new and familiar. We bring with us only top-of-the-line merchandise, and the sales reps from these companies do the demonstrations. This has paid off tremendously. We now get many new referrals from the PTs at the hospitals and the clinics we have visited.” To augment this successful idea and carry it through in your showroom, I recommend that you display wheelchairs on a platform about six inches high. It is not necessary to make a mass display; simply show six or seven chairs, all loaded with every type of comfort item you have — safety belts, wallet and book holders, cup holders, cushions, oxygen tank brackets, etc. Be sure that each item is clearly price-marked. Experience has shown that when these items are shown on the chairs, at least 90 percent of wheelchair sales are accompanied by an add-on.
• From Texas: “One of my customers taught me a valuable lesson. A couple came to my showroom to buy a walker for her father. I had a nice display showing several different units. When they asked about a cane, I took them to a rack I had near the cash register. When they asked to see a wheelchair, I took them to the display I had in the front of my showroom. “After the sale was consummated, the husband asked me why these items were not all displayed together in the same area.” This dealer took the customer’s comment to heart, and here is what he decided to do: He got large sheets of graph paper and marked the location of every display rack he had and what was on each. He was then able to reposition everything into consolidated display areas, and he hung signs indicating each section, along with very visible price signing. It took several weeks to get the redisplay done. Along the way, he made a few other changes in his showroom, and he did invest a few dollars in some remodeling. As a result, however, he reported to me that his OTC (over-the-counter) sales have increased by more than 50 percent since the project was accomplished.
• From Chicago: “We get more than our share of snow and ice annually in the Windy City. We maintain a display of cane and crutch tips that are specifically designed to be used on ice. These are not very expensive, and my customers invariably buy two sets each year. Somehow they lose track of them in the warm weather, and come September and October, they are back to make another purchase.

“What I find is that those customers, who came to buy the winter crutch and cane tips, usually come to us to get all their supplies.”

I find that successful home care providers are always thinking of ways to make their businesses grow. It is this type of inventive entrepreneurship that allows smaller dealers to compete with any of the major marketers.

Hopefully, you will be resourceful enough to do the same.

Sheldon “Shelly” Prial is based in Melbourne, Fla., with Prial Consulting and also serves as the director of government relations for Atlanta-based Graham-Field Health Products. In 1987, he founded the Homecare Providers Co-Op, now part of The VGM Group. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 321/255-3885.