How Not to Do Lunch with Your Referral Sources

I recently saw a classified advertisement for a medical staff position in a physician’s office. Aside from the typical requirements, education background and experience, the advertisement also stated: “Lunch provided daily.” Where does this free food come from? Medical sales professionals. If you are like most HME providers, you are sick of doing lunches. After 21 years of doing them, let me tell you, I am, too. It seems that HME sales have evolved with those of the pharmaceutical companies; the consensus is that the only way to get to see the referral source is to do lunch, right? But maybe not for most, and certainly not for every referral source.

There are some proven techniques to avoid (and sometimes completely eliminate) the lunch factor in getting to see the referral source. Avoiding lunches completely would be the best solution, but let’s be realistic. Sometimes it is good to do lunch with the referral source. So if you have to do lunch, what steps should you take? How do you prepare, what do you say during the lunch and what should your expectations be at its conclusion?

(Just to be clear, for our purposes “lunch” is synonymous with any time food is provided as a way to see the referral source.)

Let’s explore the following: why the referral source wants your lunch, the reasons you typically do lunch (the fallback position), the script you can use to avoid and/or eliminate lunch completely, a formula to help you decide which referral source gets lunch, the different types of lunches you do (not the choice between Chinese or Subway), how to direct the lunch before you get there to deliver outcomes for both the referral source and your business, and how to follow up and keep the momentum in your corner.

Is Lunch Really That Bad?

Absolutely not. A lunch in a qualified office where the sales professional is prepared can be very valuable with an existing referral source. The key word here is “qualified.” Providing lunch gives you the potential to build upon the existing relationship. Clearly, if you can qualify that the potential for a referral source is significant — before you make the appointment — then providing an in-service where food is present is totally fine. However, if you are already receiving significant business from a particular referral source and the main reason for this business is that you provide lunch, consider what this says about the referral source and what this says about your sales ability.

Lunch Guidelines

Before we uncover how not to do lunch with the referral source, let’s review the guidelines that we must follow for doing lunch. Here’s what regulatory expert Mark Higley, vice president of development for VGM Group, has to say:

Reasonable amounts can be spent to educate referral sources about Medicare coverage and your services, including buying them lunch. Please notice the terms “Medicare coverage” first and “services” last. This is always a good visual in the unlikely event there is any challenge from the government.

Providing education about your services is an acceptable practice and does not violate the Anti-Kickback Statute or the Stark Law. In situations where you are required to provide education over a breakfast, lunch or other meal setting, it is acceptable to provide a modest meal to those attending the educational session. Consider the Stark Law when providing meals to physicians. Stark indicates that gifts to physicians cannot exceed an aggregate of $300 plus the CPI-U ($355 for 2010). Food counts toward these limits.

Bottom line: If payment to a referral source is not for something reasonable and necessary, payment is likely illegal.

You cannot pay or provide a gift to a referral source for something that would not be considered reasonable and necessary. You cannot offer or furnish free services to referral sources. According to this principle, you cannot offer your referral sources anything they would otherwise have to pay for in exchange for referrals.

Why Do You Offer Lunch?

Taking lunch appointments has become the HME sales rep’s “fallback position.” In the military, this is an area to go to when the mission has not gone according to plan. There are several reasons you or your reps might use lunches as a fallback:

• This is what I was taught to do Regardless of the training program, you likely observed someone use this tactic to get in to see the referral source. So, you assumed this is how “selling” was done.
• Everyone else does it (I must be missing something if I don’t.) Other representatives from HMEs or pharmaceutical companies are doing lunches, so there must be something to it. I need to do it, too.
• I’m not good at “selling and communication.” This is the most common area of misguidance. Sales professionals are excellent communicators; you’ve just not been forced to use your skill sets since there are easier ways to “sell” — like doing a lunch.
• This one may hurt a bit, but it must be said: It’s not my money. If you combine a lack of skills and the fact that you get to expense this lunch, at the end of the month you have the master fallback position of “I’ll just tell them I can bring lunch.”
• I do not have to feel rejected Rejection is a real thing, and sales representatives feel rejection. Most know not to take rejection personally, but if a salesperson has the choice of rejection or acceptance, he or she will select acceptance — at the cost of a nice lunch.

Not Doing Lunch

So, how do you NOT do lunch with the referral source?

As a sales professional, you must be prepared to qualify and provide an upfront contract to the referral source before venturing down the path of providing lunch. You must always remember that your objective is to share relevant information and educate the referral source.

Understanding the tendencies of the referral source will help you with your qualification for lunch provision. Doing lunch is a positive activity if you have qualified the viability of increasing the relationship, and therefore the business, with the referral source via the lunch.

The qualifying process is an easy one. Referral sources that are currently using your services have greater potential for future referrals. Your existing business with that customer should tell you what that potential is. Also, emerging customers with great potential who also have an interest in learning about what your company does and how you provide superior service to the patients they entrust to your care would qualify. You can avoid or completely eliminate doing lunches when the referral source does not fit these criteria.

When lunch appointments are not appropriate, you must first script what you are going to say to the referral source. By combining your criteria with a script, you can get away from doing lunch nearly every time with existing or prospective referral sources. Your success rate in avoiding or eliminating lunch entirely by using the phrases below should be well over 85 percent.

• “With the economy the way it is, all providers have to cut back on lunches. I can still provide the in-service but cannot provide the meal.”
• “I am not saying I can never do lunch with your office, but I have exceeded my budget this quarter (or month, etc.). I will have to wait a few months until I can begin expensing them again. Is there another way I can see the referring physician or nurse?” (Be prepared to offer suggestions, such as an appointment before the first patient of the day.)
• “I would be happy to provide lunch for your group, however I have never done business with your office before. My owner will not allow us to do lunch unless I can qualify the potential fit between our two businesses. If you would allow me three minutes with the referral source or nurse, I will be able to qualify this office so I can provide lunch and an in-service.”

If the receptionist mistakes you for a pharmaceutical representative and is convinced that you cannot provide lunch with these new guidelines, go along with it.

Doing Lunch on Your Terms

If you decide that this is a referral source that qualifies under your criteria, would benefit from your in-service and has the potential to do additional business with your company, then remember you need to provide an upfront contract before you provide lunch and the in-service. Make sure those two go together: lunch and in-service. This is part of the upfront contract that you are providing the referral source through your subtle language.

The upfront contract with the referral source takes place when you are scheduling the lunch and in-service. Since you are bringing the meal and providing a valuable in-service, you have the right to do this on your terms. Be clear about your expectations for the time you will spend with the referral source and the staff. Here are some of the elementary questions that must be asked before committing:

• What type of lunch will this be?
• How much time will I have during the lunch?
• What is the number of attendees? Who are they relative to the practice? Who will make the referrals to you and your HME company?
• What have they “heard” (not “had”) recently?
• And the biggest question: Will the referral source be there?

You must set a criteria that you and your company owners are willing to accept as a minimum requirement in order to provide the lunch and in-service. For example, if the referral source will not be there, is it worth doing the lunch? Or, if you only have two minutes because the referral source walks by in between patients, should you invest in this office? (Honestly, these offices would not get my lunch or in-service until my criteria could be met.)

If you are satisfied with the answer to your upfront contract and it meets your established criteria, then schedule the lunch.

Managing the Lunch

Now that you have the lunch scheduled, it is time to manage the lunch. You must deliver outcomes for both the referral source and your business.

The accompanying “Referral Source Lunch Checklist” can be used as a guide for qualifying and planning a lunch and in-service with your referral source.

Your goal as a sales professionals is to bring value to the medical community that you serve. As you raise the bar on your profession, consider bringing content over calories. You must begin to change the referral source’s expectations for lunches and stand firm on your need to manage your resources effectively. Champion this cause by establishing your criteria, and resolve that no lunches and in-services will be provided to non-qualified referral sources.

With 20 years of experience, Ty Bello is a Registered Corporate Coach and the president and founder of Team@Work, a business coaching organization specializing in the assessment, development and coaching of individuals and teams in the HME industry. You can reach him at [email protected] or 260/493-7965.

Delivering The Perfect Lunch

Think about the typical process you go through when preparing to conduct a lunch with referral sources. You:

• Make the appointment.
• Call the caterer.
• Pick up the meal.
• Pay for the meal.
• Drive the food across town.
• Set it up (then wait, and wait some more).
• Listen to idle gossip (waiting a little more).
• Speak with the office staff (wait again).
• Then cram 20 minutes of information into the two minutes the decision-maker takes to wolf down the food and leave.
• Sigh. Clean up the lunch. Repeat.

The Top 6 Reasons

The Referral Source Wants Your Lunch

1. It’s FREE.
2. You offer it (again, did I mention it’s FREE).
3. They have no time during the day to see you. (Want to bet?)
4. They are looking for education (LOL).
5. You have been placed in the same category as pharma reps.
6. They forgot how to pack their own lunch.

Types Of Lunches

Drive-Through – They walk through a serving line or buffet and then go to another room to eat.

Deer in Headlights Lunch – I’m here, but I’m not listening.

Sterno Lunch – Wine and dine (we’re talking cloth napkins). They expect to have the best, they even tell you where they had lunch from before and expect you to bring something different.

Social Lunch – Meet the staff. You are not only providing lunch for the staff but the janitor, billing department, customer service and possibly someone from another office. Really, someone from another office? Sure, how would you know if they weren’t?

20/2 Lunch – You actually get to do an in-service or demo but you have 20 minutes of information and are given two minutes to present.

Referral Source Lunch Checklist

• Will the referral source be present?
  • Yes, schedule lunch.
  • No, pick another date when referral source is there.

• What type of lunch?
• What’s the potential for business?
• What’s your plan/goal for the lunch?
• What topics or information have you or other providers presented before?
• What questions will you ask?
• What’s the lunch agenda?
• On review, did you cover everything you set out to cover?
• What was the overall reception to the message and your company?
• What are the next steps? What will you do next to increase business?
• Did you talk to the receptionist to establish next steps?

Source: www.hmesalescommunity.com