Selling Tips

Manual wheelchairs are the mainstay of the home medical equipment business, yet very few sales reps spend much time analyzing how to sell these products. Here are some tips:

• Understand the differences in the manual wheelchairs on the market. Can you tell your customer the difference between the leading name brands and the not-so-leading name brands? All wheelchairs are not built the same. You need to differentiate yourself from other HME companies by becoming an expert in different product line segments.
• Manual wheelchairs are generally for short-term use for patients. There are a plethora of reasons that people need these chairs. Do you know the top diagnoses for these chairs? Can you tell what they are for Medicare patients? For Medicaid patients? For commercial patients? The best way to “sell” a chair is to talk about specific patients. Sometimes referral sources don’t think about manual chairs; help them find the patients who need them.
• Think creatively. What about designing a creative package for patients who need a manual chair and also need other HME products? Think about bundling. For example, a post-hip patient may need a manual chair as well as bath items. Work with your referral sources to offer packages to patients, and promote them to referral sources by diagnoses. Differentiate your company with the packages you offer. You can also sell these to managed care organizations.
• How standardized are you with manual chairs? Think about product formularies for chairs: These brands are best for these situations; those brands are best for other situations. Many HME companies standardize their brands, but they are not always the best brands for patients. Conduct mini-focus groups to make sure that the brands you carry are the ones your patients want. Think about less medical-looking options, for instance, for higher-end patients and those who have money or are image-oriented. Looks do sell.
• Train your intake employees to understand which chairs match which kinds of customers. Offer to order chairs that aren’t in your regular menu if people want them. Consider having an e-mail option so you can show patients chair options. Or, have your drivers visit their homes and show pictures of options. Or, have your reps or other personnel visit patients before they leave the hospital to show people what they can have.

Make the sale personal. Then patients will really love your business, and happy patients mean happy referral sources.

Alison Cherney is president of Cherney & Associates Inc., a Brentwood, Tenn.-based marketing and sales consulting firm, and is the producer of Homecare Power Selling, a sales training program for home care sales reps. She may be reached at 615/776-3399 or through www.cherneyandassociates.com.