Good salespeople always have a place in the home care industry. If the Lord did not see a role for the well-trained salesperson, he would have made products that sell themselves. Anyway, that apparently has not yet happened. While many products come to us in interesting colors and some have unique customer eye appeal, most need a message from the salesperson if they are ever going to leave the warehouse. The product presentation to an interested customer or referral source can focus on any one product element or several. Which of these elements should you include in your presentation, and which should you talk about first? Product Features — Every product comes with a select list of interesting features. These may include the size of...

Documentation, reporting, tracking — all items on the salesperson’s “I don’t want to do list.” Just getting a salesperson to complete a weekly call report is a challenge for most managers. They just don’t want to do the paperwork! But the need for completing a comprehensive account assessment is vital to understanding your accounts and tracking the progress of these relationships. As you develop each account assessment, include these 10 basic items: Account assessments must be a work in progress, and these items are only the beginning. You should also include other information, such as tracking the payment sources for the services your client provides. These may be the same financial sources you will need to use for payment for your products. Note any new...

Competition among providers is offering professional referral sources increasing choices, so you should anticipate the concerns of case managers, social workers and continuing care coordinators who are looking for the ideal place to send patients. By helping these sources make appropriate decisions for their clients, you will attract and keep their attention. Ask yourself, for instance, why a social worker should call you. What difference do you make in the lives of particular clients with specific medical problems? Can you qualify your difference from all others in your community? Hospitals, rehab centers and pharmaceutical companies are becoming involved in understanding and tracking outcomes. Now it is our turn to develop outcome information that can be used as a selling and marketing tool, surpassing those mugs...