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Sales Tip of the Week: 3 Keys to Maximizing Referrals

Top home care marketers should consider themselves "Doctors of Selling." You should see yourself as a well-educated professional, acting in your "patient's" (referral source's) best interest. Think of it this way...The medical process is the same everywhere. Whenever you go to any doctor, of any kind, for any condition, he or she will follow the three-part sequence of examination, diagnosis and prescription. You should do the same.

Here are the three keys to your success in maximizing referrals:

1) Begin With A Thorough Examination
Just as a medical professional would never think of testing you without following the three steps in order, you as a "Doctor of Selling," should never try selling to a referral source or prospect without going through your three stages as well. In the examination phase, ask excellent questions, carefully prepared, in sequence, which are geared to give you a thorough understanding and diagnosis of the "patient's" condition and situation.

2) Diagnose The Prospect's Need Accurately
Your second phase is diagnosis. When diagnosing a referral source, repeat back the results of your examination and double check to be sure that the "symptoms" you detected were real symptoms being experienced by the "patient". Ask additional questions to confirm and corroborate. For example, you could ask the following:
• What are the most common diagnoses of the patients you see in your practice?
• What type of Home Care services are you currently not getting?
• Which areas do you find most difficult to manage?
• What can we do the help make your job easier?
• What is most important to you when referring to a Home Health agency?
You and the "patient" should mutually agree that your diagnosis seems to be an accurate description of the condition or need.

3) Make the Right Prescription
Once a mutual agreement has been reached, that a treatable condition exists and that you have identified it accurately, you can move on to phase three. This is the prescription phase, where you show the "patient" that your service is the best available treatment, taking all the factors of the situation into consideration for the ailment that you have diagnosed. You should demonstrate that what you are suggesting is the best of all possible solutions for them. You can do this by using testimonials from other satisfied referral sources, providing them with specific case situations and/or bringing a clinical person with you to discuss specific disease management solutions.

Marketers who sell in the way that doctors treat patients find that their sales activities proceed far more smoothly and result in better sales in less time.