The Essential Sales Toolkit for Home Care Success

The Essential Sales Toolkit for Home Care Success

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Mike Paladino: Hey, Dawn, this is Mike. How are you?

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Dawn Fiala: Good? How are you?

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Mike Paladino: Welcome to the CareSmartz360 On Air, a home care podcast I’m Mike Paladino, the senior account executive here at CareSmartz360

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Mike Paladino: equipping yourself for success in home care sales goes beyond just brochures.

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Mike Paladino: Your essential toolkit is really a blend of knowledge and resources.

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Mike Paladino: First, start understanding the industry with compliance manuals and training on senior care needs. That’s very important.

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Mike Paladino: This builds trust with potential clients

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Mike Paladino: on the digital front, a user-friendly website and SEO optimization attracts online searches.

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Mike Paladino: Marketing software. Just the same, also helps manage leads and track referrals that are coming through.

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Mike Paladino: Finally, reliable scheduling software ensures smooth operations. And it’s really a key factor for busy families.

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Mike Paladino: With this toolkit, you’ll be prepared to effectively connect with families and demonstrate the value your home care services bring.

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Mike Paladino: Today we have on the panel Dawn Fiala, Director of sales and client services at approved Senior network marketing.

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Mike Paladino: which is an online marketing agency for home care and Senior service industries. Don has over 15 years of experience in building high-performance teams, brands and companies within the homecare industry.

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Mike Paladino: welcome to the podcast on.

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Dawn Fiala: Thank you, Mike. I’m so excited to be here.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah. Likewise, I’m excited to have you on. And my background obviously is in sales. And it’s 1 thing that I have, you know, near and dear to my heart. I know the importance of that business development side, and am really keen on no learning more from you, and sharing that knowledge with our audience here with respect to sales, and selling in a very complex landscape, which is our industry. So.

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Dawn Fiala: Yeah, yeah.

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Mike Paladino: With that said I’d love to dive into my 1st question for you, Don. Which? No, what are the specific needs and challenges faced by new salesperson entering the homecare industry.

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Dawn Fiala: So I’ve seen through the years. There’s 3 types of people entering the industry. There are people that have never been in sales or in home care. You have people that have been in home care for years, but that they’ve never been in the sales. So they’re entering a new role. And then you have people that have done sales their whole life. But they’ve never been in home care. And I would say, for all 3 of those types of people they need. Training is gonna be so important. This industry

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Dawn Fiala: is really unique. And I ha! I’m in sales, too. I’ve been in sales my whole life, and you know, of course, you know you have friends that are salespeople, and you talk about your job and all the things and home care is just so different from pharmaceutical medical devices. It’s just a very different industry. And what’s interesting about our team, we do teach home, home care, sales, training, and business development. There are 3 of us on our team that have been, I like to call it, in the trenches of home care that may not sound very good, but it feels that way.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Dawn Fiala: Feel like you’re in the trenches of home care. There are 3 of us that have been in the trenches of home care for 15 years, 15 plus years, and we’re from. I’m from Arizona, once from New York, once from California, we have all been doing the same thing the same way and going to the same places all these years, and we were all very successful and got to the 1 million dollar mark very quickly. Millions of dollars with the home care agencies we worked for. So

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Dawn Fiala: It’s just a very unique kind of sale. And so the training needs to be very specific to this industry and they need support. They need training, they need support. And it’s not like a

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Dawn Fiala: one and done training. I’ve trained you to go, do it, you know, and they will. They’ll take what you’ve trained them and taught them to do, because I’ve trained lots of marketers in my time, and they go do it, but they get stuck, they get stuck. They. I did what you said at these 3 sniffs, and it worked. And now I’m at this sniff, still nursing facility, and she said to me, I have 12 other homes for agencies I work with. I don’t need to talk to you.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Dawn Fiala: But of course, you know, as her manager or the owner of the company she needs to talk. Go back. She has to go back and talk. So how does she do that? What does she do to overcome that objection?

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Dawn Fiala: Standing there in front of that person? Right? They need to be armed with how to overcome that objection person, rather than hoping to get in front of them. 3 weeks, 4 months from now, however long it takes, and being.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Dawn Fiala: They need to say so. It’s the training. It’s the support they need to be taught how to be effective and efficient in the field. They need to know how to qualify their referral sources. So they’re not wasting their time. If you go to a sniff, and they’re 100 Medicaid beds. Probably not a great place for private pay, I mean. So you should be going back every 8 to 10 days. No, probably not. You’re probably not going to get a lot of private pay business out of a snip. That’s 100

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Dawn Fiala: Medicaid. It can happen from time to time, but it’s very, very rare right? That’s gonna happen. So they need to know how to qualify those referral sources, too, for sure. Yeah.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head. And I think what’s exciting about what you’ve explained at the start of the answer to your question was, you get people from all backgrounds, and you might have people that have sales experience like myself. But I’ve never worked in home care specifically like on the practical side. So

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Mike Paladino: When you talk about that touch point where you know you really have to understand your audience, you have to understand their pain points, what they’re going through, and ultimately what they need. Right? I think the idea with sales because I could be more philosophical on sales is, we’re always trying to, you know, make things easier, but also find solutions and value. No, we could really kind of talk about features or benefits, and all these different things that make us great.

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Mike Paladino: But is there a need? And it’s understanding what that need is, 1st and foremost, and then leveraging that to show how you have helped similar agencies or facilities, or whomever

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Mike Paladino: be more successful. And you know it’s the objection handling cause, I think you know, especially in our industry. It’s a bit of a grind, right? So you have to get out there. You’re in. You’re in the field. You’re on the road. You’re driving around, going from facility to facility.

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Mike Paladino: and they speak to lots of different people. So how do you differentiate? How do you stand out from the crowd? Well, that’s really taking a deep understanding of who you’re speaking to, knowing your audience and researching them. You know I’ve seen so many. I’ve been on sales calls when no, on the leadership side, and the amount of times that we have had meetings and some talking more software. But it’s still relevant

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Mike Paladino: where we get on a call, and they have no idea who we are.

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Dawn Fiala: Yes.

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Mike Paladino: Right away. I like it.

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Mike Paladino: probably not going with this one, and you know you give them the benefit of the doubt. You listen to them. You hear them out, but then they do a lot of their discovery on the call. When they have you, when you really should be doing it ahead of time to really prepare for potential objections. Because if you’re not prepared, you’re gonna hear a question on site or on the fly that you don’t know the answer to, and that immediately casts doubt on your abilities. Right?

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Mike Paladino: So I’m not gonna go off on a tangent. You can probably tell that I could. But I do think that objection handling is so important.

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Mike Paladino: And it’s also being honest right. If you don’t know the answer to a question, or you know, I think if somebody asks you something or kind of positions it a way you haven’t heard before. You have to just be honest about that. Say, you know, Don, I haven’t heard that before. But no! Why is that so important to you? Dig deeper, ask questions, and I think.

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Dawn Fiala: Think th-.

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Mike Paladino: Is such a key component to being successful in sales in general, because sales is an art form. Right? Then you learn the art apply to your practice area.

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Dawn Fiala: Right, right.

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Mike Paladino: It’s

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Dawn Fiala: Very true, and I think that you, you know you touched on differentiating yourself. That is what’s going to get you past the gatekeeper. That’s what’s going to get you a scheduled lunch and learn they know what home care is. They don’t want to hear about that.

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Mike Paladino: Okay.

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Dawn Fiala: Why your company is different, and how that differentiator is going to help their patients, their residence, whoever you’re talking to. And I found out too. And I teach. This also is that when you’re in skilled nursing facility and you’re referring to the people in that building, they’re called patients, even though there are clients they’re called patient, and when you’re in assisted living there, residents, so you need to be speaking their language, and that goes to understanding their day to day, too, you know.

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Dawn Fiala: and and being right there with them, so differentiating yourself is really going to make you stand out. And it’s hard math. The market is saturated. When someone does.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Dawn Fiala: Talking to 12 other companies. I don’t need you. That means I see everybody is the same.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Dawn Fiala: All 12 of them are the same. And so you really need to have a differentiator that makes you stand out. So they think, oh, okay, they do a special training on Alzheimers. This patient has Alzheimer’s. I’m going to refer to them here. So there has to be something that makes you stand out for sure.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah, I think one. So there was a

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Mike Paladino: a tip, or like a tool. I was taught many years ago by a technology sales trainer. His name is John, and I’m not gonna say his last name, but he’s 1 of the more renowned trainers out there. He trains all like the sales forces, the linkedin’s all like the major tech companies. And I was fortunate prior in a previous life, to be a part of a fortune. 500 that received the sales training when I worked in the corporate world. And

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Mike Paladino: he basically helped us understand that it’s awesome if you can figure out the objections from your learning, speaking with others and get ahead of them on your outreach, whether it’s on the phone, whether it’s a cold email or whether it’s in person and no starting that conversation with, you know, we typically understand the agencies. Or, you know, businesses have XY, and Z challenges. And we typically get this type of feedback.

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Mike Paladino: This is how we help them, you know, differentiate or get beyond these things that they normally struggle with, and that let even if that’s the basic part of it that lets them know you do know what you’re talking about.

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Dawn Fiala: Yeah, I could.

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Mike Paladino: Consultant. And it’s a more relationship approach. Right? So.

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Dawn Fiala: That’s a great, that’s a great approach. And I.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Dawn Fiala: To when you’re training your salesperson, giving them those possible objections you’re in a snip. And this is what they’re thinking about. This is what they might say to you. And you’re gonna need to be prepared with how you’re gonna respond. So that should definitely be a part of the training, too, but I like that approach that you would use with them as well.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Dawn Fiala: Right, yeah.

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Mike Paladino: And I think you touched on this, too, whereas you gotta be continuously learning. You can’t just be trained on day one, and that’s you’re trained for life. Sales is as mentioned. It’s an art form. It changes overnight. What worked yesterday probably won’t work tomorrow, and we’re going through the idea now of cold, cold outreach, the outbound approach cold calling. I think there’s definitely still a market for that. But we also have buyers today, or people that you know, evaluate vendors or software.

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Mike Paladino: they’re just much more knowledgeable. We have more access to information. So a lot of the time. And we do this, and I’m sure you do this, too. If you’re looking to buy a tool or buy a system, or purchase something like a service, you’re probably doing your own research ahead of time. You know your top 5 vendors or agencies you’re gonna work with, and you’re gonna maybe even reach out to them ahead of time as an inbound right. And

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Mike Paladino: You know that is such a challenge. But I think one of the things we can do to really ensure we stay on top of that is on the objection side. Learn what are the top. 10 objections we saw last month, the top 5 last week over the course of the year. What are the most frequent types of questions or concerns we’re getting? You build your pitch around that boom. You’re immediately more knowledgeable, and you’re gonna have more of a chance. Not gonna win every time, but you might have a more of a chance

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Mike Paladino: chance to win, and that’s all you could ask for, set yourself up to succeed.

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Dawn Fiala: That’s perfect. Yeah.

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Mike Paladino: Awesome. So, as you can tell, it’s a very exhilarating topic to me.

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Dawn Fiala: Hopes.

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Mike Paladino: Segueing to the next one. Don. What would you say? Are the effective communication strategies for building trust and rapport with potential clients during the sales process. And it’s funny because we were gonna touch on these organically throughout this. But

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Mike Paladino: I think it’s a pretty good question.

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Dawn Fiala: Sure. No, it is a good question. And so, you know, prior to this, we were talking about more business development. We call it home care sales. But it is really business development. It’s a different hat. Sales starts when you’re in that house or on the phone with an adult child or in the home doing an assessment. So what I’ve seen through the years is that adult child is usually the one that’s gonna call in for parent services for their parents. They are in crisis, and maybe they’re not.

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Dawn Fiala: But in their mind they’re in crisis, their whole world to sell apart. Mom and dad have been in charge. Mom and Dad have called the shots, and now they can’t. One of them can’t. Something’s going on that’s for this call, and they’re in crisis. And so you really do need to stop everything you’re doing and give them 100 focus. And there are 2 things that have to happen on that phone call. You have to place yourself as a homecare expert.

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Dawn Fiala: and you must connect with them emotionally.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Dawn Fiala: Those 2 things have to happen, and that that’s a sales thing, too. Home care expert. It’s really easy to do that by saying things like, typically in this situation, or I find with hip replacement, this is the best way to go, or I find when working with someone with Alzheimer’s. This, you know, or we have Alzheimer’s training. When you state things in that way. They know this isn’t your 1st rodeo. You’ve been through this before.

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Dawn Fiala: They desperately want to take this problem, which is what’s going on with Mom and dad and hand it to someone who can take care of it for them. They’re out of their realm. They’re a fish out of water. They have no idea what to do next. So place yourself as an expert. They always share a little bit of what’s going on, my mom fell in, broke her hip. She’s in rehab. She’s discharging in a couple of weeks. Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry to hear that that can be so hard on everyone involved.

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Dawn Fiala: So even if you’re interrupting a little bit, you’re connecting emotionally with them. And you’re also saying it’s so hard when this happens, for everyone involved.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Dawn Fiala: Placing you as an expert, so connecting with them emotionally, and placing yourself as an expert, allows them to trust you enough

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Dawn Fiala: to hand this over, because.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Dawn Fiala: What happened? Yeah.

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Mike Paladino: For sure it’s that consultative approach. And it’s, I, I think, as a salesperson, or when you’re trying to sell something. It’s really easy to focus on the benefits. But a lot of the time those benefits are, you know, subjective, because we know the benefits in our mind. And it’s like we see you know this, this and this. You’re gonna see a reduction in XY or Z, and that sounds cool and great on paper. But is that what is most important to them?

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Mike Paladino: So I think that really also stems from the communication standpoint, asking lots of questions. What is most important to you. What are you most scared of?

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Mike Paladino: What do you know? How do we set you up for success? What does that look like to you? And I think if you could really dig deep and just resonate with them. Understand your target, don’t call it the buyer or those that are gonna set the services up for their loved ones. That’s really really important. And building that trust building that, you know, consultative approach, or whatever you want to call it.

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Mike Paladino: That’s number one and everything else will just fall into place, right cause.

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Dawn Fiala: The future.

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Mike Paladino: And benefits to know whatever that looks like. It’s going to be obvious after the fact, or once they start working with them. But it’s like, do they trust you? Do you know what you’re talking about? Is this your

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Mike Paladino: rodeo or not? Right?

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Dawn Fiala: Right.

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Mike Paladino: So yeah, it’s , it’s so interesting.

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Mike Paladino: You know, methodology, I would say, because there’s also not the thing that’s challenging. I think dawn about sales is not a 1. Size fits all approach right?

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Dawn Fiala: What my.

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Mike Paladino: At work, you know, with with one family or 1 1 person

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Mike Paladino: may not have any semblance of working with the next right? So that’s where the questions come in to really communicate effectively. Build that trust and let them know that you are. You know, somebody who does care for them. But also you really want to help them. And then that’s where no effective communication comes in. Just building that trust.

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Dawn Fiala: Yeah, yeah, I think I think that’s that’s a very. And when they know they can trust you because you’re an expert and.

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Mike Paladino: Yeah.

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Dawn Fiala: Here. They’re more willing to have that conversation and hand this over, you know, and get that. Get that assistance. And then you usually piggyback with this adult child to convince Mom and dad that this is okay, and that we need to do this. And that’s the next thing you’ll hear from the adult child is my mom’s never gonna agree to this like you can come over.

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Mike Paladino: Oh, yeah.

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Dawn Fiala: Yeah, we’ll sit in the living room, and we can do the thing. But she’s never going to do this, and you know, and so they’re counting on you to be able to do this with them right, counting on you to be able to convince Mom or Dad to take this next step, because, you know, they’re exhausted. Maybe they’re doing all the caregiving, and they have a whole job. And they have children, and they’re exhausted. That’s definitely a big scenario that I see over and over and over again.

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Mike Paladino: It’s super common, right? And we lived there so my family does have a very elderly grant. I have a grandfather who’s 95, and my parents are now retired. But he’s been. He’s actually in great health. He’s just old, right.

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Mike Paladino: So and his, you know his, his wife and partner. My grandma passed away a few years ago, so he’s been more alone right, and before they would kind of take care of each other. But they’re old Italians, very, very stubborn, I know, straight from Italy, right barely speaking English and you know we had that conversation where we said we think it might make sense if you maybe worked or no lived in assisted living

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Mike Paladino: did not go over well at all. Wanted to stay home in the house he’s lived in for 50 50 years right? So.

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Dawn Fiala: All memories are there everything is there

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Mike Paladino: So what ended up happening was our my, my dad and his brothers and sisters ended up being the caregivers, and every day somebody would go there. But the challenge was, some of them still worked, so some were putting in more effort, some were putting in less effort, but it wasn’t necessarily the effort. It was just the time because everyone also had families, too. Right? And that’s when we had the idea. This is before. And my mom obviously championed this because she had an agency at the time, and she’s like.

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Dawn Fiala: And come.

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Mike Paladino: Let’s get him set up with a home care, you know, person who can go in and alleviate some of the pressure of what’s been, you know, on you guys and they got set up, and it was a beautiful system, because it was clear communication. Everyone had that sense of relief, but we also felt really confident that our loved one was receiving awesome care, and I think that was something that really, you know, matters in the grand scheme of things. Because

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Mike Paladino: no, when you get tired you get burnt out. If you’re a family caregiver, or taking care of your own loved one. The quality of the care. You know, there’s resentment. That kind of builds right? That’s a topic we’ve seen. And it’s not.

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Dawn Fiala: The relationship, dynamic.

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Mike Paladino: 100%.

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Dawn Fiala: Yeah.

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Mike Paladino: Not intentional, it.

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Dawn Fiala: No, it’s not everything. License.

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Mike Paladino: Happens right. You have so many. We have so many stresses nowadays, and are like the cost of living. Everything is just wild, it seems, and all the things you see on the news can’t keep up right? So it’s like every single factor you have to think about these things cause that’s really at our core. Why home care is so important. We are. Let us take on the stress that you allows you to either a as an agency focus on growth, or B as a person

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Mike Paladino: with a loved one. Focus on your life to make sure you’re happy. Your loved ones are happy, and you can give that person the support they need from you. Right.

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Dawn Fiala: Right, right.

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Mike Paladino: So.

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Dawn Fiala: Your relationship as it was, can continue, because, being the caregiver, it really zaps that out of the relationship it really takes that that relationship you had before changes. And it’s not usually in a good way. So yeah, I’m getting it.

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Mike Paladino: And.

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Dawn Fiala: And allows them to.

00:20:30.460 –> 00:20:31.100
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:20:31.100 –> 00:20:32.600
Dawn Fiala: That relationship, too.

00:20:32.600 –> 00:20:50.705
Mike Paladino: Yeah. And it largely stems, because at the end of the day, you know, I’m not trained as a caregiver, or my parents weren’t trained as caregivers. So there’s a lot of no empathy. There’s a lot of interpersonal skills that are required. And you learn as what comes be with being a professional caregiver person, centered care on all those kinds of topics right? Being a professional caregiver in general

00:20:51.010 –> 00:20:54.090
Mike Paladino: self care. Right? That’s a big topic. And

00:20:54.090 –> 00:20:54.470
Dawn Fiala: 2 more.

00:20:54.470 –> 00:21:11.299
Mike Paladino: But aren’t in the care space, don’t know these things, or know how to implement them right and set those boundaries. And it’s like it’s the whole idea of the given edge. You take a mile. If we don’t push back on our loved ones, we’re a lot less likely to do so. We just do everything, it just compounds, and then you resent them. So.

00:21:11.300 –> 00:21:23.699
Dawn Fiala: Boston. Yeah. And I think it’s much harder to care for someone you’re emotionally connected with. Then for Caregivers, they come in. They care about their clients. I’m not saying they don’t care, but they’re not emotionally connected. The way a family member is.

00:21:23.700 –> 00:21:24.393
Mike Paladino: It’s different.

00:21:24.740 –> 00:21:33.170
Dawn Fiala: I have so many adult children. My mom’s gonna be so hard. No one’s gonna want to do this with her. They follow me out of the house to tell me that they give me the T right.

00:21:33.170 –> 00:21:33.810
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:21:33.810 –> 00:21:40.569
Dawn Fiala: So difficult. She’s gonna be such a terrible client. I’m so sorry, and I think she won’t be for the caregiver. That’s the relationship you have.

00:21:40.830 –> 00:21:41.760
Mike Paladino: Yeah, yeah.

00:21:41.760 –> 00:21:53.659
Dawn Fiala: What that would look like for you. This caregiver is gonna come in. She’s not emotionally connected. They have no history with each other, and usually it goes just fine, you know, and the adult children are shocked that it’s.

00:21:53.660 –> 00:22:18.269
Mike Paladino: Yeah, we had that same concern. Because again, my grandfather, very stud lovely man, very stubborn, right? Very set in his ways that we’re like, oh, this is, gonna be kind of tough like. Is he really gonna resonate or relate to this person? Is he? Gonna let them in and open up to them. Is he? Gonna tell them the truth? Right? It was such a beautiful relationship, because initially, it was a bit tough. But once they got that trust built right

00:22:18.270 –> 00:22:41.639
Mike Paladino: right. Oh, my goodness! It was like night and day, and the happiness that he felt from somebody that was not his family taking care of him. It matters because it shows them that. Yes, everyone outside of your family still cares about you, even though you’re an elder right? And there’s always the topic of caring for elders. And you know that you know things that happen right. And it shows them that you know people still care about them.

00:22:41.910 –> 00:22:44.299
Dawn Fiala: Yeah, that’s an important piece, too, for sure.

00:22:45.060 –> 00:22:59.090
Mike Paladino: Yeah, well, hey, we’re kind of rocking through this, and let’s get to the next one, because it kind of segues nicely. Now, how do we track key metrics to measure the effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts for homecare services?

00:22:59.380 –> 00:23:23.690
Dawn Fiala: Yeah, I was in the past. And what we teach is to set goals and KPIs for your sales team. Actually, everyone in your office. I kinda look at it like your business. Say, it’s a dark room, and there are 15 things that you want to be different by the end of this year, the next year that’s coming up. You want 15 things to change. You really have to shine a light on those 15 things in that dark room. You have to shine a light on them, and you have to be tracking it

00:23:23.690 –> 00:23:33.499
Dawn Fiala: throughout the year, not quarterly, not at the end of the year, because by the time the quarter is over, whatever those 15 things were, they didn’t change. It’s too late to go back and fix that.

00:23:33.500 –> 00:23:34.150
Mike Paladino: Yeah, definitely.

00:23:34.150 –> 00:23:50.190
Dawn Fiala: So weekly, looking at, you know, set goals for the year, break them down into quarterly goals, and then break them down into weekly goals and set kpis around that. So Kpi is a queue performance indicator. It’s the indicator of progress towards the intended result. The goal.

00:23:50.190 –> 00:23:50.650
Mike Paladino: Hmm.

00:23:50.650 –> 00:23:55.640
Dawn Fiala: So I always had goals for my marketing people. 40 to 50 stops a week

00:23:56.160 –> 00:23:59.940
Dawn Fiala: Out of those 40 to 50, 15 to 20 are face to face.

00:24:00.150 –> 00:24:07.919
Dawn Fiala: And out of that you get 5 to 7 referrals. Typically, you know, your booking ratio for service inquiries should be at 70%

00:24:08.180 –> 00:24:32.819
Dawn Fiala: signing ratio 90, and out of that, if all of that is going well, you’ll have 3 to 4 sign jobs from your referral sources every week. That should be something you’re doing in every part of your business. Maybe you wanna have 80 caregivers on the payroll by the end of the year. I know we can have 300 caregivers. But how many are actually working right? Like, how many are actually on payroll? So if you want to get to 80, you need to look at it every week, if it’s not increased

00:24:32.820 –> 00:24:48.269
Dawn Fiala: increasing. If your sales, if you’re not hitting your signed jobs or your revenue goals every single week. Look at it every week, and if you didn’t hit this week, why, what can I do right now? So that next week I hit that goal, so that I don’t get to the end of the quarter, and I’m way behind.

00:24:48.270 –> 00:24:48.840
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:24:48.840 –> 00:24:53.840
Dawn Fiala: Have to be watching all of it every single week. So that’s what I’ve done in the past.

00:24:54.110 –> 00:25:16.319
Mike Paladino: Yeah, I think it’s important. It’s having the goals, but also understanding how you work towards them. And I think we can always set kpis, we can say, this is our target. This is how you measure it, but it’s also consistent with how you track them. Right. And I think you gotta compartmentalize or break them down. You can like it. I love the example you mentioned of 80 caregivers on payroll. Right? It’s like, if that’s our goal this year.

00:25:16.320 –> 00:25:25.144
Mike Paladino: Well, what does that mean from a scheduling perspective? Well, how many clients do we need? How do we get more clients? How do we grow the business? And it’s, I think.

00:25:25.420 –> 00:25:50.303
Mike Paladino: just breaking it down into segments, too. Right? You wanna have yearly goals, quarterly goals, monthly goals, weekly goals, and if your weekly goals are being met, give you more of a chance at your monthly goals. If your monthly goals are being met while your quarterly goals should follow. Your quarterly goals are being met. Well, your annual goals should follow suit, so you have to break it down into stages. The biggest issue or challenges. I’ve seen it because I used to be a sales leader as well training teams and that kind of thing.

00:25:50.560 –> 00:26:16.590
Mike Paladino: And it was when people would look and say, this year I gotta hit X number. But then the work that leads up to that was way, too, like long term play. Right? They didn’t look at the micro and say, Okay, I need to work on 100 phone calls a day. I wanna book 5 meetings. I wanna now do XY and Z. But it was like Kevin hit my goal. I’m gonna close 4 deals over this size, but they have no way to get there right, or they don’t. They don’t have a plan, I should say, to get there.

00:26:16.590 –> 00:26:20.040
Dawn Fiala: It’s like I need to be in Disneyland tomorrow. But you don’t have a map. There’s no.

00:26:20.040 –> 00:26:22.499
Mike Paladino: Or or you didn’t book your flight right.

00:26:22.500 –> 00:26:27.640
Dawn Fiala: Yeah, right? Exactly. Exactly. You don’t know how. Don’t you? Don’t have the steps to get to that place.

00:26:27.640 –> 00:26:28.170
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:26:28.170 –> 00:26:29.256
Dawn Fiala: Really important.

00:26:29.800 –> 00:26:42.169
Mike Paladino: It’s such a, you know, and it sounds really easy when you spell it out on paper. But it’s a really tough thing, because there’s a lot of different mental factors, like being discouraged when somebody says no or how to overcome that objection.

00:26:42.810 –> 00:26:54.480
Mike Paladino: For other things. Right? So that’s a different part of the Kpi right? How many conversations are you having? Which is the conversion? Right? How many conversations convert to a face to face, to convert to a contract, convert, to assigned deal, or assigned agreement.

00:26:54.480 –> 00:27:18.949
Mike Paladino: and I think if you really break those numbers down, you could then understand. Is it my messaging that’s not working, is it? My approach is, you know, is there something else I’m doing that’s setting. People are not working in the wrong way or something forever. It looks like. So a lot of data. More data is always good. But there’s also the idea of data overload. But it’s knowing what data matters most in the context of your business, too, because you could look at a million different things.

00:27:18.950 –> 00:27:26.830
Mike Paladino: But which ones really move the needle once you can figure this out? That’s really your recipe to success and sales.

00:27:27.361 –> 00:27:29.489
Dawn Fiala: Yup, I agree, definitely.

00:27:29.490 –> 00:27:48.470
Mike Paladino: Yeah, amazing. Well, the last question here for you today, Dawn really reflects around your experience and how you’ve seen success. And the question itself is, can you share any case, studies or examples, I should say, of how salespeople have successfully improved their performance and close deals in the homecare market under your guidance.

00:27:48.670 –> 00:28:02.090
Dawn Fiala: Sure. So there’s 2 case studies that came to mind when I kind of read about, read this question. One is about a marketer who was doing business development in the field and doing all the things. But it wasn’t turning into referrals.

00:28:02.090 –> 00:28:25.620
Dawn Fiala: and the other one is someone who’s going out to the homes to sign jobs and they aren’t actually signing. So those were 2 2 separate case studies. So as the business development person marketer out in the field. You have to remember that your job is really important for the health of the business. I mean sales. It all comes down to that. You’re the Rainmaker. You’re the one bringing in the clients bringing in the Referrals.

00:28:25.620 –> 00:28:50.429
Dawn Fiala: And so, you know there’s different ways to go about getting those referrals coming in, and I have seen marketers volunteer at skill, nursing facilities, volunteered, assisted living. Do all these just put their whole heart and soul into everything. But they’re not getting it. It’s not turning into referrals. And at the end of the day the homecare business is a business. It needs to be profitable. It needs to be growing. It needs to have revenue, and so

00:28:50.480 –> 00:29:15.450
Dawn Fiala: spending your time doing that may pay off. But if it’s not, then you have to figure out why and not be spending your time volunteering, and they love you there too. That’s the other thing. They can absolutely love you and be excited. You walked in the building, but it’s not turning into a referral. Then it’s not really maybe wasting your time if you wanna volunteer out of the business in your heart. That’s wonderful. But if you’re doing it with a business, it needs to grow.

00:29:15.450 –> 00:29:28.289
Dawn Fiala: So we teach like 5 impressions to get a referral right. And so there’s 5 of them. This person is having a problem with the last impression which is directing the referral, asking for the business, and that can be.

00:29:28.290 –> 00:29:28.910
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:29:28.910 –> 00:29:33.919
Dawn Fiala: Salespeople, but it’s not as scary in home care because the places you’re going

00:29:34.100 –> 00:29:41.910
Dawn Fiala: They need home care. This person’s just charging with a hip replacement. They need home care that a social worker is going to refer somebody to. You’re just

00:29:41.910 –> 00:30:06.010
Dawn Fiala: taking the referral and directing it to yourself. And so that’s the part that’s missing with the person who’s giving a hundred percent, making all the stops volunteering, doing all the things they’re supposed to do. They’re not directing that referral, and it’s not hard to do if you just have to direct the conversation, so your census is a great way to start it. The parking lot was so full I had to park down the street. You must

00:30:06.010 –> 00:30:16.989
Dawn Fiala: be full, or there are a lot of people visiting, and then they say, yes, we’re very full right now. Is there anyone discharging this week in need of our services? I mean it? You can. Just you. Did. You have to control the conversation.

00:30:16.990 –> 00:30:17.490
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:30:17.490 –> 00:30:27.129
Dawn Fiala: And and direct those referrals. So you’re nice, and you’re wonderful, and everything’s going great. They trust you. But if you’re not getting referrals, this might be the impression that you’re missing.

00:30:27.130 –> 00:30:37.829
Mike Paladino: Yeah. Well, you said 2 key points there, Don, and it was the one you just mentioned. It was asking questions or being observant. Right if you pull up to a facility or a snap, and you’re like, Hey.

00:30:38.130 –> 00:30:41.740
Mike Paladino: This parking lot’s full. There’s nowhere to park. In fact, I had to park down the block.

00:30:41.750 –> 00:31:02.229
Mike Paladino: I’m gonna use that. Ask a question around that and say, Hey, when you speak to the facility manager whomever is right is managing the discharge. You make that comment. Say, Hey, wow! You’re really packed out here. You must be really full. Yeah, we’re we’re jammed, or whatever the response is interesting. So does that mean you have any? You know, clients going home this week or in the next couple of weeks that are gonna need some home care like transition services.

00:31:02.230 –> 00:31:21.180
Mike Paladino: Boom! They say, Yeah, you got your in. You perfectly set it up to, then make your pitch, or at least ease into it. The other thing that you said that resonates with me, and honestly, was something that I really, I wouldn’t say struggled with. But I had a hard time really honing in on my early sales group. I’ve been in sales for 1012 years now. Actually.

00:31:21.460 –> 00:31:44.519
Mike Paladino: It was asking for the sale. You do everything leading up to it. You know. They like you, you know, they’re gonna be your client, but then it stalls and they don’t sign, or the contract sense gets sent out, or whatever. But you didn’t actually say, are you ready to buy? Are you going to sign? When would you like to start a question that I ask. And I I do this with home care agencies not just relevant to our space

00:31:44.600 –> 00:32:13.079
Mike Paladino: in an ideal world. When are you ideally using the program? What’s your no ideal start date? When would you love to be using the program in practice? And they might say, tomorrow? And I said, Okay, well, what’s a realistic date? Maybe it’s on the 1st of July. Okay. Well, you know, the 1st of July is coming up really quick. Typically, we expect a 3 to 4 week onboarding time frame, I would say, if that’s your ideal target date, we should probably get moving on the agreement at the paperwork this week. Does that sound fair to you?

00:32:13.120 –> 00:32:34.309
Mike Paladino: Yeah, that sounds like it makes sense. We want to live. So we’ll get it done. Okay, you’ve just found out what means the most to them, and you’ve used that to get the sale. You’ve indirectly asked for it. But now you’re on the right track, and I think that’s a beautiful practice I use every week, every day, almost, and it works more than it doesn’t right, because if they want your business, if they want to work with you.

00:32:34.350 –> 00:32:37.839
Mike Paladino: they will, as long as you’re asking and guiding them down that path.

00:32:37.840 –> 00:33:06.309
Dawn Fiala: Yup, and sometimes some need more direct like direction than others, too, you know, for the referral sort. Oh, you’re here again. It’s so good to see you, and they’re so happy to see you. And it’s like, do they think I’m just coming to hang out ? You just have to be more direct with some of them. But the parking lot is great. I mean my marketers that I had at my last home care agency. They’re like, it’s so slow, it’s so slow. And I’m like, drive around and look at the parking lots. That’ll tell you all you need to know. You really can tell a lot by the parking.

00:33:06.310 –> 00:33:12.130
Dawn Fiala: especially if you’re going. You have to go back every 8 to 10 days. If you’re honestly doing that, you’re gonna notice. It’s.

00:33:12.130 –> 00:33:12.640
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:33:12.640 –> 00:33:16.710
Dawn Fiala: Empty. It’s full. You’re gonna notice that it’s different. It’s.

00:33:16.710 –> 00:33:36.940
Mike Paladino: Yeah. And what’s important about that is the idea that you have to be out there in the field. I’ve talked to so many homecare agencies, franchises even that manage multiple locations. I’m working with one right now. And he said, our top performing locations. Those location managers are out in the field all day.

00:33:36.940 –> 00:33:37.450
Dawn Fiala: There!

00:33:37.450 –> 00:34:02.409
Mike Paladino: They’re driving around in their cars. They’re getting new business. They’re getting inquiries, getting referrals. So I think really the recipe for success in a lot of ways is just getting out there, familiarizing yourself with your territory, with your industry, with knowing the facilities you possibly can work or contract with and being hyper. Curious, you know. Maybe you show up one day and they have no time to talk to you. That’s okay. Maybe we’ll go back the next day, or we’ll just use that together

00:34:02.410 –> 00:34:09.089
Mike Paladino: some information, so we can next time we speak to them and have 5 min of their time. It’s a worthwhile conversation. Right?

00:34:09.627 –> 00:34:20.250
Mike Paladino: I think those things are really some easy wins you can do. It’s more effort based. But those are some easy wins you can do, and you can control that will ultimately set you up to be more successful. Hopefully.

00:34:20.515 –> 00:34:42.779
Dawn Fiala: And I think, too, I mean, we’re, we’re a digital marketing company right, we do websites and SEO and all of those things. We also do homecare sales training. But when we talk to potential clients about digital marketing, we have a slide that says 70% of your private pay is going to come from your feet on the ground efforts. I don’t. Digital marketing companies don’t tell people that because they need a website and they need all.

00:34:42.780 –> 00:34:43.170
Mike Paladino: Yeah.

00:34:43.179 –> 00:34:52.081
Dawn Fiala: They do need those things, but it’s so important that you’re out in the field and get away from the being behind your desk. In this industry you have to absolutely have.

00:34:52.360 –> 00:34:55.769
Mike Paladino: Absolutely gotta get boots on the ground. Yeah, it’s so critical.

00:34:56.440 –> 00:34:59.299
Mike Paladino: Well, that’s awesome. Yeah, that was all the questions, Don. I had.

00:34:59.300 –> 00:34:59.740
Dawn Fiala: I think.

00:34:59.740 –> 00:35:02.669
Mike Paladino: Today. So that was fun, I thought hopefully. You know, the audio.

00:35:02.670 –> 00:35:03.430
Dawn Fiala: Like this.

00:35:03.430 –> 00:35:18.299
Mike Paladino: Yeah, hopefully, the audience learns something new. Sales is such a critical component to all businesses of all shapes and sizes. But in home care. It’s a very challenging thing to navigate. And I think you’ve explained your philosophy beautifully and hopefully. You know, the audience learned something new today. So.

00:35:18.300 –> 00:35:20.699
Dawn Fiala: Oh, I hope so, I hope so. Thank you so much.

00:35:20.700 –> 00:35:28.019
Mike Paladino: Yeah, thank you, Dawn, obviously, for sparing your time and sharing the insights. And, as I mentioned, I’m sure the audience did find these useful

00:35:28.372 –> 00:35:32.909
Mike Paladino: thanks to everyone for tuning in. And until the next episode. This is Mike signing off.

00:35:33.050 –> 00:35:33.800
Mike Paladino: Take care.

00:35:33.800 –> 00:35:35.269
Dawn Fiala: Hi! Thank you.