Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

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When An Adult Son Calls for Your Services Do You Use Benefits or Features?

February 20, 2019

Think about your last few marketing campaigns. Look over some of the emails you sent to prospective customers or the social media updates you made promoting your brand-new product or service. Read over some of the blog posts you published or sales pitches you made to inquires.

How much of this promotional content focused on what your product does?

When it comes to marketing, there are two primary approaches you can take. The first focuses on what your product or service is or does – including all the shiny bells and whistles you’ve worked so hard to develop. The other focuses on how your product or service will improve users’ lives. Let’s look at the products you suggest to care management clients.

Which of these approaches do you think is a more effective approach for the seniors you serve when you find they need these products to improve their lives?

Take a look at the list of features below, taken directly from current advertising and marketing materials.

American Lifetime Self-setting clock for seniors with dementia that is the only one of its kind to include 5 multi-function alarms, with the option to set reminders to take medications throughout the day.

Jitterbug Senior Smart Phone 2  with Large 5.5″ screen, easy to see and  5 Urgent Response button

 An umbrella that opens and closes with a button

Each is a feature-a factual statement about the product or service being promoted. But features aren’t what entice customers. In your case, your customer is a senior or more likely an adult child. That’s where benefits come in. A benefit answers the question “What’s in it for me?, or what will help my parent or me the caregiver”.

You need to use the product’s benefit not feature to show customer/client why the product is of value to them. This is where most businesses go wrong.

So look at these well developed senior products again with their benefits.

The benefit of a self-setting clock is the person with dementia cannot reset it so the clock does this automatically plus because they forget medications at times it will also remind them

The benefit of the Jitterbug phone larger text. Older people also have diminished eyesight and have a hard time reading small text on phones so they can actually better use the Jitterbug phone. Seniors also can have medical emergencies and forget telephone numbers or get lost and the urgent response button gets them one person who will act like an old fashioned operator and connect the call to the right number, making them safer.

The benefit of an umbrella that opens with one button, is you stay dryer in the rain as seniors often have arthritis that can make it difficult to push open an umbrella quickly

The best way to understand the true benefit of your product or service or to answer the “What’s in it for me?” question is to focus instead on results. A customer’s perception of each feature’s results is what attracts him or her to a particular product or service.

When you try to sell the features of a product or service, you’re making the customer do all the work to figure out why they want the feature. It’s in a seller’s best interest to draw the connection for them. But to do that, you have to know the results yourself. Let’s take another look at that features list to see the possible benefits from a long distance  adult child whose Mom is going in the hospital, from your potential care management customer’s point of view

Most care managers tell the potential client the feature is an assessment. Clients or your customers have no idea what that is -not being a social worker or an RN. They are just a desperate long-distance son or daughter.

But you could tell the son you have a service ( product) called Home from the Hospital with these benefits

Our care manager will, coordinate services, guide, educate, and advocate for his Mom, from pre-admission, admission; hospitalization, discharge, and transition back home to make sure she has the best care in the hospital and after her discharge home, assuring you your mother is recovering with all the premium care she needs and all  the community resources she requires to prevent readmission and recover safely and comfortably at home, through our care management agencies gold standard skillful services

These are the  features that the desperate long-distance son really wants to hear instead of an ” assessment”

Join me in my new FREE Webinar
Learn to Sell Benefits not Features to Third Parties to Grow Your Care Management Bottom Line

When: March 6, 2019
2PM-3PM PST
Learn

The problems you solve for 3rd parties so they will refer to you.  

What is a benefit vs features and how to find benefits for each 3rd party you market to?

What specific problems you solve for wealth managers, elderlaw attorneys, and concierge physicians  

What specific problems to solve for upscale Assisted Living, accountants, financial planners, MD’s  

Step by Step how to set up meetings with 3rd parties to make the  sale

SIGN UP 

Filed Under: Adult children, Aging Family, aging family crisis, aging life business, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Blog, elder care manager, Features vs Benefits, home care, Marketing aging life care, marketing ALCA /GCM, marketing care management, Marketing Home Care, marketing to long distance adult children, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, patient advocate, Sales in geriatric care management, Webinar Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, care manager, case manager, geraitric care manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Home care marketing, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

Free Webinar-Get More Care Management & Home Care Clients Sell Benefits not Features

February 17, 2019

If you are a care manager or home care provider – do you know how to sell benefits not features- here is what I mean

Say you want a new hybrid car

And you really don’t know much about cars or hybrids

But you want to save money on gas, reduce your environmental imprint and yet want  room in the back and 4 doors.

You go to your Honda dealer and tell the car salesman you’re looking for a hybrid to save gas and save the environment yet has room the back for your two 7-year-old grandson’s and their giant 80-pound German Shepherd- Ranger.

He tells you full of enthusiasm a hybrid would be ideal and shows you a few popular models. The Clarity has HV mode uses the gas engine and one of the electric motors to help recharge the battery while cruising. On top of that, he tells you when the electric battery runs out, the gas-powered engine takes over to provide additional driving range, yielding the 340-mile combined gas and electric range rating. Finally, he says HV mode uses the gas engine and one of the electric motors to help recharge the battery while cruising

And you really don’t know much about engines, hybrids or cars

But you want to save of gas and stop global warming.

Huh?

If he had said you would  “ Avoid the pump with the 47 all-electric range rating*, many commuters can drive on electric power alone, only needing to fill up the tank for longer drives. Plus, a spacious interior made of eco-conscious material with seating for five adults and that dog. Finally, The Clarity has biggest advantages of hybrid car vs gasoline-powered cars that it runs cleaner and has better gas mileage which makes it environmentally friendly. Plus, a hybrid vehicle runs on twin powered engine (gasoline engine and electric motor) that cuts fuel consumption and conserves energy reducing global warming.

The first sales pitch was features which gave you no reason to buy the car as you had no idea what he was talking about.

The second spiel was benefits, which translated to all the reasons you would choose this hybrid.

This is why a care manager or home care agency selling their services need to sell benefits- not features. For example, as a feature “we do assessments “which almost no one but a social worker or a nurse would understand. Instead, you will sell a benefit “Our expert professional care managers will find out exactly what your Mom’s problems are and come up with the right solutions that will make your mother’s life easier happier and safer.”

26patient_600-1.jpg

If a care provider is needed ,”we will find you exactly the right experienced caregiver who is background checked, trained to do exactly what your Mom needs, plus will be a person who your Mom will enjoy having in her home. In addition, we will make your life as a daughter easier knowing your Mom is cared for by a competent devoted caregiver, vigilantly monitored by our gold standard care managers.”

Join me in my new FREE Webinar
Learn to Sell Benefits not Features to Third Parties to Grow Your Care Management Bottom Line

When: MARCH 6, 2019
2PM-3PM PST
Learn 

What is a benefit vs features and how to find benefits for each 3rd party you market to?

What specific problems you solve for wealth managers, elderlaw attorneys and concierge physicians  

What specific problems to solve for upscale Assisted Living, accountants, financial planners, MD’s  

Step by Step how to set up meetings with 3rd parties to make the  sale

SIGN UP 

Filed Under: Adult children, Aging Family, aging life business, aging life care manager, Blog, caregiver, Features vs Benefits, Geriatric Care Management Business, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, home care, Marketing aging life care, marketing ALCA /GCM, marketing geriatric care management, Marketing Home Care, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Sales in geriatric care management, Third Party Referral, Webinar Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, Benefits vs Features, care manager, geriatric care manager, marketing home care, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

Why Do The Benefits of Care Management Make The Sale to Assisted Living

February 11, 2019

Although it might seem counterintuitive, consumers rarely want to buy things for the sake of buying them – they want what they purchase to solve their problems.

To borrow from the example of an umbrella, a feature of this particular umbrella might be its unbreakable spokes or wind-resistant construction – the benefit of which is staying dry even in strong winds that might break lesser umbrellas.

Clients who purchase home care or care management want to buy benefits – what your product or service can do for them.

Let’s take a third-party . Care Managers and home care often sell to Assisted Living. They want to hear how your agency is going to help the Assisted Living site. Of course, you can describe your agency features, price, training of staff, gold stand service. However, benefits are what makes the sale and keeps the Assisted Living dry not flooded by rain.

So here are some benefits you can offer to Assisted Living if you have a service that involves  Quality Of Life  

 

The problem: Assisted Living does not want residents to move out most facilities are strictly non-medical and do not have one to one companion and geriatric care management services. Your agency can solve that problem.

YOUR AGENCIES BENEFITS

  • The assisted living and retirement community population sometimes have clients with needs that cannot be met with their nonmedical, non-one-on-one support services, (usually just an activities director)
  • You will help facility with residents who are not adjusting to the facility or considering moving by engaging them in activities that will enhance the quality of their life, so they remain in the facility
  • You will help residents not engaging in activities to participate in activities program outside activities and socialization program through a quality of life assessment & companion, so they do not want to move out of the facility
  • You will engage with new residents who are just adjusting to the facility and their move to engage in socialization and activity program. You can help themmake friends & engage in outside activities through quality of life assessment and companion, so they do not consider moving out
  • You will place Concierge Companion who will engage the client & accompany the resident to the outside or facility activities so the resident so can return to that joy. You will make monthly monitoring visits to make sure Companion are meeting all the client’s needs and keep in touch with the family and facility with frequent e-mail or telephone updates plus sending a monthly report.

So, selling the benefits to the third party is a much more potent selling point that features of your agency. Learn More

Join me in my new FREE Webinar 
Learn to Sell Benefits not Features to Third Parties to Grow Your Care Management Bottom Line

When: March 6, 2019
2PM-3PM PST
Learn

The problems you solve for 3rd parties so they will refer to you.  

What is a benefit vs features and how to find benefits for each 3rd party you market to?

What specific problems you solve for wealth managers, elderlaw attorneys, and concierge physicians  

What specific problems to solve for upscale Assisted Living, accountants, financial planners, MD’s  

Step by Step how to set up meetings with 3rd parties to make the  sale

•
• Sign -Up –

Filed Under: Aging Family, aging life business, Assisted Living, Blog, care manager, elder care manager, Features vs Benefits, Geriatric Care Management Business, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, home care, marketing, Marketing aging life care, marketing ALCA /GCM, marketing care management, marketing geriatric care management, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Private Duty Home Care, Quality of Life, Quality of Life for elders, Third Party Referral Tagged With: aging life care manager, care manager, Home care marketing, Marketing Care Management, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Third Party Marketing

5 Ways to Make Reminiscence a Valentines Gift for Aging Clients

February 8, 2019

Want a perfect Valentines’s gifts for clients? You already have it. A great Valentine’s for  your client is  you the care manager or a caregiver, using  reminiscence to gather a client’s memories.

Reminiscence isn’t new. Before the printing press, storytellers and bards were how history was recorded-

Oral storytellers gave us the Odyssey and other valiant tales. History exists in a family, and Ulysses or Penelope might be sitting in their home on Valentines Day- in the form of your aging clients.

But storytelling only works if the teller remembers the lines. Family history has to be captured when the older person still remembers. So holiday events are a perfect time to tap into that font before it flickers.

Here are some tips to use if you want to capture these family tales during Valentines  visit with older clients—a perfect time to do this.

1. First, arrive with a real Valentine card and a small sensory gift like a little chocolate or some fresh red and white flowers .Just the card and the gift evoke memories

2. Use empathetic listening Make all the messages you give the older person— tone, how fast you speak, how they are sitting- say, “I want to listen to you.” This in itself is a gift to an older person as few people really listen to them as they age.

3. Ask questions that prompt the story but don’t make judgments. If there are going to record the family tale,  as on your I phone , do it in a way that doesn’t distract or stop the older person from talking.

4. You might ask the client or the family for some family photos of the older person growing up, getting married, and use those as memory prompts.

5. Start somewhere. If the elder isn’t going to tell stories on his or her own, start the story and see if they will follow along.” Did you go to Valentine’s parties as when you were a kid or celebrate the day in school by exchanging valentines .” Did you have a special valentine as a teenager or young adult?”

6. If the client has dementia you can still do this with reminiscence prompts like a valentine, chocolate , some flowers or a simple valentine decoration you bring.

 

7.Use technology tools to help you with this legacy building for your older client like Life Bio-    or

Quick Voice Recorder to catch the memory on your phone.

 

Filed Under: Adult children, Aging Family, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Blog, care manager, case manager, Dementia Activities, elder care manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Oral History, Quality of Life, Quality of Life for elders, Quality of Life with Dementia, Reminiscence Therapy, Valentines gifts for family caregivers Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging life or geriatric care manager, care manager, case manager, geriatric care management, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Reminiscence on the Holidays, reminiscence technology, Reminiscence Therapy, Valentines Day, Valentines Day Gift for caregivers

Ways to Deliver Gold Standard Loving Care for Family Caregivers on Valentines Day

February 5, 2019

 

 

Think about valentines gifts for family caregivers. What can a geriatric care manager do for family caregivers for valentine’s -the day is about love. Can we count the ways family caregivers who care for an aging family member represent the heart and soul love of Valentines Day?

Here are some ideas

Loving gifts from your agency, including a small gift of chocolate, is a typical valentine treat but also comes in handy to relieve stress. Sending valentines to all of your family caregivers is a great idea acknowledging their caring while letting them know your agency cares about them. Suggesting some respite to the local family if that is possible or your agency offering a special package of reduced fee hours to get some respite maybe on valentine’s day itself would be a sweet gift.

Another gift is the simple act of thanking them for all they do at such a cost to themselves, which is rarely voiced. Another list of gifts including pampering caregivers and a way to find the right spa is something you could share with an adult sibling or adult children. AARP has its own terrific list with aromatherapy and bath essentials

To an aging parent caring for a spouse, they can experience most fraught-filled valentine’s day. The person who they gave all your heart to – at times for many decades- is there but not there in a way in many ways. So,  suggesting to adult children that they might take taking the couple out for dinner or provide respite to the spouse and taking her to a special valentine’s brunch or event- can make a perfect gift. . This can be a soulful warm gift for someone spending time with the love of their life who is not able to share the romantic day anymore.

 

Give adult children ideas for caregiver gifts.. Pinterest has a whole board of gifts for caregivers for valentine’s day. Grandchildren can also make inexpensive valentines gifts if she is caring for grandpa

Be a gold standard care management agency on valentines day and show love for your family caregivers in any way you can.

Filed Under: Adult children, Aging, Aging Family, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Blog, care manager, elder care manager, Families, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Long Distance Care, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Siblings, Valentines gifts for family caregivers Tagged With: Alzheimers caregiver, care manager, caregiver well being, case manager, family caregivers, geriatric care manager, nurse care manager, spousal caregiver, Valentines Day Gift for caregivers

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Cathy Cress is the leading national expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management. She is author of Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4th edition, Jones and Bartlett, published 2015 and known as the bible of geriatric care management. Continue Reading >

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February 15, 2019

Why Do The Benefits of Care Management Make The Sale to Assisted Living

February 11, 2019

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