geriatric care sales Archives ⋆ Cathy Cress

3 Points To Close The Sale on “Invisible” Care Management Services

April 21, 2019

Clients are Purchasing ” You”

An Aging Life or Geriatric Care Manager is a professional. You are selling “your” professional services. But the product is really you to make the sale.

Be “The Care” in Care Management

So what are some ways ” YOU” can close the sale? Be “Caring”.”You” the product have to be good for a client to sign up. They call because you have the care management services they desperately need. But, even more important they sign your contract and use your services because they like you.

Feel Their Pain

Your prospective clients will also buy because they think you understand them and feel their pain. So ask a few introductory questions to find that link. What do they need as a caregiver to end their pain- not just help their parent but end their suffering as a caregiver? Show them you are there for them as adult children and caregivers and ” will” do what they need to help them.

Position Yourself From Competition

Differentiate- meaning position yourself from your competition. Sure, lots of Aging Life or geriatric care managers in your area offer the same services. But nuances in your product, and how you deliver that product, can be a powerful differentiator. Start with the things that drive your clients crazy. Are you on 24- hour call to take their pain away? Do you have a homecare division to give them respite? Do you have a Dementia product that can give them answers and help?

You are Their Personal Concierge

Show how you are a personal concierge for them. Will you communicate with them one to one- write monthly reports, email when you need their approval, call if there is an emergency, handle the emergency and be in touch as frequently or within the boundaries they wish and you offer. Explain you will take over negotiating the care needs so they go back to just being the daughter or son. Show you have a menu of services ( not just assessment) and you have the exact step by step product they need. If they are exploring moving a family member, you have a” Move Mangement “product. If their loved is facing dying you have an “End of Life” services. If the client’s loved one moved to Assisted Living and hates it, you have an “Assisted Living” service. With items to offer like these, all of a sudden you really start to stand out and you set the standard for comparison with other firms.

Do You need a class in closing the sale?

Join me in my new FREE Webinar
Learn to Market Like Your Business Depended on it!
When: May 15, 2019
2PM-3:30PM PST
Learn

How to make the sale of your ” Intangible GCM Service” that the potential buyer cannot touch or feel
How to make the sale in the inquiry call -with a complimentary consultation
How to ” Identify needs using client” challenge questions” to find the problem you need to solve to make the sale
How to present your offer by selling solutions to the problem with a mini care plan
How to manage objections if the caller has concerns about price or product
Understand how to close the sale with non-aggressive closing questions to have your contract signed, get a deposit, and grow your business with a new client

Sign Up Now

How to Sell Care Management Services to 3rd Parties Through a Relationship

April 7, 2019

Why Refer to You?

Consider sales a relationship. Why would third parties like trust officers, elder law attorneys, conservators or guardians refer a care manager to their aging client and family? If you have an Aging Life or GCM business you need to know.

Most care managers think it is their expertise that will ensure the referral ¨But third parties cannot evaluate your expertise. Most do not know what a really great care plan is ¨If you are selling a service like geriatric care management you are selling a relationship

You are Selling a Relationship

Why do you need to know this? First, you need to create a practice that meets the needs of your clients and major referral sources. Many clients- usually adult children, call you to start services on their own. But a good majority of clients will call you because their attorney, bank trust officer, CPA, Financial Manager referred them. These third parties need to have a relational ship with you and know you are going to meet their needs if they are to make referrals to your agency. On the feeding chain of referrals, they are one of your most important sources to feed income into your business. You have to deliver what they need to make money and that is first creating a relationship by knowing what their needs are.

Let’s start with a first impression.

Most people make snap judgments on a first Impression and it “ anchors” every impression afterward ¨Expertise, statistics most features are not as important to your sale as first impression ¨Make a great first impression- with a third party- warm, helpful –someone they want to have a relationship with -just like care managers do in nursing or social work

Sales Meeting a Relationship Building Meeting

When you are finally in a sales meeting with a third party who might refer a client to you-

Do not to call this encounter a sales meeting, For the care manager with “intangible” services this as a relationship-building meeting.

Most Important Message to Third Party

¨You are presenting yourself and your services to a potential customer or referral source. ¨If you were selling widgets, you would have some various sizes of widgets to show. ¨Because you are selling care management services- Intangible products

**woman holding brown cardboard with people buy from people the trust message**

Your most compelling sales message to a third party is not that you have something wonderful to sell, it is ” I understand what you need.” The only person in that sales meeting who really matters is the third party who will make the referral and what the third party needs. Find out what they want, what they need, who they are. In the words of Harry Beckwith in his classic book, Selling The Invisible- Don’t sell your service – sell your prospect

Sales classes for social workers and nurses and few and far between. Do you need help to market master sales and run a profitable care management business.?

Do You need a class in closing the sale?

Join me in my new FREE Webinar
Learn to Market Like Your Business Depended on it!
When: May 15, 2019
2PM-3:30PM PST
Learn

How to make the sale of your ” Intangible GCM Service” that the potential buyer cannot touch or feel
How to make the sale in the inquiry call -with a complimentary consultation
How to ” Identify needs using client” challenge questions” to find the problem you need to solve to make the sale
How to present your offer by selling solutions to the problem with a mini care plan
How to manage objections if the caller has concerns about price or product
Understand how to close the sale with non-aggressive closing questions to have your contract signed, get a deposit, and grow your business with a new client

Sign Up Now

What is Your ALCA/ GCM Sales Plan?

January 16, 2019

GCMs or ALCA members rarely see themselves as salespersons. However, this is a fatal error. You may have a product, but to make money from that product, you have to sell it. In the beginning you yourself may have to sell your geriatric care management product. Even if it is a service, people are buying your product.To begin to put together a sales plan you need to identify who makes the decision to buy your geriatric care management products. With older adults over age 85, the buying decision is generally made by the adult children or the third party (trust officer, etc.). Many times young older adults (65–85 years of age) make their own buying decisions.

You then need to identify what criteria the person making the buying decision uses to evaluate your geriatric care management product. For example, you have to figure out whether the decision to purchase your product Care Management Plus product is made by the adult child based on price, features, or availability. How will you give your customer, the adult child, enough information to say yes? Does this buying decision require personal contact in intake by a GCM, a Care Management Plus sell sheet you dropped off at the parent’s physician’s office, word of mouth, paid advertising, through social media- if so what – blog, web site – what Describe your sales plan. It will have to go in your business plan plus- be good enough to get you, customers.

Join me in my new FREE Webinar
Learn to Market Like Your Business Depended on it!
When: January 23, 2019
2PM-3PM PST
Learn

How to develop lead generation and tactics through third parties

How to position your agency so it stands out from your competitors
How to develop or rewrite a strategic marketing plan in 2019 that brings more customers
How to use branding to build positive gut feelings about your agency
How to set up leads generation with both a speakers bureau to do co-presentations & join the rubber chicken circuit to reach adult children and targeted audiences:
•
• Sign -Up –

What is Your ALCA GCM Sales Plan?

September 24, 2018

GCMs or Aging Life Care Managers rarely see themselves as salespersons. However, this is a fatal error. You may have a product, but to make money from that product, you have to sell it. In the beginning you yourself may have to sell your geriatric care management product. To begin to put together a sales plan you need to identify who makes the decision to buy your geriatric care management products. With older adults over age 85, the buying decision is generally made by the adult children or the third party (trust officer, etc.). Many times young older adults (65–85 years of age) make their own buying decisions.

You then need to identify what criteria the person making the buying decision uses to evaluate your geriatric care management product. For example, you have to figure out whether the decision to purchase your product Move Management to help move and the elder is made by the adult child based on price, features, or availability. How will you give your customer, the adult child, enough information to say yes? Does this buying decision require personal contact in intake by a GCM, a Move Management sell sheet you dropped off at the parent’s physician’s office, word of mouth, paid advertising, through social media- if so what – blog, website – the what described your sales plan? It will have to go in your business plan plus- be good enough to get you, customers.

Join me Wednesday, October 17 Pacific Time for my latest webinar Pacific Time 2:00 PM

5 Steps to Sign Up the Profitable GCM Concierge Client

In this FREE 1-hour webinar, you will learn how to:

Reach our target concierge audience
Design products that exactly meet their needs
Obtain adult children’s buy-in
Use marketing that will make them choose you
Get the contract signed with ease
Create a brand that tells concierge clients they will get Four Seasons Service

If you really want to run a GCM business that makes money by targeting concierge clients then you don’t want to miss this free training.

Sign -Up

Aging Life or Care Management Intakes- Do You Know How to Make the Sale?

July 23, 2018

Do you make this fatal and costly mistake with a client inquiry? When you get a request for information, over the phone, do you drive to the client’s home to do the intake- without first getting a deposit and contract first ? How does this break your bank balance?

Aging Life care manager Sally Sunshine received an inquiry call and drove an hour to see the client. After spending two hours explaining her services, doing a geriatric assessment then asking for a deposit and signed contract the older gentleman said he could not afford her services and would not sign the contract at that time. The Aging Life care manager came up empty-handed.

How do you avoid traveling two hours, spending 3 or more hours with a client and not getting the case or making the sale?

You do the inquiry over the phone with a complimentary consultation, and then make the sale and ask for the contract and the deposit. You do not drive to the client’s home without first getting a signed contract deposit – first.

Here’s how

You do a two-call intake. The first inquiry call to your agency taken by a highly experienced staff in your office. That person must clearly understand the client problem, prompting the call to your agency and crucially finding out how it impacts both the client and the care providers.

They then offer an appointment to do a complimentary consultation for 30 minutes scheduled within 24 hours, made for the agency director.

What To Do in the Complementary Consultation

Do briefly outline how you are an expert at solving the problems (moving, keeping at home, Alzheimer’s wandering)
Do a mini care plan showing exactly how you would solve the client ‘sand care providers problem outlined in the first inquiry call
Do make the sale by asking the client if they are ready to move forward with a contract and deposit
If they say yes send out a contract through Adobe and get a deposit through Pay Pal.

Want to make serve the GCM market that will make you a profitable business? Join me for my free webinar, “Start and Run a Profitable Geriatric Care Business” on August 22. Learn how to transform your GCM entrepreneurial dream into a money-making business with 5 profit driven steps

Learn these 5 Critical Steps to Financial success from Cathy Cress, MSW, author of the book known as the bible of geriatric care management. Learn how to transform your GCM entrepreneurial idea into a profitable reality before you even open your doors.

What is Your ALCA GCM Sales Plan?

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