Are you going to the right places? Who are you speaking with? In this clip, from The San Antonio Boot Camp, Steve discusses how to SUCCESSFULLY develop a referral source.
I love Home Care Pulse. Home Care Pulse, I think, is the best thing for our industry. It’s been great for me, because it gives me a resource to show that, “Hey, this is where you get the business from.” Home Care Pulse talks about the best referral sources for businesses like ours, and what I love about the Home Care Pulse is, long before they started doing that, I already had this, and it’s mirrored, it’s identical.
Magic number: One hour, one visit.
That means that, for every hour that I’m gonna spend marketing, Tom, with the example that I was talking with you. You’re gonna give me 20 hours a week in the field. That means, with 20 hours, I want you to speak to, face-to-face, in referral sources, 20 people. One person for one hour.
Now, it doesn’t mean that you’re gonna have an hour-long conversation, but rather, with your 20 hours a week, I want you to drive to eight places and talk to two to three people in there for five, ten minutes. That’s all you gotta do. That’s your face-to-face contact. My full-time marketers, you’re working 40 hours a week, so how many people should you see face-to-face?
40.
All right, but what does that mean? Does that mean I want you to drive to 40 accounts? No.
The reason why this program is so successful is, this is the less-is-more program. Fewer accounts, but we go deep. A lot of times, people try to do this surface marketing. That’s why most people give up at three to five visits, ’cause that’s surface marketing, right?
No, I want you to have a net that’s maybe 10-thousand feet this way, but it’s only a foot this way, but it’s 10-thousand feet deep. If you’re only gonna have a couple of accounts, but you’re gonna develop those accounts, and get that maximum referral potential. Write that down, MRP. Maximum referral potential, because I’m gonna tell you maximum referral potential of these accounts when they’re well-qualified, because when they’re well-qualified, then it’ll be worth doing all of the things that I’m gonna teach you on how to do this, ’cause it’s a lot, I’m telling you.
I’m not gonna kid you, there’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it, because you’re gonna be able to get these returns in referrals. Your hospitals, you’ve heard me talk about hospitals. Hospitals are your best referral source. You wanna visit a hospital one to two times a week. Once to twice a week. What do I love about hospitals? You have people with great need coming out of a hospital, they’re a high volume, and when do they need the help? – Now.
It’s a no-pressure sale. Why is it no-pressure? Because I don’t have to put pressure. You’re getting discharged today. You know you need the help. That is the pressure. So when you get into these accounts, their situation is the pressure and we become the answer to their prayers. Does that make sense? That’s what I love about hospitals.
Now, you heard me caution with the hospitals earlier. You’re gonna get same-day discharges. You’re gonna get weekend starts. You’re gonna get evening starts, and if you’re not operationally ready for it, I don’t want you to go in there. How long does it take to develop a hospital?
Six months to a year. And that’s for a seasoned person. I’ve had many, many coalition clients, six months to develop a hospital, and they’re like, “Man, it’s really hard. “Man, it’s really hard.” But what we started in February but then, by August, they’re like, “I got in! “I can’t believe it. “Wow, I’m finally in!” So I’m like, “Yeah, do you realize it took you “six months of your life?” “It did take me six months.” and I’m like, “Yeah,” but it’s worth it when you get in there because you could get 50 to 100 clients a year.
And my home-health folks? The reason why the hospitals have their own? Because they’re discharging 2500 patients a year. If you can be number two, number three on their list, and still get 100-plus patients from them by being second and third on their list, so it’s always worth going into a hospital for the business.
Next-best referral source, and you’ve heard me talk about this. When the Home Care Pulse report came out and they talk about, there’s two different categories. They have the industry-average numbers, and then they tell you the numbers of the leaders, and the leaders represent the top 20% of all the businesses in our industry, and the average leader does about four-and-a-half million dollars in revenue.
That’s the average leader, and so, I don’t really look at what the industry numbers are when it comes to focusing on what I’m helping my clients do. I focus on what the leaders are doing, because I want my clients to become leaders, and my clients are leaders, so, it makes sense to do what the leaders are doing and you will be a leader, too. Skilled-nursing facilities, for the leaders, 10% of all the leaders said that that was their number-one referral-source type, and their return on investment was 36% of their annual revenue.
Now, I just told you, the average leader did four-and-a-half million dollars. 36%, that’s almost two million dollars of that four-and-a-half million dollars from one referral-source type. Do you think skilled-nursing facilities are a good referral source?
Of course, but they have to be qualified. What we’re looking for is 50 discharges a month. If this a skilled-nursing facility that discharges 50 patients a month, that’s 600 patients a year. That’s a good, well-qualified skilled-nursing facility. We need to go there every single week. Every week. It doesn’t matter, ’cause the sooner we get to 12 weeks, the sooner we’re gonna get referrals from them, because the potential is there, and what do they say as numbers?
I’m only asking you to get four, five percent of their discharges. 50 patients a month, four, five percent, what’s that, two, three referrals? Is that a crazy number to expect? Not at all, that’s properly managing expectations. That’s how I know you’re gonna be successful in a year.
If you enjoyed this, you will love The Hurricane Boot Camp!
