The number 1 rule of marketing is that you MUST know your ideal customer. In today’s episode of A Drink With “The Hurricane,” Steve explains that your target customers are N.E.R.D.s!
Video Transcript
At every boot camp, and every time I speak at a conference or a convention, when I’m talking to private duty individuals, I always ask them, who is our target customer? And nobody really knows the answer. And so that’s why I’m gonna dedicate an entire episode to this. It is so vital that we understand who our target customer is, because if you don’t know who your target customer is, how are you going to attract or find that target customer? And it sounds obvious like, “Well duh, Steve, “I’m looking for somebody elderly.” But it’s a lot more than that if you really wanna scale your business to three million dollars and beyond.
Who is our target customer? So our target customer here, are N.E.R.D.s, okay, we are looking forN.E.R.D.s. Now, first off and foremost, I want you to understand I love seniors and I love all of the people out there. So I’m not really looking for a nerd. I’m a nerd, okay. I love Marvel Comics, and all the action hero movies that are out there. I went to the gym dressed as Captain America yesterday, and the day before, Black Panther. So I’m a huge nerd, alright? So I’m not making fun of anybody. This is actually an acronym.
So the N, what do you think N stands for?
Need.
We have to find people who have a great need. Because when people need our services, then they’re willing to exchange money for it. ‘Cause think about it. Why don’t you have home care? ‘Cause you don’t need it. So we gotta make sure finding people with the need. Now, who has the greatest need? ‘Cause I don’t wanna have somebody who’s using our services two days a week for a couple of hours. That’s not a target customer, okay? I want somebody who needs round-the-clock care. I want somebody who needs a live-in. I want somebody who needs 84 hours a week, 168 hours, 56 hours a week. Those are the kinda clients that I want. At the very minimum, 28 hours a week, right? Four hours a day, seven days a week. That’s the kind of client I’m looking for.
Who is this? People who suffer from five or more chronic conditions. C.C., write that down, chronic conditions. People who have five or more chronic conditions attribute for 20% of the Medicare population in the United States. Around the world, I’m sure it’s the same thing. What’s a chronic condition? Macular degeneration, minor cognitive impairment, diabetes, high blood pressure, and COPD, right? That’s five chronic conditions. If somebody’s got that much of a need, they’re gonna need help. They’re gonna be constantly in and out of the hospital.
As a matter of fact, this 20% of the population, when you look up statistically, Medicare spends 3/4 of all resources taking care of this population. So 20% of the beneficiaries get 75% of all the resources because they’re constantly in and out of the hospital. So I am looking for people with five or more chronic conditions because they’re gonna need a lotta help in order to stay home and out of the hospital. So that is the first part of our target customer. The second part is the obvious one.
Elderly
These are people who are 65 plus years old. Now every once in a while, we get somebody who’s a little bit younger. I always feel that it’s tragic when somebody in their 40s or 50s needs our help, because I just feel it’s too young, but I understand MS and other diseases out there. People have a great need. But our target audience are people 65 plus with five or more chronic conditions. Now, what do you think R stands for?
Resources.
We need people who have resources. Now the reason why I’m staying with Medicare is that 60% of the senior population in the United States are on Medicare. 40% are on Medicaid or Medi-Cal, which is a Medicaid version for the state of California. That’s not our target customer for a private pay standpoint. But if somebody’s on Medicare, that means that they have some resources. It does not mean that it’s unlimited. But it means that they have some resources that they can spend to get the care that they need. It goes another step further to help us finding our target customer.
So 60% of our population has the resources to afford some level of private pay care. And then the last one, the D.
Disabled or Dementia, or both.
In our industry, stroke is the number one cause of long-term disability. The number one cause of long-term disability. If someone’s gonna end up in a nursing home, just visit nursing homes for marketing purposes. Or just go visit a nursing home. I’m a deacon, I preach at nursing homes every once in a while. When you go to a nursing home, half the people that live there permanently, had a stroke. Because it’s the number one cause of long-term disability. Somebody who has great need, five or more chronic conditions, elderly, with resources, and they’re disabled is a target customer who’s gonna need a lotta help to stay out of the nursing home. Dementia, the reason why I put that there is because dementia is a pain point for the industry. Meaning from a hospital standpoint, a rehab standpoint, even many of the memory care units that exist around the country, there is nothing short of one-on-one care, to handle a demented or geri-psych situation. They need a lot of help. And if you run across a family who has a lot of resources, they’re willing to spend whatever it takes for their loved one to be able to stay out of the psych unit or stay out of the hospital. Without proper care at home they’re injuring themselves or they’re getting hurt because of their disability, their dementia is beyond what the normal scope of health care can cover.
So now that you know how to and who you’re looking for, so you can put all of your resources, your direct referral marketing effort, towards targeting this specific small slither of the population in your territory towards getting those people to sign up for services. And you’ll have a much higher success rate because you know who you’re looking for specifically. This will help you out in so many different ways.
So, there you have it, folks, do this. If you want to find out how to get these patients, you wanna find out how to grow your business with these type of patients, 84 hour a week patients, 168 hour a week patients, if you want more of that type of business, to scale at the three million dollars, five million dollars and beyond, pick up the phone, give us a call, and let us help you BLOW AWAY THE COMPETITION!
https://www.homecaremarketing.net/contact_us/
