September 25, 2025 • 53 mins
What separates exceptional home care marketers from the average? It's not about having the perfect pitch—it's about building genuine relationships that transcend business transactions.
In this illuminating conversation, we're joined by marketing powerhouses Gigi and Tess from Touching Hearts at Home in New York. Their impressive track records speak volumes: 56% and 107% revenue growth in their respective markets. These aren't just numbers; they represent the tangible impact of authentic relationship building and strategic community engagement.
Both marketers share their daily routines, highlighting how they balance planned meetings with spontaneous drop-ins to stay connected with referral partners. The magic happens through consistency—maintaining regular touchpoints through various channels while finding creative ways to provide value. Their approach to gatekeepers is particularly refreshing: rather than seeing them as obstacles, they treat them as vital relationship opportunities, learning their names and bringing personalized gifts based on their preferences.
When referrals slow down, their solutions showcase their creativity. Gigi's "Back-to-School Breakfast" presentations brought her into ten facilities in just three days, while Tess's "Heart to Heart Tours" program creates mutually beneficial promotion opportunities with partner communities. They share practical tools too, including how they leverage Canva and social media to amplify their outreach efforts.
The most powerful takeaway? As Gigi emphasizes, "You are not selling the organization you work for; you are selling yourself." This fundamental shift in perspective transforms marketing from a series of transactions into a web of meaningful connections that naturally generate referrals. If you're looking to revolutionize your home care marketing approach, this conversation provides both the inspiration and practical strategies to make it happen.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a really special mastery.
We're super excited about it.
Should we do our introductionsor just get straight to Gigi and
Tess?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Everybody knows us.
I think they do too.
A lot of talking to do today.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
So, valerie, do you want to do our housekeeping?
You're the nurse in the group.
They're the rules.
They make all the rules.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I'm the rule follower , I can tell you that.
But I'm the skirt by and no onedies on my shift.
That's very important.
We'll live until I'm off worktoday, okay.
So, housekeeping, just keepyour lines muted unless you're
speaking.
Share stories, experiences, tip, ask questions.
We really want this to beinteractive and a lot of times
(00:44):
it's easier for you to just typethat in the chat and I think
Lisa has already said hi in thechat so if you type it in there,
we will rewind and come back toyou.
If we have moved on for aminute.
We definitely check forquestions, make recommendations,
tell us what you want to know.
We want to know, oh, and whatabout customized leave-behinds?
Who's the winner, or is there awinner?
(01:05):
There will be, oh, annette.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, there will be.
Yeah, so in the chat, we sowhoever everybody that's here
today, your name gets put in ahat and we will pick somebody to
receive a set of customizedleave behinds with your logo,
colors and content information.
And I will be giving awayNovember.
So put your name in the chat,say yes, and we will put you in
(01:31):
the drawing and let you know atthe end of the class soon who
wins.
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
But you have to promise to send us pictures of
you and your stuff, or what itlooks like, what you came up
with, because not everybodyfollows it exactly the way we
present it, and you guys arereal creative.
We'd love to see what you dowith it.
So that's the caveat is, if youdo this, then you have pictures
.
Okay so we're going to getstarted because this is a really
like I said, it's a reallyexciting one.
(02:00):
We have two very talentedcommunity liaisons here, and so
we want to get right into it.
We're going to pick their brainand ask them all the questions,
and there will be some time foryou to ask them some questions
as well, because maybe you guyshave some that we hadn't thought
of.
So our agenda we're going to goover doing marketing right
fueling your private pay growth.
(02:20):
A day in the life ofresult-driven marketers.
Proven referral building tipsfrom successful home care
marketers.
Effective marketing andoutreach strategies, how
successful marketing repsovercome challenges, supporting
the liaison role.
And then, of course, lisa willhave her beautiful October,
november, december lead lines.
First, we're going to introducethem.
(02:42):
So these two come from theTouching Hearts at Home
franchise in Rochester andSyracuse, new York.
We are going to introduce bothof them, but their offices are
ranked among the top 15% inrevenue across the entire
Touching Hearts franchise system.
So what they're doing isthey're killing it out there.
(03:02):
They have a proven track recordof creating meaningful
connections and driving growth.
Gigi, she's a communityrelations manager of Rochester,
new York.
As a manager at Touching Hearts, she's been there for over a
year.
She uses her 13 years ofexperience in senior care and
sales to lead marketing andsales initiatives that have
achieved a 56% revenue growth,surpassing previous years.
(03:25):
She currently serves as apresident-elect of a local
senior care and servicesorganization and is passionate
about advocacy, collaborationand making meaningful impact
through community involvement.
Welcome Gigi.
Then we have Tess is here aswell.
She's also a communityrelations manager in Syracuse,
new York.
Tess joined Touching Hearts atHome in Syracuse in 2022,
(03:48):
bringing her more than 20 yearsof experience in community
relations within thenot-for-profit sector.
In just three years, herefforts helped drive a 107%
increase in revenue.
She holds a bachelor's degreein business administration and
marketing and has a deep passionfor creating meaningful
connections and buildingimpactful partnerships.
So these two gals are the realdeal.
(04:09):
So get your notes, your notetaking.
Of course, you can always watchthe recording, but I would get
a pencil and paper out and startget ready for their answers,
because they're going to be good.
Some of the questions we'regoing to ask both of them and
some of the questions they'rejust going to just one of them
is going to answer.
To ask both of them and some ofthe questions they're just
going to add one.
Just one of them is going toanswer First question, guys.
First of all, we're so gladyou're here.
What path brought you into themarketing liaison role in home
(04:31):
care, gigi?
You want to go first?
Speaker 4 (04:34):
So I have been passionate about senior care
literally since I was a child.
I grew up with family in livingin senior care and we would
visit them multiple times a weekmy entire life, and so I always
knew that I wanted to work withseniors.
The last 13 years in the field,I have worked very closely with
(04:55):
clients and residents.
Prior to being in my role withTouching Hearts, I was working
in senior living, so I reallyworked very closely with a lot
of home care organizations eventhough I was on the senior
living side.
So when I came into home care,it was an easy transition.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Great, great.
Was everyone able to hear?
Your volume might be a littlelow, Gigi.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, or maybe a little closer to the microphone
I could hear most of it.
But just for the, do you wantto talk again?
Let's just make sure we canhear you.
She's working on it.
Okay, we'll let you work onthat and we'll move on to Tess
and then we'll hear you.
Okay, tess, can you answer thatsame question?
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Okay, welcome everyone.
Thank you for having me.
So my personal mission andalways has been for 30, 40 years
in working is giving back tothe community and helping people
within the community.
I worked in the not-for-profitarea for well over 20 years and
wore a lot of different hats,but the one that really prepared
(05:58):
me for this position wasworking in development and I
helped with all of our majorevents.
I helped with fundraising.
I was getting out there andreally talking to our community
to bring in the money, makepeople aware and telling stories
.
I'm a big storyteller and Ithink that lends a lot to the
(06:21):
job that I had and the job thatI now have.
I also, going into thisposition here with Touching
Hearts at Home, was looking fora little more work-life balance,
and that's exactly what I'vegotten.
So I'm meeting my personalmission, my work-life balance
and it all seems to cometogether.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
That's fabulous.
That's great.
Thank you for sharing both ofyou.
The next question is also forboth of you what does a day in
the life look like for you?
What is your day-to-day?
What does it look like, Gigi?
Do you want to try, and let'ssee if we can hear you better
too?
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Is it better?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
It still sounds far away.
It still sounds far away, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Oh my gosh, I don't know why, just yell at us,
you'll be okay, don't worryabout it.
How does?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
this sound.
That's better Enough, just loud.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, just talk loud, yell at us.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
So a day in the life for me, I usually have anywhere
between two and three meetings,depending on the day, and then
trying to do some drop-bys closeto where the meetings are in
between them.
So the key there is usuallyjust constantly connecting with
my community partners, whetherit's email, telephone, text
(07:38):
message.
Basically, in between everymeeting and every drop-by, I am
also on my phone in one way oranother connecting with these
people.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Okay, and when you say meetings every day, who are
those meetings with?
Do you mean assessments, or arethey meetings?
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Usually referral partners.
So actual sit down meetings,face-to-face, connecting with
individuals who would eventuallysend us referrals.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Perfect, okay, great, thank you for that Tess, very
cool.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
So Gigi and I have the same title but, being in a
little different demographic, weare quite a bit smaller than
Rochester, but I wear a lot ofhats.
So a day for me, a typical dayfor me, is our staff meeting,
that we have to get everyone onboard on who's doing what today,
where everyone is going to be.
And then it's either doing thesame thing that Gigi just
(08:33):
mentioned going out, meetingwith our referral sources, doing
a senior resource fair, meetingup with our networking group,
our very large networking group,and talking to whoever will
listen to who we are and what wedo.
I also do a lot of client care,where I'm taking the inquiry,
I'm talking to the families.
(08:53):
Sometimes I'm going out andactually meeting with the
families and or introducing carepartners to the new clients
that we have.
So it's building thoserelationships as well.
So for us it's a little bitdifferent, but it's all getting
our name out there and what wedo and the passion that we have
for our company.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Fabulous.
Thank you for that.
All right, and that nextquestion, Gigi what are the top
two to three referral sourcetypes that you focus on and
bring you the most referrals?
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Our biggest referral sources are rehabs and hospitals
.
For a fact that rehabs andhospitals have people that are
going home and, more than likely, if those individuals are older
adults, they're going to needhelp, even if that help is going
to be temporary.
Those are your best options, asfar as at least for us, being
our top referral sources.
We also connect a lot withassisted livings.
We get a lot of referrals fromassisted livings.
(09:53):
A lot of times there's just notenough staff to help the
residents that still fit withintheir scope of care but really
need that extra one-on-one.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Okay.
So for inass assisted living,you're not replacing their staff
.
The families are hiring youbecause they need more
one-on-one care.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Correct.
It really depends.
Sometimes it's that they needthat more one-on-one companion
care.
Other times, just for anexample, we have seen that
people will move into anassisted living, and mom has
always taken a shower every day.
Assisted livings don't have thestaff for that, so we may be
able to come in, because in NewYork State, as long as you are a
(10:34):
actual business and not aprivate companion, you are able
to go in and provide care forsomeone who lives in a licensed
community.
So a lot of times there'sdifferent circumstances as to
why an assisted living wouldwant us to come in, but they're
definitely a huge referralsource for us.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
That's fabulous.
And when you say rehabs andhospitals, so rehab you mean
like a skilled nursing facility?
Yes, have you also gone torehab hospitals?
Are those popping up where youare?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
So it all depends.
There are rehab units in ourhospitals.
A lot of times, though, moreoften than not, if somebody is
being discharged from thehospital, they're not.
Usually they're going to givethem a short amount of rehab,
just a day or two in thehospital, just to make sure that
they're safe enough to bedischarged, whether they're
being discharged with help ornot.
(11:26):
So for the hospitals, for usit's usually more emergency room
or observation, or if they arerecovering from any kind of
surgery, and then rehabs thatare located within skilled
nursing communities those arethe rehabs that we would hit.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Okay, good, that's good to know.
Here in Arizona we do haverehab hospitals popping up, and
so they leave the hospital, theregular hospital, and they move
into the rehab hospital.
The rehab hospitals have beenmore open, more friendly and
much easier to get into than aregular hospital.
So just for those of youlistening, that might be an
avenue I think we have in thelast three or four years.
(12:06):
We have five pop up in thePhoenix metro area, so just
something to keep in mind.
Thank you for that answer.
It's fabulous.
I think the next question isfor Tess.
What is one lesson you learnedearly on that still guides you
today?
Speaker 5 (12:20):
So I have one answer ready for that, but I think I'm
changing that.
So really it is the relationshipbuilding, it's getting to know
our referral sources and everyperson in that area that is
important to our job.
So when Gigi mentioned therehabs or assisted living,
getting to know more on apersonal level, the discharge
(12:43):
nurse, the admissions people,the social workers, the director
of nursing so not just going inand finding out who they are,
their name, their title whenthey work, what kind of coffee
they like but it's more divingdeep in.
I want to say the first 18months, maybe two years, of
being here and I've been herealmost three years I was going
(13:06):
out on so many coffee andlunches with an individual just
to sit and get to know them onmore of a personal level and it
has led to some really greatfriendships.
And now it's we know each other.
When we see each other we askhow's this going?
Or how you know about theirfamily, or, oh, how was your
(13:27):
vacation?
And it really does help a lotfor them to know that I'm
invested in who they are and notjust them as a staff person
there looking to get theirbusiness.
So that's really the lessonthat I learned early on and I
bring that, I think, from myprevious job too and just
(13:47):
getting to know them.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I think that means a lot because they know you want a
referral.
All of these people know you'recoming to get a referral.
But if you can be honest, likeyou care about them and an
interest in their life and theirworld and even their day-to-day
at work, it can really and it'sa real friendship.
I have friends.
I tap dance with someone whoused to refer to me 20 years ago
, like we're in class togetherevery Monday.
(14:10):
So it's a real friendship andthey're sending them to you
because they trust you, becausethey know you more than just oh,
she's a home care agency, she'sjust one of those home care
agencies.
So that's a really importantlesson to learn.
I'm glad you shared that test,yeah, so that's a really
important lesson to learn.
Speaker 5 (14:24):
I'm glad you shared that, tess.
Yeah, I have to say real quickone of the ladies that I've
gotten to know really well, herson got married this past summer
, a month after my son did.
So we were like comparingwedding dresses and just
everything leading up to all thestress.
And wow it really helped tohave someone to just bounce that
off of other than just work, sothat was really fun.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yeah, that's great, that's great.
All right, gigi, how do youbuild?
Speaker 4 (14:54):
trust with referral sources quickly.
Oh, it's funny because itpiggybacks on what Tess just
said.
Right, building relationshipsis huge and getting to know
people personally.
So one thing I always say thatsome people are comfortable with
and some people are not is thefact of the matter is you are
not selling the organization youwork for, you are selling
(15:15):
yourself.
It's that simple.
When you are meeting people, itis all about selling Gigi, it
is all about selling Tess.
And then, after people trustyou, that is when it comes into
play that you can sell theproduct that you have.
If people don't think about youwhen they're at the grocery
(15:35):
store and say, oh, I rememberthat Tess loves hazelnut coffee,
oh my gosh, I should try this.
If they're not thinking aboutyou on other ends of their life
or other aspects, then chancesare they're not going to think
of you when it's time to refer,because they're making those
connections with other peoplewho have sold themselves and
they're going to think of themfirst.
(15:56):
Also, building that trust meansthat everything you have to say
to them from a sales standpoint, they know you're telling the
truth and they know that whenyou say touching hearts is the
best at this, or home instead isthe best at that.
Well, I trust Tess, so I knowshe's not BSing me, so to speak,
and just giving me her salespitch.
(16:19):
She is actually telling me whatis going to happen, is actually
telling me what is going tohappen, and I know that if this
doesn't happen, or touchinghearts doesn't perform the way I
want, I can call Gigi and saythis is what's going on.
We need to fix it.
So it's really all aboutbuilding that trust and selling
yourself first.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
That's great I hear both of you saying is these
aren't surface levelrelationships, correct and
you're not worried.
It doesn't sound like about thereferral when you walk in to
meet somebody.
It's more about establishingthat trust and that relationship
and that's where your focus isand you truly do want to get to
know the person and they cansense that from you.
(16:59):
So I would agree 100% witheverything you guys were saying
Absolutely yes.
Okay, tess, please share yourgetting past the gatekeeper tips
.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Oh boy.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
I don't know if you can all see.
She looks like the.
What is that?
Home alone kid yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
So this is and I have to say this goes back to my
training over a year ago that wemust have talked endlessly,
annette, about how do we getpast a gatekeeper.
They want to give me their name.
So I have accomplished gettingpast most gatekeepers, working
(17:40):
on a few, which is fine becauseit's a challenge and you know
what it just.
At the end of the day, all youhave to do is just smile at them
and say hi, but really gettingto know their names, and when
you walk in and you thinkthey're calling the person that
you want to talk to, I don'tknow if they're really calling
them or not, and then they justsay I'm sorry, they're on the
phone or get them out right now.
(18:02):
I don't know, I'm not on thatother end.
I always make sure that I knowtheir name.
I'm like you know what, millie,thank you so much for trying
anyways, and I tend and try tobring something for them, and so
it's just for them.
I leave things sometimes,obviously for the person that
I'm there to see, or people I'mthere to see, which I try to
(18:24):
change that up every time I'mthere.
I try to look for someone new,but I bring things to them I
make it important.
I'll sit and chit chat for afew minutes with them.
We might talk about the weather, or we might talk about oh my
gosh, we have to wear masksagain, or whatever it is but,
it's done right there, or ifthey're super busy I recognize
(18:45):
that too.
If their phone is ringing offthe hook, I just kind of have a
great day.
See, it's just.
It's like the same thing withyour referral sources.
It's getting to know who theyare and them and about them a
little bit.
It's not as easy getting toknow them more on a personal
level because you don't have thetime, but just find something
fun and meaningful to take tothem that you're not giving to
(19:06):
your referral source.
Make it different so thatthey're not thinking, oh, she
just had an extra.
No, I meaningfully bringsomething just for them.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
That's great and from my experience out there and I
know Lisa and Annette will agreebecause we talked about this
before that gatekeeper isignored by everybody else
members have been by.
There's people fixing the cablethere.
There's so many people comingin and out of the building that
don't even make contact eyecontact with that gatekeeper.
So I think if and it soundslike you're doing this, like
(19:39):
you're getting to know theirname you're making them feel
special, they matter.
Even if you just come in andsay their name, you will see the
shock on their face the nexttime you come in.
So when you make them feelspecial, of course they're going
to help you get back therebecause you make them feel
important and special, and Ithink that's a great way to do
(19:59):
it.
Tess, that's awesome.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
And they don't always have name tags on.
They don't always have nametags on.
No, you have to ask and ifyou're comfortable asking, I
always check with my referralsource that I'm there to see
whether it's a social worker,director of nursing, what's her
name at the front desk.
So they're shocked that youknow it when you walk in.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Definitely Very surprised by that.
That's great.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
And you mentioned a training.
I just want to make sure thatthat was the training with
Annette, right.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I just want to make sure and I think I remember Tess
I remember this was you were inmy sales training class and I
think I remember you saying youhad a really hard time getting
past a gatekeeper and she likedsunflowers.
Was that you?
And what did you do?
Speaker 5 (20:45):
I took her some sunflowers.
The next time I brought up acase of sunflowers and she was.
There was another one who wascomplaining about how dry her
hands were and she said I justcan't find the right lotion.
Let me bring you some lotionthat I like.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
That's awesome, I love it.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
You pay attention.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
You pay attention.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, you pay attention and you're being
thoughtful, and they startthinking the senior care this
company provides must bespectacular, because Tess and
Gigi are paying so muchattention to every little detail
and little details on thisrelationship with that really
matter.
Yeah, that's fabulous.
All right, gigi, you're up.
Can you share an example ofturning a cold relationship into
(21:30):
a strong referral pipeline?
And I'm sure everyone's to hearthis loud.
Yeah, I'm interested in whatyou have to say too, so so truly
.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
The key is to be consistent.
So when I started in my role,there had been nobody in the
role for about nine-ish months,so there was no form of
marketing, no outreach, noconnections to the outside world
aside from the phone ringing.
That was literally it.
So there were a few referralsources that had been strong in
(22:03):
the past and had really fallenoff, and when I attempted to try
and connect with some of them,they felt ignored and they were
almost under the impression thatthere was somebody in the role
and they just didn't care aboutthem anymore.
So, realistically, the role wascompletely empty.
But they didn't know that.
(22:23):
So I went out of my way to stopin, to check in with them phone
calls, email, see how they'redoing and some of them were
definitely like no, I don't wantto be bothered, I don't know
who you are, I'm not going totalk to you, and so on.
But eventually, as time went onand I stayed consistent to show
(22:45):
them that we do still care andthey are still important to us,
they came around and are nowsome of our most active referral
sources.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Oh, that's fabulous.
So consistency, yeah,consistency is very important.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
And again back to what Tess said about not just
the gatekeepers but knowingexactly what interests these
people and getting to know themas individuals and showing them.
Maybe you know that someone inthe department has a huge sweet
tooth and you send them cookiesinstead of dropping by because
they can be interrupted in theirday.
You know it doesn't work.
(23:18):
Drop-bys don't work foreverybody.
Some people really hate them.
Doesn't work.
Drop-bys don't work foreverybody.
Some people really hate them.
Or you know that someone lovesa good spa day and you make them
like a little gift basket withsmall, little spa treatments and
things like that.
If you customize and stayconsistent, that really will
help build any type ofrelationship, cold or not.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So true, so true.
I feel like too.
A lot of times when therelationship has been burned or
went cold, it's even moredifficult to prove it again.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
So good job, being pleasantly persistent.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Thanks Gigi.
Okay, yes.
What is the best way managersor home care owners can support
their marketers?
Speaker 5 (24:08):
So I've had it a little easy, I have to say,
because my executive directorwas my boss at my previous job,
so we know each other very well.
But it is working in a newcompany with new owners.
So I want to say the biggestthing that I have found is trust
(24:28):
, building the relationship withme and getting to know me and
who I am and my style, andsupporting and trusting that I'm
going to do a good job outthere and that I know our
community.
And I think that the managers,even all of our staff really but
(24:51):
our owners are actually inRochester, which is great and we
have a VP in Rochester and aslong as they trust and
understand that we know ourcommunity, we know who our
people are, we know how they'regoing to react to different
things that we may be doing thatRochester isn't doing, or if
Rochester's doing somethinggreat and they bring it to us to
(25:12):
know us enough that if we don'tthink it's going to work, or if
we try it and it doesn't work,to understand why it didn't.
I think that's just the biggestthing for me, for being in the
marketing area myself, and itgoes both ways.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah, that makes sense, that makes total sense,
thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, and I think Rochester and Syracuse are
totally different markets, so Itotally get that test and some
things don't work for othermarkets.
You're in an unusual market andyou're doing super.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Thanks, Gigi.
How do you still walk in with asmile on your face when they
act like they don't want youthere?
Speaker 4 (25:52):
We've all felt that May not be acting.
Just saying Close the door.
Yeah, I always say kill themwith kindness.
If you're walking in with asmile on your face, you can be
(26:20):
having the worst day ever.
Just pretend that you are sohappy to be there.
You are so happy to see themand usually they're at least at
the beginning of building arelationship is if you know that
they aren't thrilled to haveanybody walk in but they're not
answering calls and emails.
You try to make meetings becausepeople really prefer having
something scheduled, but if youreally are unable to do that, so
you really want to do a drop byor drop and leave them a little
(26:41):
gift, a little something.
What I always do is I do notwear my name tag, so I purposely
don't wear my name tag.
I walk in as if I'm justsomebody signing in and I come
in and so then they're so happyto see me, so kind to me and
polite, and then when I tellthem why I'm there or who I'm
(27:01):
there to see, they've alreadystarted being polite and it's
very rare that they change theirtune.
So that's just my own littletrick that I like to do when I'm
going into a community I maynot be thrilled.
I'm walking in.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
I like that yeah, pretend you're a family member.
Sometimes you got to go alittle beyond the family member.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Sometimes you got to go a little beyond the.
It's hard to stay motivated andpositive when you're For me
anyway, when I'm going and I seethat face every time oh she's
here again, and she was justhere again.
And they even say you don'tneed to come every week.
I know who you are.
They don't know that I do needto come every week because they
don't realize that they forgetwho I am.
So for me that was hard and Iwould feel beat up after maybe
(27:45):
three of those stops.
So then I would go to anassisted living or somewhere
where they are going to love onme a senior center and I would
get up again and then I couldget my smile going.
But I like your idea too.
Yeah, tess, which marketingtactics consistently bring you
results?
Speaker 5 (28:04):
So always face-to-face is the best.
I like picking up the phone, Idon't like texting, I don't like
emailing.
Sometimes I'll sit there andstart to type out an email, but
I really like to talk to peopleon the phone and I find that
works really well because theyactually will answer my calls,
(28:25):
sometimes better and faster thanif I send them an email.
Face-to-face again is alwayspreferred.
I love face-to-face, I lovechit-chatting.
I took a training years ago inmy old job called Listen First,
and I bring a lot of that withme.
So as much as I just love totalk and love to just keep that
(28:47):
conversation going, I have tostep back and just stop talking
and listen and give them amoment to tell me what they need
, what's going on.
And I find that that reallyworks well because I think a lot
of people, especially in salesand marketing, can tend to go in
and just work, vomit and justcontinually go and stop and not
(29:10):
stop Kind of what I'm doingright now.
Just keep talking, and if youjust pause and let them have the
floor, I find I can get so muchmore out of them.
And it helps on the phone andit helps face to face.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, I agree that listening is really important,
because there's little clues ineverything they say too.
Like you might find out thatthe director of nursing is very
involved in discharges.
At this one sniff, Maybe youweren't even going to go pay her
a visit.
There's all kinds of littlethings that they say when
they're talking that you canpick up on too.
That's a great.
It's a great tip.
I like that.
Yeah, it's great.
(29:43):
Gigi.
What percent of your time eachmonth do you spend on networking
or events?
Speaker 4 (29:50):
So I would say, if we're talking actual networking
events, about 20% of my month isnetworking and attending events
or hosting, depending on thesituation.
But if we're talking networkingas in connecting face-to-face
and having any kind of meetingsand whatnot, majority of my
month is made up of one-on-onemeetings.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Okay, Okay, and so for networking events, what I
see and this says networkingforward slash events I can see
we didn't really say the wordnetworking events.
That's where something's beinghosted at an assisted living and
all the home, health and thehospice and the they all come to
those.
How many of those do you go toa month?
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Probably an average of between three and four, as
far as actual events, a month.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
And what is your goal by going to those?
Do you get referrals from those, do you?
Speaker 4 (30:44):
It all depends.
So sometimes referrals come outof them, of course, but it's
more so about people seeing you.
More often than not, you'regoing to build those
relationships at thesenetworking events right, these
meetings when you go, get tomeet people one-on-one.
They may be busy and you havethe meeting with them, you go
(31:04):
over your information, theirinformation, and then at the end
of the meeting you leave.
So if you haven't had theopportunity to network with them
prior, you may not have thosepersonal talking points yet.
If they're at this event andyou're at this event, you're all
on the same timeline and you'reall trying to build those
connections together.
So people are also a lot morereceptive to wanting to talk to
(31:27):
you and wanting to get to knowyou and give information about
themselves.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, that makes sense because that's the whole
purpose of the meeting, soyou're going to have more of
that talking with them.
That's a good point.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Okay, thanks Next.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yes, how do you stay top of mind with referral
sources without coming off aspushy?
Speaker 5 (31:49):
I think we talked about this a lot already, but
it's really just being genuine.
It's going in being yourself,showing them who you really are,
showing them the passion youhave for your job, your company,
your, their clients, clients,their residents, their patients,
and then it comes back to ourclients too.
So really just being genuine.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah, yeah, and I think you have to be willing to
put yourself out there.
It's vulnerable sometimesbecause sometimes you meet a
referral source and you think Iwill know in real life if I
would like her Like.
Sometimes it's just not thesame and you have to figure out
how to make that work anyway,and so there is some
vulnerability in this too.
I think, yeah, yeah, all right.
(32:35):
Next one, gigi when referralsslow down, how do you jumpstart
the flow again?
Speaker 4 (32:40):
So I always start to brainstorm new ideas or new
initiatives.
So if things start to slow down, the first thing that I'm
thinking is okay, what issomething that I can offer to
our referral sources that Ihaven't done in a while or I
think they'd really enjoy?
Can I host an event, or can Icome up with a new drop by or
(33:01):
start a raffle or a poll onsocial media?
Any type of idea that can getpeople engaged all over again.
And people love I hate to putit this way, but they love what
you can do for them, right?
Whether we intend it or not,it's a what's in it for me kind
of scenario.
So most recently, I came up withthe idea to do what I've been
(33:25):
calling back-to-school breakfastpresentations.
So I reached out to a bunch ofour strong referral sources
especially people that havealways been strong referral
sources but have not reallygiven us anything lately and
said hey, I would love to comein chat with your team, bring
breakfast.
And everybody is strugglingwith back to school.
(33:46):
We know how it is, so they'reprobably not having breakfast,
getting their kids on the busand rushing out of the house.
Let me bring it to you.
And so it was a little bit moreof a kind of casual
presentation, standing thereserving them lunch and getting
to talk to everybody aboutTouching hearts.
But I ended up doing about 10of those and they were all
(34:08):
scheduled between September andOctober because I do have some
still in October.
But all 10 of those werescheduled within three days of
me sending out those requests.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Wow, good for you.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
They love food, and now we're about to have a record
, so it really has.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
That's really great, would you say.
It's still probably early toknow, but did you get some
referrals after that from them?
Speaker 4 (34:31):
Yes, we did Yep Perfect.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
That's.
That is such a great idea.
I love that because they areexhausted Anytime.
Every time they're going backto school, they're tired that
everyone's getting up earlyagain and getting people ready
for school.
It's a lot, so that's genius.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yeah, very good, that's a really great idea.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah, I like that too .
That's really thinking outsideof the box.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
No, I haven't had breakfast since my child started
school, so nobody else haseither.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
That's right.
I haven't had breakfast since19.
I don't know when.
Okay, tess, what's the biggestchallenge in your role today?
Speaker 5 (35:13):
Because we are a much smaller community here than
with Gigi and I love andappreciate that she has so many
meetings lined up and can get inthere as much as she does.
That's a challenge for us here.
We don't have as many places.
I feel like I've exhausted someplaces, but we continue to go
into every community, everyfacility, every building that we
possibly can.
Really, my challenge is gettingthose meetings and then
(35:35):
figuring out the different itemsor different information
packets to bring every time.
So we try to change it up.
I don't get into them weekly, Iget into them every other week.
I split it up.
So I'm still out there and I'mgoing to a lot of the community
networking and events andeverything.
But the challenge is gettingthose meetings set up.
(35:58):
It really is, and they don'ttake your calls, like you said,
and they don't want to meet.
They're tired.
So we're working on it.
It's getting better.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yeah, that can be tough because they think, oh,
another meeting, and yeah, itcan be tough, and they don't
return the call and they don'trespond to the email and it can
be really challenging.
Thank you for sharing that.
That's a big one for everybody.
Gigi, what's your approach whena referral source declines or
selects a different agency?
How do you move forward fromthere?
Speaker 4 (36:30):
I always just say don't take it personally.
I know a lot of places here inRochester do have very specific
rules on how many organizationsthey're allowed to refer to,
meaning they have to refer to aminimum of three Right, meaning
they have to refer to a minimumof three right.
And so some of them might sayhere is my list of three that
(36:50):
I'm going to recommend, callthis one first and they would
say to call Touching Heartsfirst.
Some people are comfortabledoing that, some people are not.
Our hospitals here in Rochesterhave been very strict on no
gifts, no drop-bys, nothing thathas nothing coming from
organizations because they're sofearful of getting sued.
(37:12):
And that's a real thing.
That has been happening acrossthe country and has happened to
a couple organizations and ahospital here in Rochester.
So when my referral sourcespotentially refer somewhere else
, you just don't take itpersonally.
You just keep moving along andyou understand that business is
business and maybe they just hada meeting with the person they
(37:33):
referred to that morning andthey were right in front of them
.
Easy as can be.
You just refer.
So you really can't take itpersonally, because that tension
and that bad blood is justgoing to affect the relationship
in the long run and I would saytoo, it doesn't mean it's over
for you either, because I had amarketer.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Oh, she's referring to so-and-so now and I'm like,
no, that's not what this meansnow, yeah, that's good, and not
taking it personally is a verybig deal.
Yeah, and it's hard not tosometimes.
When was the last time I wasthere?
And what was that conversationlike?
And did I offend her?
You start your mind just startswhirling.
But it is just business.
And it could be that her bosswalked in and said you've
(38:11):
referred to Gigi the last threetimes.
You need to start mixing it up.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
And that happens to me all the time when I was in
senior living.
It was.
You've referred to themmultiple times and this
organization found out that youonly referred to them, so now we
need to try and refer to others, and it really is just business
.
It doesn't mean you're out ofthe game.
It doesn't mean that they'renot thinking of you and don't
want to refer to you.
As long as you keep going andbuilding that relationship, it's
(38:39):
not endgame.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
That's right.
Yeah, I love that.
Tess, can you share a time whenyou had to pivot your approach
and it worked?
Speaker 5 (38:50):
There's lots of times I'm going to go back to trying
to get those meetings have tofigure out something new and
innovative going into the newyear that people are really
going to latch onto and want tobe a part of, and maybe that'll
(39:12):
get me in their building.
So we launched Heart to HeartTours and it's an in-depth tour
of a community facility buildingwhere we go in and take lots of
pictures, learn everythingabout their community and post
it everywhere and tag them.
And just saying that has gottenour foot in the door in a lot
(39:35):
of places where we might nothave gotten tours before or
we've had them, but they've beenvery short and abrupt.
Oh, here's this, here's that.
Do you have any questions?
So now, not just the sales andmarketing person in those
communities, but it's been otherpeople that have really taken
this on, whether it's theexecutive director or the social
worker, sometimes even theactivities director, because
(39:57):
they really want to showcase andhighlight the special things
that they're doing in theircommunity.
So that's the answer that Icould come up with this, because
there's a lot of times that youhave to pivot more on a grand
scale.
It was thinking okay, what canI do for the whole year and push
it and we do two to three amonth there's been in the
(40:18):
summertime it slowed down alittle bit but we've stepped it
back up for the fall and itreally has helped us.
But it has helped them too, andagain, tagging them and knowing
that they're going to be allover our social media pages has
really helped them what a greatidea.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
I know that you have very.
You're both very creative andthink outside of the box, and
that's part of your success.
For sure that I love that idea.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, that is that's really cool facebook and
linkedin tasks.
It's a great idea.
I think that's really coolFacebook and LinkedIn tasks.
It's a great idea.
I think it's simple and you dobeautiful pictures.
It's awesome.
Thanks for sharing.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Gigi, how do you maintain motivation when results
are slow or not meeting yourexpectations?
Speaker 4 (41:01):
Oh, the key is to keep up momentum.
So just keep swimming is what Ialways say.
You got to keep going.
So, sales, especially when youare dealing with any form of
care or any form of like olderadults in general, it ebbs and
flows.
It's that simple.
So, going into the winter, ifyou are new in home care or
(41:26):
working with seniors, you'regoing to find that things are
going to either increase likecrazy because so many people
need help and their children arecoming in from out of town for
the holidays and seeing it, orthey're going to drop
significantly because people aregoing way out of your scope
very quickly, and that is thetrend with senior care and
(41:46):
selling any type of senior care.
So you just got to keep yourinitiatives going.
Don't stop.
If you come up with new ideas,great, but do not stop what you
are doing.
Don't stop your drop-offs.
Don't stop trying to connectwith people.
Statistics over the last,however many years have shown
that typically it is one to sixmonths after the action that it
(42:11):
becomes fruitful when connectingwith people.
So if you are out there havinga meeting and you're or you have
this great big event for theholidays, chances are your
referrals are going to startcoming in from there one to
three-ish months after that.
It's not going to be the nextweek.
So if you have this wonderfulevent and a month goes by and
nothing has happened and youthink, okay, that's it, things
(42:34):
are just going slow.
That's not the case, so justdon't stop, keep going.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
That's why now is always the time, yeah that's
right, that's great.
Speaker 5 (42:56):
Yeah, that's right, that's great.
Tess, what metrics or reportsare most meaningful for showing
success?
We list our first contacts forthe month, so anyone that we
have met for the first time thathasn't referred to us yet, so
that we can look and see, okay,how do we massage that
relationship, how do we hit allour touch points every single
(43:18):
week with them?
We also have on there follow-up.
So follow-ups could be whetherit's by email or phone calls or
face-to-face.
So there's a whole list ofactivity on there that we do,
that we follow.
That I really appreciatebecause it keeps me on board and
when I look and see, oh my gosh, I didn't have such and such
(43:39):
community on there in the pastweek or so I need to have a
touch point with them.
We do monthly metrics, which isreally interesting as well.
So it'll have all my monthlyactivity report numbers on there
.
But it also has our grossprofit and the number of hours
and the number of hours per carepartner and per client and it's
just so interesting and it hasHR information on there.
(44:00):
So going all over all of thosenumbers as a team here is very
interesting in how we, when onepiece of our metrics is down,
you can see the reflection inanother metric of someone else's
and it's just amazing.
It's oh my gosh, okay.
So we pull together as a teamwhen we're looking at all of
(44:21):
that and say, all right, how canI help you, what can we do to
increase your numbers thatultimately will increase my
numbers?
And then we have an outsideagency that we use, for it's
called Home Care Pulse that weuse.
That will call our clients,call our care partners.
They can do it anonymously andjust give a nice little review
and it's all rated and we arealways looking at those and
(44:43):
addressing those, as well asGoogle reviews.
That's so important too.
So there's lots of bits andpieces of numbers here and there
that we look at.
I have to say, our owner, thevery first week that I started
and you're going to know whatthis is on YouTube he put
together a bullseye and he saidokay, tess, here's your bullseye
In the number one part of thebullseye are these communities
(45:06):
or these people I need you tovisit and hit all the time.
And then it goes out to thesecond level and then the third
level and I have that sitting atmy desk.
I refer to it almost daily andit's not a joke anymore.
It's fun, but it really works.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
That's a great idea.
I love the book.
Really smart, Awesome.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
Thanks, Jess Gigi what tools, materials or
resources make your job easier?
Canva and social media.
Canva and either of those.
Social media is huge.
We are on there constantly andTess said, always tagging other
(45:46):
organizations so that we'refront and center with them and
vice versa.
And I found, too, that wheneverwe are doing something and
tagging people, then when we dosomething for them, they want to
tag us too.
So, just as an example ofsomething that I actually got
(46:06):
the idea from my sales trainingwith Annette last year was the
giant posters.
So I did these giant postersand I took a little bit of a
different spin on it and I didbring them to some assisted
livings and rehabs and theyloved it and rehabs and they
(46:28):
loved it.
And then I also brought them tosome of the schools that we
work closely with that I knowhave a lot of grandparent
involvement and my daughter herschool being one of the four
that I bring them to she's at adifferent school this year and
the old school still wanted tobe completely involved, even
though we are not there anymoreas a family, to be completely
involved even though we are notthere anymore as a family.
(46:49):
So it really the social mediais huge.
They're still tagging us inthings and we are tagging them
and we do LinkedIn, facebook andInstagram All of those are
awesome.
And then Canva.
I make everything on Canva.
Literally cannot live withoutCanva Emails, posts, all of it
fabulous.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
Okay, I'm going to move this on valerie, do you
want to?
I have another meeting.
I have to jump on to valerie.
You want to continue askingthese lovely ladies, these
questions?
Speaker 2 (47:16):
or I can continue don thanks guys, so sorry you.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
All right, you're on Annette.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Okay, so this is for both of you.
You both completed our 90 daysales training.
What was your experience?
Speaker 4 (47:35):
So for me, what I found I it was an amazing
experience.
The training was awesome, andwhat I found interesting is I
have been in the industry and ina role like this for about 13
years.
So for me, having been aveteran sales professional, so
to speak, I still learned somuch and had so many great ideas
(47:58):
from it and obviously, with myanswering the last question, I'm
still using ideas from it allthe time.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
Great Thanks Gigi.
Speaker 5 (48:08):
I did what Gigi said.
It was an amazing training andthat's why I continued on with
the every other week calls thatyou have, because it's just so
informative.
I think the support of Annetteand your whole team, as well as
everyone that was on ourtraining, and we could bounce
ideas off each other and justgive kudos for doing this or
(48:28):
doing that.
And then, of course, the updateon your.
Is it the website?
It's where you're showing offall the drop-offs and everything
that people were doing.
That support right there is.
Just it's incredible and itjust really helps us validate
what we're doing and that itreally is working and other
(48:49):
people are doing that, or itshows the challenges that we
have too and being able tobounce that off of each other.
So it's just been amazing.
I'd suggest it to everybody ifI could.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
We love having you on .
Thank you All right, this isfor Gigi and Tess.
What is the most importantthing that you've answered it,
but is can you pick one thingthat you gained from the sales
training that you still followtoday?
Pick one thing out of thetraining, gigi.
Speaker 4 (49:24):
That's a really hard one, honestly.
Just so many of the tools thatyou were able to provide for us.
Again, I still use those ideasconstantly and people love them.
They respond well to them.
It's not just about youdesigning a tag for a drop by,
it's not just about that.
People love the ideas of thecoffee on us tags.
(49:47):
I do coffee on us all the timeand I have gotten multiple
referrals and new referralpartners from it, people I have
never spoken to before becausethey are new in their position.
So really, just that wholecreativity side I still use
every day.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
I love those coffee tags.
Jess, do you have anything tosay?
Speaker 5 (50:09):
Yeah, I love the tags too.
I think, Lisa, you do a greatjob with those.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
I think that creates them.
Speaker 5 (50:14):
Oh my gosh, they're incredible, and we might tweak
them just a little bit, butthey're perfect.
And I think, again, to justreiterate the support that we've
learned to give the communitiesand their staff, and also our
own staff we can give the we'velearned to give the communities
and their staff and also our ownstaff.
There's been some caregiverinformation in there, too that
we've been able to pull and use,and our staff really appreciate
that.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
Awesome, awesome, thank you All right, so these
are our last.
We had two fun questions foreach one of you.
Gigi, if you had to sum up homecare in one word, what would it
be?
Relationships, love it.
Speaker 5 (50:57):
That's great.
And, tess, what is the bestpiece of advice that has shaped
your career?
It's a little funny and it's atiny little story, but so my son
went to Springfield College inMassachusetts in his very first
week.
He called me and he said Ma, hesays you can't step outside
your comfort zone anymore.
And I said okay, why not?
He said because we're notallowed to.
And I said what?
You can't step outside yourcomfort zone.
(51:19):
He said no, you have to expandyour comfort zone because if you
step outside, it means you cancome back in.
So you have to expand yourcomfort zone and it just gets
bigger and bigger.
And I have used that in myprevious job with teenagers and
I just I continue to use thatbecause I just think it's such
(51:41):
wisdom.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Right, that's so good .
I like that too.
Thank you, gigi and Tess.
I can't tell you I just loved.
This was great, and I thinkit's everything you said is so
informative.
We have a lot of peopleattending that are marketing
liaisons or managers or EDs thatare out there marketing, so it
was really helpful and I thinkreally shows a lot of it is that
(52:04):
relationship building, gettingthose referral partners to,
getting closer with them andhoping that you're going to be
the agency of choice.
You know.
So both have done a great joband you're doing really well in
both of your agencies.
So great job, thanks again.
Okay, so, speaking of salestraining, we are.
(52:24):
We just opened up October 16thand October 28th.
We do have spots open.
If you are interested, pleaselet us know.
We would love to have you.
It's 12 weeks, once a week perhour, and I like to say that I
spoon feed you, which I think isvery helpful.
Each week we hold youaccountable, we give you little
homework and I just love seeingthe success from everybody that
(52:48):
takes the class, that puts forththe efforts that we teach you.
Hey, thank you everybody.
It was a great session.
Have a good rest of your day,everybody.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
Speaker 4 (53:00):
Bye, thank you.
This is a really special mastery.
We're super excited about it.
Should we do our introductionsor just get straight to Gigi and
Tess?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Everybody knows us.
I think they do too.
A lot of talking to do today.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
So, valerie, do you want to do our housekeeping?
You're the nurse in the group.
They're the rules.
They make all the rules.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I'm the rule follower , I can tell you that.
But I'm the skirt by and no onedies on my shift.
That's very important.
We'll live until I'm off worktoday, okay.
So, housekeeping, just keepyour lines muted unless you're
speaking.
Share stories, experiences, tip, ask questions.
We really want this to beinteractive and a lot of times
(00:44):
it's easier for you to just typethat in the chat and I think
Lisa has already said hi in thechat so if you type it in there,
we will rewind and come back toyou.
If we have moved on for aminute.
We definitely check forquestions, make recommendations,
tell us what you want to know.
We want to know, oh, and whatabout customized leave-behinds?
Who's the winner, or is there awinner?
(01:05):
There will be, oh, annette.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, there will be.
Yeah, so in the chat, we sowhoever everybody that's here
today, your name gets put in ahat and we will pick somebody to
receive a set of customizedleave behinds with your logo,
colors and content information.
And I will be giving awayNovember.
So put your name in the chat,say yes, and we will put you in
(01:31):
the drawing and let you know atthe end of the class soon who
wins.
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
But you have to promise to send us pictures of
you and your stuff, or what itlooks like, what you came up
with, because not everybodyfollows it exactly the way we
present it, and you guys arereal creative.
We'd love to see what you dowith it.
So that's the caveat is, if youdo this, then you have pictures
.
Okay so we're going to getstarted because this is a really
like I said, it's a reallyexciting one.
(02:00):
We have two very talentedcommunity liaisons here, and so
we want to get right into it.
We're going to pick their brainand ask them all the questions,
and there will be some time foryou to ask them some questions
as well, because maybe you guyshave some that we hadn't thought
of.
So our agenda we're going to goover doing marketing right
fueling your private pay growth.
(02:20):
A day in the life ofresult-driven marketers.
Proven referral building tipsfrom successful home care
marketers.
Effective marketing andoutreach strategies, how
successful marketing repsovercome challenges, supporting
the liaison role.
And then, of course, lisa willhave her beautiful October,
november, december lead lines.
First, we're going to introducethem.
(02:42):
So these two come from theTouching Hearts at Home
franchise in Rochester andSyracuse, new York.
We are going to introduce bothof them, but their offices are
ranked among the top 15% inrevenue across the entire
Touching Hearts franchise system.
So what they're doing isthey're killing it out there.
(03:02):
They have a proven track recordof creating meaningful
connections and driving growth.
Gigi, she's a communityrelations manager of Rochester,
new York.
As a manager at Touching Hearts, she's been there for over a
year.
She uses her 13 years ofexperience in senior care and
sales to lead marketing andsales initiatives that have
achieved a 56% revenue growth,surpassing previous years.
(03:25):
She currently serves as apresident-elect of a local
senior care and servicesorganization and is passionate
about advocacy, collaborationand making meaningful impact
through community involvement.
Welcome Gigi.
Then we have Tess is here aswell.
She's also a communityrelations manager in Syracuse,
new York.
Tess joined Touching Hearts atHome in Syracuse in 2022,
(03:48):
bringing her more than 20 yearsof experience in community
relations within thenot-for-profit sector.
In just three years, herefforts helped drive a 107%
increase in revenue.
She holds a bachelor's degreein business administration and
marketing and has a deep passionfor creating meaningful
connections and buildingimpactful partnerships.
So these two gals are the realdeal.
(04:09):
So get your notes, your notetaking.
Of course, you can always watchthe recording, but I would get
a pencil and paper out and startget ready for their answers,
because they're going to be good.
Some of the questions we'regoing to ask both of them and
some of the questions they'rejust going to just one of them
is going to answer.
To ask both of them and some ofthe questions they're just
going to add one.
Just one of them is going toanswer First question, guys.
First of all, we're so gladyou're here.
What path brought you into themarketing liaison role in home
(04:31):
care, gigi?
You want to go first?
Speaker 4 (04:34):
So I have been passionate about senior care
literally since I was a child.
I grew up with family in livingin senior care and we would
visit them multiple times a weekmy entire life, and so I always
knew that I wanted to work withseniors.
The last 13 years in the field,I have worked very closely with
(04:55):
clients and residents.
Prior to being in my role withTouching Hearts, I was working
in senior living, so I reallyworked very closely with a lot
of home care organizations eventhough I was on the senior
living side.
So when I came into home care,it was an easy transition.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Great, great.
Was everyone able to hear?
Your volume might be a littlelow, Gigi.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, or maybe a little closer to the microphone
I could hear most of it.
But just for the, do you wantto talk again?
Let's just make sure we canhear you.
She's working on it.
Okay, we'll let you work onthat and we'll move on to Tess
and then we'll hear you.
Okay, tess, can you answer thatsame question?
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Okay, welcome everyone.
Thank you for having me.
So my personal mission andalways has been for 30, 40 years
in working is giving back tothe community and helping people
within the community.
I worked in the not-for-profitarea for well over 20 years and
wore a lot of different hats,but the one that really prepared
(05:58):
me for this position wasworking in development and I
helped with all of our majorevents.
I helped with fundraising.
I was getting out there andreally talking to our community
to bring in the money, makepeople aware and telling stories
.
I'm a big storyteller and Ithink that lends a lot to the
(06:21):
job that I had and the job thatI now have.
I also, going into thisposition here with Touching
Hearts at Home, was looking fora little more work-life balance,
and that's exactly what I'vegotten.
So I'm meeting my personalmission, my work-life balance
and it all seems to cometogether.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
That's fabulous.
That's great.
Thank you for sharing both ofyou.
The next question is also forboth of you what does a day in
the life look like for you?
What is your day-to-day?
What does it look like, Gigi?
Do you want to try, and let'ssee if we can hear you better
too?
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Is it better?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
It still sounds far away.
It still sounds far away, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Oh my gosh, I don't know why, just yell at us,
you'll be okay, don't worryabout it.
How does?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
this sound.
That's better Enough, just loud.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, just talk loud, yell at us.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
So a day in the life for me, I usually have anywhere
between two and three meetings,depending on the day, and then
trying to do some drop-bys closeto where the meetings are in
between them.
So the key there is usuallyjust constantly connecting with
my community partners, whetherit's email, telephone, text
(07:38):
message.
Basically, in between everymeeting and every drop-by, I am
also on my phone in one way oranother connecting with these
people.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Okay, and when you say meetings every day, who are
those meetings with?
Do you mean assessments, or arethey meetings?
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Usually referral partners.
So actual sit down meetings,face-to-face, connecting with
individuals who would eventuallysend us referrals.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Perfect, okay, great, thank you for that Tess, very
cool.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
So Gigi and I have the same title but, being in a
little different demographic, weare quite a bit smaller than
Rochester, but I wear a lot ofhats.
So a day for me, a typical dayfor me, is our staff meeting,
that we have to get everyone onboard on who's doing what today,
where everyone is going to be.
And then it's either doing thesame thing that Gigi just
(08:33):
mentioned going out, meetingwith our referral sources, doing
a senior resource fair, meetingup with our networking group,
our very large networking group,and talking to whoever will
listen to who we are and what wedo.
I also do a lot of client care,where I'm taking the inquiry,
I'm talking to the families.
(08:53):
Sometimes I'm going out andactually meeting with the
families and or introducing carepartners to the new clients
that we have.
So it's building thoserelationships as well.
So for us it's a little bitdifferent, but it's all getting
our name out there and what wedo and the passion that we have
for our company.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Fabulous.
Thank you for that.
All right, and that nextquestion, Gigi what are the top
two to three referral sourcetypes that you focus on and
bring you the most referrals?
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Our biggest referral sources are rehabs and hospitals
.
For a fact that rehabs andhospitals have people that are
going home and, more than likely, if those individuals are older
adults, they're going to needhelp, even if that help is going
to be temporary.
Those are your best options, asfar as at least for us, being
our top referral sources.
We also connect a lot withassisted livings.
We get a lot of referrals fromassisted livings.
(09:53):
A lot of times there's just notenough staff to help the
residents that still fit withintheir scope of care but really
need that extra one-on-one.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Okay.
So for inass assisted living,you're not replacing their staff
.
The families are hiring youbecause they need more
one-on-one care.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Correct.
It really depends.
Sometimes it's that they needthat more one-on-one companion
care.
Other times, just for anexample, we have seen that
people will move into anassisted living, and mom has
always taken a shower every day.
Assisted livings don't have thestaff for that, so we may be
able to come in, because in NewYork State, as long as you are a
(10:34):
actual business and not aprivate companion, you are able
to go in and provide care forsomeone who lives in a licensed
community.
So a lot of times there'sdifferent circumstances as to
why an assisted living wouldwant us to come in, but they're
definitely a huge referralsource for us.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
That's fabulous.
And when you say rehabs andhospitals, so rehab you mean
like a skilled nursing facility?
Yes, have you also gone torehab hospitals?
Are those popping up where youare?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
So it all depends.
There are rehab units in ourhospitals.
A lot of times, though, moreoften than not, if somebody is
being discharged from thehospital, they're not.
Usually they're going to givethem a short amount of rehab,
just a day or two in thehospital, just to make sure that
they're safe enough to bedischarged, whether they're
being discharged with help ornot.
(11:26):
So for the hospitals, for usit's usually more emergency room
or observation, or if they arerecovering from any kind of
surgery, and then rehabs thatare located within skilled
nursing communities those arethe rehabs that we would hit.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Okay, good, that's good to know.
Here in Arizona we do haverehab hospitals popping up, and
so they leave the hospital, theregular hospital, and they move
into the rehab hospital.
The rehab hospitals have beenmore open, more friendly and
much easier to get into than aregular hospital.
So just for those of youlistening, that might be an
avenue I think we have in thelast three or four years.
(12:06):
We have five pop up in thePhoenix metro area, so just
something to keep in mind.
Thank you for that answer.
It's fabulous.
I think the next question isfor Tess.
What is one lesson you learnedearly on that still guides you
today?
Speaker 5 (12:20):
So I have one answer ready for that, but I think I'm
changing that.
So really it is the relationshipbuilding, it's getting to know
our referral sources and everyperson in that area that is
important to our job.
So when Gigi mentioned therehabs or assisted living,
getting to know more on apersonal level, the discharge
(12:43):
nurse, the admissions people,the social workers, the director
of nursing so not just going inand finding out who they are,
their name, their title whenthey work, what kind of coffee
they like but it's more divingdeep in.
I want to say the first 18months, maybe two years, of
being here and I've been herealmost three years I was going
(13:06):
out on so many coffee andlunches with an individual just
to sit and get to know them onmore of a personal level and it
has led to some really greatfriendships.
And now it's we know each other.
When we see each other we askhow's this going?
Or how you know about theirfamily, or, oh, how was your
(13:27):
vacation?
And it really does help a lotfor them to know that I'm
invested in who they are and notjust them as a staff person
there looking to get theirbusiness.
So that's really the lessonthat I learned early on and I
bring that, I think, from myprevious job too and just
(13:47):
getting to know them.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I think that means a lot because they know you want a
referral.
All of these people know you'recoming to get a referral.
But if you can be honest, likeyou care about them and an
interest in their life and theirworld and even their day-to-day
at work, it can really and it'sa real friendship.
I have friends.
I tap dance with someone whoused to refer to me 20 years ago
, like we're in class togetherevery Monday.
(14:10):
So it's a real friendship andthey're sending them to you
because they trust you, becausethey know you more than just oh,
she's a home care agency, she'sjust one of those home care
agencies.
So that's a really importantlesson to learn.
I'm glad you shared that test,yeah, so that's a really
important lesson to learn.
Speaker 5 (14:24):
I'm glad you shared that, tess.
Yeah, I have to say real quickone of the ladies that I've
gotten to know really well, herson got married this past summer
, a month after my son did.
So we were like comparingwedding dresses and just
everything leading up to all thestress.
And wow it really helped tohave someone to just bounce that
off of other than just work, sothat was really fun.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yeah, that's great, that's great.
All right, gigi, how do youbuild?
Speaker 4 (14:54):
trust with referral sources quickly.
Oh, it's funny because itpiggybacks on what Tess just
said.
Right, building relationshipsis huge and getting to know
people personally.
So one thing I always say thatsome people are comfortable with
and some people are not is thefact of the matter is you are
not selling the organization youwork for, you are selling
(15:15):
yourself.
It's that simple.
When you are meeting people, itis all about selling Gigi, it
is all about selling Tess.
And then, after people trustyou, that is when it comes into
play that you can sell theproduct that you have.
If people don't think about youwhen they're at the grocery
(15:35):
store and say, oh, I rememberthat Tess loves hazelnut coffee,
oh my gosh, I should try this.
If they're not thinking aboutyou on other ends of their life
or other aspects, then chancesare they're not going to think
of you when it's time to refer,because they're making those
connections with other peoplewho have sold themselves and
they're going to think of themfirst.
(15:56):
Also, building that trust meansthat everything you have to say
to them from a sales standpoint, they know you're telling the
truth and they know that whenyou say touching hearts is the
best at this, or home instead isthe best at that.
Well, I trust Tess, so I knowshe's not BSing me, so to speak,
and just giving me her salespitch.
(16:19):
She is actually telling me whatis going to happen, is actually
telling me what is going tohappen, and I know that if this
doesn't happen, or touchinghearts doesn't perform the way I
want, I can call Gigi and saythis is what's going on.
We need to fix it.
So it's really all aboutbuilding that trust and selling
yourself first.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
That's great I hear both of you saying is these
aren't surface levelrelationships, correct and
you're not worried.
It doesn't sound like about thereferral when you walk in to
meet somebody.
It's more about establishingthat trust and that relationship
and that's where your focus isand you truly do want to get to
know the person and they cansense that from you.
(16:59):
So I would agree 100% witheverything you guys were saying
Absolutely yes.
Okay, tess, please share yourgetting past the gatekeeper tips
.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Oh boy.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
I don't know if you can all see.
She looks like the.
What is that?
Home alone kid yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
So this is and I have to say this goes back to my
training over a year ago that wemust have talked endlessly,
annette, about how do we getpast a gatekeeper.
They want to give me their name.
So I have accomplished gettingpast most gatekeepers, working
(17:40):
on a few, which is fine becauseit's a challenge and you know
what it just.
At the end of the day, all youhave to do is just smile at them
and say hi, but really gettingto know their names, and when
you walk in and you thinkthey're calling the person that
you want to talk to, I don'tknow if they're really calling
them or not, and then they justsay I'm sorry, they're on the
phone or get them out right now.
(18:02):
I don't know, I'm not on thatother end.
I always make sure that I knowtheir name.
I'm like you know what, millie,thank you so much for trying
anyways, and I tend and try tobring something for them, and so
it's just for them.
I leave things sometimes,obviously for the person that
I'm there to see, or people I'mthere to see, which I try to
(18:24):
change that up every time I'mthere.
I try to look for someone new,but I bring things to them I
make it important.
I'll sit and chit chat for afew minutes with them.
We might talk about the weather, or we might talk about oh my
gosh, we have to wear masksagain, or whatever it is but,
it's done right there, or ifthey're super busy I recognize
(18:45):
that too.
If their phone is ringing offthe hook, I just kind of have a
great day.
See, it's just.
It's like the same thing withyour referral sources.
It's getting to know who theyare and them and about them a
little bit.
It's not as easy getting toknow them more on a personal
level because you don't have thetime, but just find something
fun and meaningful to take tothem that you're not giving to
(19:06):
your referral source.
Make it different so thatthey're not thinking, oh, she
just had an extra.
No, I meaningfully bringsomething just for them.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
That's great and from my experience out there and I
know Lisa and Annette will agreebecause we talked about this
before that gatekeeper isignored by everybody else
members have been by.
There's people fixing the cablethere.
There's so many people comingin and out of the building that
don't even make contact eyecontact with that gatekeeper.
So I think if and it soundslike you're doing this, like
(19:39):
you're getting to know theirname you're making them feel
special, they matter.
Even if you just come in andsay their name, you will see the
shock on their face the nexttime you come in.
So when you make them feelspecial, of course they're going
to help you get back therebecause you make them feel
important and special, and Ithink that's a great way to do
(19:59):
it.
Tess, that's awesome.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
And they don't always have name tags on.
They don't always have nametags on.
No, you have to ask and ifyou're comfortable asking, I
always check with my referralsource that I'm there to see
whether it's a social worker,director of nursing, what's her
name at the front desk.
So they're shocked that youknow it when you walk in.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Definitely Very surprised by that.
That's great.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
And you mentioned a training.
I just want to make sure thatthat was the training with
Annette, right.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I just want to make sure and I think I remember Tess
I remember this was you were inmy sales training class and I
think I remember you saying youhad a really hard time getting
past a gatekeeper and she likedsunflowers.
Was that you?
And what did you do?
Speaker 5 (20:45):
I took her some sunflowers.
The next time I brought up acase of sunflowers and she was.
There was another one who wascomplaining about how dry her
hands were and she said I justcan't find the right lotion.
Let me bring you some lotionthat I like.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
That's awesome, I love it.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
You pay attention.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
You pay attention.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, you pay attention and you're being
thoughtful, and they startthinking the senior care this
company provides must bespectacular, because Tess and
Gigi are paying so muchattention to every little detail
and little details on thisrelationship with that really
matter.
Yeah, that's fabulous.
All right, gigi, you're up.
Can you share an example ofturning a cold relationship into
(21:30):
a strong referral pipeline?
And I'm sure everyone's to hearthis loud.
Yeah, I'm interested in whatyou have to say too, so so truly
.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
The key is to be consistent.
So when I started in my role,there had been nobody in the
role for about nine-ish months,so there was no form of
marketing, no outreach, noconnections to the outside world
aside from the phone ringing.
That was literally it.
So there were a few referralsources that had been strong in
(22:03):
the past and had really fallenoff, and when I attempted to try
and connect with some of them,they felt ignored and they were
almost under the impression thatthere was somebody in the role
and they just didn't care aboutthem anymore.
So, realistically, the role wascompletely empty.
But they didn't know that.
(22:23):
So I went out of my way to stopin, to check in with them phone
calls, email, see how they'redoing and some of them were
definitely like no, I don't wantto be bothered, I don't know
who you are, I'm not going totalk to you, and so on.
But eventually, as time went onand I stayed consistent to show
(22:45):
them that we do still care andthey are still important to us,
they came around and are nowsome of our most active referral
sources.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Oh, that's fabulous.
So consistency, yeah,consistency is very important.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
And again back to what Tess said about not just
the gatekeepers but knowingexactly what interests these
people and getting to know themas individuals and showing them.
Maybe you know that someone inthe department has a huge sweet
tooth and you send them cookiesinstead of dropping by because
they can be interrupted in theirday.
You know it doesn't work.
(23:18):
Drop-bys don't work foreverybody.
Some people really hate them.
Doesn't work.
Drop-bys don't work foreverybody.
Some people really hate them.
Or you know that someone lovesa good spa day and you make them
like a little gift basket withsmall, little spa treatments and
things like that.
If you customize and stayconsistent, that really will
help build any type ofrelationship, cold or not.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So true, so true.
I feel like too.
A lot of times when therelationship has been burned or
went cold, it's even moredifficult to prove it again.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
So good job, being pleasantly persistent.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Thanks Gigi.
Okay, yes.
What is the best way managersor home care owners can support
their marketers?
Speaker 5 (24:08):
So I've had it a little easy, I have to say,
because my executive directorwas my boss at my previous job,
so we know each other very well.
But it is working in a newcompany with new owners.
So I want to say the biggestthing that I have found is trust
(24:28):
, building the relationship withme and getting to know me and
who I am and my style, andsupporting and trusting that I'm
going to do a good job outthere and that I know our
community.
And I think that the managers,even all of our staff really but
(24:51):
our owners are actually inRochester, which is great and we
have a VP in Rochester and aslong as they trust and
understand that we know ourcommunity, we know who our
people are, we know how they'regoing to react to different
things that we may be doing thatRochester isn't doing, or if
Rochester's doing somethinggreat and they bring it to us to
(25:12):
know us enough that if we don'tthink it's going to work, or if
we try it and it doesn't work,to understand why it didn't.
I think that's just the biggestthing for me, for being in the
marketing area myself, and itgoes both ways.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah, that makes sense, that makes total sense,
thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, and I think Rochester and Syracuse are
totally different markets, so Itotally get that test and some
things don't work for othermarkets.
You're in an unusual market andyou're doing super.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Thanks, Gigi.
How do you still walk in with asmile on your face when they
act like they don't want youthere?
Speaker 4 (25:52):
We've all felt that May not be acting.
Just saying Close the door.
Yeah, I always say kill themwith kindness.
If you're walking in with asmile on your face, you can be
(26:20):
having the worst day ever.
Just pretend that you are sohappy to be there.
You are so happy to see themand usually they're at least at
the beginning of building arelationship is if you know that
they aren't thrilled to haveanybody walk in but they're not
answering calls and emails.
You try to make meetings becausepeople really prefer having
something scheduled, but if youreally are unable to do that, so
you really want to do a drop byor drop and leave them a little
(26:41):
gift, a little something.
What I always do is I do notwear my name tag, so I purposely
don't wear my name tag.
I walk in as if I'm justsomebody signing in and I come
in and so then they're so happyto see me, so kind to me and
polite, and then when I tellthem why I'm there or who I'm
(27:01):
there to see, they've alreadystarted being polite and it's
very rare that they change theirtune.
So that's just my own littletrick that I like to do when I'm
going into a community I maynot be thrilled.
I'm walking in.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
I like that yeah, pretend you're a family member.
Sometimes you got to go alittle beyond the family member.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Sometimes you got to go a little beyond the.
It's hard to stay motivated andpositive when you're For me
anyway, when I'm going and I seethat face every time oh she's
here again, and she was justhere again.
And they even say you don'tneed to come every week.
I know who you are.
They don't know that I do needto come every week because they
don't realize that they forgetwho I am.
So for me that was hard and Iwould feel beat up after maybe
(27:45):
three of those stops.
So then I would go to anassisted living or somewhere
where they are going to love onme a senior center and I would
get up again and then I couldget my smile going.
But I like your idea too.
Yeah, tess, which marketingtactics consistently bring you
results?
Speaker 5 (28:04):
So always face-to-face is the best.
I like picking up the phone, Idon't like texting, I don't like
emailing.
Sometimes I'll sit there andstart to type out an email, but
I really like to talk to peopleon the phone and I find that
works really well because theyactually will answer my calls,
(28:25):
sometimes better and faster thanif I send them an email.
Face-to-face again is alwayspreferred.
I love face-to-face, I lovechit-chatting.
I took a training years ago inmy old job called Listen First,
and I bring a lot of that withme.
So as much as I just love totalk and love to just keep that
(28:47):
conversation going, I have tostep back and just stop talking
and listen and give them amoment to tell me what they need
, what's going on.
And I find that that reallyworks well because I think a lot
of people, especially in salesand marketing, can tend to go in
and just work, vomit and justcontinually go and stop and not
(29:10):
stop Kind of what I'm doingright now.
Just keep talking, and if youjust pause and let them have the
floor, I find I can get so muchmore out of them.
And it helps on the phone andit helps face to face.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, I agree that listening is really important,
because there's little clues ineverything they say too.
Like you might find out thatthe director of nursing is very
involved in discharges.
At this one sniff, Maybe youweren't even going to go pay her
a visit.
There's all kinds of littlethings that they say when
they're talking that you canpick up on too.
That's a great.
It's a great tip.
I like that.
Yeah, it's great.
(29:43):
Gigi.
What percent of your time eachmonth do you spend on networking
or events?
Speaker 4 (29:50):
So I would say, if we're talking actual networking
events, about 20% of my month isnetworking and attending events
or hosting, depending on thesituation.
But if we're talking networkingas in connecting face-to-face
and having any kind of meetingsand whatnot, majority of my
month is made up of one-on-onemeetings.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Okay, Okay, and so for networking events, what I
see and this says networkingforward slash events I can see
we didn't really say the wordnetworking events.
That's where something's beinghosted at an assisted living and
all the home, health and thehospice and the they all come to
those.
How many of those do you go toa month?
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Probably an average of between three and four, as
far as actual events, a month.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
And what is your goal by going to those?
Do you get referrals from those, do you?
Speaker 4 (30:44):
It all depends.
So sometimes referrals come outof them, of course, but it's
more so about people seeing you.
More often than not, you'regoing to build those
relationships at thesenetworking events right, these
meetings when you go, get tomeet people one-on-one.
They may be busy and you havethe meeting with them, you go
(31:04):
over your information, theirinformation, and then at the end
of the meeting you leave.
So if you haven't had theopportunity to network with them
prior, you may not have thosepersonal talking points yet.
If they're at this event andyou're at this event, you're all
on the same timeline and you'reall trying to build those
connections together.
So people are also a lot morereceptive to wanting to talk to
(31:27):
you and wanting to get to knowyou and give information about
themselves.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, that makes sense because that's the whole
purpose of the meeting, soyou're going to have more of
that talking with them.
That's a good point.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Okay, thanks Next.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yes, how do you stay top of mind with referral
sources without coming off aspushy?
Speaker 5 (31:49):
I think we talked about this a lot already, but
it's really just being genuine.
It's going in being yourself,showing them who you really are,
showing them the passion youhave for your job, your company,
your, their clients, clients,their residents, their patients,
and then it comes back to ourclients too.
So really just being genuine.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah, yeah, and I think you have to be willing to
put yourself out there.
It's vulnerable sometimesbecause sometimes you meet a
referral source and you think Iwill know in real life if I
would like her Like.
Sometimes it's just not thesame and you have to figure out
how to make that work anyway,and so there is some
vulnerability in this too.
I think, yeah, yeah, all right.
(32:35):
Next one, gigi when referralsslow down, how do you jumpstart
the flow again?
Speaker 4 (32:40):
So I always start to brainstorm new ideas or new
initiatives.
So if things start to slow down, the first thing that I'm
thinking is okay, what issomething that I can offer to
our referral sources that Ihaven't done in a while or I
think they'd really enjoy?
Can I host an event, or can Icome up with a new drop by or
(33:01):
start a raffle or a poll onsocial media?
Any type of idea that can getpeople engaged all over again.
And people love I hate to putit this way, but they love what
you can do for them, right?
Whether we intend it or not,it's a what's in it for me kind
of scenario.
So most recently, I came up withthe idea to do what I've been
(33:25):
calling back-to-school breakfastpresentations.
So I reached out to a bunch ofour strong referral sources
especially people that havealways been strong referral
sources but have not reallygiven us anything lately and
said hey, I would love to comein chat with your team, bring
breakfast.
And everybody is strugglingwith back to school.
(33:46):
We know how it is, so they'reprobably not having breakfast,
getting their kids on the busand rushing out of the house.
Let me bring it to you.
And so it was a little bit moreof a kind of casual
presentation, standing thereserving them lunch and getting
to talk to everybody aboutTouching hearts.
But I ended up doing about 10of those and they were all
(34:08):
scheduled between September andOctober because I do have some
still in October.
But all 10 of those werescheduled within three days of
me sending out those requests.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Wow, good for you.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
They love food, and now we're about to have a record
, so it really has.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
That's really great, would you say.
It's still probably early toknow, but did you get some
referrals after that from them?
Speaker 4 (34:31):
Yes, we did Yep Perfect.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
That's.
That is such a great idea.
I love that because they areexhausted Anytime.
Every time they're going backto school, they're tired that
everyone's getting up earlyagain and getting people ready
for school.
It's a lot, so that's genius.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yeah, very good, that's a really great idea.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah, I like that too .
That's really thinking outsideof the box.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
No, I haven't had breakfast since my child started
school, so nobody else haseither.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
That's right.
I haven't had breakfast since19.
I don't know when.
Okay, tess, what's the biggestchallenge in your role today?
Speaker 5 (35:13):
Because we are a much smaller community here than
with Gigi and I love andappreciate that she has so many
meetings lined up and can get inthere as much as she does.
That's a challenge for us here.
We don't have as many places.
I feel like I've exhausted someplaces, but we continue to go
into every community, everyfacility, every building that we
possibly can.
Really, my challenge is gettingthose meetings and then
(35:35):
figuring out the different itemsor different information
packets to bring every time.
So we try to change it up.
I don't get into them weekly, Iget into them every other week.
I split it up.
So I'm still out there and I'mgoing to a lot of the community
networking and events andeverything.
But the challenge is gettingthose meetings set up.
(35:58):
It really is, and they don'ttake your calls, like you said,
and they don't want to meet.
They're tired.
So we're working on it.
It's getting better.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yeah, that can be tough because they think, oh,
another meeting, and yeah, itcan be tough, and they don't
return the call and they don'trespond to the email and it can
be really challenging.
Thank you for sharing that.
That's a big one for everybody.
Gigi, what's your approach whena referral source declines or
selects a different agency?
How do you move forward fromthere?
Speaker 4 (36:30):
I always just say don't take it personally.
I know a lot of places here inRochester do have very specific
rules on how many organizationsthey're allowed to refer to,
meaning they have to refer to aminimum of three Right, meaning
they have to refer to a minimumof three right.
And so some of them might sayhere is my list of three that
(36:50):
I'm going to recommend, callthis one first and they would
say to call Touching Heartsfirst.
Some people are comfortabledoing that, some people are not.
Our hospitals here in Rochesterhave been very strict on no
gifts, no drop-bys, nothing thathas nothing coming from
organizations because they're sofearful of getting sued.
(37:12):
And that's a real thing.
That has been happening acrossthe country and has happened to
a couple organizations and ahospital here in Rochester.
So when my referral sourcespotentially refer somewhere else
, you just don't take itpersonally.
You just keep moving along andyou understand that business is
business and maybe they just hada meeting with the person they
(37:33):
referred to that morning andthey were right in front of them
.
Easy as can be.
You just refer.
So you really can't take itpersonally, because that tension
and that bad blood is justgoing to affect the relationship
in the long run and I would saytoo, it doesn't mean it's over
for you either, because I had amarketer.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Oh, she's referring to so-and-so now and I'm like,
no, that's not what this meansnow, yeah, that's good, and not
taking it personally is a verybig deal.
Yeah, and it's hard not tosometimes.
When was the last time I wasthere?
And what was that conversationlike?
And did I offend her?
You start your mind just startswhirling.
But it is just business.
And it could be that her bosswalked in and said you've
(38:11):
referred to Gigi the last threetimes.
You need to start mixing it up.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
And that happens to me all the time when I was in
senior living.
It was.
You've referred to themmultiple times and this
organization found out that youonly referred to them, so now we
need to try and refer to others, and it really is just business
.
It doesn't mean you're out ofthe game.
It doesn't mean that they'renot thinking of you and don't
want to refer to you.
As long as you keep going andbuilding that relationship, it's
(38:39):
not endgame.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
That's right.
Yeah, I love that.
Tess, can you share a time whenyou had to pivot your approach
and it worked?
Speaker 5 (38:50):
There's lots of times I'm going to go back to trying
to get those meetings have tofigure out something new and
innovative going into the newyear that people are really
going to latch onto and want tobe a part of, and maybe that'll
(39:12):
get me in their building.
So we launched Heart to HeartTours and it's an in-depth tour
of a community facility buildingwhere we go in and take lots of
pictures, learn everythingabout their community and post
it everywhere and tag them.
And just saying that has gottenour foot in the door in a lot
(39:35):
of places where we might nothave gotten tours before or
we've had them, but they've beenvery short and abrupt.
Oh, here's this, here's that.
Do you have any questions?
So now, not just the sales andmarketing person in those
communities, but it's been otherpeople that have really taken
this on, whether it's theexecutive director or the social
worker, sometimes even theactivities director, because
(39:57):
they really want to showcase andhighlight the special things
that they're doing in theircommunity.
So that's the answer that Icould come up with this, because
there's a lot of times that youhave to pivot more on a grand
scale.
It was thinking okay, what canI do for the whole year and push
it and we do two to three amonth there's been in the
(40:18):
summertime it slowed down alittle bit but we've stepped it
back up for the fall and itreally has helped us.
But it has helped them too, andagain, tagging them and knowing
that they're going to be allover our social media pages has
really helped them what a greatidea.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
I know that you have very.
You're both very creative andthink outside of the box, and
that's part of your success.
For sure that I love that idea.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, that is that's really cool facebook and
linkedin tasks.
It's a great idea.
I think that's really coolFacebook and LinkedIn tasks.
It's a great idea.
I think it's simple and you dobeautiful pictures.
It's awesome.
Thanks for sharing.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Gigi, how do you maintain motivation when results
are slow or not meeting yourexpectations?
Speaker 4 (41:01):
Oh, the key is to keep up momentum.
So just keep swimming is what Ialways say.
You got to keep going.
So, sales, especially when youare dealing with any form of
care or any form of like olderadults in general, it ebbs and
flows.
It's that simple.
So, going into the winter, ifyou are new in home care or
(41:26):
working with seniors, you'regoing to find that things are
going to either increase likecrazy because so many people
need help and their children arecoming in from out of town for
the holidays and seeing it, orthey're going to drop
significantly because people aregoing way out of your scope
very quickly, and that is thetrend with senior care and
(41:46):
selling any type of senior care.
So you just got to keep yourinitiatives going.
Don't stop.
If you come up with new ideas,great, but do not stop what you
are doing.
Don't stop your drop-offs.
Don't stop trying to connectwith people.
Statistics over the last,however many years have shown
that typically it is one to sixmonths after the action that it
(42:11):
becomes fruitful when connectingwith people.
So if you are out there havinga meeting and you're or you have
this great big event for theholidays, chances are your
referrals are going to startcoming in from there one to
three-ish months after that.
It's not going to be the nextweek.
So if you have this wonderfulevent and a month goes by and
nothing has happened and youthink, okay, that's it, things
(42:34):
are just going slow.
That's not the case, so justdon't stop, keep going.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
That's why now is always the time, yeah that's
right, that's great.
Speaker 5 (42:56):
Yeah, that's right, that's great.
Tess, what metrics or reportsare most meaningful for showing
success?
We list our first contacts forthe month, so anyone that we
have met for the first time thathasn't referred to us yet, so
that we can look and see, okay,how do we massage that
relationship, how do we hit allour touch points every single
(43:18):
week with them?
We also have on there follow-up.
So follow-ups could be whetherit's by email or phone calls or
face-to-face.
So there's a whole list ofactivity on there that we do,
that we follow.
That I really appreciatebecause it keeps me on board and
when I look and see, oh my gosh, I didn't have such and such
(43:39):
community on there in the pastweek or so I need to have a
touch point with them.
We do monthly metrics, which isreally interesting as well.
So it'll have all my monthlyactivity report numbers on there
.
But it also has our grossprofit and the number of hours
and the number of hours per carepartner and per client and it's
just so interesting and it hasHR information on there.
(44:00):
So going all over all of thosenumbers as a team here is very
interesting in how we, when onepiece of our metrics is down,
you can see the reflection inanother metric of someone else's
and it's just amazing.
It's oh my gosh, okay.
So we pull together as a teamwhen we're looking at all of
(44:21):
that and say, all right, how canI help you, what can we do to
increase your numbers thatultimately will increase my
numbers?
And then we have an outsideagency that we use, for it's
called Home Care Pulse that weuse.
That will call our clients,call our care partners.
They can do it anonymously andjust give a nice little review
and it's all rated and we arealways looking at those and
(44:43):
addressing those, as well asGoogle reviews.
That's so important too.
So there's lots of bits andpieces of numbers here and there
that we look at.
I have to say, our owner, thevery first week that I started
and you're going to know whatthis is on YouTube he put
together a bullseye and he saidokay, tess, here's your bullseye
In the number one part of thebullseye are these communities
(45:06):
or these people I need you tovisit and hit all the time.
And then it goes out to thesecond level and then the third
level and I have that sitting atmy desk.
I refer to it almost daily andit's not a joke anymore.
It's fun, but it really works.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
That's a great idea.
I love the book.
Really smart, Awesome.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
Thanks, Jess Gigi what tools, materials or
resources make your job easier?
Canva and social media.
Canva and either of those.
Social media is huge.
We are on there constantly andTess said, always tagging other
(45:46):
organizations so that we'refront and center with them and
vice versa.
And I found, too, that wheneverwe are doing something and
tagging people, then when we dosomething for them, they want to
tag us too.
So, just as an example ofsomething that I actually got
(46:06):
the idea from my sales trainingwith Annette last year was the
giant posters.
So I did these giant postersand I took a little bit of a
different spin on it and I didbring them to some assisted
livings and rehabs and theyloved it and rehabs and they
(46:28):
loved it.
And then I also brought them tosome of the schools that we
work closely with that I knowhave a lot of grandparent
involvement and my daughter herschool being one of the four
that I bring them to she's at adifferent school this year and
the old school still wanted tobe completely involved, even
though we are not there anymoreas a family, to be completely
involved even though we are notthere anymore as a family.
(46:49):
So it really the social mediais huge.
They're still tagging us inthings and we are tagging them
and we do LinkedIn, facebook andInstagram All of those are
awesome.
And then Canva.
I make everything on Canva.
Literally cannot live withoutCanva Emails, posts, all of it
fabulous.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
Okay, I'm going to move this on valerie, do you
want to?
I have another meeting.
I have to jump on to valerie.
You want to continue askingthese lovely ladies, these
questions?
Speaker 2 (47:16):
or I can continue don thanks guys, so sorry you.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
All right, you're on Annette.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Okay, so this is for both of you.
You both completed our 90 daysales training.
What was your experience?
Speaker 4 (47:35):
So for me, what I found I it was an amazing
experience.
The training was awesome, andwhat I found interesting is I
have been in the industry and ina role like this for about 13
years.
So for me, having been aveteran sales professional, so
to speak, I still learned somuch and had so many great ideas
(47:58):
from it and obviously, with myanswering the last question, I'm
still using ideas from it allthe time.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
Great Thanks Gigi.
Speaker 5 (48:08):
I did what Gigi said.
It was an amazing training andthat's why I continued on with
the every other week calls thatyou have, because it's just so
informative.
I think the support of Annetteand your whole team, as well as
everyone that was on ourtraining, and we could bounce
ideas off each other and justgive kudos for doing this or
(48:28):
doing that.
And then, of course, the updateon your.
Is it the website?
It's where you're showing offall the drop-offs and everything
that people were doing.
That support right there is.
Just it's incredible and itjust really helps us validate
what we're doing and that itreally is working and other
(48:49):
people are doing that, or itshows the challenges that we
have too and being able tobounce that off of each other.
So it's just been amazing.
I'd suggest it to everybody ifI could.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
We love having you on .
Thank you All right, this isfor Gigi and Tess.
What is the most importantthing that you've answered it,
but is can you pick one thingthat you gained from the sales
training that you still followtoday?
Pick one thing out of thetraining, gigi.
Speaker 4 (49:24):
That's a really hard one, honestly.
Just so many of the tools thatyou were able to provide for us.
Again, I still use those ideasconstantly and people love them.
They respond well to them.
It's not just about youdesigning a tag for a drop by,
it's not just about that.
People love the ideas of thecoffee on us tags.
(49:47):
I do coffee on us all the timeand I have gotten multiple
referrals and new referralpartners from it, people I have
never spoken to before becausethey are new in their position.
So really, just that wholecreativity side I still use
every day.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
I love those coffee tags.
Jess, do you have anything tosay?
Speaker 5 (50:09):
Yeah, I love the tags too.
I think, Lisa, you do a greatjob with those.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
I think that creates them.
Speaker 5 (50:14):
Oh my gosh, they're incredible, and we might tweak
them just a little bit, butthey're perfect.
And I think, again, to justreiterate the support that we've
learned to give the communitiesand their staff, and also our
own staff we can give the we'velearned to give the communities
and their staff and also our ownstaff.
There's been some caregiverinformation in there, too that
we've been able to pull and use,and our staff really appreciate
that.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
Awesome, awesome, thank you All right, so these
are our last.
We had two fun questions foreach one of you.
Gigi, if you had to sum up homecare in one word, what would it
be?
Relationships, love it.
Speaker 5 (50:57):
That's great.
And, tess, what is the bestpiece of advice that has shaped
your career?
It's a little funny and it's atiny little story, but so my son
went to Springfield College inMassachusetts in his very first
week.
He called me and he said Ma, hesays you can't step outside
your comfort zone anymore.
And I said okay, why not?
He said because we're notallowed to.
And I said what?
You can't step outside yourcomfort zone.
(51:19):
He said no, you have to expandyour comfort zone because if you
step outside, it means you cancome back in.
So you have to expand yourcomfort zone and it just gets
bigger and bigger.
And I have used that in myprevious job with teenagers and
I just I continue to use thatbecause I just think it's such
(51:41):
wisdom.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Right, that's so good .
I like that too.
Thank you, gigi and Tess.
I can't tell you I just loved.
This was great, and I thinkit's everything you said is so
informative.
We have a lot of peopleattending that are marketing
liaisons or managers or EDs thatare out there marketing, so it
was really helpful and I thinkreally shows a lot of it is that
(52:04):
relationship building, gettingthose referral partners to,
getting closer with them andhoping that you're going to be
the agency of choice.
You know.
So both have done a great joband you're doing really well in
both of your agencies.
So great job, thanks again.
Okay, so, speaking of salestraining, we are.
(52:24):
We just opened up October 16thand October 28th.
We do have spots open.
If you are interested, pleaselet us know.
We would love to have you.
It's 12 weeks, once a week perhour, and I like to say that I
spoon feed you, which I think isvery helpful.
Each week we hold youaccountable, we give you little
homework and I just love seeingthe success from everybody that
(52:48):
takes the class, that puts forththe efforts that we teach you.
Hey, thank you everybody.
It was a great session.
Have a good rest of your day,everybody.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
Speaker 4 (53:00):
Bye, thank you.
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