April 28, 2025 • 32 mins
Join Julio Brionis as he dives into the essentials of communication in homecare marketing and business development. Learn effective strategies and tips. Like and share! Comment Below your thoughts.
00:00 Introduction
01:17 About the Speaker
02:30 Business Development
03:36 Key Elements
06:19 Pain Points
08:07 Desire to Fix
10:08 Resources
15:25 Decision Makers
18:28 Importance of Trust
22:03 Next Steps
27:45 Clear Steps
30:27 60 Day Trial
31:31 Conclusion
00:00 Introduction
01:17 About the Speaker
02:30 Business Development
03:36 Key Elements
06:19 Pain Points
08:07 Desire to Fix
10:08 Resources
15:25 Decision Makers
18:28 Importance of Trust
22:03 Next Steps
27:45 Clear Steps
30:27 60 Day Trial
31:31 Conclusion
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
All right, good morning everyone. I apologize for being late.
I hope everyone can hear me. Now. We had a
few technical difficulties and now we are live. I hope.
Can I get a thumbs up if you can actually
hear me, Just leave a comment something, let me know
(00:26):
that we're that we're actually live, and that we can
that we are being heard. All right, So I think
I think we're good now, all right, fantastic, So let
me let me see. All right, So let me go
(00:53):
ahead and let me see if it'll let me do this,
all right. So my name is Julio Briones, and I
I am the CEO of Breonna's Consulting Group, and we're
a company that helps home care agencies grow through operations, strategy,
and marketing and business development support. So today we are here,
(01:18):
all right, Esther, thank you so much through the wonderful
invitation of Esther, and you know, she's been kind enough
to let us come here and walk through with you
guys a little bit of so that you guys can
get a little bit of help when it comes to
improving your business development. So one of the big things
(01:38):
that with the clients that I work with, that I
have found is that when people go out to do
their business development activity. All right, So even though it
says here marketing strategy, we're talking about business development when
traditional marketing not. We're not necessarily talking about you know,
those pay per click ads or anything else. Business development,
(02:01):
by far is the greatest, the greatest way, and fastest
way to grow your business, especially if you want to
grow exponentially. You know, it's not not as simple as
going out there and you know, putting out a bunch
of pay per click ads, or buying a bunch of
leads off of like a place for mom karenholmescarrying dot
com or any of those other places, or finding somebody
(02:23):
that can go and set up a fantastic pay per
click ad. Those ads will generate, but they tend to
have a lower conversion rate. What we're talking about today
is actual business development. That means either you or somebody
in your office going out and building relationships. Just always
remember that that, you know, while you are trying to
(02:45):
do business with another business, it's the people inside that
really grow the business. It's it's your relationships. So when
they come in. One of the more common mistakes that
happen is that people tend to forget that. You know,
there's a process to this. This is something that you're
that you're going to want to make sure that you
(03:07):
understand and then and how you phrase things and what
you're saying is just as important as anything else. So
we're going to go over two parts on how to
properly communicate when you're out there doing your traditional marketing,
your business development. The first thing we're going to talk
about are the seven key elements that you need in
(03:28):
order to get somebody to work with you. Look, all
seven of these have to be in place. Please understand this.
It does not make a difference. You know, how good,
how good your your your campaign is. It doesn't matter
how badly things go. All that matters is that if
you want somebody to work with you, especially when we're
(03:51):
talking about business development and building these relationships with those
social workers, the office managers in the doctor's offices, you know,
when you're talking when you're talking to nurses, when you're
talking to people executive directors. You have to have all
seven of these elements, Okay, and we're just going to
run through them a little quickly here. All right, So
(04:11):
the first thing that needs to happen is there has
to be pain. Look, at the end of the day,
if I'm not hurting, if there's something not wrong in
my business, there is no reason for you to come
and talk to me. You have to understand what my
business is and you have to understand how it is
(04:31):
that I'm experiencing problems that you can help. So, for example,
if we're talking about a skilled nursing facility, their pain
is very different than the pain inside of an assisted
living So what do I mean by that? They have
actually opposite goals when it comes to working with their
(04:51):
clients in a skilled nursing facility. When the time comes
and medicare stops paying, all they're interested in is getting
people out of their building. That's it. Look all all
the other fluff stuff, it's great, but at the end
of the day, this is what they are primarily interested in.
They need to empty that bed so they can bring
(05:12):
in another body and build for that new bed. They
also want to make sure that that person can stay
out and not be rehospitalized for thirty days. So this
is what this is what your messaging needs to be.
You need to come in and understand this. Where if
you take an assisted living their pain point is very different.
(05:33):
They want people to be well serviced and have that
higher level of care so that people stay in their building.
All right, So we're talking about two facilities that are
probably the number one in number two, depending on your
market is which one is one and which one is two.
But these are your top referral partners in most areas
(05:54):
you're skilled nursing, short term rehabs, and your assisted livings.
But they have op pain points. One needs people out,
the other one needs people to stay. So this is
where as a home care agency or as a hospice
or whatever it is that your business is, this is
where you will understand where they're you know, you have
(06:16):
to come in and understand this first, that their pain point. Now,
those of you that are not in home care, those
of you that are in something else, it doesn't matter
to me if you're selling, you know, oranges on the
street corner. If you're you can't figure out that what
that person's pain point is, there's really not a lot
of conversation that you're left to have. So now that
(06:37):
we understand what their pain point is, okay, we now
need to know that they have to have a cost
to their inaction. The cost is not the dollar amount. Look,
I'm gonna tell you industry secret here, and most people
will disagree with me on this. I don't care if
everyone in your area is charging thirty five dollars an
(06:58):
hour and you want to charge seventy it's irrelevant. Okay.
All that matters is how well can you communicate these
seven points? Okay? So point number two is that there
has to be a cost. The cost is what happens
if they don't act, If that social worker cannot successful
you get people out of that building and get them
to stay out for the next thirty days without a rehospitalization,
(07:21):
what's going to happen. Well, the short version of that
is that they're probably going to lose their job, the
facility is going to develop a bad reputation, and Medicare
will stop paying. All right, It's the same thing happens
in the other end. If you're at that independent living facility,
or if you're at that assisted living facility and no
one can and they can't figure out how to get
(07:42):
people to stay in the building and they have a
lot of a residential turnaround, Well, this is what's gonna
end up happening. Somebody's gonna lose their job, the building
might just fold. So next, now that we understand that
there is a problem, there is a pain point, and
we understand clearly what the cost is going to be
(08:04):
of them not doing anything, there has to be a
desire to fix the problem, all right. That's that's very simple.
If I have a problem and I understand that I'm
just screwed if I don't fix it, but I have
zero interest in fixing the problem, then you know, we're
(08:25):
we're going to have a hard time communicating. You know,
it doesn't matter if you're the person I want to
work with or if someone else. There has to just
be a genuine desire to fix the problem. This one's
actually one of the easier ones to convey because at
the end of the day, this is what it comes
down to with if I'm a social worker, or if
I'm a nurse and I'm working in one of these facilities,
(08:47):
or I'm a sales manager or a you know, the
PA or the office manager, whatever it is, I have
an interest in keeping my job, all right. I like
to stay employed. I like to pay my bill, I
like to feed my wife and kids. You know, this
is what it is. You know, like look, let's let's
look at this coldly a little bit. These people want
(09:10):
to do their job, they want to keep their job,
they want to pay their bills, and they all want
to help other people. And in order to successfully do this,
they have to understand their own pain points. There has
they have to understand what happens if they don't fix it,
so they all have the desire to fix it. And
once all of this comes into play, they have you
have to know that the person you're talking to doubts
that they can fix the problem themselves. I could be
(09:32):
the best social worker in the world. Doesn't mean I
know how to run a home care agency, okay, It
doesn't mean that I know how to run an assisted
living facility and that I need to you know, or
that I have an assisted living facility in the living
room of my home, so that means I got to
put people somewhere. So that means I don't just doubt
(09:53):
that I can't fix do this on my own. I
absolutely know that I cannot do this on my own.
So now you here, you are coming into help me fantastic.
So the with all of this in place, now comes
the three biggest elements. There have to be available resources.
Resources are different for every place you're going to. Essentially,
(10:16):
this is what it comes down to. Look at what
is your business model? Okay, that's the first thing you
need to understand about this is are you a private
pay home care agency, meaning you don't take Medicaid, you
do not take VA, you do not take anything other
than cash and long term care policies, which is just
(10:41):
as good as cash now or are you a assisted
living facility? Are you? Are you accepting Medicaid payments? Are
you accepting private pay? What is it that you have?
So if by understanding your payer sources and understanding who
your ideas client is, please understand that part you're lost.
(11:04):
If you do not know who your ideal client is.
I ask this a lot whenever I do live events, okay,
or whenever I come in to train new agency owners
or they come out to my location. This is a
very common thing, especially in the senior care industry. If
I were to ask you who is your ideal client
(11:25):
and you tell me anyone that's old, We're going to
have a problem. Okay, it is not. Your client is
very different. If you're building Medicaid, your client is very different.
If you're building medicare, your client is very different. If
you are a home care or home health agency that
specializes in case management, your client is very different. If
(11:49):
you are a residential residential assisted living facility. It's also
different if you are a unlicensed four or five bed
facility versus a fully licensed two hundred bed facility. Understand
and know who your client is. What is their age group,
what type of payer source are they? Do they have family?
(12:12):
Are you looking for people that are alone? What is
the problem you're trying to solve? And understand their You
know what their needs are, and that's how you're going
to know who your ideal client is. Now that you're
armed with that information, now you can look at the
available resources go to these facilities that cater to your people.
(12:36):
So most areas follow a pattern. If you're in an
urban area, you should have a hospital somewhere within four
miles of any given point in the city. If you
are in the suburbs, that number goes up to about
six and a half miles, and if you are out
in farmland very rural area, it's just short of eleven miles.
(13:02):
So that means that these facilities look at the people
that live within that range around you and look for
the facilities that cater to the neighborhoods you are trying
to get into. If you are a Medicaid agency, you
want to look for facilities that don't rely on the
hospitals that are close to lower income areas. When you
(13:25):
are looking for private pay, you want to make sure
that you're looking for facilities and potential referral partners that
the go to hospitals or that rely on hospitals that
are in the areas with higher income brackets. Understand this,
who are you trying to help, and then look for
the resources that this person that you're talking to are
(13:47):
what resources they have available. I'll give you an example.
If I am looking for private pay home care agency
clients or private pay clients looking to go to an
assisted living I may target a skilled nursing facility that
is in an upscaled neighborhood. Who would my client be Well,
for the most part, it would be people that are
(14:09):
making on average forty percent above the median income in
the area that I'm that I'm looking for, so in
the county. So let's say we are just again, for
argument's sake, we are in the Dallas area, all right.
So if, for if in Dallas, your median income is
(14:31):
about eighty thousand a year, and I'm looking for private pay,
that means I want to find households that are in
the one hundred and ten or up, you know median
that the median household income. So I'm gonna go look
out by Plano, all right, or you know, north north
of Dallas, because those areas will have more of those clients.
So I'm going to particularly visit, you know, skilled nursing facilities.
(14:57):
I'm going to visit doctors offices, wealth managers, a number
of other places that will cater to that private pay community.
And I will come and explain to them again that
I understand their problem, their pain. I understand what will
happen if they can't satisfy or correct their problems. These people,
most of them, have a desire to do this because,
(15:18):
especially if they're in the private pay space, I know
they know they can't do it themselves, and they have
the available resources. They have the people in the right
age demographics with enough resources to pay for what I
am offering. Right and now, even though it's the number
two thing, I'm going to say, this is the number
one mistake people make when they are approaching facilities or
(15:42):
referral partners the hands down, they are talking to the
wrong people. Save yourself some headaches. Make sure that when
you're going to go on a sales call, when you're
doing when, when when you're doing your preparation, that you
(16:03):
are properly prospecting. Okay, that means you know where they are,
where the building is, you know who works in the building.
You have to understand who what community this building caters to,
and make sure you know who the decision makers are.
However it is, you got to find out. You know,
(16:25):
free tip, just call call up the facility and say, hey,
you know X, y Z skilled nursing, or hey, you
know I'm looking for so and so CPA. Great, I'd
like to come bine and you know, talk about a
potential client that I have and I want to know
do you work with this type of client? Yes, oh fantastic.
(16:46):
Who is it that I would speak to directly? That
would uh best? That would be the best person to
develop a referral relationship with? All right, is it the
senior senior social worker? Is it the administrator who has
decision making power? I'll tell you an example of something
(17:07):
I personally went through years ago when I was still
doing business development. Yeah, when I lived in northern New Jersey.
I went and I worked this facility for about two months.
And when I worked with this facility, I had a
lot of conversations with this one social worker, got along great,
(17:27):
spent a long time, a lot of effort, you know,
was out there, brought marketing materials, we bought lunch for them,
everything on. At the end of the day, when the
time came to have the conversation about referrals and say, hey, listen,
I'm looking to get referrals, what's going on here? It
turned out she was not the person who was allowed
(17:50):
to make the referrals. All referrals went over her boss,
who was the senior social worker and administrator of the building.
So I wasted all that time and effort going to
this place. And this is a common mistake that over
the years, I've opened up well over one hundred agencies
since twenty fifteen for clients, And I'll tell you it's
(18:14):
the number one mistake that people make. You go in,
you go through all this effort, and you're talking to
the wrong person, all right, And finally the seventh element
that's needed is trust. Look, everyone's heard it, no like
and trust no like In trust, it's very simple to
achieve the first two. So when you come in, they
(18:39):
know you exist the minute you walk in and you say,
you know, Hi, I'm Julio from x y Z home Care,
or Hi I'm Julio from x y Z assisted living,
you know, or residential home or whatever it is that
you're coming in from hospice, home health. It doesn't make
a difference. They at that point know you exist. If
they didn't know your company because you don't have a
(19:00):
lot of brand recognition, no big deal. They know you
exist at that point. Great. If you have a decent
personality and no one's ever talked badly about you before,
they probably are going to like you. Look, I have
not met a whole lot of completely unlikable people in
my life. I've met a bunch of a holes. I've
met a bunch of people with bad attitude. But when
(19:22):
you're in a sales setting, in a business setting, everyone
can turn on the charm for a few minutes. Okay,
and that's just a fact. So know and like are
very easy concepts to achieve. But here's the question. All right,
when we're talking about when we're talking about trust, how
(19:43):
do you do it? I mean, think about this. If
you're in home care or if you're in senior care,
in any aspect, you are trying to get a bunch
of people that have no personal need for your services
to put their job, the reputation all on the line
to refer you a person they barely know to another
(20:06):
individual or their family that has desperate need for the
services that you are offering, and you want them to
do this in very short amount of time. So if
you don't have brand recognition, which is something that's very common,
especially if you're an independent, non franchised agency, and you're
(20:26):
just going out there trying to figure it out. All right,
I will address your comment here, Elise. I'm sorry if
I said this wrong in a moment, because that is awesome,
all right, but you know, if you can't do this,
then you have to be able to communicate all of
(20:48):
this to this individual and they have to understand this.
So Eli sal says, as an er discharge planner, I
allow different companies because I need to move patients within
five minutes. So if you don't answer your or can't
move my patients within two hours, I move on. And
that's my pain point. That is number one reason why
I tell any agency, any home care, or any assisted
(21:11):
living facility when we're going, when I'm teaching them business
development techniques, avoid hospitals until you can answer that specific thing.
Until you have enough staff that you can cover a
case within two hours at four o'clock in the morning
on Christmas Day during a snowstorm. Stay away from hospitals.
(21:32):
But yeah, a lot of people forget that ers are
a phenomenal resource. But you have to be able to move.
You have to really be on your game. But all
of these points, they all need to be met, all
seven of these. If you're missing any one of these,
if you don't have a clear understanding, then you're not
going to be able to come in and successfully develop
(21:55):
and foster a solid referral relationship with any of these people. Well,
now you're probably just asking yourself. All right, Julio, this
was great information. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
But what the hell do I do with it? Okay, So,
now that we are armed and we understand all seven
elements and where we're going through our head, if those
of you watching this live, you know, Friday through Sunday,
(22:18):
So need to clear eighty a petty Oh yeah, I
feel for you. I really feel for you. Anyone who
is in the area with ELI so okay, and I
really hope I'm not from mispronouncing your name too Badly
reach out to them, they hospital ears if you have
the capacity to empty their beds. It doesn't matter if
(22:39):
you're doing short term respite as an assisted living or
a house or if you're doing you know, home care.
You gotta reach out to people like like them, all right,
you gotta you gotta reach out, especially if you can
handle this, solve their pain point, they'll make you a millionaire.
All right. So now that we understand these seven elements,
(23:02):
what do we do with it? How do we now
communicate Hershey, punts, hey LSL send me a friend request.
I actually, I actually may be able to connect you
with a couple of people, a couple of agencies that
might be able to handle handle your needs, all right,
(23:23):
a couple of clients that I've worked with. I'll see
if I can make some introductions. All right, here we are.
So now we come in, we look at this, we
figure it all out, and now comes the time where
we're in front of them. We've met all the criteria.
Now you got to be able to communicate your idea.
(23:44):
This is how you put all of this together. Once
you've identified the problem, you have to be able to
describe a solution. So let's take private personal care home.
I have homes and friends in Houston area, all right,
So here we are. So we've identified the problem. Let's
(24:05):
take all the sales problem issue here. All right, So
we have identified that. You know that he's got issues
with discharges. Great, Now we got to describe a solution.
So my my pitch would be this. You know, hey, ls,
how's it going. My name is houling On from x
(24:26):
y Z Homecare or x y Z Personal care home.
You know, and I understand that as an er, you
have you have to empty out beds quickly, usually within
a couple of hours. And you know, we you know, uh,
(24:47):
we understand that you have to empty out beds in
a couple of hours, and that that can be challenging
because a lot of times the home care agencies in
the area don't have the resources available, especially on the weekends.
This caregiver shortage is crazy. So now we're going to
come in, We're going to talk about a solution. So
you know, so since since we know that you know,
home care may not always be able to you know me,
(25:09):
as a personal care home, we do offer respite care.
It may not be the perfect solution, but referring clients
my way can get them out of your hospital bed
at least for a couple of days until they can
find the right home care, the right home care solution
for them. You can even send the home care agencies
over to me, but it empties out your bed and
(25:30):
freeze you up a little bit, all right, So that's
a solution. Now exemplify why why you This is the
important part. It doesn't matter how good my solution is.
If I can't tell you why I'm the best person
to provide your solution, there is nothing left for me
to say, all right, So my next follow up to
(25:50):
that will be, you know, having x amount of years
of experience and understanding the local market. I've done this before.
I've worked with other hospitals in the area, and you know,
we can get people out of here quickly. We have
solid relationships with non medical, non emergency, with a non
emergency transport and if somebody needs to go, and they
(26:11):
just need a few days so that you can get
another body in the bed. We can make it happen.
All right, we understand the process, and our existing relationships
allow us to work faster. And now comes the final part.
So we've wrapped it all together. And here's the thing.
Most people are awesome. Like I have a amazing four
(26:33):
year old and an eight year old. I love my sons.
They are just fantastic kids. I also have a twenty
five year old that's amazing as well. But one thing
having kids has taught me is that most people in
this world think like a four year old. They will
listen to you, they will applaud you, they will think
everything you're saying is fantastic. But if you do not
give them clear and direct instructions on what your expectation
(26:56):
is to happen next, they will say, wow, that was
really great, thank you so much for all the information,
and then they will walk away and you will never
hear from them again. Be sure that after you pitch someone,
whether it's just your elevator pitch or if it is
a full on presentation, to try to build some sort
of a relationship, partnership, something to get referrals out of
(27:17):
a building, please be sure to tell them what the
next steps are. It could be simple as hey, listen,
whenever you have a referral, just give me a call
and we will take care of the rest or if
you like, you know, just give me a call and
I will come in here and I will explain to
any one of your clients exactly what home care is,
what the ins and outs are, some of the pitfalls,
(27:38):
and some of the things that we need to be
mindful of. And this is where the whole next part is.
Here's my business card. Call me, email me, text me,
send up smoke signals, it does not matter, but get
a hold of me, okay, and let them know. Verbalize
your expectations. If you have a clear expectation that you
(27:59):
want to build a long term relationship with people. Here's
here's a bonus tip for you. I love to end
meetings after I go through everything that, you know, all
the normal fluff stuff that everybody does when doing marketing.
You know, like, hey, we're the best, we are awesome,
we can do this, we can you know, we can
part the red sea if you need to. Okay, all
(28:20):
of this is fantastic. Okay, now if I want to
work with you long term, after I've done all of this,
I will ask you very simply, and this is something
you guys can put in your whole sir, just as
the final part of the communication, ask them the question. So,
(28:41):
after everything we've gone through, you know, I know your
time is precious and I gotta go, but I just
want to ask you quickly before I go. Is there
anything that we've gone over today that you have any
questions about? They will most likely say no, or they
will and you'll give you an opportunity to clear up
any last minute things. Say great, fantastic. Now, is there
any reason you can think of why you would not
(29:02):
want to refer your clients to me? The wording is
very clear why you would not want to do it.
The intention of that statement is so that you will
get a responsive no. Actually, I can't think of any
reason why I wouldn't And it's a win for you.
Even if they come up with a dozen reasons why
(29:24):
they wouldn't want to. You have educated yourself on what
your shortcomings are as an agency, whether it's that they
think your price is too high, that your price is
too low, whether they haven't heard of you, whether they
have a trusted referral partner already, whether it's policy in
their building not to refer out. It will clear up
the answers and you win. The other end of it.
(29:47):
The other way that you win with that statement is
if they tell you there is no reason they can
think of that they wouldn't want to refer to you. Now,
it gives you the opportunity to say, well, great, if
you can't think of any reason to not refer to me,
then why don't we do this try out my company.
Work with me for sixty days. Very specifically, because especially
(30:10):
if you're working with skilled nursing or hospitals, the sixty
days becomes crucially important because sixty days, even if it
takes them three weeks to send you that first client,
it gives you thirty days to show that you can
keep their client out of the hospital. Right, So, work
with me for sixty days, send me a few clients,
(30:30):
and if at the end of the sixty days you
feel that you know I'm doing a great job, fantastic,
I appreciate it. That means I've been able to prove
to you that everything I've told you is legitimate and
none of it is fluff just to get business out
of you, and you can feel safe for continuing to
refer to me. But if at the end of the
(30:50):
sixty days you aren't satisfied with how my agency is
performing or how my facility is performing, then very simply,
all I ask is let me know what I did wrong,
what we can improve on, all right, and then we
part ways and no harm, no foul, all right. So
that is my teaching Tuesday presentation. All right, really, thank
(31:15):
you all for having me. Do you guys have any
questions for me? Make sure I have the way for
pay for care privately? Oh see that you are a
fantastic referral partner. All right, So all the sale says
(31:40):
that he makes sure that find out if they have
a long term care or short term care insurance, or
at least make sure they have a way to pay
for care privately, so they do a lot of the
work for you ahead of time. So any questions directly
for me? If not, thank you again. If you guys
want to get a hold of me, you know companies
(32:01):
Briona's consulting group. You can find me at the brionasgroup
dot com or just send me a friend request here.
On you know, and on Facebook, and you know you
can just ask me anything at any time. All right,
thank you Esther for having me. You know, I really
(32:21):
appreciate you taking the time. All right, Pauline, thank you,
oh so all right, fantastic. All Right, you guys have
a great rest of your day and we'll talk soon
All right, good morning everyone. I apologize for being late.
I hope everyone can hear me. Now. We had a
few technical difficulties and now we are live. I hope.
Can I get a thumbs up if you can actually
hear me, Just leave a comment something, let me know
(00:26):
that we're that we're actually live, and that we can
that we are being heard. All right, So I think
I think we're good now, all right, fantastic, So let
me let me see. All right, So let me go
(00:53):
ahead and let me see if it'll let me do this,
all right. So my name is Julio Briones, and I
I am the CEO of Breonna's Consulting Group, and we're
a company that helps home care agencies grow through operations, strategy,
and marketing and business development support. So today we are here,
(01:18):
all right, Esther, thank you so much through the wonderful
invitation of Esther, and you know, she's been kind enough
to let us come here and walk through with you
guys a little bit of so that you guys can
get a little bit of help when it comes to
improving your business development. So one of the big things
(01:38):
that with the clients that I work with, that I
have found is that when people go out to do
their business development activity. All right, So even though it
says here marketing strategy, we're talking about business development when
traditional marketing not. We're not necessarily talking about you know,
those pay per click ads or anything else. Business development,
(02:01):
by far is the greatest, the greatest way, and fastest
way to grow your business, especially if you want to
grow exponentially. You know, it's not not as simple as
going out there and you know, putting out a bunch
of pay per click ads, or buying a bunch of
leads off of like a place for mom karenholmescarrying dot
com or any of those other places, or finding somebody
(02:23):
that can go and set up a fantastic pay per
click ad. Those ads will generate, but they tend to
have a lower conversion rate. What we're talking about today
is actual business development. That means either you or somebody
in your office going out and building relationships. Just always
remember that that, you know, while you are trying to
(02:45):
do business with another business, it's the people inside that
really grow the business. It's it's your relationships. So when
they come in. One of the more common mistakes that
happen is that people tend to forget that. You know,
there's a process to this. This is something that you're
that you're going to want to make sure that you
(03:07):
understand and then and how you phrase things and what
you're saying is just as important as anything else. So
we're going to go over two parts on how to
properly communicate when you're out there doing your traditional marketing,
your business development. The first thing we're going to talk
about are the seven key elements that you need in
(03:28):
order to get somebody to work with you. Look, all
seven of these have to be in place. Please understand this.
It does not make a difference. You know, how good,
how good your your your campaign is. It doesn't matter
how badly things go. All that matters is that if
you want somebody to work with you, especially when we're
(03:51):
talking about business development and building these relationships with those
social workers, the office managers in the doctor's offices, you know,
when you're talking when you're talking to nurses, when you're
talking to people executive directors. You have to have all
seven of these elements, Okay, and we're just going to
run through them a little quickly here. All right, So
(04:11):
the first thing that needs to happen is there has
to be pain. Look, at the end of the day,
if I'm not hurting, if there's something not wrong in
my business, there is no reason for you to come
and talk to me. You have to understand what my
business is and you have to understand how it is
(04:31):
that I'm experiencing problems that you can help. So, for example,
if we're talking about a skilled nursing facility, their pain
is very different than the pain inside of an assisted
living So what do I mean by that? They have
actually opposite goals when it comes to working with their
(04:51):
clients in a skilled nursing facility. When the time comes
and medicare stops paying, all they're interested in is getting
people out of their building. That's it. Look all all
the other fluff stuff, it's great, but at the end
of the day, this is what they are primarily interested in.
They need to empty that bed so they can bring
(05:12):
in another body and build for that new bed. They
also want to make sure that that person can stay
out and not be rehospitalized for thirty days. So this
is what this is what your messaging needs to be.
You need to come in and understand this. Where if
you take an assisted living their pain point is very different.
(05:33):
They want people to be well serviced and have that
higher level of care so that people stay in their building.
All right, So we're talking about two facilities that are
probably the number one in number two, depending on your
market is which one is one and which one is two.
But these are your top referral partners in most areas
(05:54):
you're skilled nursing, short term rehabs, and your assisted livings.
But they have op pain points. One needs people out,
the other one needs people to stay. So this is
where as a home care agency or as a hospice
or whatever it is that your business is, this is
where you will understand where they're you know, you have
(06:16):
to come in and understand this first, that their pain point. Now,
those of you that are not in home care, those
of you that are in something else, it doesn't matter
to me if you're selling, you know, oranges on the
street corner. If you're you can't figure out that what
that person's pain point is, there's really not a lot
of conversation that you're left to have. So now that
(06:37):
we understand what their pain point is, okay, we now
need to know that they have to have a cost
to their inaction. The cost is not the dollar amount. Look,
I'm gonna tell you industry secret here, and most people
will disagree with me on this. I don't care if
everyone in your area is charging thirty five dollars an
(06:58):
hour and you want to charge seventy it's irrelevant. Okay.
All that matters is how well can you communicate these
seven points? Okay? So point number two is that there
has to be a cost. The cost is what happens
if they don't act, If that social worker cannot successful
you get people out of that building and get them
to stay out for the next thirty days without a rehospitalization,
(07:21):
what's going to happen. Well, the short version of that
is that they're probably going to lose their job, the
facility is going to develop a bad reputation, and Medicare
will stop paying. All right, It's the same thing happens
in the other end. If you're at that independent living facility,
or if you're at that assisted living facility and no
one can and they can't figure out how to get
(07:42):
people to stay in the building and they have a
lot of a residential turnaround, Well, this is what's gonna
end up happening. Somebody's gonna lose their job, the building
might just fold. So next, now that we understand that
there is a problem, there is a pain point, and
we understand clearly what the cost is going to be
(08:04):
of them not doing anything, there has to be a
desire to fix the problem, all right. That's that's very simple.
If I have a problem and I understand that I'm
just screwed if I don't fix it, but I have
zero interest in fixing the problem, then you know, we're
(08:25):
we're going to have a hard time communicating. You know,
it doesn't matter if you're the person I want to
work with or if someone else. There has to just
be a genuine desire to fix the problem. This one's
actually one of the easier ones to convey because at
the end of the day, this is what it comes
down to with if I'm a social worker, or if
I'm a nurse and I'm working in one of these facilities,
(08:47):
or I'm a sales manager or a you know, the
PA or the office manager, whatever it is, I have
an interest in keeping my job, all right. I like
to stay employed. I like to pay my bill, I
like to feed my wife and kids. You know, this
is what it is. You know, like look, let's let's
look at this coldly a little bit. These people want
(09:10):
to do their job, they want to keep their job,
they want to pay their bills, and they all want
to help other people. And in order to successfully do this,
they have to understand their own pain points. There has
they have to understand what happens if they don't fix it,
so they all have the desire to fix it. And
once all of this comes into play, they have you
have to know that the person you're talking to doubts
that they can fix the problem themselves. I could be
(09:32):
the best social worker in the world. Doesn't mean I
know how to run a home care agency, okay, It
doesn't mean that I know how to run an assisted
living facility and that I need to you know, or
that I have an assisted living facility in the living
room of my home, so that means I got to
put people somewhere. So that means I don't just doubt
(09:53):
that I can't fix do this on my own. I
absolutely know that I cannot do this on my own.
So now you here, you are coming into help me fantastic.
So the with all of this in place, now comes
the three biggest elements. There have to be available resources.
Resources are different for every place you're going to. Essentially,
(10:16):
this is what it comes down to. Look at what
is your business model? Okay, that's the first thing you
need to understand about this is are you a private
pay home care agency, meaning you don't take Medicaid, you
do not take VA, you do not take anything other
than cash and long term care policies, which is just
(10:41):
as good as cash now or are you a assisted
living facility? Are you? Are you accepting Medicaid payments? Are
you accepting private pay? What is it that you have?
So if by understanding your payer sources and understanding who
your ideas client is, please understand that part you're lost.
(11:04):
If you do not know who your ideal client is.
I ask this a lot whenever I do live events, okay,
or whenever I come in to train new agency owners
or they come out to my location. This is a
very common thing, especially in the senior care industry. If
I were to ask you who is your ideal client
(11:25):
and you tell me anyone that's old, We're going to
have a problem. Okay, it is not. Your client is
very different. If you're building Medicaid, your client is very different.
If you're building medicare, your client is very different. If
you are a home care or home health agency that
specializes in case management, your client is very different. If
(11:49):
you are a residential residential assisted living facility. It's also
different if you are a unlicensed four or five bed
facility versus a fully licensed two hundred bed facility. Understand
and know who your client is. What is their age group,
what type of payer source are they? Do they have family?
(12:12):
Are you looking for people that are alone? What is
the problem you're trying to solve? And understand their You
know what their needs are, and that's how you're going
to know who your ideal client is. Now that you're
armed with that information, now you can look at the
available resources go to these facilities that cater to your people.
(12:36):
So most areas follow a pattern. If you're in an
urban area, you should have a hospital somewhere within four
miles of any given point in the city. If you
are in the suburbs, that number goes up to about
six and a half miles, and if you are out
in farmland very rural area, it's just short of eleven miles.
(13:02):
So that means that these facilities look at the people
that live within that range around you and look for
the facilities that cater to the neighborhoods you are trying
to get into. If you are a Medicaid agency, you
want to look for facilities that don't rely on the
hospitals that are close to lower income areas. When you
(13:25):
are looking for private pay, you want to make sure
that you're looking for facilities and potential referral partners that
the go to hospitals or that rely on hospitals that
are in the areas with higher income brackets. Understand this,
who are you trying to help, and then look for
the resources that this person that you're talking to are
(13:47):
what resources they have available. I'll give you an example.
If I am looking for private pay home care agency
clients or private pay clients looking to go to an
assisted living I may target a skilled nursing facility that
is in an upscaled neighborhood. Who would my client be Well,
for the most part, it would be people that are
(14:09):
making on average forty percent above the median income in
the area that I'm that I'm looking for, so in
the county. So let's say we are just again, for
argument's sake, we are in the Dallas area, all right.
So if, for if in Dallas, your median income is
(14:31):
about eighty thousand a year, and I'm looking for private pay,
that means I want to find households that are in
the one hundred and ten or up, you know median
that the median household income. So I'm gonna go look
out by Plano, all right, or you know, north north
of Dallas, because those areas will have more of those clients.
So I'm going to particularly visit, you know, skilled nursing facilities.
(14:57):
I'm going to visit doctors offices, wealth managers, a number
of other places that will cater to that private pay community.
And I will come and explain to them again that
I understand their problem, their pain. I understand what will
happen if they can't satisfy or correct their problems. These people,
most of them, have a desire to do this because,
(15:18):
especially if they're in the private pay space, I know
they know they can't do it themselves, and they have
the available resources. They have the people in the right
age demographics with enough resources to pay for what I
am offering. Right and now, even though it's the number
two thing, I'm going to say, this is the number
one mistake people make when they are approaching facilities or
(15:42):
referral partners the hands down, they are talking to the
wrong people. Save yourself some headaches. Make sure that when
you're going to go on a sales call, when you're
doing when, when when you're doing your preparation, that you
(16:03):
are properly prospecting. Okay, that means you know where they are,
where the building is, you know who works in the building.
You have to understand who what community this building caters to,
and make sure you know who the decision makers are.
However it is, you got to find out. You know,
(16:25):
free tip, just call call up the facility and say, hey,
you know X, y Z skilled nursing, or hey, you
know I'm looking for so and so CPA. Great, I'd
like to come bine and you know, talk about a
potential client that I have and I want to know
do you work with this type of client? Yes, oh fantastic.
(16:46):
Who is it that I would speak to directly? That
would uh best? That would be the best person to
develop a referral relationship with? All right, is it the
senior senior social worker? Is it the administrator who has
decision making power? I'll tell you an example of something
(17:07):
I personally went through years ago when I was still
doing business development. Yeah, when I lived in northern New Jersey.
I went and I worked this facility for about two months.
And when I worked with this facility, I had a
lot of conversations with this one social worker, got along great,
(17:27):
spent a long time, a lot of effort, you know,
was out there, brought marketing materials, we bought lunch for them,
everything on. At the end of the day, when the
time came to have the conversation about referrals and say, hey, listen,
I'm looking to get referrals, what's going on here? It
turned out she was not the person who was allowed
(17:50):
to make the referrals. All referrals went over her boss,
who was the senior social worker and administrator of the building.
So I wasted all that time and effort going to
this place. And this is a common mistake that over
the years, I've opened up well over one hundred agencies
since twenty fifteen for clients, And I'll tell you it's
(18:14):
the number one mistake that people make. You go in,
you go through all this effort, and you're talking to
the wrong person, all right, And finally the seventh element
that's needed is trust. Look, everyone's heard it, no like
and trust no like In trust, it's very simple to
achieve the first two. So when you come in, they
(18:39):
know you exist the minute you walk in and you say,
you know, Hi, I'm Julio from x y Z home Care,
or Hi I'm Julio from x y Z assisted living,
you know, or residential home or whatever it is that
you're coming in from hospice, home health. It doesn't make
a difference. They at that point know you exist. If
they didn't know your company because you don't have a
(19:00):
lot of brand recognition, no big deal. They know you
exist at that point. Great. If you have a decent
personality and no one's ever talked badly about you before,
they probably are going to like you. Look, I have
not met a whole lot of completely unlikable people in
my life. I've met a bunch of a holes. I've
met a bunch of people with bad attitude. But when
(19:22):
you're in a sales setting, in a business setting, everyone
can turn on the charm for a few minutes. Okay,
and that's just a fact. So know and like are
very easy concepts to achieve. But here's the question. All right,
when we're talking about when we're talking about trust, how
(19:43):
do you do it? I mean, think about this. If
you're in home care or if you're in senior care,
in any aspect, you are trying to get a bunch
of people that have no personal need for your services
to put their job, the reputation all on the line
to refer you a person they barely know to another
(20:06):
individual or their family that has desperate need for the
services that you are offering, and you want them to
do this in very short amount of time. So if
you don't have brand recognition, which is something that's very common,
especially if you're an independent, non franchised agency, and you're
(20:26):
just going out there trying to figure it out. All right,
I will address your comment here, Elise. I'm sorry if
I said this wrong in a moment, because that is awesome,
all right, but you know, if you can't do this,
then you have to be able to communicate all of
(20:48):
this to this individual and they have to understand this.
So Eli sal says, as an er discharge planner, I
allow different companies because I need to move patients within
five minutes. So if you don't answer your or can't
move my patients within two hours, I move on. And
that's my pain point. That is number one reason why
I tell any agency, any home care, or any assisted
(21:11):
living facility when we're going, when I'm teaching them business
development techniques, avoid hospitals until you can answer that specific thing.
Until you have enough staff that you can cover a
case within two hours at four o'clock in the morning
on Christmas Day during a snowstorm. Stay away from hospitals.
(21:32):
But yeah, a lot of people forget that ers are
a phenomenal resource. But you have to be able to move.
You have to really be on your game. But all
of these points, they all need to be met, all
seven of these. If you're missing any one of these,
if you don't have a clear understanding, then you're not
going to be able to come in and successfully develop
(21:55):
and foster a solid referral relationship with any of these people. Well,
now you're probably just asking yourself. All right, Julio, this
was great information. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
But what the hell do I do with it? Okay, So,
now that we are armed and we understand all seven
elements and where we're going through our head, if those
of you watching this live, you know, Friday through Sunday,
(22:18):
So need to clear eighty a petty Oh yeah, I
feel for you. I really feel for you. Anyone who
is in the area with ELI so okay, and I
really hope I'm not from mispronouncing your name too Badly
reach out to them, they hospital ears if you have
the capacity to empty their beds. It doesn't matter if
(22:39):
you're doing short term respite as an assisted living or
a house or if you're doing you know, home care.
You gotta reach out to people like like them, all right,
you gotta you gotta reach out, especially if you can
handle this, solve their pain point, they'll make you a millionaire.
All right. So now that we understand these seven elements,
(23:02):
what do we do with it? How do we now
communicate Hershey, punts, hey LSL send me a friend request.
I actually, I actually may be able to connect you
with a couple of people, a couple of agencies that
might be able to handle handle your needs, all right,
(23:23):
a couple of clients that I've worked with. I'll see
if I can make some introductions. All right, here we are.
So now we come in, we look at this, we
figure it all out, and now comes the time where
we're in front of them. We've met all the criteria.
Now you got to be able to communicate your idea.
(23:44):
This is how you put all of this together. Once
you've identified the problem, you have to be able to
describe a solution. So let's take private personal care home.
I have homes and friends in Houston area, all right,
So here we are. So we've identified the problem. Let's
(24:05):
take all the sales problem issue here. All right, So
we have identified that. You know that he's got issues
with discharges. Great, Now we got to describe a solution.
So my my pitch would be this. You know, hey, ls,
how's it going. My name is houling On from x
(24:26):
y Z Homecare or x y Z Personal care home.
You know, and I understand that as an er, you
have you have to empty out beds quickly, usually within
a couple of hours. And you know, we you know, uh,
(24:47):
we understand that you have to empty out beds in
a couple of hours, and that that can be challenging
because a lot of times the home care agencies in
the area don't have the resources available, especially on the weekends.
This caregiver shortage is crazy. So now we're going to
come in, We're going to talk about a solution. So
you know, so since since we know that you know,
home care may not always be able to you know me,
(25:09):
as a personal care home, we do offer respite care.
It may not be the perfect solution, but referring clients
my way can get them out of your hospital bed
at least for a couple of days until they can
find the right home care, the right home care solution
for them. You can even send the home care agencies
over to me, but it empties out your bed and
(25:30):
freeze you up a little bit, all right, So that's
a solution. Now exemplify why why you This is the
important part. It doesn't matter how good my solution is.
If I can't tell you why I'm the best person
to provide your solution, there is nothing left for me
to say, all right, So my next follow up to
(25:50):
that will be, you know, having x amount of years
of experience and understanding the local market. I've done this before.
I've worked with other hospitals in the area, and you know,
we can get people out of here quickly. We have
solid relationships with non medical, non emergency, with a non
emergency transport and if somebody needs to go, and they
(26:11):
just need a few days so that you can get
another body in the bed. We can make it happen.
All right, we understand the process, and our existing relationships
allow us to work faster. And now comes the final part.
So we've wrapped it all together. And here's the thing.
Most people are awesome. Like I have a amazing four
(26:33):
year old and an eight year old. I love my sons.
They are just fantastic kids. I also have a twenty
five year old that's amazing as well. But one thing
having kids has taught me is that most people in
this world think like a four year old. They will
listen to you, they will applaud you, they will think
everything you're saying is fantastic. But if you do not
give them clear and direct instructions on what your expectation
(26:56):
is to happen next, they will say, wow, that was
really great, thank you so much for all the information,
and then they will walk away and you will never
hear from them again. Be sure that after you pitch someone,
whether it's just your elevator pitch or if it is
a full on presentation, to try to build some sort
of a relationship, partnership, something to get referrals out of
(27:17):
a building, please be sure to tell them what the
next steps are. It could be simple as hey, listen,
whenever you have a referral, just give me a call
and we will take care of the rest or if
you like, you know, just give me a call and
I will come in here and I will explain to
any one of your clients exactly what home care is,
what the ins and outs are, some of the pitfalls,
(27:38):
and some of the things that we need to be
mindful of. And this is where the whole next part is.
Here's my business card. Call me, email me, text me,
send up smoke signals, it does not matter, but get
a hold of me, okay, and let them know. Verbalize
your expectations. If you have a clear expectation that you
(27:59):
want to build a long term relationship with people. Here's
here's a bonus tip for you. I love to end
meetings after I go through everything that, you know, all
the normal fluff stuff that everybody does when doing marketing.
You know, like, hey, we're the best, we are awesome,
we can do this, we can you know, we can
part the red sea if you need to. Okay, all
(28:20):
of this is fantastic. Okay, now if I want to
work with you long term, after I've done all of this,
I will ask you very simply, and this is something
you guys can put in your whole sir, just as
the final part of the communication, ask them the question. So,
(28:41):
after everything we've gone through, you know, I know your
time is precious and I gotta go, but I just
want to ask you quickly before I go. Is there
anything that we've gone over today that you have any
questions about? They will most likely say no, or they
will and you'll give you an opportunity to clear up
any last minute things. Say great, fantastic. Now, is there
any reason you can think of why you would not
(29:02):
want to refer your clients to me? The wording is
very clear why you would not want to do it.
The intention of that statement is so that you will
get a responsive no. Actually, I can't think of any
reason why I wouldn't And it's a win for you.
Even if they come up with a dozen reasons why
(29:24):
they wouldn't want to. You have educated yourself on what
your shortcomings are as an agency, whether it's that they
think your price is too high, that your price is
too low, whether they haven't heard of you, whether they
have a trusted referral partner already, whether it's policy in
their building not to refer out. It will clear up
the answers and you win. The other end of it.
(29:47):
The other way that you win with that statement is
if they tell you there is no reason they can
think of that they wouldn't want to refer to you. Now,
it gives you the opportunity to say, well, great, if
you can't think of any reason to not refer to me,
then why don't we do this try out my company.
Work with me for sixty days. Very specifically, because especially
(30:10):
if you're working with skilled nursing or hospitals, the sixty
days becomes crucially important because sixty days, even if it
takes them three weeks to send you that first client,
it gives you thirty days to show that you can
keep their client out of the hospital. Right, So, work
with me for sixty days, send me a few clients,
(30:30):
and if at the end of the sixty days you
feel that you know I'm doing a great job, fantastic,
I appreciate it. That means I've been able to prove
to you that everything I've told you is legitimate and
none of it is fluff just to get business out
of you, and you can feel safe for continuing to
refer to me. But if at the end of the
(30:50):
sixty days you aren't satisfied with how my agency is
performing or how my facility is performing, then very simply,
all I ask is let me know what I did wrong,
what we can improve on, all right, and then we
part ways and no harm, no foul, all right. So
that is my teaching Tuesday presentation. All right, really, thank
(31:15):
you all for having me. Do you guys have any
questions for me? Make sure I have the way for
pay for care privately? Oh see that you are a
fantastic referral partner. All right, So all the sale says
(31:40):
that he makes sure that find out if they have
a long term care or short term care insurance, or
at least make sure they have a way to pay
for care privately, so they do a lot of the
work for you ahead of time. So any questions directly
for me? If not, thank you again. If you guys
want to get a hold of me, you know companies
(32:01):
Briona's consulting group. You can find me at the brionasgroup
dot com or just send me a friend request here.
On you know, and on Facebook, and you know you
can just ask me anything at any time. All right,
thank you Esther for having me. You know, I really
(32:21):
appreciate you taking the time. All right, Pauline, thank you,
oh so all right, fantastic. All Right, you guys have
a great rest of your day and we'll talk soon
Popular Podcasts
Fudd Around And Find Out
UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd brings her championship swag to iHeart Women’s Sports with Fudd Around and Find Out, a weekly podcast that takes fans along for the ride as Azzi spends her final year of college trying to reclaim the National Championship and prepare to be a first round WNBA draft pick. Ever wonder what it’s like to be a world-class athlete in the public spotlight while still managing schoolwork, friendships and family time? It’s time to Fudd Around and Find Out!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!