Info for Home Care Agencies

Things are not looking up for the home care HME and DME industries 2013. According to home care magazine, company mergers, closings, and bankruptcies will hit the industry in the next several years due to the change in CMS contract regulations. Most of the magazine news was focused on acquisitions for this month, as well as exit strategies for selling businesses. Medicare reforms were a major concern for the writers.

FREE webinar on Social Media for Senior Businesses

Register NOW for a FREE High Impact Webinar with Social Media Expert Rick Cooper (my SM guru). Learn how to Get More Customers through Social Media! Rick will cover Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. (Incl. New Linked In Rules.) New tricks and tips. 3 PM PST, 4 PM MT, 5 PM Central time, 6 PM EST. Register at http://bit.ly/VdRbzQ

Thursday Webinar on Social Media for Senior Businesses

Start the New Year Right Marketing Plan

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

3 PM to 4PM

On Your Phone.

How to Create a Marketing Plan for Your Senior Business
FREE Conference Call on  for 2013! What are the key strategies and tactics you should do for the first 90 days, and beyond. Hosted by Marketing Guru Reece Franklin. Phone number is 1-605-475-6333. Access code: 811067. TIME IS PACIFIC STANDARD TIME. Jan. 16th at 3 PM PST.

Dec. 7th is end of Open Enrollment

Our Client Rene Mejia of California Exchange Insurance Center can help you with any and all of your MediCare and Medi-Cal needs.  He is a specialist in Supplemental Coverage.  These two charts help explain what you can do if you need MediCal or MediCare.

Call Rene at 800-221-6408 OR 562-805-9620.

Here comes the Super Marketing to Seniors Workshop

For those of you who cannot attend the workshop this Thursday night at Hampton Inn, Chino Hills, please send me an email and I will send you the two slide presentations.  They should be very useful for now and into the New Year.

7 Mistakes Every Board and Care Makes

MISTAKE #1.  You’re in the wrong location.  You found a great deal on the house you want to convert to an RCFE.  It’s not far from where you live, so it’s convenient.  Or someone told you that was a great area, even though you live 45 miles from there.  Or any of the following:

·         Not close enough to hospitals, SNFs, and acute or Sub-acute, so they don’t want to refer their patients to you.

·         Too many other Board and Cares in a 5 mile radius around you.

·         Unsafe neighbor or the neighborhood has changed dramatically.  People no longer want their parents there.

While it may be impossible to relocate, and you cannot or will not sell and start over, there are marketing ways to overcome this big, big problem.  The system will show you how.

MISTAKE #2.  You do not understand who your customers really are.  Your residents are really not your core customers.  Oh, they’ll be living with you, and what they feel is vitally important.  BUT, you actually have a much stronger decision makers—the influencers—their boomer kids, the doctors and discharge planners, and the clergy and professional referral agencies who will help Mom and Dad make the final decision.  Did you realize this?  Probably not. 

And it’s up to you to market to these simultaneous audiences with different marketing messages.

MISTAKE #3. You did not analyze your competition before or after you set up the facility.  This is a big mistake.  Let me give you an example:

I had a client two years ago who insisted on buying into a campus RCFE property in Orange County.  The owner had been there for 25 years.  She sold my client a big bill of goods that was no good!

A 21 bed facility was the agreement, and he paid tons for the right to become the eventual owner.  After he had taken the licensing test for administrator, he came to me.  I check the CCLD website immediately, and saw that there were over 42 other competing B and C’s in a 5 mile radius. When I asked how many he had visited to see what they did versus what he did, the answer shocked me!  Just three!

Needless to say, he is no longer in the business.

In my system, I give you all the forms, charts, and scripts you need to find out:

·         What your competitors are doing—their strengths AND their weaknesses.

·         What they say they are doing—could be different from above.

·         What their prices are—real vs. listed

·         How to get inside for a “looksee”

·         How to develop what makes you special or the USP.

·         And more.

MISTAKE #4.  Not enough time spent marketing.  Let’s face it—most RCFE administrators know they must market, and market consistently.  Yet, there are crises all the time: this caregiver got sick, the other one quit, CCLD is on your case and you need to defend yourself, one patient is on hospice, another sent to the emergency room, your taxes are due… on and on and on til you scream “why did I get into this business?  I want to help people, and I barely find the time!”

Here is the reality: YOU MUST SPEND THE FOLLOWING TIME ON MARKETING, IF YOU WANT TO SUCCESS:

·         2 HOURS PER DAY MINIMUM - using letters, blogs, email, newsletters, calls, scripts, etc.

·         4 HOURS PER WEEK IN VISITS to SNFs, Hospitals, etc.

·         YOU MUST HAVE A WRITTEN MARKETING PLAN AND SCHEDULE, with forms, letters, and templates so this stuff is taken care of like clockwork.  Once you use MY SYSTEM to set it up, it’s relatively easy.

MISTAKE #5.  Not enough understanding of how the Internet can help you market.

Most of my private consulting clients, when I ask them how they market on the web, say:  I have a website, but it doesn’t really work for me.  When I question if they use Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, and other social media, as well as the FREE internet directories that allow them to advertise for free, the answer is “Huh?”

So let me ask you:

·         Do they use email for marketing?  No.

·         Do they use Social Media?  No.

·         Do they have a blog with constant new content and articles?  No.

·         Do they have a static or active website?  No.

Well, here’s the reality folks.  YOUR COMPETITION DOES!

MISTAKE #6.  NO WRITTEN MARKETING PLAN.

You know, it’s funny.  The State requires you to have a written assessment info form, and a written care plan.  I just wish they’d require Board and Cares to have a written marketing plan.  It would save a lot of grief.  Unfortunately, they do not.  So if a few B and C’s go belly up, they really don’t care, do they?

My success system will teach you all the different timings, strategies, and abilities you need to be successful, along with all the forms, templates, and sample letters, news releases, and other marketing tools you’ll need.

MISTAKE #7.  No Understanding of the Basic Marketing Tools needed for B and C’s.

How many of these do you have in a binder or folder, ready to use at a minutes notice:

·         Sales Letters to SNFs, Hospitals, etc.

·         Proposal for Referral letters to same

·         Letter sequence to elicit inquiries

·         Newsletter template

·         Phone messages script and voice mail script

·         Publicity event calendar

·         Press release templates

·         Yellow page ads for phone book

·         Ads for your local 5 mile radius newspaper

·         Open house schedule and planning forms

·         Workshop and seminar templates, forms, and schedules to show you as the expert in RCFE

·         Writing skills templates and lessons

·         Persuasive skills for making the sale

·         Speaking skills for the owner and the staff – scripts to practice

LIKELY, YOU HAVE FEW OR NONE, AM I RIGHT!

WELL, WITH MY NEW SYSTEM, YOU’LL HAVE ALL THIS TO USE.

IT’S LIKE TAKING ME ALONG WITH YOU ON PHONE CALLS, SALES CALLS, AND RIDE ALONGS.

For further information on our New System, email me at Reece4Seniors@gmail.com

Or call me at 909-841-0527.

Concordia Open House a Success

Our newest client, Cora Velasco, Owner of Concordia Guest Homes 1, 2, and 3, had her open house last Wed, June 20th.  Over 45 people attended from the senior industry.  Check out the photos on her facebook page.  Visits are by appointment, call her at 714-496-9242.

Seniors Helping Seniors Open House & Ribbon Cutting

Final Reminder: The 4th Anniversary Seniors Helping Seniors Open House and Ribbon cutting is 10 a.m. this Thursday, March 15th. Address is 119 E. Arrow Highway, San Dimas. Hosted by Chet and Kathy Sasaki, SHS Franchise Owners. Great networking, food, and a fun atmosphere.

Lot's of February Happenings

Two great events this month: Access to Seniors Meeting on 2/28 at Inland Christian Home in South Ontario on Mountain Ave, just north of 60 Fwy. This is our version of the State of the Industry panel discussion. FREE lunch.

For reservations, call 909-841-0527.

Starting the New Year off right for the Senior Industry

Attended Buddy Lieberman's (he of "The Buddy Group" networking meetings)-- 3rd Round Table luncheon on the state of our senior industry.

If you missed it, don't panic. As a writer, I took good notes!

Both speakers were from "big players", and both were operations Veeps. What they said was very enlightening--yet I don't think they can relate to the small RCFE's or in home cares--they come from the big corporations.

Never the less, here's what they said:

This will be the year of large acquisitions by the big players. Facility groundbreaking and building of new facilities is pretty much halted due to lack of resources and the economy. However, since it's cheaper to take over properties and insert new management, that's what most of the big boys will do. This is what they called regional buying.

This bodes well for you, the small RCFE's. Your comeback to this thought process should be to explain to the families and the potential residents that you are not changing management or your style. You will be the same, loving caring facility and staff you've always been. And if the client wants personalized service, you are there to provide it--unlike some big corporations.

According to the Veeps, there is still an unmet demand for residents. Either they meant the censuses are down, or residents are not getting what they ask for--that their demands are not being met. (Not sure which, but I suspect the latter).

Residents are staying home longer before they make a decision to move. While it used to take 2-3 months to move, it's now taking 8-12 months.

What does this mean for RCFEs? That you need an extensive marketing campaign that allows you to put people on a waiting list, then cooperate with other B and Cs around you to find people their homes. And don't wait until you have a death, move out to hospice, or some other reason to start to market.

THE TIME TO MARKET IS CONTINUALLY, AT LEAST FOR 4 HOURS PER WEEK!

Finally, they talked about more mental health issues among the senior population. It seems that most of the big boys are moving towards adding more dementia wings in their facilities. So if you, as an RCFE B and C do not deal with dementia--you'd better.

In a nutshell, the gist of the forum was about that, and how people now know what options there are--they're more demanding re: private pay, and what they get for their money.

AND, seniors themselves are taking to the internet as never before, to find information for themselves and other seniors about the choices they will have to make. So last question for this month:

Do you have the following:

• Web site (With interaction, not static)
• Blog
• Facebook Page
• Linked In account
• Twitter account

Are you on all 36 national and local websites that offer FREE uploads and information for you to list your facility?

IF NOT, WHY NOT? CALL US, WE CAN DO THIS FOR YOU!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All my friends and clients

Just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your great support and friendship this past year. Nadine and I are very grateful we have friends and clients like yourselves.

Four new clients this past month I especially want to single out:

Bob Cullen, my old friends at LPL Financial and Saving Mom and Dad. If you haven't read the book, and you are in the senior industry, go get it now for Christmas.

Chet and Kathy Sasaki - new clients at Seniors Helping Seniors San Dimas office. Greatest couple who really care about the senior market.

Maria and Danica Pilares - owners of Pilarville Garden. Very homey and comfy atmosphere where your parents or friends can live with full attention to their needs.

And finally, Carol Rock - owner of RCFC, Inc. If your facility is on the brink of a major audit, or you want to avoid one, you need to call her ASAP.

Again, thanks to everyone who makes helping seniors a worthwhile occupation.

Best in 2012.

Reece and Nadine Franklin

SeniorCare Supplier Profile: Market Smarts Communications

SeniorCare Supplier Profile: Market Smarts Communications

Top 10 Resolutions for 2010 in Business

© 2009, Reece Franklin, Market Smarts Communications

The end of the year is fast approaching. Don’t wait until after January 1 to plan for 2010, you’re already in it then. Why not get started now and really get going for 2010? Here are 10 ways:

Resolution 1: Know what business you’re really in:

you’re not a service business or a retail business; you’re a marketer of services or products. You’re not a community, per se. You are a “marketer” of “the best (insert your business type) for the money”. Marketing is what you do if you’re a business owner; the product or service is what you deliver. This is the attitude you MUST have.

Resolution 2: Know your customers.

Make sure your database is correctly segmented:

“A” customers – those who’ve bought one or more products or services within the last year.

“B” customers – those who’ve bought within two years.

C Customers – those in the past (over 2 years with no recent purchase history).

D Customers – longer than 3 years. Immediately drop your “D’s”.

Resolution 3: Do a sequential series of direct mailings to your A and B customers.

They’ll receive 3 letters, 14 days apart.

Create a special report that explains something they can use to help them.

A board & care might send a free report on “How to Pick the Best Place for Mom or Dad”.

Letter 1: they call or email you and ask for the Special Report; you send it out with a follow up special letter with a discounted offer.

Letter 2 goes out 14 days later; it alludes to letter 1 and asks them where they’d like you to send that special report.

Letter 3 goes out 14 days after that, so you’ve touched them 3 times in less than 30 days.

Letter 3 tells them you’ll bring it by or mail it right away, they’ve probably been busy. By doing this sequence, you’ll get more than the normal response.

Resolution 4: Target Your Market.

If you’re looking for new prospects and customers, don’t do a shotgun approach—target your market.

Rent a list of people who are prone to buy from you. (When you write your ideal client profile, find a list that mirrors that.

Example: You have clients that regularly pay $500 per service or product—find more of those) You might check with a local or national industry magazine to rent their mailing list in your zip codes.

Resolution 5: Know Your Company.

Before you write that special report, you’d better know what makes you special, so you can put that in the report and sell it to your ideal customers and prospects.

• Make a list of all your products or services.
• Then take 3 x 5 cards, and for each separate product or service, right down one feature of that particular product or service on a card.
• On the back, put the benefit to the customer. (Features are what you do; benefits are what you do for the customers.)

Resolution 6: Find Your USP.

Often called the Unique Selling Proposition, by using the cards in Resolution 5, you should be able to find out what you do that is unique, that your competitors don’t.

It might be you pick up and deliver something unusual. Or it might be you are the only facility with 24-hour van drivers. Now that’s unique.

Resolution 7: Know your competition.

There are two types of competition: direct and indirect.

Direct competitors are those that “do what you do, to the market you do it to.” You own a 6 bed board and care, they do also. Your market niche is small businesses less than 10 employees, they target the same. Those are your direct competitors. And you probably know who they are already.

The indirect competitors: those that don’t necessarily target your buyers directly, but can also offer your services if asked. (Anyone that says “oh, we do that also”. Watch out for these cats!)

Resolution 8: Create a competitor analysis grid.

Using the competitions’ Yellow Pages ads, brochures, sales letters, print ads, and other media, check to see what the competition is offering. Then make an analysis grid like this:

Competitor [Hours Open [Days Open [Guarantees [USP
A -
B -

Make a column for every thing in their ads that they say they offer. You want to find what you can do or offer that they won’t or can’t.

Resolution 9: Create a real powerful Yellow Page and coupon ad

you can use over and over; one that doesn’t look like you copied it from the competition. Have you ever look at the YP ads? They all look the same.

Why not create an ad that truly educates the potential customer? This article is an example.

For a retail store, headline the ad “10 Things you need to know about ….” With the blanks being what it is that will educate the prospect about your business.

Then the ad expanded becomes your special report. For example: 7 things you MUST know before you hire your next termite control company. And you tell them in the ad.

That is so totally different from what you see in the YP, that they’ll beat a path (the customers, not the termites) to your door.

Resolution 10: Really work the room at the Chamber meetings and other networking groups.

For every meeting, target three new companies you currently don’t do business with, then strike up a conversation about what they do. After the meeting, send a thank you card to them, mentioning something you talked about. Then follow up with a call later in the week. You’ll stand out.

Reece Franklin, President of Market Smarts Communications, is the author of 8 books on small business marketing. For a free copy of his special report “73 Ways to Market Your Business”, email him at seniorexpo@roadrunner.com. PO Box 2920, Chino Hills, CA 91709.

Feds to Slash SNFs by $1.05 Billion

In an article I read just today in my new issue of Provider magazine from NCAL (National Center for Assisted Living), they stated that Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) had included a $1.05 billion pay cut to Medicare rates for paying SNFs.

This is very stupid and harmful.

What this means for LTC and SNFs can only be imagined.

What is your comment? What can we do?

Marketing Lesson from WI: White Butter vs. Yellow Butter

At dinner at Bravo Italian Restaurant in WI with my cousins last night, my cousin David, a CPA, told me a story that has a hidden marketing lesson. Seems when WI farmers make butter, it comes out white. Now, WI being the dairy capital of the heartland, they kept it white. But people, wanting it yellow, would drive across the WI state line to Illinois to buy yellow dye, then bring it back over the state line. They'd coat it yellow, so their families had what they wanted.

Moral: give your customers, clients, and prospects what they want, not necessarily what they need.

www.IncreaseYourCensus.com

10 Things to Do This Weekend to Jump Start Your Marketing

1. Create your own blog. Go to www.blogger.com/start. Mine is at http://reecefranklin.blogspot.com/.

2. Use Face book and Linked In every night, M – F for ½ hour. Post a comment on it about your industry, and how your “subdivision” helps seniors.

3. Create a one sheet that you give out at networking meetings, post to your blog, put in your marketing presentation folder, etc. It should include: 5 W’s and H, who, what, where, when, why, and how.

A. Who you are: name of company and your personal name
B. What you do for seniors
C. Where you are located
D. When are your hours – when you are available
E. Why you do what you do – not to make money, why you are so passionate
F. How to reach you: list all: blogs, website, phone, cell, Facebook, linked in, etc.

4. Set up strategic alliances with people or businesses you meet at networking meetings. Take their one sheet-no more than 6 per sub category-and put in 3 ring binders. Now you have a referral binder. Categories may include RCFE, Board and Care, AL, In home care; non medical, in home care; medical, DME’s, referral agencies, etc. (for Senior oriented business.)

5. Strategic Partners: When you go to a network meeting – always take a tour. When you meet people, ask them first what they do, and how you can help them get more business. You decide if you want to work with them. Ask self do you want to add them as a strategic partner. If yes, create alliance – you will be cross promoting and helping each other for a fee.

6. Take the one sheet – use to structure a top 10 article: Ten ways to use Facebook to get more business, 10 ways to determine if you need in home care for your parent. Like Letterman Top 10. Things you need to know about. Create this top 10 into article for blog, Social media, etc.

7. Start with your local paper. Offer a free monthly article based on the top 10 list article. Make sure they understand they get it free, but you must have the resource box at the bottom.

8. Go to articles.com, and follow their submission structure.

9. Find list of local pubs and newspapers you can target.

10. Find list of local radio you can target. Send to assignment editors with cover sheet re: you are their local source for AL, in home care, etc.

YOUR FREE GIFT – 101 ways to Market to Seniors. Send email to seniorexpo@roadrunner.com, put send 101 in subject line.

Senior Industry Survey

Please tell us the most pressing marketing problem you have right now as a person who sells to seniors. Thanks.

LA County Fair Screws Up Again! Seniors Revolt!

They've done it again! In their continuing effort to tick me off, and other seniors, the LA County Fair announced this week they will no longer offer shuttle service around the fair for people, only using them from the Parking Lot to fair gates. (See Daily Bulletin article on Wed by David Allen).

According to Wendy Talarico in the article, whom I know, people using the shuttles are stuck on them for long times, and it is so crowded with people who walk, it takes too long. I luv ya Wendy, but Bull hockey!

You have just effectively eliminated seniors going to the fair this year!

And this is not the only thing they've done over the years to make it harder for seniors.

Why don't you just say it -- you don't want seniors, and basically, you don't care about us. I know, your market skews younger. But don't give us the lip service of "senior days" when you make it more difficult every year.

By the way, Fairplex, I'm sure you'll call all the ALs and big companies to get them to send buses and buy tickets to the fair. Why should they? You just made it harder for people to get around.

Note: Most of this info on what they decided was gleaned from David Allen's Daily Bulletin Wed. Article.

So, call the Fair, tell them how upset you are about "no trams for seniors", and when they tell you "will you buy group tickets", tell them thanks but no thanks. The only way they understand things is in the pocketbook. If you're really upset, call the head honcho Dale and tell him you're upset. As a friend of mine used to say "Grey Power!"

OMG, I Cannot Believe the Industry is Not That Well Connected

I recently joined LinkedIn.com to increase my visibility with other businesses. In going through my over 600 business cards (people I've worked with in either Senior Expo from '02 to '08, or people I network with), I cannot believe what I found.

I typed in both the company name and the individual name. Out of almost 200 people, most of whom go to several senior networking meetings per month, less than 7% have a profile on Linked In. That's just 14 people. And these are the community relations reps and the owners, folks.

Many might be on Facebook or Myspace, but those are primarily for college kids, not business people.

For an industry that prides itself on referrals, there's definitely a problem.

How Do You Create a Marketing Plan that Makes Sense?

You start by understanding what you already know and have done. First, you’re going to lie out on paper specific things you know about your customer service program, your current and ideal customer profile, and your company strengths and weaknesses.

Next, you’ll analyze your competition, and their strengths and weaknesses. Then comparing their weaknesses with your strengths, you’ll put down exactly what it is that makes you unique, your difference or what’s better known as your Unique Selling Proposition.

By knowing these facts, you’ll know the correct message to convey to your prospective residents, their influencers (boomer children & others). Finally, after studying the different media and marketing tactics and strategies you can use, you’ll decide what methods to use, and lay them out in a comprehensive 3, 6, 9, and 12 months calendar that you can do over and over again.