Home Care Sales: How SPIN Selling Can Help You Get More Clients

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A salesperson who masters the right strategies and processes is almost always going to outsell an especially charming salesperson who relies on their own gut.

Let’s talk about referrals, sales, and how you can get more home care clients.

Any home care agency owner understands the challenge of getting referrals. Whether you’re getting referrals from medical professionals, care planners, delighted current clients, or other sources, referrals are precious; it’s important to maximize the likelihood of every referral becoming a new client.

This is also critical to remember if you’ve listed your agency on BestofHomeCare.com (or other lead sites) and are receiving leads through your profile. If you’re getting leads through BestofHomeCare.com, our team has already qualified the lead by asking careful questions to ensure that their needs are compatible with your services—and you can rest assured that this lead won’t be shared with any other agency.

However, the ball is in your court once the lead is transferred to you—are you ready to sell them on the idea that your agency can offer the care that they need?

Sales Requires Strategy

It’s easy to view sales as being largely dependent on a salesperson’s people skills above all else. We talk about someone having “a sales personality” if they’re outgoing, charming, or particularly sociable. If someone is especially persuasive when they speak, we might joke that they could sell ice to an Eskimo.

The truth is, there’s a great deal of technique, science, and art behind good selling. While strong interpersonal skills are important to selling, a salesperson who masters the right strategies and processes is almost always going to outsell an especially charming salesperson who relies on their own gut.

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Get the SPIN Selling Question Guidesheet and Turn More Referrals Into Clients

If you want to turn more inquiries into clients, it’s critical for you (or your salesperson) to do more than just be charming and persuasive. You’ll close with more potential clients as you learn and use proven sales strategies and processes.

One powerful process widely used in the sales world is the SPIN selling process. SPIN Selling is especially useful for home care agencies because of its focus on listening carefully and understanding the potential client’s needs. It was originally published as the bestselling book SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham in 1988 and remains one of the top-selling sales books of all time.

How does SPIN Selling work?

SPIN Selling focuses on asking questions. If you’re using the technique properly, your potential client will probably spend more time talking than you will. This builds trust and allows you to thoroughly understand their needs so that you can more effectively demonstrate how your agency can meet them.

There are four steps to the process:

1. Situation. Get to their situation early on. What are they dealing with?

Examples:

  • What is the current situation of your loved one?
  • What physical challenges is your loved one face with?
  • What are your greatest concerns for your loved one?

2. Problem. What are the problems stemming from the situation? Help them see their problems vividly.

  • Example: “Based on what you’ve said about your loved one, it sounds like your greatest concern is what might happen to them while you’re at work. Is that right?”

3. Implication. What would happen if they didn’t get our help?

  • Example: “What kinds of things are you afraid might happen to your mom while you’re at work?”

4. Need/Payoff. How will you payoff their current needs?

  • Example: Just from our conversation, I can tell that your concerns of your loved one falling or leaving the stove on are well-validated and that having a qualified person there with her is very important to you.

  • (Segue into setting up meeting): Could I suggest that we go ahead and set up a free in-home assessment, where our Director will go over our services and develop a care plan specifically for the needs of your loved one? We have some time this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Do any of these times work for you?

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