Top 5 Characteristics of Successful Home Care Agency Salespeople

The demand for home care will more than double in the coming years.  At the same time competition among home care agencies continues to rise alongside this expanding market and the rising demand for services. Successful home care agencies are expanding to add dedicated sales resources to their staff to help them compete better in their local markets.

But who should you hire, what does a good home care salesperson look like? What characteristics do high performers have? We asked successful agencies what their most successful salespeople did and how they behaved. We came up with five different types of salespeople that home care agencies have on their staff.

Here is a breakdown of their different personalities and styles.

1 – Relationship Builders

These are the classic sales types; they work hard to build a relationship with a prospect. Relationship builders focus on developing strong personal and close relationships with the client, family, and referral partners. They tend to be very giving with their time and work hard to meet each of their prospect’s needs.

The vast majority of sales training out there is geared toward these type of salespeople and seems to be what most home care agencies look for when hiring a salesperson. They come across as your good friend.

However, sales data shows that relationship builders are the lowest-performing sales types, making the top performers less than 10% of the time.

2 – Individual Contributors

These are the lone wolf types, they are self-confident and believe only they can make a difference. They are also the ones that seem to bend more often and break the rules to fit their needs. It’s their way or not at all.

These individual contributors tend to rely on their gut instincts and often deviate from policies and protocols. Because of this, they are often hard to manage, but out of the group, they are more likely to deliver results which is why you find them on the staff.

While we occasionally see these individuals on home care agency’s sales teams, they aren’t as common as in other industries.

3 – Dedicated

These are hard-working salespeople that outperform their peers by the amount of extra effort they put into the job. They are the first to arrive, last to leave and always go beyond to make the sale. The hard-working salesperson will make more sales calls and customer connections than any other on the team.

They are professional persistent and don’t quit easily when it comes to getting that new client signed up. While these hard workers tend to be self-motivated, they also are looking for feedback and ways to improve themselves to close more business.

They are the easiest salespeople to coach as they take feedback so well. They also tend to be the ones that close the most sales. Not getting that homerun but through consistent single and double hits. These are the salespeople that drive most of the business in successful home care agencies.

4 – Problem Solvers

These salespeople are almost misplaced. They focus on solving the prospect’s problems through the services the agency offers like a customer service person. They are well-liked by the customer as they are highly reliable and always present a solution to the customer’s issue.

They tend to be detail-oriented and look to solve each and every problem.

They are also the ones that regularly follow-up after signing up the client to ensure things are going well, which drives higher client and family satisfaction. This also helps as they tend to build the highest client retention number. But the time they spend looking backwards hinders them for getting more new business.

5 – Challengers

While common in other industries, this type of salesperson is seen less in the home care industry. Partly because they can be seen as “pushie” during a home care sales process. The challenger salesperson works hard to understand the client’s needs and concerns before meeting with them.

They use their deep understanding of what the client issues are and present solutions to them without being asked. They are thought of as “taking control” of the sales conversations and telling the customer what they need.

These salespeople tend to push the customer with ideas that may be outside of what they were thinking, for example, like recommending add on services. They are very assertive with both the customer and with the agencies leadership and not afraid to share potentially controversial views.

This type of salesperson also is found more often in areas of the country that are more receptive to their approach and not often seen in more laid back locations.

Selling the service of home care is hard work. You and your sales team are selling an intangible, a “service.” Unlike a product, you can’t pick it up and hold it. The salesperson needs to paint the picture of what the care will look like for the family’s loved one. They need to establish a high degree of trust and empathy as part of that sales process. For this reason, we tend to see more of the dedicated and relationship characteristics coming through in the top salespeople for home care.

While the very best have learned to move between relationship, dedicated and challenger as the individual call requires.

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Smartcare is a Complete Home Care Platform with Just the Right Amount of Everything Designed by Caregivers for Caregivers. With Smartcare, you can manage, schedule, and operate everything you need for your home care business. Achieve better outcomes, higher satisfaction, and increase caregiver retention with a system that supports your business and its goals.

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