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Author: Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst, December 5, 2011
With all of the black Friday and cyberspace holiday shopping events, it brought to mind the fact that there are so many people that are unable to find a senior care and living service easily at their finger tips when searching on-line. I hear all the time, “we have a web site on-line,” and then I go and try to search for it and it doesn’t show up on the first Google search page. Today being on the World Wide Web means your site needs to be found, and it needs to convert visitors to leads.
A must do for 2012 is to learn how to utilize key words.
Keywords are imperative to increasing your searchability (SEO). A popular (and free!) tool is the Google AdWords Keyword tool. This can be accessed via the following link: here. This tool is a great resource to help you generate a baseline list of keyword ideas for your website. You simply input a word or phrase that you believe would be used to search for your website, and it will provide you with a huge source of information. It’ll tell you the Global and Local monthly searches for that word or phrase, the level of competition for that word or phrase, and a list of similar keywords and phrases so that you can determine what the best keywords for your website will be.
Now how do you sift through all that information? Here are a few tips:
First: Find applicable keywords that have the highest search volume. These are the words/phrases that have the highest Global and Local monthly searches, and will give you the best chance of being found on a web search.
Second: Slightly more specific phrases are better than generic phrases. For example, ‘Phoenix Nursing Homes’ is a better choice than ‘Nursing Homes’ because it narrows out a lot of national competition and brings your search to one area. Additionally, generic key phrases such as ‘nursing homes’ tend to yield results that include more informative links rather than companies (Wikipedia definitions, Medicare and other government sites, etc.)
Third: Create a balance between the two points listed above. Choosing based on high search volume alone will most likely provide you with keywords that have the most competition. You do not want this. You will be much less likely to show up on page 1 of a search that way. Find a balance of keywords and phrases that have high search volume, are more specific rather than generic, and have low to medium competition.
What success have you found in applying keywords to your web strategy?
If you’d like to use this article in your own newsletter or on your web site, you are welcome to reprint it in its entirety with an active link to our web site and the following author info:
“By Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst for CISCO & CO. For effective marketing, sales and customer strategies that connect you with your customers visit www.ciscoco.com.”
Author: Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst, November 22, 2011
During a recent visit to a senior care and living organization where I was meeting with key leaders to develop a marketing strategy, I was introduced to a new sales rep who had only been with the organization for a few days. Through casual conversation, I discovered the rep had past sales experience, however not relative to the service that they would be selling, and it had been many years since they had been in sales. Can you appreciate my shock when the sales rep shared with me that after three days on the job they were going to be turned loose into the market to begin selling! How successful do you think this sales rep is really going to be?
 Consider this… hiring new sales rep on average costs you about $5,000. Without a structured on-boarding process, the investment in a new sales person is likely to be flushed away. There is an affliction that causes new hire sales reps to change from superstar to bumbling fool. The disease has about a ninety-day incubation period before becoming fatal…to the sales person’s employment. The main cause for the affliction originates with the “great sales person saves the day” perception that exists with organizational leaders who think that quickly sending a sales rep out in the field will quickly resolve their census issues. In fact, this couldn’t be farther from the truth, at least that is without properly setting the stage for success.
Financial Benefits
You can’t afford to lose $5,000 and the financial benefits of a successful on-boarding process are worth considering:
- Reduces the upfront investment required to receive a return
- Reduces the amount of time it takes for the sales person to generate revenue
- Increases sales person proficiency resulting in optimal sales performance
- Reduces sales turnover
- Provides a recruitment tool to attract top sales talent
On-boarding Strategy
It’s essential that you develop a strategy that starts with the very first day and continues for a defined period of time. For example first day considerations might include:
- Let your staff know the new hire is coming.
- Have an agenda ready for the on-boarding process.
- Give a tour or your organization…always be selling!
- Make sure their new office is clean and ready. Don’t make them sort through the prior person’s files.
- Tools are ready (computer, phone, business cards). DON’T send someone without a business card!
- New Hire paperwork
- Provide an organization chart. Help them see the “who” and” how” of your organization.
Clear Expectations
Identify in writing your expectations for each phase of the on-boarding process. Don’t dump everything on the new rep all at once. Develop your on-boarding strategy based upon phases over a defined period of time. The three areas to consider include:
Know-refers to information such as knowledge of the services you offer, your market area, or competition. For example, are they familiar with your service? Had any personal experience with it? Any background in healthcare?
Do-refers to action such as conducting a sales call, delivering presentations in front of a group, in doing assessments. For example, experience selling home care, nursing home, rehab or independent living services previously? Sold similar services? Done any outside sales? What type of local relationships to they have?
Use-refers to any systems such as a Customer Relationship Management System, internet, web site, social media, cell phone, lap top etc.
Coaching Plan
You want the sales rep to start generating revenue for you as quickly as possible….so you need to make sure you create the development initiatives that lead to the expectations you have. Structure the program so the content builds each day/week and is continuously reinforced. While it would be ideal if the sales rep could effectively sell after just a few days of on-boarding, this is rarely the case and may cause more harm then good…to your reputation!
- Position your new sales person such that they develop the expertise you expect for peak performance.
- Be patient. Remember they don’t need to master everything during their first week. Identify when each expectation needs to be met during their employment tenure. For example, if one of your expectations is that the sales rep develops their sales strategy, don’t just give them a blank sheet of paper and ask them to do it because you’ll be disappointed. Instead give them a list of questions to guide them.
How successful do you think that new sales rep I met is going to be in their role? As a coach I see the potential the rep has, yet realize the unfortunate reality of their situation and the outcome it is likely to have. Investing in developing either an on-boarding process for your sales and marketing reps, or seeking outside assistance is worth its weight in gold. Otherwise your more than likely just flushing your money away!
How have you structured your on-boarding process to set your marketing and sales reps up for success?
If you’d like to use this article in your own newsletter or on your web site, you are welcome to reprint it in its entirety with an active link to our web site and the following author info:
“By Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst for CISCO & CO. For effective marketing, sales and customer strategies that connect you with your customers visit www.ciscoco.com.”
Author: Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst, November 22, 2011
When you hear the word “Disney” what comes to mind? Imagination. Excitement. Innovation. I think of Disney’s ability to make things come to life. For example, his creative team’s ability to take characters off a page and bring them to life through animation. Through animation the characters really engaged the viewer, and make them feel like a part of the story. Let’s face it, watching the cartoons on TV was much more exciting then just reading about them. As a senior care and living provider, think about your website for just a moment. How “engaging” is it?
Today your website has about 30 second to capture the viewer’s interest, and videos are a great way to do this. Videos also significantly impact your marketing efforts by:
• Delivering a focused message to a targeted audience
• Make your brand human (Check out this testimonial concept by visiting Great People of St Ritas)
• Increase your conversation rates
• Increase your visibility and exposure by placing your videos on platforms such as YouTube
• Increase your SEO (search engine optimization). In fact a video is 53 times more likely to generate a first page Google ranking than traditional search engine marketing techniques and videos will start to show in search engine results within days, not months. (Forrester Research in January 2009)
Video is making a significant impact when it comes to your marketing. Just consider the following statistics:
• 82.5% of the U.S. Internet audience viewed a video online, according to a study done by comScore in February 2011.
• Video ads accounted for 12.4% of all videos viewed and 1.2% of all minutes spent watching video online.
• Consumers who watch product videos are 85% more likely to buy products compared to those who do not watch, according to Internet Retailer report done in April, 2010.
Keep It Simple
Don’t over think what your video should be about. If I were to ask you what the 5 most common things your inquiries/leads ask you when they call or visit, what would they say? The idea behind video is to create and add a human element to your brand. What topics do your visitors care about the most?
Technical Need To Know Stuff
Keep your videos short and sweet. Anything less than 3 minutes is good…1 minute or less is even better.
With technology today, creating a video is easy so don’t complicate it with perfection. Your video doesn’t have to be an expensive high quality production, but you should have adequate lighting and a microphone so that you are easily heard without someone maxing out their computer speakers. If your budget allows, having a professional brand your video with an introduction and conclusion really adds a nice touch. Your goal is to be genuine and authentic, not a sales message.
Make your video work harder for you by prepping it to be indexed by search engines.
Once your video is completed and uploaded to your website you need to submit your video to Google or it won’t be crawled and indexed like a regular page, in other words in won’t show up in search engine results. You will need to actively submit your video information using a media RSS feed or create a video sitemap, as well as create a robots.txt file and included all your video pages to ensure Google is not blocked, and allow the search engine to quickly verify your embedded video content. Again, you can easily reach out for help on this “techie” stuff cost effectively by connecting with CISCO & CO.
If you already have video on your website, do a double check to make sure it’s working harder for you because you don’t want to lose free SEO. If your web site doesn’t have video on it, it’s a good time to include that in your marketing strategy and budget for 2012.
What results have you seen by using video on your website? Or what is holding you back from including video on your website?
If you’d like to use this article in your own newsletter or on your web site, you are welcome to reprint it in its entirety with an active link to our web site and the following author info:
“By Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst for CISCO & CO. For effective marketing, sales and customer strategies that connect you with your customers visit www.ciscoco.com.”
Author: Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst, November 1, 2011
Have you ever had a customer service experience where you felt like your mind was being read? Like someone knew what you were going to ask for, or was thinking about, or felt before you had the opportunity to voice it. Now that’s exceptional service! It does beg the question, how can you engage your senior care and living team in reading the needs of customers?
In a recent USA TODAY article, by Charisse Jones entitled Hotel staff “reads” guests’ needs, Jones shares how the hotel industry is investing in staff development in reading body language as a pathway to personalized service. The staff at the Affinia hotel with locations in New York, Chicago and Washington, has engaged everyone from housekeeping to management in learning how to tailor their interaction with guests based on body language.
This may seem a little farfetched… or is it? Remember the pain smile scale? In a sense, isn’t that what healthcare providers do. Gauge the patient’s pain based upon where they fit on the scale. Or what about responding to call lights for instance. If Mrs. Smith always has to go the bathroom one hour after lunch, why does the staff wait until she uses her call light to take her? What if they started anticipating her needs based upon understanding her personal habits. Or what about the “daughter” that needs constant reassurance that her parents who moved into the independent living apartment are really doing ok…why wait for her to call, why not anticipate her “needs” and move beyond talking about great service, to actually delivering it.
A body language expert trained the hotel employees on what cues to look for. A guest who makes eye contact while walking down the hall, for instance, may be open to conversation. A busy corporate trekker constantly tugging on an ear is probably stressed and may be interested in a yoga kit-or perhaps a therapeutic pillow from the hotel’s pillow menu.
Employees were taught to mirror a guest’s volume and rhythm of speech to put him at ease. They learned that if guests are constantly touching their faces, it’s a likely sign they’re anxious after a long day of meetings or travel. Jan Freitag, senior vice president of Smith Travel Research, which tracks hotels, says of the effort: “Anything that ultimately gives better customer service is to be applauded.”
So true! Whether it’s reading body language or understanding behavior patterns (through the DiSC Behavior Assessment which CISCO & CO uses in our development programs), any development that helps staff to make better connections with their customers can only lead to customer service beyond what is expected.
What tools or initiatives have you experienced success with when engaging your staff to a higher level of customer service?
If you’d like to use this article in your own newsletter or on your web site, you are welcome to reprint it in its entirety with an active link to our web site and the following author info:
“By Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst for CISCO & CO. For effective marketing, sales and customer strategies that connect you with your customers visit www.ciscoco.com.”
Author: Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst, October 25, 2011
I have mentioned before that we have been busy planning for my daughter’s wedding for early December. With only a few weeks remaining, the months of planning are coming together and the last minute details are being finalized…all of course which will result in a beautiful memorable wedding my daughter can treasure. A wedding is not that different really than the senior care and living business. The 4th quarter of the year is here and well underway. This is the crazy busy time when budgets are analyzed, goals are evaluated and last minute efforts are made to end the year with a positive finish. So, what’s your plan to finish 2011 strong?
If you don’t have an immediate answer, then use the four keys below to get organized, focused and committed to having your best end of year yet:
 1. Be crystal clear on your census and occupancy goal.
Quick: Does your entire team know what your census and occupancy goals are? And exactly how many leads and prospects you need in your funnel to achieve those goals in a short period of time? If you can’t answer that with absolute clarity, then this is goal one for you. Ensuring that everyone that works for you understands the goals and the role they play in achieving them is significant. It’s not just the sales rep’s job to grow census. Just think if everyone of your employees could refer one new lead a week what that would do to your bottom line.
2. Focus on “A” accounts.
Your greatest assets are either the referral sources or leads that can consistently or quickly close the gap on helping you reach your goals in a short time frame. It’s a good time to re-evaluate your 90 day plan because with the holidays quickly approaching it becomes easy to get wrapped up in busyness…yet not always intentional focus on goal related activity. Remember, 80% of your business comes from your top 20% referral sources and A Leads. So who are they, and what is your marketing strategy to help them make the decision to refer to, or choose you, this quarter? Remember, if you aren’t getting their business, someone else is.
3. Be Intentional with Time.
Identify where your time will be invested in revenue producing vs. non-revenue producing activity. It’s really easy to get pulled into non-revenue generating activity. In fact, that may be your comfort zone. Unfortunately, non-generating activity will not help you meet your short term goals. I know it’s a difficult discussion because we need team work, however, without census you won’t need to worry about a team! Have weekly discussion on intentional time focus.
Just like my goal for my daughter’s wedding is to be everything she wants it to be, your focus as a senior care and living marketing/sales rep is to focus on the activity that is going to result in achieving the goals census/occupancy goals for your organization. Visualize what it will feel like when everyone is celebrating Dec 31st that you did it! Wow that is an adrenaline rush.
So start today focusing on finishing your 4th quarter strong!
If you’d like to use this article in your own newsletter or on your web site, you are welcome to reprint it in its entirety with an active link to our web site and the following author info:
“By Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst for CISCO & CO. For effective marketing, sales and customer strategies that connect you with your customers visit www.ciscoco.com.”
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