Sell Five Times More by Using a Team Planning Approach
April 4, 2018 | by the National Care Planning Council
Over the past 15 years at the National Care Planning Council, we have discovered that the best way to help seniors and their families identify and utilize the complex, myriad and disparate senior services available in the community is through a solution-based, group planning approach. This approach requires the participation of at least 5 or more differently specialized senior services advisors or providers. Using the synergy of group marketing and planning, team participants sell far more of their products and services than if they were working on their own.
As senior advisors or providers, we can't even begin to solve the problems of aging seniors by taking a single product sale approach or a single service sale approach. The effort must be coordinated under a master plan and often a number of resource team members are involved in providing solutions.
Solutions are not specific products or services, but typically translate into these as a result of the planning. Solutions are concepts, actions and strategies. The client will always select one or more of the recommended solutions. That is the beauty of this process – the client always buys in and as an end result typically purchases the necessary products and services from the local planning team!
To be successful, our planning approach requires at least 5 practitioners we call "Core Council Members." The services of Core Council members represent many of the solutions uncovered through the Life Resource Planning process. In return, Core Council members rely on the Life Resource Planning process to sell their services. Here is a list of the Core Council members.
- senior's financial services specialist
- geriatric service or care management specialist
- elder law or estate planning attorney
- reverse mortgage specialist
- private duty home care service provider
Other members of a local council planning team could also be added to provide additional services such as seniors real estate specialists, downsizing and moving specialists, repair and remodeling companies, yard work companies, facilities placement specialists and so on. We call these additional members Support Council members.
Without the Life Resource Planning process, council members will be less successful. For example, a Core Council member might close sales on 16% of all leads working individually without a life resource report. That same member could close sales on 90% of all leads using the Life Resource Planning process – a fivefold increase in the amount of business produced. Also it is important to note that for the geriatric service specialist, for the reverse mortgage specialist and for the private duty home care provider, the planning will create business that wasn't even there without the plan. They could have never provided their services without the planning process.
A financial services specialist, an elder law or estate planning attorney and possibly a geriatric service specialist often need to collaborate on producing an effective master plan which we call a "Life Resource Planning Report." Usually, the financial specialist will take the lead in promoting and implementing the planning process. This is true because some aging seniors do not initially express a need for additional support from attorneys, home care companies, reverse mortgage specialists or geriatric specialists.
By focusing on finances and the eventual need for Medicaid, we can reach those aging seniors who have – at a minimum – a need for examining their financial situation and financial challenges for the future. If as a result of this financial analysis, the need for other members of the planning team is uncovered – which usually happens – it will result in providing more solutions for the client and providing more business opportunities for members of the planning team.
Our approach, using solution-based planning, does not involve referring out services to some other senior service entity and hoping that the client and the other entity eventually connect. An integral part of Life Resource Planning is the scheduling of an appointment between the client and other members of the Core Council or Support Council to ensure that solutions are addressed adequately and effectively. An accounting from all members of the council will be made through ongoing monthly meetings with all council members. Find out more about the Life Resource Planning process.
