Hallmark Movies, Educational Foundation, and Perspective…

Candy canes, sugar cookies, and Hallmark Movies NONSTOP. That’s right, Mr. Manly Man, Jason Lewallen, loves watching sappy Christmas movies for the entire month of December.

Try to get me to watch “The Notebook” or “Titanic” and you’d better be ready for an uphill battle…but turn on “Mrs. Miracle” or “Love and Mistletoe”? and I’ll have the popcorn ready and sleep pants on faster then you can blink.

It’s amazing how the holidays can do that to a person. Here is the thing: It’s not the holidays. It’s perception. I am willing to let my guard down during the holidays, but I perceive these movies not as “drama” or “romance” but as heartfelt holiday movies.

When we change our perception, it changes OUR reality.

Think about that for a second. If you think that you will be a successful salesperson, you will work at it. You will most likely become that salesperson. Need more proof?

Consider this great story:

In 1964, Robert Rosenthal did a very unique experiment in a San Fransisco school. He disguised a regular IQ assessment test as the “Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition.”

After the teachers administered the test to students, Rosenthal randomly selected students regardless of their scores and informed the teachers they were gifted. He shared that the gifted children would see tremendous growth in their IQ over the upcoming years.

The results of this study tell us quite a bit about the human mind. Over the next two years, the kids who were considered “gifted” but who were, in fact, randomly chosen, all performed higher than the others.

Rosenthal determined that the day-to-day interactions the teachers shared with their students were different from those they shared with the “average” classes.

The moral of this story is simple. If we believe in something, we will (either aware or unaware) try to influence our situation to match with that which we believe in. That applies to more than just us. It can also apply to our referral sources.

If your referral source BELIEVES that sending you a patient or client will lead to an outcome they are looking for, they will focus more on referring to you. However, there is a catch. To mobilize referral sources, you will have to put together a reasonable foundation of education.

Building a solid foundation

When you build a foundation of education, what you are really doing is laying down the groundwork for identifying patients.

Think about this: Most office managers, front desk workers, and even many referral coordinators don’t know the most optimal time to pick up the phone and call your agency.

They know when a physician says to order care or to reach out to a home care or hospice company may be, but they can’t look into their patient mix and say, “this patient would definitely benefit from home care.” They don’t know the signs that indicate that it’s time to reach out.

So, here is the tough question. Do you know the signs? Does your sales team know the signs for home care? Too many salespeople in our industry are lacking in this key piece of knowledge.

They may know the benefits of referring, but do they really know how to paint the picture of the right patient type? If not, our Roadmap to Referrals actually educates your sales team on what they need to communicate the signs for referring.

Wishing you the most fantastic of holidays!

– Jason