Senior Helpers Irvine Scales Growth Through Accountability and Structured Referral Tracking

The accessibility, uh, the resources, and just the general insight, um, has been extremely beneficial. My name is Hector Munoz, and we're with Senior Helpers, and we're located in the city of Irvine, California. I'm Lore Lyflyn, and I work for Senior Helpers as well, and we're located at Irvine, Southern California. As the owner, we wear a lot of hats. And in order to really build those partnerships and those relationships that are, you know, are gonna, are going to trust our company and provide those referral, uh, opportunities, it does take a lot of time and a lot of effort, uh, to be out there. And you really need to be top of mind. So for me, it was just very difficult to be in a position to dedicate the, the amount of time required to be able to build those partnerships. I just struggled with, what's the place to start? There is a big difference between a marketing professional and a business development/sales professional, and I personally am a marketing professional. And again, how frequent should I go, um, to, uh, different referral sources? Which ones should I go to? When I go there, what should I bring? What should I talk t- about? Who should I talk to? How often should I go? We figured that we needed some sort of a competitive advantage, some sort of an edge if we're going to be able to compete, and quite frankly, start chipping away at some of these, you know, relationships that have been built over the course of the last 10 years. Um, I've been in marketing for a lot of years. I have a lot of connections, and I feel that that's kind of why Hector brought me on board, is to expand the company and help it grow. I did explore a number of different options out there, but just none of them felt quite right. They were either a little bit too salesy or a little bit too hands-off, quite frankly, and I felt that we needed something in the middle. But I think most importantly for, for me, and I think for Lore, I, I can speak for her to a certain extent, we needed someone that was gonna hold us accountable, right? And, and I think that's something that Home Care Sales was able to do. It was a nice balance. It wasn't overly salesy as far as, you know, us joining the, the program. So that was refreshing. It was more real. It was genuine. Um, but again, the, the part that I really, uh, do enjoy is just, again, the accountability and the requirement to be, uh, in a position to submit KPIs on a weekly basis, which is in- incredibly important. We do a lot of tracking. Track every single place that Lorelei has visited, places that I visited, what the purpose was, who we spoke to, what the outcome was, and as importantly, what the next steps are, and I think that's something that we were doing a little bit loosely, but Home Care Sales and, and the program really helped us take it to the next level. On the weekends, I'll sit down and plan out my week, my entire week. I write down all the accounts I'm gonna go to and the purpose of my calls. So I know when I wake up Monday morning, I already know where I'm going, I know who I'm gonna talk to, and what I'm gonna talk about. Then when I come home, I document at the end of the day who I spoke to, what the outcome was, what my next step is, so now I'm already pre-planning for next week, so now I already know why I'd have a reason to go back to. Um, it helps Hector see also not necessarily where I'm at, but where my wins are, where I'm having success. And, um, this Six and Six program has really helped us to identify better the real accounts that we need to hit. And, um, I've been doing this a long time, marketing a long time, but this program really, um, breaks it down and makes it very simple to follow, and it's a great program. The ROPES program, as simple a, you know, a tool that is, uh, was very impactful, uh, for all of us because it allowed us in, in a very approachable way, uh, it allowed us to have that hard conversation or that difficult conversation. So I think that was very helpful. And I think also the resources that come with the program that afford us the opportunity to go into these referral partner, uh, locations, whether it's a hospital, skilled nursing facility, et cetera, with something tangible, something, uh, useful, you know, some informative piece of data, um, again, gives us a- another good reason to go. And I think also, uh, the ability to be able to reach out to the team for anything. I had an impromptu discussion or a meeting set up, uh, with a very prominent skilled nursing facility out here in Southern California, and I didn't know where to start, so I just reached out to Melanie. I said, "Hey, do you have 10 minutes?" And we kind of brainstormed for 10 minutes, and it really prepared me to go in there and have a really good, productive conversation. My opinion, it's the resources that they provide. It's the accountability. As much as we as owners wanna do everything, this is a full-time role, and we just cannot do it. But if you really wanna grow your business and scale it, um, you need a dedicated resource, and in my opinion, uh, this is a, a great tool that's gonna, again, afford them the opportunity to hit the ground running. I'm gonna speak from a marketer's point of view about this program, and I truly believe it's good for anyone that wants to market, whether you're brand new in it or whether you've been doing it for 15 or 20 years. It's very resourceful. I can call anyone and bounce ideas off them. I've had two owners of Senior Helpers from different areas call me directly and say, "Hey, you know, I need some sound advice on this and that and the other." It's a great program for anyone. It, it is dedication, and you do need to work it, but the outcome pays off tremendously.