Building Your Mobility Business

The mobility market might be troubled these days, but there are still plenty of ways to boost your revenues and even work your way into some new niches.

For example, manual wheelchairs are the mainstay of the home medical equipment business, yet very few sales reps spend much time analyzing how to sell these products. And as you look for ways to expand your business, lifts, ramps and transfer devices comprise a great market niche to consider.

Try these and the other suggestions that follow for building up your company's mobility business.

MANUAL WHEELCHAIRS

Understand the differences in the manual wheelchairs on the market. Can you tell your customer the difference between the leading name brands and the not-so-leading name brands? Differentiate yourself from other HME companies by becoming an expert in different product line segments.

• Do you know the top diagnoses for people who need a manual wheelchair? Can you tell what they are for Medicare patients? For Medicaid patients? For commercial patients? The best way to “sell” a chair is to talk about specific patients. Help referral sources find the patients who need them.

• Design a creative package for patients who need a manual chair and also need other HME products. For example, a post-hip patient may need a manual chair as well as bath items. Work with your referral sources to offer packages to patients, and promote them to referral sources by diagnoses. You can also sell these to managed care organizations.

• Think about product formularies for wheelchairs: These brands are best for these situations; those brands are best for other situations. Conduct mini-focus groups to make sure that the brands you carry are the ones your patients want. Consider less medical-looking options, for instance, for higher-end patients and those who have money or are image-oriented. Looks do sell.

• Train your intake employees to understand which chairs match which kinds of customers. Offer to order chairs that aren't in your regular menu if people want them.

To show patients wheelchair possibilities, consider an e-mail option or having your reps or other personnel visit them before they leave the hospital. Make the sale personal. Then, patients will really love your business, and happy patients mean happy referral sources.

POWER WHEELCHAIRS

There are three major markets for power wheelchairs: 1) young people (primarily men) with debilitating injuries, such as spinal cord injuries; 2) the frail elderly; and 3) people of various ages whose illnesses cause them to be disabled for short or long periods of time. Each of these target markets has different psychographics (factors that influence people's buying decisions), and it is important to prioritize these targets in your business.

• Debilitated young person market: This is a unique segment with need generally caused by emergency accidents (think of the late Christopher Reeve). You will need to consciously decide if you are even going to be in the Medicaid business for the under-18-to-21 population. Some states have sufficient Medicaid payment, while others do not.

  Entry into this market means that you have an expert custom fitter to work with patients. These fitters are usually trained on the unique aspects of the business, and they develop strong working relationships with their customers.

  Set up an incentive plan, such as stock options, to motivate your fitter to build business for you. Depending on their level of sales experience, pair them with a strong salesperson to generate new leads. Target traditional referral sources such as rehabilitation facilities and sports injury physicians.

• The frail elderly market: A huge and growing number of elderly people need help getting around, but they don't know exactly what they need or where to find it.

  To build market share with the elderly, you have to understand how this generation thinks and responds to health care events. Many of these people are Depression-era children who never took good care of their bodies and who rely primarily on physicians to make referrals.

  Develop both a traditional marketing plan and a consumer marketing plan. Get your sales reps out to the physicians who care for the elderly, and really educate them about mobility options.

  Develop a consumer pamphlet on mobility. Write it in language that is simple for the elderly to understand.

• The injuries/disease market: This market includes people with acute mobility issues, such as those who have had hip surgery, and those with chronic diseases such as multiple sclerosis. This is a diverse target market.

Figure out who/what you want to target, then generate educational sales and consumer materials directed toward specific problems with the solution of power wheelchairs.

General “spiels” do not work. Stop your reps from saying only that you have power wheelchairs. Speak the case language: “Do you have patients who have XYZ diagnosis? If we get them this device, they will have this benefit.” To develop sales in this market, talk specifics and case find.

Place a great ad in your yellow pages and on the Internet. Use consumer language, and hire a professional graphic artist to create the ad. Don't skimp.

Make sure your staff can answer the questions that get asked.

SCOOTERS

When designing a scooter marketing strategy, consider targeting certain consumers as the primary audience for these devices, which come in all shapes, sizes and colors and have a multitude of uses.

• When a customer wants a scooter, he or she will want to give it a test drive. How can your company make it easy for consumers to try a scooter? Could you offer to take one or two models to their homes? Do you have a wide variety of scooters in your store? In lots of colors?

• Think like a car dealership. You can build a scooter business by gaining a reputation in your area for having a wide variety of models, handling reimbursement and providing excellent customer services. If you don't have exactly the right model or color in stock, could you trade with another company to get it in for your customer or get it quickly from your manufacturer?

• Find the local retirement centers in your area and offer to put in a test model for people to try. Make sure potential buyers know you can fit them to each individual's need.

• Think seriously about consumer advertising. Get a good advertising agency to help you. Focus advertising on “getting around;” the term “mobility” may be too vague a word for some people to understand. Ask semi-mobile seniors in your community what would interest them in a scooter, and then make sure your advertising includes those things.

• Let your traditional referral sources know about scooters. Most of them are confused about who would want a scooter. Give them brochures that include your company's name, and offer to send over a consultant to assist in getting the right scooters for their patients.

  Remember that under CMS' new mobility policy, scooters are part of the “stepped” devices plan, so physicians and other referral sources may be prescribing more of them.

• Take into consideration that scooter users are getting younger and are pickier about the scooters they use. Think about the image aspects of matching scooters to personalities and needs.

LIFTS AND RAMPS

Make a commitment to this line as a percentage of net revenue for the year; any solid commitment to the wheelchair line should also include this equipment.

• Rehab technicians are often said to be one of the most valuable commodities in an HME business. A great technician should not only be able to fit a custom wheelchair but also should be able to assess the total needs of disabled customers. This includes their needs for lift devices and ramps, etc.

• Put a consumer marketing plan in place. There are a lot of aftermarket sales in the lift, transfer device and ramp business. People often change cars, add additional lifts or need transfer devices that they did not need originally. Build a strong database of wheelchair customers, and keep in contact with them via the telephone or mail.

• Fully train your field sales reps on these devices. The better informed they are, the better they will be at selling this equipment.

• Put together a great referral piece that focuses on the needs of the elderly and disabled. Make it gorgeous, and show your company as a full-service expert in this market segment.

  Consider a second piece that can be handed out by discharge planners or physicians to their customers so they can figure out whom to call when their needs change.

• Decide how you want to deliver a full product line for wheelchair patients. If you do not want to get involved in all of the aspects of lifts, ramps and transfer devices, then find a great strategic partner or two and work out the specifics of how they can handle your patients.

You want to be a one-stop shop for your referrals sources and have a seamless order system. Whether your company provides every last detail on its own is not important; what is important is that you have a cadre of options available that you can control.

ADD-ON SALES

Does your company sell more or fewer accessories per wheelchair sale? Does this differ with standard and power wheelchair sales? Does it differ by type of payer, including cash sales?

• Take a look at past trends, then set some realistic goals for your business. Set a goal that represents real growth, but one that is attainable. Goals set by product line focus the entire organization, including your salespeople, customer service and retail staff, on specific tasks. Organizations that set goals by product line do much better than those that keep things open-ended or unspecified.

• Get the right people in place. Since it is both expensive and time-consuming to generate referrals, once you get a referral, you need to take the best care possible of each customer who comes to your business. When customers call or come into your store, they need to be greeted by the best person you can put forth.

  Don't lose business because you have the wrong people in place; get the right people and keep them trained to answer all of the technical and reimbursement questions customers will have about wheelchairs and accessories. Make them experts, and your business will develop a strong reputation for knowledgeable customer service.

• Training is a process, not an event; keep your employees trained. With seemingly constant changes in the regulatory and manufacturing areas of the wheelchair business, training is not always up-to-date.

  Rely on your manufacturers to provide your staff with technical equipment and accessory training. Make sure that your staff understands the reimbursement issues with Medicare, Medicaid and any managed care contracts you have in place.

  Make sure salespeople understand your retail/cash sales policies and are adept at walking customers through which items are reimbursed and which items are not covered.

• Increasing wheelchair and accessory sales may require a huge shift in staff attitude. While there is a natural struggle between salespeople and operations/customer service staff, all staff members must have a positive attitude regarding accessory sales. They must understand that making sales appropriately and meeting customer needs is good for the company and customers.

  Customers want the right wheelchair and accessories to make their lives easier. There is nothing wrong with asking customers what they want and need and then matching up what they get. Make sure the attitudes your employees have are consistent with growing the product line and add-on sales.

• Monitor results. Keep your sales team informed about performance. When you “up level” your staff and give them what they need to be successful, product line sales will be above market sales growth.

Alison Cherney is president of Cherney & Associates Inc., a Brentwood, Tenn.-based marketing and sales consulting firm, and is the producer of Homecare Power Selling, a sales training program for home care sales reps. She can be reached at 615/776-3399 or through www.cherneyandassociates.com.