The HME SEALs

These are incredibly challenging times and defining moments for most HME business owners. The situation faced by many businesses now brings to memory an historical event that occurred in 1962. At that time, President John F. Kennedy surveyed the landscape of the world and evolving threats we were to face as a country. He recognized that the traditional defense of our country was not going to remain effective in the future, and there was a need for a new way to address these challenges. We would need to create a new elite team to handle future challenges presented by insurrections, guerilla movements and terrorist organizations—threats that could end life as we knew it. As early as 1962, Kennedy took the initiative to build the world’s most elite military team comprised of the most highly skilled soldiers in the armed forces. They would come to be known as the SEALs. The SEALs would be triple threats, equally proficient and deadly in the sea, on air and on land. This elite team was hand selected to have the right physical and mental makeup, and had to be trained continually to meet new and evolving challenges. Today, the world is aware that the SEALs are the most elite soldiers in the military. They’re the team that killed Bin Laden, and 
Kennedy was right in thinking we needed this special force. I raise this subject because today, your business is in need of HME SEALs. This industry is facing the threat of extinction—as is your business. It’s time we address this and develop an elite business force to address these concerns. The reality is that an estimated 40 percent of HME businesses will no longer be open in five years. Whether you won or lost competitive bidding, sales needs to be your No. 1 core competency. The future of your business depends entirely on your ability to sell, and we are now at an age where we need a new sales force to meet these threats. Each HME provider has to sell and serve three to four times more patients in order to break even, and five to 10 times more to make money. You cannot add more overhead to remain profitable. You have to do more with the same or fewer personnel. Is your existing team ready and capable to meet this new reality?

Old School, Out of Business

The way that most HME businesses are selling is too slow, too costly, unpredictable, antiquated and incapable of achieving the results needed to survive. Many factors in the HME industry are changing, and your sales processes and sales skills must change along with those factors. These changing factors include:

Time

Referral sources don’t have the time to spend with HME salespeople like they once did. Referral sources are 
facing the same issues—they need to see more patients while keeping the same staff size. This means you must go in prepared to make a difference. You must call on the right type of referral sources with the right messages and be brief and brilliant on every call.

Margin decline

Competitive bidding, health care legislation and more—as time goes on, the margins will continue to decline.

Rising cost of field sales visits

Cost of an outside sales representative is extremely expensive. Weigh salaries, bonuses, car allowance, insurance and more; fully loaded, an average sales call costs between $300 and $1,000 per call, depending on the geography.

Communication preferences

The younger generation and technology adopters don’t need, or want, to see you as often. Preferred methods of communication are text messages, WebEx and email. Your challenge is to find out what method your referral source prefer and customize your communication to be effective for them. Increase customer demand for 
responsiveness If I want a book, I download it on my Kindle and have it in less than a minute. We are in new era where we want our needs met instantly. Our referral sources are demanding the same response. When they want answers, when they want service they want it now. These are all changing factors that we need address to become more effective and serve more referral sources and 
patients with the same or less staff. Just 
as the SEALs are proficient in sea, air and land, our sales force needs to be a triple threat, and highly skilled in face-to-face meetings, on the phone and in communications with technology. The HME SEALs need to use all these weapons strategically and with proficiency. How do you build a SEAL team? You need a process to identify, recruit, hire and train with higher standards.

A Rare Breed

Some qualities and characteristics of the HME SEAL include:

• Can be taught—Age and industry experience are irrelevant. Look outside the industry to salespeople who bring a track record in tough industries such as life insurance. Product and market information is easy to learn. SEALs are revenue-generating machines and can be taught to sell in any industry.
• Holds a passion for competition and winning
• Demonstrates excellence in life/career
• Exhibits extraordinary communication skills
• Builds instant rapport with clients
• Enjoys prospecting
• Establishes loyalty in life/career
• Takes pride in accomplishments and the profession of selling
• Embraces new ideas and technologies
• Is the best and still wants to be better

Create an HME SEAL Team

Now that we’ve defined the qualities of an HME SEAL, we need to assemble the team. Most likely, you will not find candidates just waiting for a job who simply respond to your wanted ad in the local paper. Here are some important keys to finding and hiring the HME SEAL:

• Establish your company as a fraternity of excellence
• Create clear, focused and documented objectives—what specifically do you want these individuals to accomplish?
• Define skills and activity metrics that will drive your desired results
• Tap into an abundant talent pool
• Establish a rigorous interview process
• Get the attention of the best sales personnel in your area

If the first bullet caught your eye, you might be interested in how to turn your company into a fraternity of excellence. The process is simple, but you need to be committed. Communicate to your team why your standards have changed. What are the threats to your business? And why do you need a fraternity of excellence? Next, hold yourself and 
everyone to higher standards. Let go of the past and focus on creating an exciting future. Immediately, get rid of your non-performers. Non-performers should not be tolerated in your new environment. After you complete these steps, you will have created a fraternity, and everyone in your company should want to wear the colors proudly.

To Seek a SEAL

When you look for these HME SEALs, keep in mind that they are hard to find because they are revenue machines. Most likely, they are already employed elsewhere. I prefer going outside the health care industry to find HME SEALs. The reason is that we are spoiled because demand for patients and our services continue to grow and we serve a growing need. In other industries, you have to create the demand. Check out industries that are highly competitive—such as 
insurance or real estate—if you can sell in those markets, health care becomes easy. These individuals are working, valuable and your company and opportunity must be appealing to them. An HME SEAL is going to check you out and complete their due diligence on you so you better be, act and look the part. To find these HME SEALs, I also recommend a recruiter. Why do I use a recruiter? The HME SEALs are working and the recruiters have access to them, do all the background checks and only get paid when they place one of their candidates. If that person does not work out, you can negotiate a 90-day replacement. It is bullet proof and, in my experience, your overall costs are less. In order to be successful, the SEAL program has to have higher standards than have ever existed in your organization. These individuals will need to make more calls, more effectively, with more diverse communication mediums, so every criterion is must be higher. How do you test for this to make sure you’re really getting an HME SEAL? Here are three steps to start the process:

1. Make sure they have demonstrated excellent results through challenges that are similar to the ones they will inherit when working for your company. If you wanted to climb Mount Everest, I’m sure you’ll want to go with an experienced climber. Not someone who thinks they can make it.
2. Every person starts out with a telephone interview. A phone call clearly weeds out those who are lying or 
exaggerating on their resume, which saves you tons of time. Typically, my phone interview lasts between 30 minutes to an hour. The first thing you should do is role play by asking them to cold call you with their existing or last product/service and try to sell you. They should blow your socks off! When you do it with that expectation, only few will pass. Assess their skills and see if you can scare them off. If you don’t find that you’re in the presence of greatness, get rid of them; that’s the beauty of a phone. It’s fast and efficient.
3. Next, have them complete a written test. Ask them to email you with details on: Why they believe they have what it takes to be on your team Why they are the best at their chosen fields Why we should advance them to the next phase This will give you great insight into how these candidates think, communicate and feel about the 
opportunity and themselves. Below is an example of an outstanding letter I received after asking these questions. Would you like to hire a candidate like this?

   Dear Sir or Madam, My definition of success is when you stop believing the lies of fatigue and obstacles over the truth of purpose. The knowledge of self is understanding you always have one more gear, one more option and one more surge inside of you. When your body and your surroundings scream “it’s over,” yet, you still find a way to get it done, this is what it takes to be a SEAL. The juxtaposition between a rainmaker and a SEAL illustrates the parallels between what it takes to be a great warrior and a great sales professional. In the book “Unleash the Warrior Within” Richard J. Machowicz, who was an actual SEAL, makes the comparisons. He states in life, as in battle, you must know your target, make your plan and choose your weapons. My target is to work with a serious team that is serious about being the best, my plan has been to methodically achieve the necessary positions and accolades that would make me a viable candidate and my weapons are self-motivation, academics and the real-world experience of knocking on doors.

   For 18 months, a SEAL candidate is pushed beyond normal limits. He is tested and sharpened with no encouragement from his teachers or his surroundings. The type of self-driven machine-like focus to simply be given the chance to train as a SEAL is similar to my story. I was introduced to the high-profile, high-energy lifestyle of a sales professional at an early age. My uncle was a commodities broker on Wall Street and would take me to the trading floor. I would marvel about how the adrenaline and focus of all the participants was driving the kinetic commerce that made our country great. There was no limit to the work that it took, as well as to the success victory could bring. It was a lifestyle and a philosophy I knew I was meant to be a part of. Fast-forward 7 years later. At 16, I left home and was forced to make some decisions. With no hope of college and no experience other than culinary arts, I joined the world of food service in order to support myself. Never giving up on my dream of sales, I excelled at everything I did, eventually earning the title of corporate executive chef for the largest food service management company in the world—at the age of 23. Once I was financially stable, I looked into what it would take to break into the fraternity of sales. I knew the two things everyone wanted were education and experience. My focus was set and while working seventy hours a week, I earned my Bachelor’s degree in business. It wasn’t easy to juggle school and my work load but as a SEAL, “the only easy day was yesterday” and excuses are for the weak. Upon completion of school, I knew I needed experience. As you can imagine, it was not an easy task to convince employers that a lifelong chef could sell anything other than a bowl of pasta. Eventually, I was noticed by a food service distributor and a sales career was born. However, my journey is not over yet. My desire is to sell a product I believe in that makes a difference in the world, to a challenging audience that pushes me to sharpen my skills or perish. So, here we are, 12 years in the making, a SEAL stands before you bruised and beaten, but ready to fight for you. My 18 months took almost eighteen years however, I have arrived nonetheless.

   In the 1500s, when Cortez landed in Mexico, his men were extremely disheartened. They knew they were outnumbered and on terrain they were unfamiliar with. Every one of them pleaded to turn back to the safety of the ocean. Cortez, being the driven leader he was, ordered his captains to burn the ships. Upon this order, Cortez made the statement, “The only way home is through victory.” The SEALs share this philosophy—as do I. When I took the first step on my journey, I vowed to burn my ships. I believe this position is my trident, and the true battle will not end, but begin, as a member of your team. What makes the SEALs elite is that a person must be hardened and worthy of the opportunity and his reward for success is a life of combat and danger. Like the ancient Spartan’s Agoge, SEALs hell week or my journey, one must be tested before proven worthy to be put into combat. I have sacrificed and bled for this opportunity and I would do it again. My promise to you is, as hard as I have worked for the honor of competing for this position, so much harder will I work to be the best when I have earned my trident from your company.

   “Ready to lead, Ready to follow, Never quit” Navy SEAL’s Motto Regards, T.D.

4. After a candidate passes the written test, bring them in for a face-to-face interview. This is where you’ll take a deep look into the candidate’s skills, accomplishments and improvement areas. Take time to see if there is natural chemistry, and smoke out concerns that you’ve identified on the resume.
5. Finally, bring the candidate to a senior management team interview, which will be culturally and team focused. This meeting will determine whether or not they belong in your company. Allow the team to assess their skills and desires; what they are good at; what they want; and whether they fit into the culture.
6. One more step—the reference check! Make sure their references validate the character you’ve seen displayed as well as their work ethic and skills and accomplishments

Throughout the interview process, there may be some red flags that you should watch for. If you notice any of the items listed below, do not touch these candidates with a 10-foot pole:

• Not prepared
• Unenthusiastic or dislikeable
• Incompetent
• Doesn’t mention past failures
• Exaggerates accomplishments/makes false claims
• Takes credit for work of others
• Can’t explain career moves or resume gaps
• Obsessive about compensation plan, benefits and vacation time
• Arrogant
• Makes excuses
• Now that you have found the right candidates, they need to be trained in a proven sales process. You will need to establish high performance standards, train them in the best methods for each step of the sales process, keep it extremely intense and interactive and give them access to great, customizable materials. As detailed in my 7 Step Sales Mastery Training course, the sales process is as follows: 1) appointment, 2) profile, 
3) interview, 4) evaluation, 5) presentation, 6) close and 7) pin down. After training, send them out to use the new skills and see how it works in the field. Every HME SEAL should be held accountable for their activity and results. Every client that we’ve helped to install the HME SEAL methodology into their culture has experienced growth in the double digits. We’ve seen this program raise performance standards, gain the support of the entire team, create a sense of self-worth and discipline within the team and improve the overall success of the organization. The bottom line is this: These are 
incredibly hard times and require the same mindset that Kennedy had in 1962—the establishment of an elite team. The SEALs have a slogan that states “the only easy day was yesterday.” For those of us who embrace this philosophy, and are willing to do what it takes, this is our time.