Practice Room

You caught her for ten minutes after the Thursday discharge huddle.

• We already have three agencies on our list.
• Last agency we referred to no-showed a weekend start.
• Families pick the cheapest — why would I push yours?
• I can't be seen favoring one agency.
• What happens when the patient needs care Saturday night?

Win condition: She warms only if you talk readmissions, weekend coverage, and 48-hour start-of-care with specifics.

Her community relations director walked you up to her office; she took the meeting standing, between an ownership call about occupancy and a family waiting in her lobby.

• My community relations director handles vendors. Why is this on my calendar?
• Our residents are independent — that's the entire model here.
• When your caregiver is in my building and someone falls, my name goes on that incident report. Whose insurance answers?
• Who's letting your people in at six in the morning — my front desk?
• Ownership approves anything with a contract on it, and their first question is what it costs us.
• If a resident needs help at home, the family arranges it. Why is that my problem?

Win condition: She gives you nothing until you make the move-out her problem: a resident who can no longer manage alone leaves, and an empty unit costs her occupancy and margin both. Even then she commits to nothing until you answer the executive questions with specifics — who carries the liability, what it costs her, whose staff absorbs the work, who she calls at 2am when it goes wrong — and the most you can earn is one small, low-risk step she controls.

You caught her at the front desk between patients.

• The doctors don't see reps.
• Leave a card like everyone else.
• We refer to home HEALTH, not home care — what's the difference?
• Who fills out the paperwork?
• We had a bad experience with an agency calling our patients.

Win condition: You respect her time, nail the home health versus home care distinction in one sentence, and offer a zero-work referral path for the practice.

He walked you back to his office after a resident issue.

• Families think care is included in what they already pay.
• Won't your caregivers make my staff look short-handed?
• Corporate has a vendor list.
• We tried supplemental caregivers — they and our staff clashed.

Win condition: You position private-duty care as extending his staff and keeping residents (and revenue) in the building longer, and you handle the interruption gracefully.

Coffee she agreed to because a mutual contact vouched for you.

• Home care delays my placements — you cost me money.
• My value is knowing communities, not vendors.
• If I refer you and it goes badly, that's my reputation.
• What do I get out of this?

Win condition: You reframe home care as her "not ready yet" answer that earns trust and future placements, and propose two-way referrals with concrete examples.

Twenty minutes he granted after you sent a family-education piece.

• I don't do referral arrangements — ethics.
• My clients ask me for vetted answers, not brochures.
• How are you different from the 40 agencies in town?
• What happens when a client runs out of money?

Win condition: Zero quid-pro-quo framing: you become his vetted answer when families ask who can help at home, you show depth on LTC insurance and VA benefits, and you leave a family-education resource he can hand out.