Aids to Daily Living: Making Everyday Life Easier

Today, people are living longer than ever before. Elderly parents are often cared for by their adult children, who many times have ailments of their own to worry about. Both groups of people are looking for ways to make their lives easier. Their answer may lie in aids to daily living (ADL) products.

ADLs offer a source of independence and provide a way to make everyday tasks easier for people who must rely on others from help. Items used for dressing, eating and food preparation, bathing and toileting, writing and reaching are all available to help users perform even the smallest of tasks.

Home medical equipment (HME) providers are in an ideal position to provide ADL products and information to their customers, and ADLs are an excellent source of cash sales for HME providers who know how to market them efficiently.

There is an abundance of ADLs available, and each year more are invented to assist with daily living. So, the problem in marketing ADLs and increasing sales lies not in the number of products available but in how to inform HME customers about them and to position those products so that they will sell.

Educate the Customer

One step in marketing ADLs is to inform your existing customers, who include the growing elderly population or those with physical disabilities and their caregivers, and referral sources such as occupational therapists (OTs), physical therapists (PTs) and case managers. Darren West, sales manager of Medical Mart in Pocatello, Idaho said that his company occasionally creates a newsletter updating the newest items and takes it to hospitals, OT offices, home health agencies and home health nurses. Then those sources can present their patients with what is available to them. West said that they recently received a letter from an OT who needed information on 23 ADL products. He said that he thought such a system of cooperation between the OT and his store would work well.

Starla Barlie, assistant manager of Enterprise Home Health Supply in Enterprise, Ala., said that they provide samples to OTs who ask for them. The OTs show their patients the products and then the store sells several to the therapist. To gain new referral sources, Barlie said that they go meet with physicians, OTs and PTs face to face.

Referral sources generally have a good idea of what is available on the market, but customers walking in off the street do not know what things are out there to help them.

"A lot of times they'll be coming in for a certain item, but they'll see something else that they didn't know was even out there," West said.

"There are a wealth of ADLs out there, but most people don't know really know how the products can help them," said Jack Evans, president of Global Media Marketing and a retail specialist in HME.

Caregivers often will come into a store to find something to help the person they are taking care of function more independently. "They come in with a basic idea of what they would like to accomplish, but as far as saying they need a reacher, for example, they just tell you what the patient is having trouble doing and ask for suggestions," Barlie said. It is at this point that educated salespeople should step in and provide a recommendation. Evans said that it takes a salesperson to ask what are their problems, what are their issues, what are the daily activities they need help with in order to know what kind of products they need.

In order to provide a good recommendation, salespeople must be educated about the products available and provide superior customer service for their customers who do not know what kinds of products they need. "Train salespeople to be in tune with what people are looking for," Barlie said.

Victor Cutino, chief executive officer of HME Medical, Aventura, Fla. said, "We kind of pry and dig for what's wrong, what's the problem they want to fix or what they're trying to accomplish." After digging for the problem, salespeople can tell the customer about a certain ADL that is designed to help with their problem. "We show them products and educate them when they come into the store," he said.

:ADLs are often useful for more than just what they were designed for. Salespeople should listen to their customers who already use ADLs and their referral sources who often have stories about unusual uses of ADLs. "You just file that into your memory bank, and when you have another patient with a similar problem, you can remember what worked well in the past," Barlie said.

Make the Sale

Another step to successfully marketing ADLs is to have correct placement of the products within the store. Evans said that even with good customer service and product knowledge, some HME providers have recently complained that ADLs are not selling well. "When they are just hanging on a spinner rack, they can be the best product in the world, but customers don't necessarily understand them," he said.

Evans has found that those HME providers who are making a profit off of ADLs are doing more than just putting ADLs on a spinner rack in the center of the store; they are displaying those products in their intended setting. "The way I see them actually selling is to visually show the people how they are used," he said. He said that many providers are creating areas such as living rooms and bathrooms within their stores to display the products as they would appear out of the store.

However, creating real-world applications within the four walls of an HME store is not always possible. There are other ways to sell ADLs and be successful besides creating large displays.

* Use what you have. Not every HME store has enough space for big displays, but many stores do have front windows. Enterprise Home Health Supply uses a mannequin to display many types of HME products in the front window of the store. "They might not be in the market at the time for that (particular item), but they'll remember seeing it in your window," Barlie said. She said that the mannequin has been shown in the window picking up pinecones with a reacher or showering behind a curtain with bathing aids.

* Don't forget about packaging. The old adage a picture is worth a thousand words holds true when it comes to displaying ADLs. Evans recommends stocking ADLs with packaging that features large lifestyle photographs of the product in use. "That would be to me the next best way to display, with very prominent four-color photos of people using the products," he said.

* On the other hand-forget about packaging. Take a sample product out of its package to let the customer feel what it is like to use that product. "I think for the common patient who comes in, for them to see everything, to look, to touch, to feel and have someone explain what the product does is real helpful," West said.

* Cross-sell products. ADLs provide an excellent opportunity for HME providers to cross sell products. For example, a customer who needs bath safety products might also need bathing aids. "Maybe there shouldn't be an ADL section, but they should be placed where they relate to other products," Evans said. Cutino said that HME Medical does have one isle devoted to ADLs called Helpers for Easy Living; however, they also take some products out of the section and place them with related products so the person can have what they need in one place. He said that spreading out the products has helped increase the store's profit on ADLs.

Making a profit off of items like ADLs takes more than just setting the product out in the store to collect dust. It takes remembering some simple principles of merchandising and displaying products. It also takes realizing that most people do not know what is available to help them with daily tasks. ADLs are created to make everyday activities easier, and HME providers should educate their customers on just how life enhancing and fun ADL products can be. "It's hard to make our products look fun, but you try," Barlie said.

This article originally appeared in the February 2000 issue of HME Business.

HME Business Podcast