by Diane Masson | Jan 27, 2013
Momentum in Senior Living
Are you losing senior residents faster than gaining new ones at your retirement community? Welcome to 2013, where older and frailer new residents don’t spend much time at your senior living community before moving onto a higher level of care or meeting their maker…
If you have more move-outs than move-ins year after year, your occupancy has slowly dropped. It’s time to get the big “MO” back – that’s right momentum!
Are your owners only looking at the bottom line and demanding for the occupancy numbers to increase? Or, are your owners willing to strategize with sales and marketing to look outside the sales box and figure out how to make the building more attractive to younger seniors? The later is the key…it can be a one-year process of improvements and upgrades. (Hint: Younger seniors live at your retirement community longer!)
The results can be phenomenal! A community I work with in Southern California just had 7 CCRC entrance fee sales in 8 days! Yes, some younger residents, including couples are moving in too. The CCRC community looks fantastic now after extensive renovations! The sale team is excited and all the scheduled move-ins generate urgency for other prospective residents to move-in now, because the apartment home inventory is dwindling.
What are you doing to attract younger seniors and build momentum for occupancy?
Please comment to join the conversation and interact with other senior living professionals on what is currently being effective to increase occupancy on a nationwide basis.
Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com. Masson’s book will be required reading at George Mason University in the Fall as part of the marketing curriculum. She is currently consulting with Seniors For Living and two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Connection and partnership opportunities: Email: diane@marketing2seniors.net
by Diane Masson | Jan 21, 2013
To All the Senior Living Professionals Who Follow My Blog
I appreciate all the great comments over the years and respectively ask for your vote in the Seniorhomes.com – “Best Senior Living Awards!” Diane Twohy Masson’s Blog has been nominated as one of “2013 Best Industry Resources.”
Click on the picture link below and vote twice by clicking once for Facebook and once for Google Plus. I thank you advance!
Vote for Marketing 2 Seniors
Join the Conversation on How to Market 2 Seniors
Please continue to comment on my blog posts to join the conversation and interact with other senior living professionals on what is currently being effective to increase occupancy on a nationwide basis.
Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com. Masson’s book will be required reading at George Mason University in the Fall as part of the marketing curriculum. She is currently consulting with Seniors For Living and two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Connection and partnership opportunities: Email: diane@marketing2seniors.net
![10 Training Tips For Senior Living Sales People in 2013]()
by Diane Masson | Jan 14, 2013
1) Identify your sales team’s attitude toward the occupancy goals – do they believe they can hit the occupancy goal? – if not – check out my blog tip from last week – Sales Meeting Tips to Increase the Occupancy in 2013.
2) Are they differentiating your senior living community from the competitor down the road? Never say anything bad about the competition, but always highlight your retirement community’s strengths.
3) Have you set a quota for a certain number of calls per week and is the director of marketing or executive director tracking it? Sales people just want seniors to come in and put down a deposit. A lot of sales are made with that quick follow up phone call to invite the senior back again for a 2nd or 3rd look.
4) A “wow” tour, including painting a picture of the lifestyle, can make the monthly fee look like a bargain…
5) Do you have exciting events that draw new faces into your community and inspire 2nd and 3rd looks to move forward?
6) One negative word, like calling your community a facility, can cause a senior to back away from the move. Who wants to leave their beautiful home and move into a facility?
7) Have your focused on selling to personalities? Some analytical drillers want every scrap of paper you have ever published on your community to make a decision and other seniors can walk away from information overload. Tailor each tour to the personality of each customer…
8) Focus on each senior’s hot buttons, like not being a burden to their kids…
9) Are you asking for the deposit – every single time?
10) Creating urgency to make a decision now is a must – it’s awesome when you have two different seniors considering the same apartment!
Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com. Masson’s book will be required reading at George Mason University in the Fall as part of the marketing curriculum. She is currently consulting with Seniors For Living and two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Connection and partnership opportunities: Email diane@marketing2seniors.net Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
![Sales Meeting TIPS to Increase the Occupancy in 2013!]()
by Diane Masson | Jan 6, 2013
It’s time to grow your senior living occupancy in 2013! Let’s motivate the sales team on how to achieve your senior housing community’s goal. I assume you already have a budget of how many projected move-ins are required and the projected amount of move outs for your retirement community (The number of move outs seem to get higher every year – doesn’t it?)?
For those of you in smaller communities you may be having a sales meeting with yourself or one other person. The rest of you probably have a team of 2 to 4 sales people to motivate. Some sales people get very overwhelmed with the yearly goal. When they hear that 50 CCRC entrance fee move-ins or 120 assisted living move-ins are budgeted, you can look for the squirming in the seat and eye rolling. This means they don’t believe.
Well, it’s your job to believe the occupancy goal and encourage your people to believe.
Here are some tips to turn them into believers. Break down the yearly occupancy goal into monthly goals.
- How many sales are needed per month?
- What is each person’s monthly sales goal?
For a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) with three sales people and a goal of 50 move-ins – that’s 4 sales a month and about 1.3 sales per person per month. Calculate how many tours are needed per person and how many calls on average will draw in the tours per month.
For the same CCRC example it ends up being:
- 60 tours a month and 1,200 team phone calls per month or
- 20 tours and 300 calls per month for each sales person or
- 5 tours a week and 75 calls in a week for each team player
How easy is it for one person to do 1 tour and 15 calls in a day? This is how the 50 move-in yearly goal breaks down. It’s very easy to hit the yearly goal with a great team, a good organization, planned advertising to draw in new faces, excellent quality of programming, superb food and a first-class reputation of caring for the residents. It can be so simple to hit the goal for 2013. Just break it down for your team, BELIEVE and then your team will BELIEVE too!
Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com. Masson’s book will be required reading at George Mason University in the Fall as part of the marketing curriculum. She is currently consulting with Seniors For Living and two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Connection and partnership opportunities: Email diane@marketing2seniors.net Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
![A Short Fun Senior Living Sales New Year’s Poem]()
by Diane Masson | Dec 30, 2012
Is it time to grow your retirement community’s census,
Or just entertain the residents and be festive?
It takes sales stamina and focus,
To accept some sales no’s with no fuss.
Give your determination a sense of finality,
To rise above “the get by” mentality.
Keep calling the database,
Don’t pause on the hot lead chase.
Because seniors just need some education,
To deter each and every objection.
Ultimately, your senior living community will win,
Because making a great sales commission is not a sin!
It’s your choice to be a senior housing hero!
Let the competition end up with a big fat zero!
Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com. If your curiosity is piqued to inquire on Diane’s availability to speak at a senior housing conference (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. Diane is currently consulting in Southern California for Freedom Management Company, the proud debt-free owners of Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
