by Diane Masson | Jun 22, 2014
The prospect may say, “I want to think about it.” “I am one or two years away.” “I am not ready yet.” “I am not interested in a pushy salesperson.” Will you still call them back promptly the next day? If not, why not??
The senior living prospect walked in your door for a reason. They need your services or are considering your services. They should automatically be classified as warm if they walked into your senior living community. They may be eating cereal for dinner or sleeping in a recliner chair because the alternatives are too much effort. This is a viable lead that deserves your time and attention, even if they say, “I am not ready yet.”
I find it appalling that some senior living sales people will only give the time of day to a senior that can move in now. Ultimately, they are neglecting potential sales. In my experience, only 25% of the seniors say, “I am ready now.” “My home is on the market.” “My kids say I have to move immediately.” “My doctor recommends that I move to assisted living right away.”
So this means that the other 75% of potential seniors are too scared to express their needs. They say a quick statement in the beginning to protect themselves from being SOLD by you. They have lived in their home for 40 or 50 years. They don’t WANT to move. They are just beginning to UNDERSTAND that a move would be beneficial to their health and well-being.
Educate this scared senior and show how your Retirement Community, Assisted Living or Continuing Care Retirement Community is the best choice for them. Then watch your occupancy rise. The end result will be providing solutions to improve the quality of life for a multitude of seniors.
Do you call EVERY tour back the next day? If not, why not??
Your tips could help others improve on a national basis, so please share by commenting on this blog. If this weekly blog can help your sales and occupancy – why not invite your team to sign up today so no one misses a single tip to improve the occupancy?
Diane Twohy Masson writes this weekly blog to support and engage with other senior housing professionals. Her first book is Senior Housing Marketing – How To Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full. Many sales teams and organizations have used the 12 keys contained in this book for their weekly book review. Diane is working on her second book to help seniors select their senior housing options.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2014 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
by Diane Masson | Jun 15, 2014
A Senior Living Sales Person’s Good Attitude
Do you know what is on the mind of your sales people? Is it finding a solution for the senior calling in or walking into your retirement community top of mind? Or is it on the latest text from their spouse or child? Statistics say that a significant portion of your staff is not engaged with their work. Ugg!!
Are personal issues shared every morning over coffee? Why? Can this help the occupancy of your senior living community? No! What it does create is a negative atmosphere to start the day.
Senior living sales people receive continual rejection on the phone and closing sales. It is key for them to have a great attitude and be fully engaged with each prospective resident. Negative office politics can suck a sales person’s energy and enthusiasm.
Do you need help turning your retirement community’s attitude around? Chapter one of Senior Housing Marketing – How To Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full is chock-full of tips for sales people to improve their attitude and keep their energy up.
Your tips could help others improve on a national basis, so please share by commenting on this blog. If this weekly blog can help your sales and occupancy – why not invite your team to sign up today so no one misses a single tip to improve the occupancy?
Diane Twohy Masson writes this weekly blog to support and engage with other senior housing professionals. Her first book is Senior Housing Marketing – How To Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full. Many sales teams and organizations have used the 12 keys contained in this book for their weekly book review. Diane is working on her second book to help seniors select their senior housing options.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2014 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
by Diane Masson | Jun 8, 2014
Discarding Great Leads?
There are thousands of senior living sales people across this country. After each tour, they have choice to pursue a viable lead or simply ignore it. Is your frontline sales staff making the right decision? Do you review new inquiry leads with them?
If not, why not?!!? It costs your senior living organization thousands of dollars to bring in new call-in leads and walk-in tours. Just this last week, I know of two sales people who each blew off a lead because it was not quick move-in. Luckily I caught them in time, so that follow up phone calls could happen.
One prospective resident couple had a complicated situation with a wife who wanted independent living with a husband who was qualified for skilled nursing care. They wanted to bring in their own caregiver and the man could not feed himself. The sales person felt it was too complicated to pursue.
I shared a story of a couple that came to my Continuing Care Retirement Community several years ago. The man was dying and the couple wanted to move to independent living together. My executive director said no, it was too hard on the other residents and he was not independent. In spite of this decision, I loved on this couple. Five months later, the husband died. I sent sympathy card. The wife appreciated me reaching out with caring kindness. Within weeks, she moved into my retirement community.
So when the senior living sales person called back this complicated prospective resident couple, he learned that the husband was in the hospital. He loved on the wife as I had suggested. I expect a move in the next six months from this additional phone encounter.
Do you have stories of difficult tours turning into sales?
Please consider joining this exclusive Marketing2Seniors blog and comment below 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 currently writing a new book for seniors on how to select senior housing options. Her first book, “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” is available at Amazon.com with a five star rating. Masson continues to set move in records as the regional marketing director of two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Her mom’s struggle with dementia is inspiring Diane to pen a third book to support adult children.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2014 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
by Diane Masson | May 4, 2014
Your attitude meter can subconsciously be affecting your sales performance. If I gave the same 10 leads to three senior living sales people with different types of attitudes, the sale results would vary widely. See where your attitude falls today.
Poor Attitude
- “Oh no, another walk in, I am so busy.”
- Complains, “Everyone is simply not ready yet.”
- Very low repeat tours.
- Major thoughts – I’m tired, the leads are terrible and the sales goals are too high.
- Dreads follow up phone calls and people saying “No.”
- Believes the senior prospect when they say, “I am not ready yet.”
- Cares mostly about themselves.
Average Attitude
- Takes a few minutes to gear up to go meet the walk-in tour.
- “I have a few good prospects, some are not ready yet.”
- A few repeat tours per week.
- Major thoughts – I can do this, there are some good leads, I want to hit the sales goals.
- Some days feel great doing follow up phone calls and other days are a struggle.
- Believes the senior prospect 70% of the time when they say, “I am not ready yet.”
- Cares equally about the prospect and themselves.
Great Attitude
- Excited to greet the walk-in tour within moments of arrival.
- Continually plans strategies to turn warm and hot leads into move-ins.
- Lots of repeat tours.
- Major thoughts – I am excited, the leads are great, I can exceed the sales goals.
- Has enthusiasm in their voice as they eagerly make follow up phone calls.
- When a senior prospect says, “I am not ready yet,” they know the prospect is scared, but close to a transition. Believes they will move forward in the near future.
- Cares mostly about the senior prospect and helping them find a solution for their needs.
Where do you and your senior living team members fall on the attitude meter? What else can you add to differentiate the three attitudes?
Please share your successes, failures or comment below 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 at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Currently, Masson is setting move-in records as the regional marketing director of two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2014 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
by Diane Masson | Jan 19, 2014
This picture is worth a thousand words. What is the state of your available apartments? On a recent trip to Oregon, the best place in town had this in the tub. I wanted to throw up. Really? Yet, I have seen this and worse when mystery shopping senior living communities.
Your maintenance team is overworked and they don’t have time to do apartment renovations. So many senior residents are moving out…maintenance can’t keep up. So senior living sales people have to show apartments that are not clean or renovated. Is this fine at your retirement community? Non-renovated apartments have sold that way before, right?
Wrong?!!! This is a poor long-term strategy and bad first impression to fill the building and increase occupancy. Don’t listen to the maintenance team blues! Here are four quick solutions if your retirement community is in this boat…
- Only show model apartments period. Never ever show a disgusting apartment that someone just moved out of. It is not available to show ever!!!!
- If you don’t have model apartments, make arrangements with a few residents to show their apartments. It’s always nice to have one or two residents who say you may show their apartment anytime.
- Have housekeeping clean up the disgusting apartment now, before it is shown to single a person. (I know this is double work for housekeeping, cleaning it before and after renovation. The extra clean does help sell apartments and improves first impressions.)
- The fourth choice is to pay an outside company to renovate apartments at your senior living community. I know it costs more money than doing it in-house. Please look at it in a new way…every month that an apartment remains empty, the senior living organization loses $2,000 to $6,000 in a monthly fee.
Please give sales and marketing the tools they need to create great first impressions and sell it now. Showing models works great for a senior just looking or thinking two or three months out. If you want those 48-hour move-ins or two-week move-ins, then clean up the apartments that need to be sold now.
Please share your successes, failures or comment below 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 at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Currently, Masson is setting move-in records as the regional marketing director of two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2013 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
by Diane Masson | Nov 10, 2013
There were such a variety of responses to “How Many Calls Does Your Senior Living Team Make Per Month,” I am choosing to expound with a more in-depth part 2. Senior living sale professionals responded with call requirements from 20 calls an hour to 40 completed calls per week. Someone else’s retirement community had mandated 53 connected calls per month.
Here is one response:
“Diane, I have enjoyed reading your blogs on seniors, which are informative with best practices. This one on “How Many Calls A Month” made us gasp with the large number of calls a sales team is expected to make nowadays. 500 to 1,000+ calls a month must be only cold calling behind a closed door and doing nothing else like sales events, tours, refurbishment oversight, building relationships with future residents, community and church relations, follow up on leads and inquiries, application process, and administrative team projects.” Nancy
My response: These calls were not cold calls, so here is a more detailed explanation.
My example in part one had a marketing director with 469 calls and her two team mates with 340 and 315 calls respectively. These sales calls included: call-ins, voice-to-voice call-outs and left messages. I believe if someone leaves a great message, seniors will call back. Our requirement is 75 calls a week or 300 per month. This is not one isolated goal. Another goal is 20 initial or repeat tours per month. This tour goal does not include post-closing appointments after a deposit has been taken.
Yes, these senior living sales people have other responsibilities including three events per month (all day), responding to Internet inquiries, weekly strategy meetings, book reviews, overseeing apartment renovations for their clients, and managing his or her move-ins (paperwork, relationship building, setting up health assessments, family tours and etc.).
If you don’t have sales and occupancy goals, then no one has a pinnacle to reach. This team produced five Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) sales in the last eight days. They have hit the quarterly move-in goals this year and are currently close to hitting the fourth quarter goal and going to Disneyland. This year, they have produced the most CCRC move-ins at their retirement community since 2005.
Please share your call, tour and move-in quotas to converse with other senior living sales professionals. Let’s hear about the variety of quotas out there. It will also be interesting to know if you are hitting your move-in goals based on your calling goals.
Please share your success, failures or comment below 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 at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Most recently Masson was recruited to consult for two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2013 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
