Welcome to Marketing 2 Seniors, my name is Diane Masson and this site is for senior living professionals.
I have filled up Continuing Care Retirement Communities, Independent Living, Assisted Living, Memory Care, Skilled Nursing Care and new developments for over 16 years in four different states.
The Book, Senior Housing Marketing, has 12 keys to increase your occupancy and holds a 5-star rating on Amazon.com.
Come on in, join my blog for sales tips and advice. Then consider if it’s best for just you to read my book, the sales team or your entire operational team. You can learn more about the book and order it on Amazon … Here’s wishing you 100% occupancy!
Marketing 2 Seniors Blog
Expert Tips to Increase Occupancy
Seniors and Sales People Wearing Masks
Almost everyone wears a mask out in public. It can be exhausting to hide behind a fake exterior and pretend we have it all together. I meet seniors and sales people everyday that seemed poised and polished to the world and yet they are terrified inside. Many seniors and sales people have lost the ability to be real and authentic. They have worked hard to create the illusion that everything is fine, because they fear showing their vulnerability. Seniors walk into retirement communities everyday announcing that he or she is fine and “not ready yet” to make a move to senior housing. If you could pull off the mask, you might see a frightened senior who knows their memory is slipping, had a recent fender bender in the car or is just extremely lonely. That’s why they are exploring senior housing options. Is this you? Sale people may be dealing with an angry teenage daughter, a new baby, or ailing parents. They have to leave their breaking heart in the car and arrive for work with a mask of happiness. Is this you? Here are the three most common masks: The I’m Fine Mask: You smile and say that everything is fine when your heart is breaking. It appears that you have it all, but you may feel lost inside. It is safer to hide, because people expect it. The Performance Mask: You have the “to do” list. You keep up a frantic pace. If you stop performing then you are not worth anything at all. You want to matter and count. The “I don’t care” Mask: You...
3 Chickens, 3 Cats, 2 Tanks of Fish and 1 Senior Moving In???
Would you build a chicken coop to have a senior move into your retirement community? Are chickens even allowed? What would your senior living community promise in order for a senior to move in? How many cats does your retirement community allow per senior resident? Would you increase it? Are you willing to take on two 100-gallon tanks of fish? One fish tank contains large koi and the other fresh water bala sharks. “I still have my wits about me and don’t want to leave my animals,” said a prospective senior resident. “The administrator has promised me that he will take all my pets and if I pass away, he will let all of my precious chickens live with him at his home. He loves my chickens.” This senior is waiting for a two-bedroom apartment to become available, but she has still not decided to actually move. Her family and friends (I am one of them) have been encouraging her to make a move for two years. She currently lives alone in a two-story home with a caregiver who helps several days a week. Who knows how many years my senior friend has left? I don’t know. What I do know is that my friend would thrive in a retirement community with live music and weekly entertainment. She used to be very active with dozens of friends and now she is isolated in her home with early dementia and a lack of mobility. My senior friend comes to life over a lunch or dinner conversation. I told her that she could have social connectivity everyday if she moved into...
Un-engaged at Work? Only 30.5% are Engaged. 10 RECHARGING TIPS!
Is there a crack in your armor? Are you living on empty and have nothing left to give your family or job? Maybe you are a full-or part-time caregiver for an aging parent or a senior with dementia? Perhaps you are in a senior living sales slump? You can’t help anyone else or be productive at work unless you take care of yourself first. Look for joy in the moments. You may be going through a dire time. Maybe your parent or one of your senior patients is dying. Perhaps your daughter or son has some kind of health or school trauma. Possibly you just learned that someone scheduled to move into your retirement community has changed his or her mind. It may have been the one you needed to hit your sales goal this month. Sigh…they are going to stay home and wait for a crisis. You start asking why over and over. Don’t become jaded and harden yourself with a giant wall to protect your emotions. It’s mentally checking out and called un-engagement. Your family, senior prospective residents and coworkers can feel your wall. If you work in senior living sales, we can’t help every senior. Only the ones who choose to plan ahead. Do you feel overwhelmed with what’s happening in your personal life? Is your lack of sales getting you down? Well it’s time to go find your rainbow. Are you wondering how to get started? Feed your mind with positive thoughts. Schedule time to heal yourself! 10 Recharging Tips: Go to a live concert, stand in your shower or drive down the road singing at the...
“We Are Half Sold Out!” – Seriously?
If a senior living sales person or ANYONE said to you, “We are half sold out,” what would be your first thought? I bet, it would not create urgency for you to act now. When I was considering buying comedy tickets at the Improv last night, I inquired if the event was already sold out. The salesperson divulged, “We are half sold out. Getting tickets should be no problem. We are really surprised that only half the tickets have sold two days before the event.” I thought, oh, this comedian is not as popular as I thought. I will wait to buy my tickets. I was actually disappointed that the salesperson did not create urgency for a famous comic. It was shocking to me that she would be so forth coming and I walked away disheartened. I told her that I would come back later and did. But I decided to not buy the tickets, because apparently I could just show up in a couple of days and buy the tickets on the day of the event. Her over sharing will continue to affect sales until a manager catches it. The comedy club sales person over shared. What could she have said instead? “Gosh, let me check, I might be able to get you some tickets. It’s very unusual to have this comic coming to our location. How many tickets would you like?” I would have bought the tickets instantly. Remember that famous Beanie Baby craze of the 1980’s? It was all about urgency for stuffed toys. Yes, I am the proud owner of 100 Ty bears and still...
5 Tips to Achieve 5 Sales in One Week
Five sales at one Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) in one week! Are you and your team hitting these numbers? How is it possible? Here are a few tips: Have a sales retreat to appreciate your senior living sales team and make them feel valued. Have you taken the time to do this or are you too busy to “waste” a day of work? It could be the most important day to improve the sales team’s attitude and turn around your occupancy. Our retreat focused on setting individual sales goals and building self-esteem and confidence. Each sales person was recognized for his or her achievements in 2014. The retreat created two types of energy: individually and with the team. This energy blossomed into momentum. Have you created a marketing plan that brings new people to your senior living community on a regular basis? Does your team call back every tour the next day even if they say, “I’m not ready yet.”? Is your entire operational team focused on first impressions of guests and prospective residents? Are your residents 100% satisfied and sharing their enthusiasm with prospective residents? Focus on these five tips and watch your occupancy increase for 2015. 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. “Your Senior Housing Options,” will be coming soon to Amazon.com....
5 Goal-Setting Tips for 2015 Sales Success
Are you ready for a high-occupancy New Year? Did you hit your sales and occupancy goals for 2014? Congratulations, if you did. If you did not, draw a line in the sand and start over for 2015. Here are five goal-setting tips for you and your senior living sales team: Have a goal meeting with yourself and then with your boss. What is the budgeted occupancy? Do you have enough walk-in traffic and leads in your database to generate the sales you need? Should you create some events to bring in new faces? Are you proud of the first impressions of your senior living community? What is your competition doing? Have a plan to differentiate yourself from them. Remember, no negative… Determine your “A,” “B,” and “C” players (the definition of “A,” “B,” and “C” players is HERE) and what each of their sales goals will be. Meet individually with each of your sales people. “A” players will automatically believe they can hit the 2015 goal. “B” players will believe after you individually coach and believe in him or her. “C” players will usually whine or complain about the goals. (Your coaching may turn them around or you may need to let them go if they don’t want to WORK to hit the goals.) Have a kick off meeting for the New Year or a marketing retreat. Acknowledge ALL good and great sales performance from 2014. Your “A” people will love the recognition. “B” people will be proud of their accomplishments. Everyone will thrive in this format and feel supported in achieving their personal and team sales goals for...
Powering Through a Tough Time
Sales offer each of us constant rejection. It takes a strong person to overcome 18 noes to gain two yeses. Some have it in their DNA to power through tough times and others don’t. When you are achieving or exceeding the sales occupancy goals – life is good. Missing sales goals can be painful and agonizing. Will you be fired? How do you get back on track achieving sales and start boosting a plummeted self-esteem? Work on your self-talk. Keep that tape running in your head on a positive channel. If you can’t shut down your internal negative chatter try step two. Listen to positive sales CDs or tapes on your way to and from work. Zig Zigler, Tom Hopkins and Brian Tracy are always great choices to boost your spirits and inspire you with sales ideas. Make a decision to be grateful. Think of five things in your life that you are thankful for each morning. Find an encouraging mentor to be your cheerleader several times per week. Pray to find joy in helping a senior today. You can improve the life of a senior who is isolated in his or her home. Read a 25 second poem and get an instant attitude adjustment here. What have you done to turn your attitude positive? Will you share your tips in the comments so others can benefit? 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...
Sabotaging Siblings/Children?
How many of you have worked with a senior who clearly needs to make a move into a senior living community? Maybe she is lonely, not eating nutritiously, no longer driving or desires the social connectivity of liked-minded seniors. The senior is one visit away from selecting an apartment and putting down a deposit. A daughter has already consented that her mom needs the support of your community and is emotional exhausted from helping her mom. The son/brother is coming to town and they want him to put his stamp of approval on this move. Suddenly, the senior and the daughter become uncommunicative with you. The family is a no-show for the scheduled tour at your retirement community. Your phone calls to reach out to them are unanswered. What happened? Are they okay? Did something happen and maybe the senior is in the hospital? Most likely the son came into town and sabotaged the deal. “Mom is fine. She does not need to move into an old folks home. It is too expensive. Just keep helping her sis.” Maybe this son is in denial or maybe he is worried that mom might drain his inheritance. Either way, it is a sad circumstance for the mom who will lose out on a better quality of life and the sister who is tired of taking care of mom while raising her own children. What can you do? How can you handle this situation in the best possible light? Here is my suggestion: Next time, prepare the mom and sister for the brother’s visit. I would say, “I would love for your...
New E-Book for Senior Housing Marketing
New E-book is now available, “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full.” Rated by Amazon Editors as one of the best books of 2014! “Diane’s book is an important resource for the senior housing industry. It contains tips and advice to help the novice, as well as the experienced marketer, build or maintain census. It is also a terrific guidebook for executive directors or administrators to use in managing the marketing function.” — Chris McKenzie, VP Marketing, PR & Communications, multi-site CCRC organization “Smart senior housing professionals understand that full occupancy means better cash flows and an improved bottom line. Diane’s practical, relevant strategies and tactics are must read material for any senior housing professional wanting insight on how to best fill and maintain full occupancy at their community. Presented in a positive and direct manner, this book is full of useful information delivered straight from the front line.” — Richard M. Mazza, senior housing consultant, development & finance professional; former Chief Accounting Officer and Interim CFO “A useful guide for both non-profit and for-profit senior housing organizations, with checklists, ideas, and reminders of essential elements all good managers and sales people need to be effective in filling senior living homes and apartments. Diane’s techniques can bring immediate results.” —Thomas Becker, retired CEO & President of Pacific Retirement Services There are 14 more testimonials on Amazon. If this book has helped you or your organization, please share your experience on Amazon or in the comment section below. Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available at Amazon.com...
Machine Gun Versus Interactive Sales Approach
What is your senior living sales style? Are you firing off information about your retirement community like a machine gun or do you have a softer interactive approach with future residents? How a machine gun senior living sales person thinks: It’s very important to give the prospect ALL the information about my community so they can make a good decision. I want to help them move in soon. I give a great and interesting tour of the community. I want to highlight our most popular areas in the community. I want them to try our food and then they will move in. Prospects are busy, so I have to talk fast and get all the key information out. I don’t know why I am not getting more sales, I ask everyone for a deposit. How an interactive senior living sales person thinks: What is the reason they walked in the door of my community today? I am genuinely interested in the customer. What’s most important for them to know? How can I help them? Through listening, I can customize the tour for them. I’ll highlight the parts of the community that the prospect will utilize. Asking questions to learn how my community can solve their problem is important (Are they lonely, have a lack of nutrition, fear of not being found laying on the floor after a fall, home maintenance too much or have a desire for socialization?). Once they start visualizing themselves living in the community, they will make a deposit. What is the one word difference between these two approaches? Listening! Both types of senior living sales...
Recognizing Buying Questions in Senior Living
Some senior living sales people are so focused on getting a deposit that they miss crucial buyer signs from a senior living prospect. One easy tip for you to start using today is to never answer an easy question that a senior or adult child asks with a simple, “yes” or “no.” Instead, respond with a clarifying question and discover more about his or her mindset. The following is an excerpt from my book, “Senior Housing Marketing – How To Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full.” For example, if they ask, “Is this apartment available?” You ask, “What is your time frame for moving in?” The answer given is very telling. They might say, “Well, I have to sell my home first.” This indicates they want to buy it! You just have to walk them through the steps on how to make it a reality. More Buying Questions Asking about availability of a certain apartment. What is the time frame required to move into this apartment? They want something repeated. Wanting to know about rates, price, or affordability. Asking about the quality or levels of health care that are offered is a great sign. Wanting to see the model apartment. Asking what the other residents are like. Comparing your senior living community with the competition. This means they are doing their homework and are interested. Start recognizing closing questions that they may ask you. The questions can come in the beginning, the middle, or the end of your senior living tour. When they ask you a question, never answer with a simple “yes “or “no.” It’s good to answer...
Qualified Senior Living Sales Candidates?
Is there anyone else struggling to hire a quality senior living sales person? My search in Hemet, CA has been ongoing for four weeks. The majority of applicants are unqualified and present poorly composed resumes. Where to look? Craig’s list can have a high success rate to find some senior living operational candidates but I have had no luck hiring senior living sales people through this resource. LinkedIn has been good to me in the past, but I only received 8 applications in one month and it cost me $395.00. It was very disappointing and an expensive dead end. Career Builder has produced the most viable senior living sales candidates. Quality of resumes? Overall, I have seen the most poorly written resumes of my life in the last month. Typos and format mistakes galore, candidates should have a professional or savvy friend review his or her resume before applying for a job. Are nurses, EMT’s, mechanics and others in completely unrelated disciplines mistakenly seeking a senior living sales position? Or are they just completing three job searches for unemployment? Customer service experience is not sales and closing experience! Order takers need not apply! Sales and closing experience means having a sales track record with a closing ratio. It’s a person who has overcome objections and persists until they get the sale. No senior housing experience? The last two people I hired had no experience in senior living sales. They did have a passion for seniors and a background of sales and closing experience. One of them was working in the healthcare profession and the other called on healthcare professionals...
3 BIG Senior Living Sales Mistakes
MANY senior living sales professionals selling continuing care and retirement communities make three common mistakes: Believing only older need driven seniors will move into an independent retirement setting. Only focusing on seniors who want to move now. Not doing enough “discovery” to tailor a tour to a senior’s lifestyle. After the financial world turned upside in 2008 and real estate took a dive, younger seniors remained in their own homes. Now, younger seniors are moving into retirement communities again. Senior living communities must have amenities and lifestyle choices that attract younger seniors. Does yours?? As a sales person, you must believe that younger seniors will move in too! I have acutally heard a senior living sales person say, “They are only 83 years old and not ready yet.” Only 20% of seniors will walk in and say, “I am ready to move in now.” The order taker marketers love this type of prospect. Well guess what? The majority of seniors need handholding and relationship building over a period of time. They need to come into your senior living community four to six times to visualize themselves living the lifestyle. Discovering the passions, pursuits and interests of a senior seems so obvious to the “A” player senior living sales professional. This allows the sales person to tailor the “Wow Tour” to each senior. It may mean having the senior meet other residents who share their common interests. It could involve meeting and touring each adult child, so they can support their parents moving into your community. Senior living sales takes more time and effort than it did six years ago. ...
My Manager Will Call You Back
After you share your tale of customer service woe to a representative, you are told that the manager will call you back the next day. Do they?!? Recently, I believed a manager from the Welk Resort would call me back to discuss my timeshare fiasco. In fact, I waited two hours past the day and time the representative promised a manager would call me. Telling me a date and time for the manager’s call is a very specific promise in my book. After my Welk Resort Fiasco blog posted for the world to read, the Welk Resort tweeted me. Here is their damage control twitter conversation: @Market2Seniors – This is not the experience we aim to provide & we apologize. Could you DM us your email so we can reach out for more info? @welkresorts – I reached out in 3 ways with no response, a manager was supposed to call me back by 9am on Sun. The blog posted at 11am, Sun. @Market2Seniors – or you can email our Director of Consumer Affairs at Hutch.farrell@welkgroup.com if you’d prefer. Thanks for the feedback @welkresorts – You can contact me at diane@marketing2seniors.net. @Market2Seniors – Thank you. I’ll have Hutch contact you. This was my last contact with the Welk Resort. I NEVER had a manager email me, tweet me or call me again. Why not? Why would a company have a Director of Consumer Affairs? Obviously they must have ongoing customer service issues. Why did “Hutch” never contact me? Maybe he never got the tweet? Maybe they thought I would forget that the sales people promised me a Catalina Island...
Are you an “A”, “B” or “C” player?
What’s the difference between an “A”, “B” or “C” player in senior living sales or in any sales profession? “A” Players Produce 80% of the work Are always positive Good self image Find or create solutions to challenges Embrace strategizing sales Top sales performer in the company “B” Players Do more than “C” players and way less than “A” players Are equally positive and negative Average or okay self image Need help solving challenges Tolerate strategizing sales Consistent low to average volume of sales “C” Players Do 20% of the work, but act like they do way more Whine and complain a lot Poor self image Are usually a part of the challenge Resent strategizing sales Say it’s not their fault that they don’t have sales Here is the good news! Congratulations if you are lucky to enough to be or have some “A” players on your sales team. Resources and coaching support can help some “B” players become “A” players. Others may remain good consistent “B” players. “C” players need to be evaluated to determine if they have any hope to improve. If they do not, let them go, because they don’t really want to work for you or anyone else. Are you willing to share whether you or your senior living sales team mates are “A”, “B” or “C” players? What other factors contributed to your decision? Photo Credit: © Jim Barber – Fotolia.com Please share your strategies, 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....
12 Sales No No’s and Timeshare Fiasco
I was a sucker to think it would be fun for my husband and I to go on a timeshare presentation at the Lawrence Welk Resort. My Auntie watched Lawrence Welk every week when I was little. It was supposed to be a fabulous place and seniors from two of my Continuing Care Retirement Communities go there regularly for performances. Our promised gift for participating in a 90 presentation was going to a trip for two to Catalina Island. Well here are the 12 sales no no’s that happened: Promising that the appointment would be 90 minutes and then almost doubling the time. Asking us to arrive early and then making us wait. Pushing a person for personal information in a non-genuine or unnatural manner. (This is so uncomfortable!) Not listening! Giving a canned speech with a pitch type voice. Sharing long boring stories and wasting our time. Giving a promise that the company cannot fulfill. After not listening, asking a closing question, when there was nothing to close on. (This is so wrong!) Failing to give us the promised gift. Lying. Trapping us in several closing sequences, because a golf cart was required to return us to our far off parking spot. Making me feel like a number. The appointment was almost three hours instead of the promised 90 minutes. They persisted in a quest for our personal information (very awkward) without sharing the facts of their offering in a timely fashion. They absolutely never listened and it was all a canned speech. The worst is having someone try to close you, when there is zero interest. You...
Strategizing Initial Tours in Senior Living
Every senior living lead should have a short-term and long-term strategy. An initial call-in goal is to get a senior living prospect to come to your building for either a tour or an event. You should create short and long-term goals for each walk-in prospective resident too. Here are 10 walk-in tour goals with number one being the highest level to achieve: The highest level is having the senior move into your senior living community. Way to go! You helped them find a solution for their needs. Scheduling a move-in date – this means their house sold and they are ready to move in now. Depositing on an apartment – congrats it is a sale! Coming back to choose an apartment – don’t make any assumptions or they will walk away without selecting an apartment. Coming back to discuss financial requirements – it helps to have the administrator involved. It is always humorous for someone with one million dollars to wonder if they can afford your community. Coming back to discuss health concerns – this may or may not be the official health assessment. I have had seniors with arthritis wonder if they will qualify. Coming back to dine with residents – this is usually encouraged by you the sales person. Let your resident’s magic work on your prospect. Attending an event – let them imagine the lifestyle of your community. Touring a second time – invite them back to dine, look at the perfect apartment or meet some residents/staff. Wanting to ask more questions – this is fantastic, it means they are interested. Help them find a solution...
Do You Call Back Every Prospect Who Toured Yesterday?
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...
What’s the Attitude of Your Sales People?
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...
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...
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