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
Who IS Your Competition?
Sounds simple – right? It’s all the companies that provide the same services that you do. Wrong! It is so much more than your similar competitors down the street or in your particular industry. Let’s just use the example of your front desk/concierge/greeter/receptionist. Whether you are in the hotel business, retail trade or provide senior housing, each customer compares how he or she is treated when they enter your establishment. So Wal-Mart, The Ritz-Carlton and a Continuing Care Retirement Community are competing. Customers may call two or three different types of companies in a single day. Each phone call either provided a great phone interaction and a solution for the customer or some frustration. Maybe they called to make dinner reservations, a doctor appointment or inquired about their parent’s future care at an assisted living community. How many rings did it take for someone to answer the phone? Was their voice clear, distinct and friendly? Did it sound like they were smiling through the phone or a bit haggard? A FedEx delivery from an online store, a pizza delivery, a taxi transporting someone to the airport and a driver from a retirement community taking a senior to and from a doctor checkup are all competition. Was the delivery person friendly and were they on time? Did they leave the package in the rain or was the pizza cold? Take time to work with you team on how you can provide better customer service. Can you think of more examples of competitors who don’t initially seem like competitors? Please feel free to sign up for my weekly blog. Diane Twohy...
Using An Opening Power Statement?
Are you just going through the motions and showing your senior living community? What’s something you can do to jump out from all the competition? How about a power statement at the beginning of your tour or presentation? Let me throw down a few power statement ideas and then you can share yours on the comment area of this blog. Hopefully, everyone will help each other tweak their power statements to make them stronger. “A lot of seniors are excited about moving in here. We have 15 people moving into 10 apartments in the next two months. There is so much interest in our retirement community right now that we have limited availability.” “One of our caregivers just won caregiver of the year.” “Our chef just won an iron chef competition.” “SB Hospital just told us they are proud to partner with us. We are now the cornerstone and long-term care pillar in our community, because all the other local administrators and director of nurses have changed many times. We alone remain constant in key staff longevity and great care management.” Now, it is your turn. Time to share your power statement and we can either give you a “like” or make a suggestion to enhance your statement further. Any suggestions to tweak mine? A special shout out to Nona for writing this comment to me last week, “Each time I read one of your blogs I become a more skilled senior sales professional. I love the attitude meter. Thank you for your enthusiasm and insights.” Please feel free to sign up for my weekly blog. Diane Twohy Masson...
How Do You Unfreeze a Frozen Senior?
After a senior has been diagnosed with a progressive disease such as macular degeneration of the eyes, the onset of blindness, dementia, brain tumor, stroke, cancer, etc. – one of two things can happen: The senior gets their affairs in order and prepares for someone to care for them when they no longer can. They go into denial. As a senior’s disease progresses they may come and tour at your community or mine. It is very difficult to know that this senior may be in an unsafe situation in his or her home. I think it affects each of us who are caring professionals in the senior housing industry. Yet, the senior refuses to bring in help to their home or move to retirement or assisted living community. It becomes even harder when the adult children are extremely worried. They may be begging you to talk his or her parent into moving into your senior living community. I believe the biggest reason this type of senior does nothing is because they are only living in the moment instead of recognizing the potential hazards of their health deteriorating further. What can we do to unfreeze seniors who may be at risk? Ask great questions Find out why they decided to tour your community today Inquire about what is most important for them Help them recognize they have a challenge Try to have them vocalize their plan for when they can no longer take care of themselves Educate them on potential future outcomes As a professional senior living expert, who has the best interests of the senior at heart, what have...
Where is Your Attitude Meter Today?
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....
Are You Enabling Senior Prospects to Stay Home?
Scenario One: The senior prospect says, “I am not ready yet.” And you say, “Okay!” You might even try to call them a second or third time, but you get the same answer and give up. So you schedule a call out for six months or a year. Scenario Two: The senior prospect says, “I am not ready yet.” And you say, “Okay!” Then you change tactics and start inviting them to events or a lunch at your senior living community instead of expecting them to make a decision to move over the phone. You schedule an invitational call every couple weeks or once a month. You can’t sell someone over the phone. Are you trying to sell a senior over the phone? Nobody is ever ready to move, particularly a senior who tends to live in the present moment. Quit enabling seniors to live at home, by giving up on them or believing the “I’m Not Ready Yet” mantra. Instead, do everything in your power to get them to come for an enjoyable visit that holds no pressure. If you pressurize them over the phone, every time you call, it makes people cling to their armchair a little harder and not leave the house. How about gently pulling them to an entertainment event, a luncheon or an outing with the residents. Remember that most seniors are lonely and will venture out if you are not going to pressurize them. Every senior that DECIDES to move has to determine for himself or herself that they will gain more by living in your retirement community than what they will give...
How Are You Feeding Your Mind?
Success in sales coming from a good attitude. Negative news sells newspapers and TV commercials. News commentators get paid to glamorize fear and a collapsing world. Overcome this fear by turning off the news and feeding your brain with positive thoughts and energy. What book(s) are you currently reading? How often do you read? Is there a certain time of day that works best for you? Do you read one chapter a day or multiple chapters? It seems like there are readers and nonreaders in the world. Do you have a friend who is always starting or finishing a great book? Hint: I bet they are more positive than your friends who don’t read regularly. These are my current go to books for working in senior living: “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” by Dale Carnegie. I have read this classic about five times, just finished it with one sales team and currently on part two, chapter one with another team. This is one of the greatest books ever. “Live Your Life Like It Matters,” by Scott V. Black. This book has sparked ideas for me to create team sales meetings and most recently an entire marketing retreat. I just finished this book and the last two chapters are due for a team review in the next two weeks. “The Sales Bible,” by Jeffrey Gitomer. I have read this great book twice, just selected it for our book review at two Continuing Care Retirement Communities and chapter one is due next week. “How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success Through Selling,” by Frank Bettger. Another classic that...
Dead Flowers on Valentine’s Day?
My sweetie didn’t intend to send me dead flowers for Valentine’s Day. He saw a beautiful arrangement online and had it delivered to my office as a special surprise. When I opened the box the flowers were closed, dried out, brown on the petal edges and shockingly in no water. What??!!? I pulled them out, read the lovely note from husband and put them in water to save them or bring them back to life. My husband was upset when he saw them and said he never would have ordered them if he had known they would arrive in this condition. He thought he had ordered flowers from a florist and they would arrive like the picture shown. This Valentine snafu reminds me of how adult Boomer children select a retirement, assisted living, memory care or skilled nursing community based on the size of the apartment and what the lobby looks like versus the quality of care. Almost every Boomer child wants the best for his or her parent, but some judge senior living community solely on external appearances. In multiple states, I have encountered loving caring staff at senior living communities that have not been recently remodeled, with small apartments or don’t have enormous acreage. It is very challenging to market these properties, but I have witnessed some amazing sales people overcome this dilemma. They say the best defense is a strong offense. Here is what one marketer said in Washington state about tired furniture in the lobby: “We don’t have a big brand new building with a lavish lobby entrance but what we do have is a...
“My Cat Has Diarrhea!”
Believe it or not, I heard a senior living sales person say, “My cat has diarrhea,” to a hot prospect.” They blew the sale, because the senior was so worried about the sick cat. Really?!!? Do you accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative at your senior living community? Maybe you better check. It’s easy for senior living marketing people to over compensate and share what you do you do not offer. They are just trying to be helpful to the customer. They are not trying to sabotage sales and send seniors to the competitor. Every retirement community has its strong points and weak points. It does not matter if you are brand new or 25 years old. Always showcase your strengths. Is this something that you teach your senior living advisors? How do they learn it? Don’t make an assumption that they will learn it by osmosis. Here is an expert from a chapter in my book called, “ Never Say to the Customer.” There is such a thing as being too honest with the customer with statements such as: “You were on my list to call today.” “You were on my schedule to be followed up with today.” Telling the customer we will retain 10%. Instead saying, “The entrance fee is 90% refundable to your estate.” NEVER EVER refer to people as “a sale!” Please don’t call them a “prospect” in their presence or to their face. They are all your “guests,” in this book; I have referred to them as “prospective guests.” Please note: The term “prospect” or “prospective guests” is meant for marketing and is...
Showing Un-Renovated Apartments? Bad Idea!!!!!
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...
How to Make Your Personal Sales Goals Multiply by 10!
Do you have a personal sales goal for 2014 in your head? There are huge benefits if you write it down on a piece of paper. According to a Harvard study and sales guru Brian Tracy, only 3% of people have written goals and these people accomplish 10 times as much. If you want to accomplish 10 times as much this year, take 15 or 30 minutes to focus on your goals. Do you want to hit the minimum move-in number required by your retirement organization? Are you better than average? What is realistic? What is possible? Writing down your goals is a key to accomplishing them, but what if you make it fun by animating your goals? If your goals could stand up on your desk and dance around, what would they look like? Here are a couple of ideas: Cut out pictures from magazines and make a collage of your goals. Draw a picture of your goals. Turn a piece of clay or silly putty into your goal. Write your goals with Crayola washable window markers or lipstick on your your bathroom mirror. Make a short power point of your goals. Whichever method you select, keep your goals visually front and center on a daily basis. Speak them into existence and have a prosperous 2014. 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...
6 “New Year Keys” For Occupancy Momentum!
Kick start your sales momentum in 2014! Here are 6 keys that your senior living team can do simultaneously or add one technique per month to increase occupancy. Decide to be proactive instead of reactive with your retirement community’s database. Set a goal of talking to the entire database this year. Make so many calls per week and per month. Call back every tour the next day. Create a new “wow” tour and teach other department heads the new tour. Study and learn a new closing technique. Ask for the deposit on every tour! Build strong relationships with prospects by caring about the senior’s best interests and not your paycheck. They will feel the difference. Generate new avenues for more prospective seniors to learn about and come to your senior living community. Start the New Year with excitement, learn a new technique and hug your team! Group hug for everyone! 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. ...
New Senior Living Beginnings in 2014
Look at your senior living community as you would a brand new baby. It’s going to be a new year! Bring your sales team together (even if it is just you), reflect on 2013 and start over in 2014. If you have 100% occupancy – congrats! If your retirement community is at 80%, 90% or 95% occupancy, it is time to start fresh. If you keep doing what you did last year, you will end up with the same results. Set new goals for 2014. A book called “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” could turn your census in a positive direction. Good luck and Happy New Year! 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. Most recently Masson was recruited to consult for...
10 Ideas for Operations to WOW Senior Living Sales
Here are 10 bright ideas on how the operations team can WOW senior living prospects and help increase sales and occupancy. Does the housekeeping department touch up the entrance to the senior living community and tour path areas several times per day (particularly in the fall when leaves are everywhere)? Are the retirement community’s walls touched up by maintenance on a regular basis (as they get marked up by walkers)? Will dining services make a WOW presentation of the food and use the china instead of disposal plates and styrofoam cups? Are the receptionists willing to stand up to greet marketing guests? Does the activity director reschedule resident classes in advance, so residents are not angry with the marketing staff on the day of an event (seniors don’t like short notices)? Will the transportation department pick up senior living prospective residents who don’t drive and transport them to and from the senior living community for a tour? Are the landscaping, signage and building exterior in prime condition for first impressions? Does every department head go out of their way to introduce themselves to senior living prospective residents? Has every manager encouraged their frontline staff to smile and greet all guests and residents? Will department heads take two hours per month to help at sales and marketing events? 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...
Is Visiting Your Senior Living Community Like Going to the Dentist?
It can be so simple to alleviate someone’s fear by giving a simple explanation of what to expect in the coming minutes or hour. If you skip this simple step at your senior living community – learn what can happen. Yesterday, I was at the dentist for a routine crown. I received a crown 20 years ago and had no bad memories or fears coming to the appointment. Once I signed that I would pay for the crown, there was zero explanation of what would happen next… It was tough hearing, feeling and smelling procedures in my mouth with zero knowledge of the reason. Could he have not taken a moment for some quick explanations to elevate the fear of the unknown? The dentist did warn me about the pounding that was about to come. That was my only warning. He asked me to open up and bite down on something squishy, then he just walked away and left me. What was in my mouth and why? Well it turned out to be a crown mold that needed to set in my mouth for 8 minutes. When the dentist came back, I had pretty much made a decision to never go to this dentist again. When a prospective senior resident arrives at your senior living community, they can have fears. A senior can fear being sold, giving up his or her home of 40 years, change in lifestyle, losing the size or view of the current home, downsizing, moving, mortality, being accepted by other residents, losing control and etc. Simply take two minutes before touring a prospective senior resident and...
Are You Breaking Records in Senior Living?
My teams just concluded a senior living marketing retreat in Southern California. It was a time to step out of their fast-paced selling lives to be nurtured and valued. It was a celebration of breaking records. One Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) had the most move-ins since 2001 and another CCRC had the most move-ins since 2005. Wow!!! The top four CCRC sales people were highlighted in an honor roll. Each of these people hit their personal move-in goals three quarters in row. The top sales person had 10 CCRC move-ins this last quarter alone. They each spoke about the secret to his or hers success. There were a variety of humble answers, which included: nurturing client relationships over years, persistence, good events continually drawing in new prospective senior residents, increasing the number of repeat tours, studying sales techniques to improve their craft, the housing market improving and the on-going sale training provided. The retreat included: celebrating accomplishing quarterly goals, sales training, best practices discussions, our weekly book review of “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” personal time management to increase database calls and a wonderful breakfast and lunch. The sales people loved having an opportunity to hear best practices and sales experiences from their cohorts at another community. What are you doing to honor your sale people and celebrate success? It is tough having to accept constant rejection on a day-to-day basis. This is what makes senior living sales people extraordinary. Give a shout out to your sales people through this blog and send them a copy. Tell them they are special today. Please share your success, failures...
Are You Harried and Do Your Senior Living Prospects Know?
Every single one of us has had a personal family crisis, health emergency or had a dear friend that it going through a major calamity. Too much drama in our lives can be overwhelming. Then we drive to work at our retirement community and try to leave it all at home…Are you successful? It’s hard…. Some of us have personalities that envision the glass as half full and others see it half empty. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Is your self-talk telling you everything will be all right in the long run or are you only seeing the worst-case scenario? How is this affecting your work? A senior living sales person can get frazzled with numerous sales, move-ins, calls, scheduled tours and reports the administrator or their boss expects them to do. Suddenly a walk-in tour arrives. Do you share your troubles with the prospective resident or keep them to yourself? It is always shocking to me when a stressed senior living sales person shares their personal challenges with a prospective resident. What do they hope to accomplish? The senior came into the retirement community to explore their senior housing options. Now, his or her focus is taken off making a move to your retirement community and it lands on the senior living sales person’s troubles. A senior living sales person can actually sabotage his or her potential sales. This is turn affects occupancy. Is your senior living community’s occupancy down, because of stressed and over-sharing sales people? Have you experienced it? What tips can you share with the rest of us? Please share your success, failures or...
What is a Senior Living Sales Person’s Deepest Desire?
One of the greatest human desires is to be appreciated. A lack of appreciation is the number one reason why a senior living sales person takes a job at another retirement community. Did you know that a person could literally go insane with a lack of appreciation? It’s true! Have you analyzed yourself lately? How are you at appreciating your senior living co-worker, your family or even your spouse? Are you already defending yourself inside your head? I thought that I was doing a good job too, until… my senior living sales teams started a new book review. Yes, we started reading one of the greatest books every written – “How To Win Friends and Influence People,” by Dale Carnegie. Do you have a favorite book that you refer back to every year or two? This book is mine. It suddenly puts me back on track to be a caring human being again. It’s funny how we can get in a rut without knowing we are in a rut. We get so busy and focused on accomplishing the goals that we forget to treat people the way we would wish to be treated. The book suggests highlighting key phrases to refer back to and reading each chapter twice. Here are three great principles that I need to utilize everyday: Don’t criticize, condemn or complain. Give honest and sincere appreciation. Arouse in the other person an eager want. Every single one of my team members commented on how he or she treats a senior living prospective resident better than a co-worker or family. Do you? Do you want to start...
Getting Ahead of the Curve of Senior Living Attrition
Every organization approaches goals a little differently. Some senior living communities set sales and occupancy goals that are never achieved. Each month and year the occupancy dips a little lower with constant resident attrition. How do you get ahead of the curve? Well, someone needs to create a sales and marketing strategic plan for your individual independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing care or Continuing Care Retirement Community. The plan needs to be implemented and every sales person and operational team member needs to be on board. The focus should be on the simultaneous goals of serving the existing residents and increasing the occupancy with new move-ins. There are twelve keys that I have developed to increase the occupancy of all types of senior housing. Some keys can be implemented immediately for quick results and other keys are a process that can take some time to develop and execute. The bottom line is these twelve keys work and it is my joy to reach 100% occupancy. Here are the keys in a nutshell; the details are contained in my book called Senior Housing Marketing – How To Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full: Key 1 – Attitude toward Occupancy – Turn Your Change into Dollars Occupancy-driven Marketing Reports that will Wow Your CFO Key 2 – Quit Blabbing! Control the Flow of Information Tip: Five Steps to Controlling the Flow of Information Decreasing Apartment Availability Create Urgency for the Wait List Key 3 – Dare to Differentiate Yourself from Your Competition Keep the Waiting List FULL through Branding Key 4 – Do You Have Proactive or Reactive...
Stop Multitasking and Increase Sales in Senior Living
Are you juggling these 10 things all at the same time in your assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing care or Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC)? The phone is ringing with a new inquiry There is a new walk-in in the lobby Scheduled tours are arriving Going to a meeting requested by your Executive Director or Director of Marketing Working with maintenance to make sure the apartment is renovated properly Finishing the paperwork for a new move-in Calling the doctor to have them send back a medical report for a new move in Touring a family member of an upcoming move-in Residents coming in the office to ask questions Preparing for the next event What is not on this list? What about calling or following-up with anyone in your database? I know…you don’t have time. But you do have time… Did you know it takes 25 to 40 percent longer to get a job done when you are multitasking? Yes!! So how do you become more efficient? Work on one task at a time. Shut the door to your office for one hour and just make calls in the morning. If you do this everyday, you can make about 15 calls a day. Two things will happen if you take the time to increase your calls: Your sales will increase, because you will be proactively marketing versus reactively waiting for every customer to call you back. Your occupancy will rise, because the percentage of senior prospects who select an apartment on the first tour are low. The average person touring assisted living needs to see it three times and...
A Simple Mind Shift to Increase the Senior Housing Occupancy
One of the most common mistakes in senior living sales is believing the potential senior resident when they say, “I’m not ready yet!”. Please, please, please – don’t believe them. When you hear those four common words, simply change them to “I am scared”. It is so hard for a senior to give up their home of 30, 40 or 50 years and make a move. Just the idea of packing up all of their worldly possessions can be overwhelming. Be professional, reassuring and always ask them their timeline for making a move. If they say they will move in a year, it will really be 6 months. If they say 5 years, it’s really about 2 or 3 years. You simply take the number they say and cut it in half, then you nurture that relationship with a touch every 3 months. If you do this already – way to go! Congratulations, because you are in the minority of senior living sales people. Most senior living sales people, hear “I’m not ready yet” and bury that lead in their database. In our world of instant gratification, sales people just want to grab the people who say, I am ready now. Well guess what? Those are only 20% of the sales, so if your occupancy is down – here is probably why! 80% of seniors need to be listened to, nurtured and coddled into moving in. Increase your senior housing occupancy today with this simple mind shift! Please share your success, failures or comment to join the conversation and interact with other senior living professionals on what is currently...
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