Marketing 2 Seniors | The Blog
with Author: Diane Masson
Have You Hired a Closer or Order Taker In Senior Living?
Did you hire a closer or an order taker for your senior living community? Both can be good listeners, but there is a huge difference. One can increase the occupancy and the other will complain that people “ARE NOT READY YET!” Many seniors desire to move now – do you want them to move into your senior living community or a competitor?
The first order of business is hiring a fantastic senior living sales person that fits with your current staff and has the ability to talk to your prospective residents like you would yourself. Be patient and don’t hire the first person that “might” work.
An order taker lets the customer take the lead through the tour. For example a senior says, “I don’t have a lot of time and want to see a two bedroom.” The order taker would take them to the two-bedroom and then wonder why no one buys from them.
A closer will listen to what the senior or boomer children demand to see. Then the closer can suggest to the family to have a quick sit-down, to determine exactly what is most important for them to see during the visit. Then they can tell the prospective resident(s) that a tailored tour for what is most important to them will save them a ton of time. People eat these comments up like candy and love that you want to save them time. The closer introduces the pricing of a studio and one-bedroom before the tour begins, because that two-bedroom price could be too rich for the senior’s blood (this strategy alone can increase sales by 25%). So even though the customer demanded to see a two bedroom, the closer may never show them one.
The closer guides them throughout the tour and asks key questions and builds rapport as they walk down hallways. Every minute and every word that comes out of a closer’s mouth is designed to either build value for the retirement community or learn more about the needs and timing of the prospective senior resident.
Senior living sales closers strategically show prospects high value areas of the community during the tailored tour. This can happen on the way to the apartment that the senior can most likely afford now.
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
How to Get Momentum Again in Senior Living Sales
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
To All the Senior Living Professionals Who Follow My Blog
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!
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
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!
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
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/
Give Your Residents a Hug Today – Happy Holidays!
The smiles and tears were so joyful to see! My entire senior living marketing staff presented a small beautifully wrapped Christmas tin (with chocolate inside) to each resident ambassador who helped marketing in the last year! Maybe they gave a tour on a weekend, had lunch with a prospective resident, helped new residents feel welcome, spoke at a marketing event or allowed marketing to show their home.
As we gave each gift, we EACH said thank you and gave them a hug! The residents loved it and were just blown away! They each had five hugs!
It is not too late for your senior living community to do this! Show your appreciation to your resident ambassadors this week with a New Year’s gift…it only cost $3.00 per resident.
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/
5 Tips on How to Sell Senior Living During the Holidays
- Call your senior living database now to increase occupancy for early 2013! I elaborated on this in my last blog… Why this is the BEST TIME of the Year TO CALL Your Database!
- Suggest for a senior and their family to enjoy lunch at your retirement community! Visiting family and the senior need to eat…why not have it be at your senior living community? As they eat, maybe they can picture themselves living there. Most boomer children will advocate for their senior parent to move into senior housing when they see how nice the quality of their life can be…
- Invite hot and warm prospective residents to join your residents for some live entertainment or when the local school kids come by to sing.
- Offer seniors, who don’t drive, either a ride to your community or go out and do a home visit. This visit could be the tipping point to them moving into your community.
- When someone is visiting at your community, ask for the order. First do the proper warm up, discovery, listen to their needs, learn their hot buttons, build value for your community and figure out how to solve their problem. Then invite them to sit down again. Look them in the eye and say, “I know you love your home of forty years! And you have shared how difficult it is to manage stairs and your concern of falling down them when you do the laundry in the basement – right? After everything you have seen today and the wonderful lunch we enjoyed, do you believe you would have a better quality of life living here at The Village (insert your community name here)? If the answer is yes, just nod and let it digest with them. He who speaks first loses. They usually say, okay let’s do this and then start filling out the paperwork…
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/
Why is this the BEST TIME of the Year TO CALL Your Database!
The last couple of weeks before Christmas and New Years is a key time to call your senior living database. When visiting family members (like boomer children) say, “Mom or Dad – let’s start exploring retirement housing options for you.” The senior can say, well The Village or Freedom Village just called last week… The Boomer children will say, “Great, let’s go check that community out first.”
Many sales people spend their entire precious selling time – attending resident holiday parties, enjoying carolers or other live entertainment. This is not the time to sit back on your laurels and hope your retirement community will miraculously get fuller in 2013.
The work ethic of a senior living sales person before New Years can dictate a surge of move-ins in early 2013. This is an opportunity to jump the census by 2 – 5 percentage points!
It’s time to smile and dial, because this is the best time of the year to call your database. Many seniors are lonely and you may be the only phone call they receive during their entire day. Able-bodied seniors drive or fly to see children and grandchildren for the holidays – so they may not be home. Frailer seniors have to hope their kids will come visit them and are usually home. Either way, the children may notice a change in their senior parent(s) and start exploring options. Make sure your senior living community is top of mind with the senior – it only takes a simple phone call!
Call Your Database Now to Increase Occupancy for Early 2013!
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/
10 Worse Traits of Nightmare Applicants in Senior Housing?
Part 1 last week, described the top 12 traits for hiring a successful senior living sales person at a retirement community. Now let’s flip the coin over and maybe some nightmare applicants can improve themselves for future interviews in the process.
Let me share what happened with the most unbelievable applicant recently. When he returned my call, I set a phone interview for the next morning at 8:00 AM. The next morning, I asked him if he had looked at our website. He said that if I could send him a link, then he would take a look at it later. Seriously? I started to laugh, because it was so ridiculous! He then asked if it was a requirement to look at the website before speaking with me further. I was still trying to be nice and gently said that he knew from the previous evening that we were going to have an interview this morning – why would you not prepare for it? Well at that point he did not want to talk to me any more…
Here is my list of 10 worse traits of senior living sales applicants. Feel free to add to the list or share an unbelievable hiring experience of your own:
1) Constantly interrupts during the Interview and does not listen – Stop it!
2) Tells me they are ONLY motivated by money – There is such a thing as being too honest!
3) Has a history of 15 or less phone calls per day – What did you do all day, if you did not have any prospects?
4) Say they have sales experience but it’s really being an order taker – Stop wasting my time!
5) Too aggressive – Seniors don’t like aggressiveness!
6) Too laid Back – Sorry, this is not sales!
7) Dresses for a nightclub – One had a very short skirt and when she sat down, it got event shorter!
8) Boring and/or no energy – If you put me to sleep, then you will put seniors to sleep too! Next!!!
9) Being a know it all – Don’t tell me you know my business, when you have never been in senior housing sales in your life!
10) Last but not least – Never looked at our website or prepared for the interview in anyway! Really?!!? Come on, do you really want a job?
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/
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