by Diane Masson | Apr 19, 2012
One of the reasons your occupancy may be down is because you may have reactive marketing. What does this mean? Do any of the following scenarios happen at your community?
- You walk into Bored Brad’s marketing office and he’s sorting paper clips. He just wants to give a tour but no one is coming in or calling the community.
- When you stop by Blabby Barbara’s office, she is on the phone, but you quickly determine that she’s talking to a friend and not a potential resident.
- Residents complain to management that phone calls to the marketing department are not returned in a timely fashion to friends they have referred and who are prospective residents. You march right over to Moody Marbella on your marketing team to address the residents’ concerns. She responds by changing the subject and, worse, blaming you with her explanation, “Events won’t work. Low occupancy is not my fault.” Do you think she missed the point?
Does this really happen? Yes! Reactive marketing people truly exist and I have worked with some of them. It can be a challenge to determine if the new team you are managing is reactive, but once you know the symptoms it’s easy to identify:
Symptom 1) Reactive marketing does not have programs or policies in place to make a certain number of outbound phone calls per day. This means every day.
Symptom 2) After conducting a tour, reactive marketing people wait for prospects to call them back to say they are interested in moving in. This is really the function of an order taker and not the attitude of a professional salesperson.
Symptom 3) Reactive marketers urge spending money on advertising because they claim they don’t have any leads and therefore no new sales.
Symptom 4) Reactive marketers exhibit a lack of urgency to answer the phone within two rings.
Symptom 5) Reactive marketers have a lackadaisical attitude returning phone, web, and social media inquiries.
These reactive marketing teams are waiting for walk-ins and call-ins. They believe the customer should just say, “Yep, here’s my deposit. Let’s call the moving company right now.”
Spending money on new leads is a waste of the marketing budget for a reactive marketing team. Many prospects can be slow (which is normal) to make a decision. A reactive marketer does not initiate calls with the non-hot prospects, so a cool or lukewarm prospect will never be contacted again. This means that 20 percent to 30 percent of sales can just slip through the fingers of this type of marketer. This really does happen, and it can be affecting your financial performance. Is it?
This was an excerpt from “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full.“
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 coach your senior living marketing team (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) or have her put on a sales retreat for your organization – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
by Diane Masson | Apr 8, 2012
Here are my results after calling 12 retirement communities in the Mid-West on a Saturday morning at 10:00 AM Central time: The scores were one A+, two B’s, five C’s, one D and three F’s…
I asked everyone the same question, “I am looking for a place for my mom – she lives in your town – how many places are there to choose from and how do you rate?” This was apparently a tough question for many…ratings were graded higher if they answered the telephone, could be clearly understood, answered the questions and asked for my name and telephone number before the conversation ended.
Only four people asked for my phone number, so those unique individuals were awarded a C+ or above for their heroic efforts. Two assisted living communities went straight into voice mail, so they received automatic F’s. The A+ person was an executive director (E.D.) working on a Saturday. The E.D. was outstanding answering all my questions and asked for my name and phone number.
Three communities had workers that mumbled when they answered the telephone (I literally had no idea what they said and had to clarify if I had called the correct number – which of course I had). One of the “mumblers” sounded like a 4 year old answering the phone. I had to clarify three times that they were indeed an assisted living community and then they said no one was available to answer my questions. They never asked for my phone number and I eventually hung up giving them a F- as a score.
The B- score asked for my phone number three times and inquired when I would be in town to visit. But when I asked them how they rated for a third time, they talked about the activities or their medical services (without answering the rating question).
A C- answered the phone with an award winning description. Then they said their boss would be in on Monday to answer more of my questions and never asked for my phone number.
One of the “mumblers” transferred me to the sweetest gal who gave the most sincere and heartfelt description of the community. The nice gal kept going and started giving too much information that I never asked about like the price, rooms were available and the nurse would need to do an assessment first. Overall the community was given a C- because of the heartfelt description.
As you can see, there was a wide variety of scores but overall, the majority of these staff were not trained on how to answer the phone correctly and to ALWAYS request someone’s name and phone number. This same challenge can happen when the Monday thru Friday receptionist takes a break during the week. Could this be why your occupancy is down? There is a simple solution – training!
You may want to check out who is answering the phone at your community on a Saturday…
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 peaked to inquire on Diane’s availability to coach your senior living marketing team (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) or have her put on a sales retreat for your organization – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
by Diane Masson | Apr 1, 2012
When the decision to move to a senior living community is finally made – the seniors tend to be older and frailer. Many providers blame the economy and accept a lower occupancy as a sign of the times. The days of having someone move in off the wait list have disappeared. So it is time to strategize…
Let’s enter the mind of a senior. Many have experienced painful losses in their stock portfolios in recent years. Depending on the area of the country they live, their home is worth much less than the inflated value they recognized as truth in 2007. Many seniors feel they have lost several hundred thousand dollars and can’t afford to move into a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) with an entrance fee. Some silent generation seniors are penny pinching again and think it’s less expensive to live in his or her paid off home. Other seniors are just so attached to their home of 40 or 50 years that they can’t imagine living somewhere else.
Yet as they age, day-to-day living can become more of an effort. Many of the responsibilities of their home have to be hired out – such as gardening, yard work, window and gutter cleaning, possibly housekeeping and painting. Many seniors had a do-it-your-self mindset and become frustrated at the quality of workmanship that hired help provides. Cooking a healthy meal for one or two is just too much work and who wants to wash all those dishes? Maybe the laundry room is located down the basement stairs, they live in a split-level home or stairs have become a struggle.
Now they have arrived at your CCRC or independent living door because a resident friend encouraged them to come and see it or an exciting event intrigued them enough to leave their home. This prospective resident is not going to be sold with one visit. First they have to picture themselves living in your community. The first impressions are everything, so the food, the tour, the model apartment and enjoying some of the lifestyle are all vital. This person may need to come to three events such as: a musical event, a cultural event and an educational event. If possible, they need to experience the events in different parts of your community. Hearing testimonials from vibrant residents or having opportunities to interact with lively residents can be very helpful.
Your on-going monthly phone call to this prospective resident should be full of encouragement and discovery to learn what they really enjoy most in life. Maybe they swam at the local pool every morning for 40 years, but now the winter darkness is stopping them from driving. Or maybe they enjoyed his or her subscription to the symphony, but now they can’t drive in the dark and their best friend died. Wouldn’t it be nice if they did not have to “drive” to go to a pool, a gym, see live musical entertainment, enjoy an educational program or share a glass of wine with a friend?
What moves this type of person to give up their home? It’s to have a vividly painted lifestyle that is 10 times better than their current situation. At that point the perceived loss in their home value is no longer a factor. They realize that their home has become a ball and chain and they want the freedom and conveniences that your retirement community can offer them. It can take several months or even a year for seniors to make this decision. A health setback or scare always speeds the process up. Who will they think of first when they are lying in hospital recovering from a hip surgery? Why the community that called them every month and invited them to events of course…
Selling Lifestyle is Key in CCRC and Independent living Senior Sales. Is this helpful?
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 peaked to inquire on Diane’s availability to coach your senior living marketing team (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) or have her put on a sales retreat for your organization – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
by Diane Masson | Mar 26, 2012
How much real time is your senior living sale person spending in nonrevenue generating activities? The operations team should consistently do all nonrevenue generating activities, so the sales person can just focus on selling – right? Yet sales people can get caught up wanting to be accepted by coworkers, so they start contributing part of their precious sales day to the operations team. Suddenly the sales person may be helping at a resident event or going to visit new residents to make sure they are adjusting to life in the community. Sales people tend to be the best event organizers, so it is also a very frequent practice in retirement communities to have them organize the annual resident picnic. FYI – the resident picnic should really be the focus of activity director.
Any salesperson can slowly evolve into participating in nonrevenue activities in any healthy organization. Even great executive directors, might not notice two hours here and a three hour project there. A retirement community may literally need an outside consultant or regional marketer to evaluate – how much time the sales person spends not selling. The administrator may have just needed help with one certain project that turned into more time wasters, because the sales person was so efficient at completing his or her requests. Then when the occupancy drops another 5% and corporate is breathing down the administrator’s neck to find out why – the administrators could be unknowingly sabotaging the occupancy themselves.
Many administrators don’t even realize how his or her salesperson is utilizing their time. I actually found out that one of my regional sales team members was vacuuming and cleaning apartments before move-ins. The operations team could not keep up with preparing apartments for new residents. The sales person did not want the residents moving into dirty apartments, so he stayed late at night to clean them, rather than be a burden to operations. Are you kidding me??!!? I met with the administrator immediately and said, “This is a great problem to have with all these move-ins! Let’s solve it and help our sales person get back to selling.” The administrator agreed and we hired an outside agency to clean and prep the apartments of the next five move-ins (happening that week). The sales person was thrilled to get back to selling and the operations team got caught up. Yahoo and problem solved.
My first rule of thumb is: The sales person does all the activities that help people move into the community – period. Once someone is living in the community, the sales person needs to direct the new resident to the appropriate person on the operations team. I believe that some sales people are so excited about their new resident that they would rather spend time talking with them, than getting on the phone to do follow calls. Doesn’t everyone want acceptance in person rather than possible rejection on the phone?
My second rule of thumb is: If a resident stops by to talk with the sales person, give them two minutes. Then the sales person should nicely let the resident know that they have a phone call to make or a meeting to attend. Residents will get the picture after a sales person gives them the two minutes rule… two or three times.
What is happening in your organization? Watch your occupancy start to skyrocket again, if the sales people are spending all their time on selling activities.
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 you need an energetic, creative and analytical mind to help increase your occupancy – inquire on Diane’s availability to coach your senior living marketing team (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) or have her develop an effective sales retreat for your organization – call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
