Hiring Archives - Diane Masson | Author, Speaker, Blogger & Senior Housing Expert

Qualified Senior Living Sales Candidates?

by Diane Masson | Aug 24, 2014

Now Hiring 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 as clients. One of my specialities is training what I call “green” (no experience in senior living) candidates.

Interview process?

My first interview is over the telephone to see if he or she can be clearly understood, has a great phone voice and can sell me on why I should offer them an in-person interview.
The second interview is in-person with the Human Resources Director and myself.
The third interview is with the Marketing Director and Executive Director.
One person literally interviewed herself! Next! They would not stop talking!

The Results?

60 applications
10 phone interviews
Three second interviews
One third interview
Zero hired

Anyone out there in Riverside County, CA?

The Village is proud to be a debt free* Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) and has been serving seniors in Hemet, California for 25 years. We are honored to be voted as the Best Retirement Community in the Inland Empire for 8 consecutive years! Our 13-acre campus, including Independent Living, Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing Care, has been completely remodeled.

We are seeking a highly motivated Senior Living Sales Professional, internally referred to as a Retirement Counselor. In this role, you will increase occupancy by proactively generating sales leads and following up on all traffic generated through advertising, promotions, events, phone visits, and in-person home visits. Our Retirement Counselors offer tours with prospective residents and provide customer service to our current and prospective residents.

Responsibilities:

While this is a sales and closing role, you will get leads from hosting walk-in guests, events, phone calls or responses to advertising and marketing campaigns. You will combine inside, and outside public relations to build a professional, local network to help increase referrals and the CCRC occupancy. You will share the impact of: “A guarantee of care for the rest of your life.” Our retirement counselors use a consultative soft sell approach with prospective residents and explain the value of our senior services, benefits and how we differentiate from other senior housing competitors. Other duties will include completing reports, competitive studies and tracking leads.

The Village is an equal opportunity employer. EOE/M/F/D/V

If you are interested in this position, the complete job description and requirements are listed on careerbuilder.com or please send your resume directly to me at dmasson@fmcwest.com and reference this blog post. Come and be part of a team that has been breaking sales records for two years! You will be personally trained by me, start participating in weekly book reviews and report directly to me. I look forward to meeting you in person. Diane Masson

Your tips could help others improve on a national basis, so please share by commenting on this blog. If this weekly newsletter can help your sales and occupancy – why not sign up today so you don’t miss a single one?

Diane Twohy Masson writes this weekly blog to support and engage with other senior housing professionals. Her first book is Senior Housing Marketing – How To Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full. Many sales teams and organizations have used the 12 keys contained in this book for their weekly book review. Diane is working on her second book to help seniors select their senior housing options.

© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2014 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.

10 Worse Traits of Nightmare Applicants in Senior Housing?

by Diane Masson | Dec 10, 2012

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/

Top 12 Traits Needed to Fill a Senior Living Community?

by Diane Masson | Dec 3, 2012

What is your recipe for hiring a successful senior living sales person at your retirement community? There are so many qualified candidates, what are your must have personality traits? When I interview, here are the qualities that I look for in no particular order:

1) Phone Experience and Voice – The applicant needs a great phone voice to even qualify for a live interview with me! What is their history of making calls? Have they made 50 calls in at least one day of their career? How many calls did they need to make in order to have one live customer? Phone calling can be one third of the job to fill the building. It is crucial to have ongoing phone contact with our leads to make cool leads – warm, warm leads – hot and hot leads turning into move-ins.

2) Real Sales Experience – They need to be able to give examples of how to warm people up, find communality, do discovery and educate the customer on a wonderful service. I need to be able to visualize them describing our Continuing Care Retirement Community or Assisted Living. I don’t require a background in senior living sales.

3) Closing Experience – What is their closing ratio? How many live customers do they need in order to achieve one sale? Did they close me?

4) Listener – If they practice good listening skills with me, then they can do the same for the customer. This is vital…

5) Teachable – Are they willing to learn and grow? Some people want to live in a rut. I want someone who can morph themselves and strategize the sales presentation and closing techniques based on the current economy. I want someone who is willing to be a student of this business.

6) Genuine – Are they believable? Will the customer embrace their passion?

7) Sincere love and compassion for seniors – Have they ever cared for a senior or helped find skilled nursing care for a relative or neighbor? Do they have a history in working with seniors?

8) Team Player – Is it all about them or do they enjoy and contribute to a team approach? Operations definitely has a team approach in caring for the residents. Marketing works best with a team approach as well! I like to hear examples…

9) Motivated by helping others improve their lives? – Does this rock their boat or is it all money, money, money?

10) Education – If they had the dedication to complete their schooling, then they can have the dedication to fill the building.

11) Professional Appearance – Great smile, well groomed and speaks well – These are all a must!

12) Computer Literate? – Can they type at a decent speed, navigate through Word and Excel and learn a new database quickly?

Please share your top 12 favorite traits in hiring a senior housing sales person or feel free to add onto mine…