Do You Call Back Every Prospect Who Toured Yesterday?

Do You Call Back Every Prospect Who Toured Yesterday?

Copyright Marketing2seniors.netThe 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 Retirement Community is the best choice for them.  Then watch your occupancy rise.  The end result will be providing solutions to improve the quality of life for a multitude of seniors.

Do you call EVERY tour back the next day?  If not, why not??

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 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.
How Self-Image Can Effect Your Senior Living Occupancy

How Self-Image Can Effect Your Senior Living Occupancy

Self-Image Can Effect Your Senior Living OccupancyWhich type of self-image describes you or your senior living sales team members?

Low Self-Image

  • “I don’t have anyone interested in moving in.”
  • Sits in their office and complains about a lack of leads and has no energy.
  • They feel frustrated and think all the prospects walking in the door are poor quality.
  • When a senior says they are not ready yet, this senior living sales person believes them 100% and will put them at the bottom of the database.

Average Self-Image

  • “I have a few people interested in moving here.”
  • They have part time enthusiasm in the office.
  • This person has a desire to build relationships with prospective senior residents and nurture move-ins.
  • When a senior says they are not ready yet, they “kind of” believe them.

Great Self-Image

  • “I have a lot of great leads, they just need to come back to our retirement community a few more times and fall in love with the residents – then they will move in.”
  • Looks forward to each walk-in appointment or call in – as a possible quick move in.
  • Believes in themselves and sales ability to help anyone move in.
  • When a senior says they are not ready yet, they know the senior is just scared and continue nurturing the relationship to build trust.

As a manager, you can coach someone with an average self-image.   A sales person with a great self-image can be coached to be a super star in sales.  A senior living sales person with low self-image will not increase your occupancy.  Let them go…

Please share your success, failures or 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 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

Sales Meeting TIPS to Increase the Occupancy in 2013!

Sales Meeting TIPS to Increase the Occupancy in 2013!

Increase the occupancy in senior livingIt’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/