by Diane Masson | Jul 7, 2013
- Focus on personal and team occupancy goals (visualize success).
- Expect the entire senior living sales team to have a good attitude.
- Treat every initial lead as hot until they cool off.
- Listen to prospective residents and solve their problems.
- Don’t listen when they say, “I am not ready yet.”
- Give a wow tour!
- Introduce prospective residents to multiple residents and staff.
- Always inquire about a senior’s timeline on making a move.
- Ask for the deposit – every time.
- Have fun.
- Represent a beautiful and clean retirement community.
- Call potential senior residents or their boomer children the next day after the tour.
- The sales team needs to believe and treat every walk-in or Internet lead as though they are ready to move in now!
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
by Diane Masson | Jun 16, 2013
Then add another 17 Continuing Care Retirement Community move-ins scheduled for these two California CCRC’s in the next 3 months…This has been the result of a good work ethic for the previous 3 months.
- 300 calls per month per sales person
- 20 tours per month per sales person
The sales will come when the work ethic is in place – trust me – it works.
Break the monthly goal down to a daily goal of 15 calls and one tour per day. A new senior living sales person can easily do it. A director of marketing with sales responsibilities can do it too.
In order for the two senior living sales teams to have this much success – they need to be backed by amazing operational teams that support marketing 100%:
- First, you need to have enough leads walking in the door and coming to events. Hopefully your corporation supports marketing with an adequate advertising budget.
- Do you enjoy a great reputation of serving excellent food? Our chef is a tremendous support to my teams and makes events and tours memorable.
- How is your health care reputation? Do the local hospitals and doctors recommend your assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care? If they don’t – fix it now!
- Guests need to drive up and see beautiful landscaping, a well cared for building and an ultra clean retirement community. It may be time to remodel if it’s been 10 years or looks tired.
- Friendly residents and smiling staff – these two can make or break sales and my communities have both!
- Can prospective senior residents SEE your residents having fun with an amazing calendar of events including regular live entertainment, exciting outings and themed meals? Seniors won’t move to a boring retirement community.
- Transportation can even increase sales by their willingness to pick up prospective residents and bring them in for a tour or an event.
So set a monthly sales goal for your retirement community and have everyone participate in achieving it. When the sales come, it is not for the glory of marketing, it’s an entire retirement community’s achievement. Everyone wins and the residents love having new vibrant seniors to connect with at dinner and activities.
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 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
by Diane Masson | Jun 2, 2013
Are you strategizing out your next move with warm and hot senior housing leads on a daily or weekly basis? A senior living sales person should always take time to reflect after an appointment with a prospective resident. Immediately input notes into your lead database system (like REPS). If you wait until the end of the day or don’t use a database system, this could be negatively affecting your occupancy. Jot down some key situational information:
- Where are they living now? Home value?
- What prompted his or hers visit?
- Is anyone helping them now?
- What is their greatest concern?
- Are they lonely?
- Health issues?
- Pets?
- What is most important to them in a future home?
- Which apartments did you show them and which one did they like best?
- Assets? Monthly income?
- What did they like best about your retirement community?
- Could they see themselves living in your community?
- Timeframe for moving in?
As a senior living sales person reflects on the above situation, a strategy for the next step in the sales process can start to formulate. It is extremely beneficial to run this by a sales collogue, your director of marketing or your executive director. I don’t care how many years that you have worked in this business; two heads can strategize better than one. I discuss hot leads with my teams every week. Team members contribute excellent suggestions to help a warm lead become hot or help turn a hot lead into a move-in.
Strategizing leads can be the spice of life to help increase your occupancy! It works!!!
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
by Diane Masson | Apr 21, 2013
Yes, this blog post is about one word for senior living sales people today! Do you have it or not?
- Persistence is 100 phone calls a week, when you don’t have many tours happening.
- Persistence is believing a senior will move in eventually, even when they say they are not ready yet.
- Persistence is calling back your sale, just to make sure they are okay – when they may be very stressed out about moving to your community.
- Persistence is continuing to smile and dial after hearing 15 no’s in a row.
- Persistence is calling someone back after they hung up on you a week ago (they were only having a bad day and now they are fine).
- Persistence is generating the energy between 3:00 to 5:00 PM to continue calling the database.
- Persistence is calling someone the next day after a tour or an event, while the prospect’s emotion is still high.
- Persistence is asking a senior what their time frame is for moving in, after they said they are not ready yet.
- Team persistence is calling through your retirement community’s database every four months.
- Persistence is leaving a message for someone once a month for year and they finally walk in your office, recognize your voice and say they are ready to move in now – yes this happened to me.
This blog post is dedicated to the FBI in Boston, who persistently tracked the bombing suspects.
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
by Diane Masson | Apr 7, 2013
When you initially sit down with a senior prospective resident – what is their first impression of you? Are you like a detective on TV, asking care needs – one after another? Or are you the compassionate sales person who cares and wants to help the senior solve their problem?
When I do mystery shopping, I find that 80% of senior living sales people are interrogators. This is an extremely high statistic; this means that only 20% of sales people come across as kind and compassionate.
How can you know if you are an interrogator and don’t mean to be one?
1) Don’t get to the nitty gritty details too fast…
2) Do offer a beverage – especially when it’s hot outside– I have been touring on 90-degree days and was not offered a beverage – this really happens…
3) Invite guests to sit down – don’t tell them to sit here or just point to a chair…
4) Don’t shut a prospective resident in your office – this happened to me 80% of the time and causes people to keep their wall up and not relax with you.
5) Don’t sit across a desk from someone, give up your control and meet around a round table, in the lobby on comfy chairs or in the model apartment.
6) Find out about what is most important to the senior or the adult children…why did they come to your retirement community today?
7) Do ask how they are doing (what they are feeling) and take the time to listen!
Do you want to increase sales, move-ins and up the occupancy? Then stop interrogating people…it is a horrible experience for the senior and their family members!
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
