10 Training Tips For Senior Living Sales People in 2013

10 Training Tips For Senior Living Sales People in 2013

How to Increase the Occupancy and Stay Full1)   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/

5 Tips on How to Sell Senior Living During the Holidays

5 Tips on How to Sell Senior Living During the Holidays

  1. 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!
  2. 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…
  3. Invite hot and warm prospective residents to join your residents for some live entertainment or when the local school kids come by to sing.
  4. 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.
  5. 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/