by Diane Masson | Jan 12, 2014
Multiply Sales Goals By 10!
Do you have a personal sales goal for 2014 in your head? There are huge benefits if you write it down on a piece of paper. According to a Harvard study and sales guru Brian Tracy, only 3% of people have written goals and these people accomplish 10 times as much.
If you want to accomplish 10 times as much this year, take 15 or 30 minutes to focus on your goals. Do you want to hit the minimum move-in number required by your retirement organization? Are you better than average? What is realistic? What is possible?
Writing down your goals is a key to accomplishing them, but what if you make it fun by animating your goals? If your goals could stand up on your desk and dance around, what would they look like? Here are a couple of ideas:
- Cut out pictures from magazines and make a collage of your goals.
- Draw a picture of your goals.
- Turn a piece of clay or silly putty into your goal.
- Write your goals with Crayola washable window markers or lipstick on your your bathroom mirror.
- Make a short power point of your goals.
Whichever method you select, keep your goals visually front and center on a daily basis. Speak them into existence and have a prosperous 2014.
Please share your successes, failures or comment below 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 at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Currently, Masson is setting move-in records as the regional marketing director of two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2013 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.
by Diane Masson | Dec 29, 2013
My Grand Baby Sophia
Look at your senior living community as you would a brand new baby. It’s going to be a new year! Bring your sales team together (even if it is just you), reflect on 2013 and start over in 2014. If you have 100% occupancy – congrats! If your retirement community is at 80%, 90% or 95% occupancy, it is time to start fresh.
If you keep doing what you did last year, you will end up with the same results. Set new goals for 2014.
A book called “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” could turn your census in a positive direction. Good luck and Happy New Year!
Please share your successes, failures or comment below 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 at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Most recently Masson was recruited to consult for two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2013 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.
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 | Jan 27, 2013
Momentum in Senior Living
Are you losing senior residents faster than gaining new ones at your retirement community? Welcome to 2013, where older and frailer new residents don’t spend much time at your senior living community before moving onto a higher level of care or meeting their maker…
If you have more move-outs than move-ins year after year, your occupancy has slowly dropped. It’s time to get the big “MO” back – that’s right momentum!
Are your owners only looking at the bottom line and demanding for the occupancy numbers to increase? Or, are your owners willing to strategize with sales and marketing to look outside the sales box and figure out how to make the building more attractive to younger seniors? The later is the key…it can be a one-year process of improvements and upgrades. (Hint: Younger seniors live at your retirement community longer!)
The results can be phenomenal! A community I work with in Southern California just had 7 CCRC entrance fee sales in 8 days! Yes, some younger residents, including couples are moving in too. The CCRC community looks fantastic now after extensive renovations! The sale team is excited and all the scheduled move-ins generate urgency for other prospective residents to move-in now, because the apartment home inventory is dwindling.
What are you doing to attract younger seniors and build momentum for occupancy?
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
