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/

Is There A Strawberry On Your Plate – In Senior Living?

Is There A Strawberry On Your Plate – In Senior Living?

A strawberry can be a "wow"On my recent flight to Seattle, I had the most plain Jane lunch plate presentation ever in first class.  It was literally a sandwich on the plate.  Seriously?!!?  No chips, cut up fruit, piece of parsley, a piece of lettuce with a tomato – nothing!  The stark whiteness of the plate surprised me.  Then I started thinking, why didn’t they at least put a nice red strawberry on the plate like they used to – what happened?  Is Alaska Airlines cutting costs?  How much could twelve strawberries cost?  My impression of food in first class was not a “Wow” experience.

Has your senior living community cut too many operational costs too?  Could it be affecting the first impressions of your community and keeping the occupancy down?  Are you serving guests refreshments in real glasses or china?  Or have you cut refreshments out all together or serve them in cheap syrofoam?  Are there fresh flowers in the lobby?  As you walk down the halls, are the walls streaked black from walkers and electric carts?  Have the corner edges and doorways of apartments been banged and dented from electric carts?  When was the last time you refurbished the lobby?  Is the furniture getting old and tattered?

Marketing directors and sales people cannot work miracles!  If your occupancy is down, invest in some “Wow Strawberries” to make a great first impression!  It keeps your current residents and family members thinking positively about the retirement community.  Happy residents can mean lots of referrals.

A chef in one of my Continuing Care Retirement Communities said, “The very first bite is always with the eyes.”  When lunch or dinner plates are served in your senior living community dining room, what do they look like?  Are they a “wow?”

The details make the difference…can you afford 12 strawberries?

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/

What Can Make Your Senior Living Community Extraordinary?

What Can Make Your Senior Living Community Extraordinary?

Every senior living community struggles to differentiate themselves from their competitors.  How can you do it?  When a customer walks in the door – how can they feel an immediate difference with your community?  Let’s take a moment to compare restaurants – which can be so alike too…

My husband and I decided to treat our selves to Sunday brunch at Laguna Beach.  We didn’t want to go to the expensive tourist choice on the bluff.  Hmm, where to go?  We picked a place that looked good, but was not on the ocean side of the street.  The wait for a table outside (it was 80 degrees) was 2 hours.  We decided to eat inside and we had a small view of the ocean.

Five extraordinary experiences happened at this restaurant that blew us away.  Our waiter was wonderfully attentive, the overall service was outstanding and the food was incredible – none of these made it extraordinary.  Here are the five things that did:

  1. The waiter welcomed us the moment we sat down, asked if we had been there before (we said no) and then he assured us that we were going to have the most incredible brunch (Wow!).
  2. When my husband asked where the restroom was (after he tried to find it himself) a server did not just point in the right direction, they actually escorted him (Wow!).
  3. Then my husband returned to the table, a staff member anticipated his arrival, picked up his napkin and as he sat, put it on his lap (Wow!).
  4. The plates were removed within 20 seconds of each of us finishing our food (Wow!).
  5. Now listen to this one, they quietly wiped the water up that had sweated from the ice water glasses, so our table was perfectly clean again (Wow!).

In my opinion, this dining experience, at the Sapphire in Laguna Beach, was comparable to the finest service that I have ever received at Canlis – the most famous and expensive restaurant in Seattle, Washington that serves Presidents and Kings (I was lucky enough to go once on a “big” birthday.)

If your retirement community, assisted living or Continuing Care Retirement Community only did #1 – with every guest – what would happen to your occupancy?  I am a big advocate of speaking positive into existence!  Do you actually tell people when they arrive at your community that they will be in for a treat and that you are excited to show them around and introduce them to some staff and residents?

I would love for you to share something you or your staff does to make your senior living community extraordinary for people visiting your campus for the very first time?  Who’s first?

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/

Can You Compare Your Senior Living Employees to Disney Employees?

Can You Compare Your Senior Living Employees to Disney Employees?

In the last six weeks, I have been to Disneyland five times.  Am I a little crazy?  I certainly hope so and try on a regular basis to truly enjoy living in paradise.  After a series of interactions last night, I was forced to take an overall look at how I was treated by Disney employees.

The happiest place on earth did not have happy employees last night.  75% of the employees were grumpy, sullen, crabby, tired and worn out looking.  What a surprise, when it seemed that most Disney employees had a sunny personality when I have visited in the past.

There was not one smile on any parking attendant at the parking lot.  I waited 20 minutes to pay and should have been greeted with a smile, but it did not happen.  At the tram, no smiles – only frowns.  Going through the bag check, only weary and sullen expressions.  When I arrived at the park to go through the turnstile, the employee actually yelled at the person in front of me!  No kidding folks, she said, “Can’t you read the signs?  Mickey’s Halloween Party entrance is over there!”  So that meant I was in the wrong line too and changed lines, before I got yelled at too.

After I made it into the park, they were handing out trick or treat bags and I headed to the left, but I was reprimanded to instead head to the right.  Now my husband and I were in and heading down main street and it suddenly hit me that it was not the happiest place on earth tonight.  What happened to the famous Disney experience?  I thought that when each “cast member” comes out “on stage” to their position, they smile and leave all their own personal negativity and family challenges in the break room?

We headed to Space Mountain (transposed into the Galaxy Ghost for Halloween) and the fast passes were already gone for the day.  To make matters worse it had an 80-minute wait, so we went to the Haunted Mansion (transposed into the Nightmare Before Christmas) and it had a 45-minute wait.  Now I was grumpy and I have NEVER felt that way at Disneyland before!  Had all the negative employees affected me?  No one had said to have a wonderful night, enjoy Mickey’s Halloween Party or I am glad you are here – NOTHING!

What happened at your senior living community today?  What percentage of your employees were “Happy” or “Grumpy”?  Everyday I wake up grateful that I can help seniors improve their lives by moving into the Continuing Care Retirement Communities that I represent.  I know they will have a better life than being isolated in their own home.  Winter is coming and so many seniors don’t drive in the dark.  They will be literally trapped in their homes after 5 pm each night.  Plus seniors will live longer with more nutritious meals and the connectivity of other residents is what us humans need to grow and keep our brains sharp.  Okay, I will shut up, because I am preaching to the choir…

Every retirement community has at least one grumpy employee.  The question is what percentage of grumpy employees do you have?  This could be affecting your occupancy.  If your residents and staff don’t look happy, prospective senior residents see that and don’t want to move in.  Residents at my CCRC communities said the number one reason why they moved in was because of the friendly residents and smiling staff.  Do your residents say this too?

The good news to my Disney experience was that we went on Pirates of the Caribbean and then I was back to the happiest place on earth.  We saw the best fireworks of my life and later on only had to wait 20 minutes for the Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain.

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/

Are Your Over Qualifying Prospective Senior Residents?

Are Your Over Qualifying Prospective Senior Residents?

Sometimes there is tremendous pressure from management to make sure a prospective senior has the financial resources in order to move into your retirement community.

First, engage the customer and make sure they are in love with the lifestyle and connect with what your senior living community has to offer, before you start grinding on them for financial specifics.  Build Value First or Your Senior Prospects Will Run Away!

Even savvy seniors can disqualify themselves.  They consider themselves poor even though they have a mortgage-free home to sell, social security, a pension, possibly an annuity, about 30% have long-term care insurance, IRA’s and of course some type of savings.  Many seniors have worked with an attorney to set up a trust and now have limited their resources.  Sometimes these seniors have to get financial permission from the trust in order to move into your retirement community.

Keep financial qualifying loose, until the senior is really excited about moving into your community.  For example, you may be a Continuing Care Retirement Community that requires twice the entrance fee in assets and 1 ½ times of the monthly fee in income.  Say something more friendly like: “Each person (couple) is unique, some seniors have more assets and less monthly income and other seniors have high monthly incomes and are a little lower on the assets.  Generally we are looking for 1½ times to 2 times the entrance fee in assets and 1½ to 2 times the monthly fee in monthly income.  Many things are considered assets like rental income or long term care insurance.”  Then shut up…or you can lose the sale.

Let them speak next…if you have built a trust relationship, they should open up and start sharing their assets and monthly incomes.  Most people sitting in front of you qualify.  It is very unusual if they don’t.  Please make a note that many children can pay the needed difference too.  Always remember to build value for your senior living community first!

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/