![Top 12 Traits Needed to Fill a Senior Living Community?]()
by Diane Masson | Dec 3, 2012
What is your recipe for hiring a successful senior living sales person at your retirement community? There are so many qualified candidates, what are your must have personality traits? When I interview, here are the qualities that I look for in no particular order:
1) Phone Experience and Voice – The applicant needs a great phone voice to even qualify for a live interview with me! What is their history of making calls? Have they made 50 calls in at least one day of their career? How many calls did they need to make in order to have one live customer? Phone calling can be one third of the job to fill the building. It is crucial to have ongoing phone contact with our leads to make cool leads – warm, warm leads – hot and hot leads turning into move-ins.
2) Real Sales Experience – They need to be able to give examples of how to warm people up, find communality, do discovery and educate the customer on a wonderful service. I need to be able to visualize them describing our Continuing Care Retirement Community or Assisted Living. I don’t require a background in senior living sales.
3) Closing Experience – What is their closing ratio? How many live customers do they need in order to achieve one sale? Did they close me?
4) Listener – If they practice good listening skills with me, then they can do the same for the customer. This is vital…
5) Teachable – Are they willing to learn and grow? Some people want to live in a rut. I want someone who can morph themselves and strategize the sales presentation and closing techniques based on the current economy. I want someone who is willing to be a student of this business.
6) Genuine – Are they believable? Will the customer embrace their passion?
7) Sincere love and compassion for seniors – Have they ever cared for a senior or helped find skilled nursing care for a relative or neighbor? Do they have a history in working with seniors?
8) Team Player – Is it all about them or do they enjoy and contribute to a team approach? Operations definitely has a team approach in caring for the residents. Marketing works best with a team approach as well! I like to hear examples…
9) Motivated by helping others improve their lives? – Does this rock their boat or is it all money, money, money?
10) Education – If they had the dedication to complete their schooling, then they can have the dedication to fill the building.
11) Professional Appearance – Great smile, well groomed and speaks well – These are all a must!
12) Computer Literate? – Can they type at a decent speed, navigate through Word and Excel and learn a new database quickly?
Please share your top 12 favorite traits in hiring a senior housing sales person or feel free to add onto mine…
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/
![8 Keys to Create Compelling Events that Drive Sales in Senior Living]()
by Diane Masson | Nov 18, 2012
Do you have 50 plus prospective residents at every event? If not, why not? Here are just eight keys to keep in mind when planning great events that can fill your building.
1) Pick a theme that would compel a senior to leave the comfort of their home, spend $4.00 a gallon on gas to drive to your retirement community and want to invite a friend to enjoy the experience with them.
2) Organize your event, so every first impression is excellent. Have someone out front directing parking, greet them at the door with a registration table, train tour guides, your community should be spotless, have an exciting program and maybe most important – present excellent food and beverages for their enjoyment.
3) The goal is fill your building! If you are going to have live entertainment, there must still be a 10 to 15 minute program with a resident testimonial. Or maybe you are going to have a Power Point of your benefits and what differentiates you from other senior living communities? Don’t be boring…
4) You only have the senior’s attention for about 1½ hours maximum, so if you spend the time feeding and entertaining them, they will be too tired to tour your community. Strategize out every minute they are going to be in the building.
5) Invite them to come back and spend more time, so they can get a better feel of your retirement community. It’s hard for people to decide in 1½ hours where they are going to spend the next chapter of their life.
6) There should be at least 1/3 new faces at your event.
7) Some senior living communities draw new prospective seniors best by advertising with direct mail, others with newspaper and still others work best with a combo.
8) After spending all the time, money and staff resources on a great event, don’t forget to call them the next day. Invite them back…
I had two events this week for Continuing Care Retirement Communities; one drew 85 seniors to RSVP in a rural area and the other had over 100 seniors RSVP in a metropolitan area. This traffic will help fill the building for the next two months.
Do you want more information on how to put on a great event? Chapter 6 of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” offers a step-by-step approach to successful events and many ideas for compelling themes. Good luck and please share your success…
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/
![I’m Not Ready Yet!!!!]()
by Diane Masson | Sep 3, 2012
When you hear a senior prospect or family member say these words – what runs through your mind first? How do you respond? Do you believe them? At every encounter with a prospective resident, someone always buys the popcorn – either the sales person or the senior!
Recently, I was going through some retirement community’s databases and lead after lead after lead had a “NRY” as the number one response in the notes. I had to ask, “What is “NRY”?” The retirement counselors in unison said, “Not ready yet.” I thought quietly to myself, “Why the heck would anyone put such a negative assertion in his or her database?” The next time they look at the lead, they are going to immediately think that it’s a crappy lead.
I believe that every lead is great! If someone hangs up on me, the prospective resident is just having a bad day. I have actually called these back again and they have been receptive, come in for a tour and eventually moved in.
When someone says they are not ready yet, do you blow the person off like I see some sales people do? Are you just looking for a quick sale on a silver platter or a 30-day move-in? Well then you are missing a ton of sales and this is why the occupancy is down at your retirement community. Real sales people know that persistence pays off. I have called people every month for one year and then they turned into a sale! Those can be the most gratifying sales!
Do you have a Negative Nellie working your precious (expensive) senior housing leads that could be potential move-ins? Believing Betty understands that each lead could be worth thousands of dollars and calls with enthusiasm and passion. The customer needs to hear us smiling through the phone and feel our energy and excitement when they arrive in person. We need to believe in our leads and keep calling them back…
When someone says they are not ready yet, they are one fall or one diagnosis away from suddenly wanting to move immediately. Don’t schedule the next call for one year away, because it’s not the golden goose quick sale. Understand the frailty of the senior customer and schedule to call them on a quarterly basis or your competition will get this move-in instead of you!
So when a senior tells me that they are not ready yet…this is great…they are interested for the future. The first thought that runs through my mind is: I need to educate them more about the lifestyle! The second thought I have is: What did I miss saying? Did I build enough value for health services? After I learned about them through discovery, did I tailor the tour to their needs? I need to fill the retirement community today, one year from now and 5 years from now! So if someone wants to wait a year or two, no problem… my positive contact with them can speed up their decision. Then when they suddenly want to move in, whom will they think of first? Well, the nice lady on the phone who was never pushy and always had their best interests at heart…of course!
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 is your recipe for hiring a successful senior living sales person at your retirement community? There are so many qualified candidates, what are your must have personality traits? When I interview, here are the qualities that I look for in no particular order: