What Percent of Time Does Your Senior Living Sales Person Spend Selling?

by | Mar 26, 2012

How much real time is your senior living sale person spending in nonrevenue generating activities? The operations team should consistently do all nonrevenue generating activities, so the sales person can just focus on selling – right?  Yet sales people can get caught up wanting to be accepted by coworkers, so they start contributing part of their precious sales day to the operations team.  Suddenly the sales person may be helping at a resident event or going to visit new residents to make sure they are adjusting to life in the community.   Sales people tend to be the best event organizers, so it is also a very frequent practice in retirement communities to have them organize the annual resident picnic.  FYI – the resident picnic should really be the focus of activity director.

Any salesperson can slowly evolve into participating in nonrevenue activities in any healthy organization. Even great executive directors, might not notice two hours here and a three hour project there. A retirement community may literally need an outside consultant or regional marketer to evaluate – how much time the sales person spends not selling.  The administrator may have just needed help with one certain project that turned into more time wasters, because the sales person was so efficient at completing his or her requests.  Then when the occupancy drops another 5% and corporate is breathing down the administrator’s neck to find out why – the administrators could be unknowingly sabotaging the occupancy themselves.

Many administrators don’t even realize how his or her salesperson is utilizing their time. I actually found out that one of my regional sales team members was vacuuming and cleaning apartments before move-ins.  The operations team could not keep up with preparing apartments for new residents.  The sales person did not want the residents moving into dirty apartments, so he stayed late at night to clean them, rather than be a burden to operations.  Are you kidding me??!!?  I met with the administrator immediately and said, “This is a great problem to have with all these move-ins!  Let’s solve it and help our sales person get back to selling.”  The administrator agreed and we hired an outside agency to clean and prep the apartments of the next five move-ins (happening that week).  The sales person was thrilled to get back to selling and the operations team got caught up.  Yahoo and problem solved.

My first rule of thumb is: The sales person does all the activities that help people move into the community – period. Once someone is living in the community, the sales person needs to direct the new resident to the appropriate person on the operations team.  I believe that some sales people are so excited about their new resident that they would rather spend time talking with them, than getting on the phone to do follow calls.  Doesn’t everyone want acceptance in person rather than possible rejection on the phone?

My second rule of thumb is:  If a resident stops by to talk with the sales person, give them two minutes. Then the sales person should nicely let the resident know that they have a phone call to make or a meeting to attend.  Residents will get the picture after a sales person gives them the two minutes rule… two or three times.

What is happening in your organization?  Watch your occupancy start to skyrocket again, if the sales people are spending all their time on selling activities.

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 you need an energetic, creative and analytical mind to help increase your occupancy – inquire on Diane’s availability to coach your senior living marketing team (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) or have her develop an effective sales retreat for your organization – call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net.  For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/

Learn 3 Keys how a Senior Living Community Achieved 98.4% Occupancy!

by | Mar 19, 2012

Are you looking for the secrets to occupancy success?  How can you fill up your retirement community now?  Maybe you work at a stand-alone assisted living, CCRC or independent living community?

Here are three keys being utilized by a 98.4% occupied assisted living community sales person!

1) Referrals Through Outreach – The assisted living sales person built relationships with hospital discharge planners, skilled nursing/rehab social workers and other assisted livings that provided lighter care.   The relationships were built by meeting each of these people monthly and offering interesting/fun events for referrals to visit his assisted living on a monthly basis.  When referrals toured his assisted living community they could experience firsthand how happy the residents were and see the quality of the care.

When an assisted living resident was suddenly out-placed to a hospital the resident family members might ask which skilled nursing or rehabilitation center would be the best for the recuperation of the parent.   The community could share knowledgeable communication about the available choices, because they visit them regularly.  When the family member selected a choice for their parent (with the doctor’s input of course and after visiting at least two choices), the sales person would call to their referral choice and let them know what the family selected.  Outreach sources quickly realized the assisted living community cared about their residents even when they weren’t currently residing in the community and now their healthcare referrals have increased 50%.

2) First Impressions – If a guest called ahead, the sale person would walk the possible tour path to pick up an accidentally dropped Kleenex on the floor or straighten up by putting away all the walkers by the front door.  He’d train the front desk staff to be welcoming – by standing up and greeting all guests with a smile and a handshake.  He would have chocolate chip cookies baking right by the front entrance, so it would be the first thing they smelled walking in the building.   There would always be a framed sign on the front desk welcoming the guest by name.  Checking the parking lot for cans and cigarette butts was always on his list too.

3) Orchestrating a Great Tour – When new people wanted to tour the community, he did everything within his power to make sure it would be a great experience. Instead of giving everyone the exact same tour, he would tailor it to the guest’s needs and interests (after he spent some time sitting down with them to find out exactly what prompted the visit and what they hoped to see).   He went out of his way to introduce key staff to the guests, like the dining director, administrator or director of nursing (again it would depend on their needs).  When he showed an apartment, it would be rent ready and appeal to their needs and budget.  Then he would sit down again with them (before they left), to find out if they had any additional questions and to offer to take the deposit check for the apartment they liked the best (He always asked for a deposit).  If they decided not to deposit, he assumed they would, when he made a follow up call the next day.

Congrats to my friend and colleague for 98.4% occupancy.  He was just promoted to a larger community.  It has been my pleasure to coach and mentor him!

Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com.  For volume discount pricing or to inquire on Diane’s availability to coach and/or train your senior living marketing team (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net.  For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/