![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/
![Marketing a Twenty-Year-Old Senior Living Property?]()
by Diane Masson | Nov 26, 2012
Is this you? Then you are in one of two situations – either your owners have renovated in the last 5 or 10 years or everything in your senior living property is original…
1) A Renovated Twenty-Year-Old Senior Living Community?
If your retirement community owners have renovated – thank your lucky stars! It is awesome to be able to tell prospective seniors that a great sign of a quality organization is how well the building is kept up. Tout the age of your building and make it a plus for future senior residents.
Yes, you may have limited community space or smaller apartments than your newer senior living competition, but competition could have insurmountable debt from financing in the last 5 years. I am finding that older communities have more flexible payment plans for seniors who are considering an entrance fee for a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC).
2) Original Furnishings and Tired Looking Senior Living Community?
Do you need to avoid the PUMPKIN carpet that has multiple stains in the dining room? Are the couches covered with throws, because of the discoloration? Is the carpet threadbare in spots? This is a sales person nightmare. What can you do?
Well, there are many in our industry who face this daunting sales task everyday!
You have two hopes in my opinion. First, let’s hope that your quality of care is amazing and secondly that the operations team has done everything in their power to have a clean, fresh smelling building. The best defense is often a strong offense. You can say, “You can go down the street to live in a newer building, but no one can come close to us on the quality of our care. So you have a choice. You need to decide if the cosmetic appearance of a community is most important to you or if it is more vital to you in how your loved one will be treated and cared for in the coming months and years.” Wow! This is a powerful statement to make!
What would you pick if you were comparing two assisted living communities? Remember to think like the customer! Boomers want their parents to live in a nice community. Surface people will only consider appearances. Educate the boomer children to determine that care is most important and they will look past the frayed furniture.
If your retirement community has lousy care and looks old, just quit… or there has to be some redeeming quality that you can highlight. Become a senior living expert in your area, know your competition and accentuate your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.
Please share your marketing success or struggle story, if your retirement community is twenty years or older…
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/
![Calling it – “The steak is the shoulder of a cow” – In Senior Living?]()
by Diane Masson | Nov 11, 2012
The first impressions of the dining experience at your senior living community can affect occupancy…or someone coming back…
Is your community twenty years old and does it look it? Can you add fresh flowers on each dining table to spruce it up? Are linen tablecloths and napkins a standard? Or have you cut these items from your operations budget? You may have a great chef, the best service and a beautiful dining room, but the wrong words can also leave a bad impression…
On a recent trip to Seattle, my family decided to go to McCormick and Schmicks – a nice dining restaurant on the water. The waiter greeted us and shared his steak and lobster special of the day. Hmm, I thought – that sounds good. We asked what type of steak it was. Then he said, “The steak is the shoulder of a cow.” He walked away from us, so we could contemplate the menu and we immediately started saying – what??? Why would someone talk about the steak as the shoulder of cow, which is not very appetizing? My sister-in-law said, I envision a cow with a hacked off shoulder.” We all started getting grossed out and laughing. When the waiter came back, we teased him and told him that the shoulder of a cow did not sound good. He apologized and said he forgot the proper term to say which was “Terrace Major.” We all agreed that was not appetizing either.
What descriptor words are on your retirement community’s menu? Is the dining staff trained to sell the food? We’ve all been to fine dining restaurants where they describe the desert in a magnificent way or they bring a tray to show the yummy deserts – then it is really hard to say no. Many senior living communities that I have visited – say, “Would you like desert?” That’s it!?!! They should say we have 10 deserts for you to select from, can I share the choices with you? (Most retirement communities have many ice creams to choose from, a sugar free desert, a baked desert, fresh fruit and canned fruit.)
Let’s make our residents feel special every day of the week! Dining should be a stimulating experience for them! What does your senior living community do to make the residents feel like they are experiencing fine dining?
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/
![Is There A Strawberry On Your Plate – In Senior Living?]()
by Diane Masson | Nov 4, 2012
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 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: