OCTOBER 2019 //
Inspiring Senior Lifestyle Marketing & Sales Teams to New Heights
THE MORE YOU KNOW THEM, THE BETTER YOU’LL SERVE. 1
R EACH THEM with content Did you know our Senior Lifestyle Intranet is a cornucopia of rich, wonderful resources for you and your prospects? Visit intranet.seniorlifestyle.com and explore the trove of blogs, ebooks and articles – all created to help you, your prospects and their families become better informed about making smart senior living decisions. Click over to the Senior Lifestyle Intranet and see what you can find that’ll help you help them.
2
A Message
FROM THE CREW Know your target audience. This edition of The LIFT is devoted to that idea and offers strategies for zeroing in on your prospects – listening, responding and converting. Subtle refinements coming to the Senior Lifestyles brand will further sharpen the two channels of prospects. The brand will affirm the confidence and self-determination of independent seniors exercising their freedom to plan. To them we offer marvelous independent living communities in which their plans can be fulfilled. And where seniors – and their loved ones – find themselves under pressure to solve a health-related problem (“Dad can’t go home from the hospital,” “Mom can’t live alone any longer”), the brand responds with urgency and kindness. We’ll help them find a Senior Lifestyles community that supports their needs. You already refine your approach to each individual. We’ll help by subtly aligning the brand for the two audiences – independent living and health care.
Wishing you all a season filled with success, Your Sales & Marketing Leadership Team
3
STAND-UP A Vit a l Co m p o n e n t to Yo u r S u cce ss. Cindy Ames The Sales & Marketing Training Team’s monthly
to the customer how they will be able to
training webinar launched in October, and the
help, during their community tour. Connect
topic was Stand-Up Meeting. If you didn’t have
your customer with your solution-driven
the opportunity to attend, you can listen to the
team member, and the customer will quickly
recorded version in the Training Library on the
understand why your community is the right
Sales & Marketing Training intranet page.
place for their loved one.
Note: Instead of calling the trainings
Achieve your goals.
“monthly webinar,” do you have a catchy
Stand-Up Meeting is an ideal opportunity to
name we should use? If so, email me at
share sales stats. Complete the sales portion
cames@seniorlifestlye.com with your idea.
of your Stand-Up Meeting tool prior to your meeting, and you’ll be able to confidently share
Stand up for success.
occupancy data and other pertinent data with
Stand-Up Meeting is a vital component to
your team.
your success. Why is it so vital? Because it gives you, as a sales associate, time to share
With effective communication during Stand-
your customer’s stories with your team.
Up Meeting, you’ll build a sales culture and set
When you share the stories, you can begin to
plans to involve your team during a customer’s
create connections between team members
community visit. You’ll also keep your team
and customers before they even visit the
informed about and engaged with monthly
community.
budget goals.
Each customer deserves a personalized community visit experience based on their particular story and needs. So take your Inquiry/Planning Tool to your Stand-Up and review your plan with the team. Then ask the team members who would provide a solution for a particular customer’s need to explain
4
MEETING:
5
DDSM CORNER
Excel in Outreach. Jacquelyn Katona, DDSM
I find deep value in outreach within each market I work, and over the years I’ve come to see the impact it can make on a community and increasing occupancy. Yet outreach isn’t always our first focus – especially when we need to also invest so much time responding to new leads, nurturing those leads and improving our conversion rates. Those priorities are very important, but it’s equally important to have a solid presence within your respective market so you can build key relationships that result in professional referrals. The challenges of outreach are outweighed by its personal and professional rewards, and learning how to excel in outreach is one of our teams’ greatest opportunities to grow occupancy. Fun Fact: Did you know that Professional Referrals is one of the highest converting sources in the company at 34.8%? It’s right behind Employee Referrals (42.7%) and Resident Referrals (35.8%).
6
10 Tips for Outreach Success To help us in our outreach journey, these are the 10 tips for outreach success that I’ve used throughout my career:
1. Complete your outreach plan prior to
5. Need to get key referral sources like SW
the start of the upcoming month and
and CM out to your community? Offer
review your top three SMART goals for
your community transportation to pick
that month with your ED. Throughout the
them up during their lunch break and
month on a weekly basis, you’ll want to
treat them to a quick tour and lunch at
discuss whether you’re on track to reach
your community.
your goal. If you’re not, why not? Should
6. Become your market’s trusted resource
you change strategies? The collaboration
and you’ll be ideally positioned to create
between ED and DSM is key to success.
awareness within your community at
2. Outreach is only effective when there’s a purpose and goal for each professional
large at internal and external events. 7. Offer your community as a meeting
visit. We nurture our prospects and
space for various local organizations – for
create next steps, and we should apply
example, Rotary Club, bridge clubs and
the same principle in designing and
women’s/men’s organizations.
managing outreach to professionals:
8. Partner with organizations headquartered
Always have a next step for advancing
in your market. To find those
the relationship.
organizations, start with their EAP
3. Visit residents in the hospital or rehab a few times every week. You’ll create
(employee assistance program). 9. Brainstorm with your management team
opportunities to meet and extend your
to discover their existing relationships
relationships with social workers, case
in the market and how you can leverage
managers, nurses, hospitalists and other
those relationships.
specialty doctors – plus, time spent with residents is its own reward.
10. Finally – and most importantly – plan your work and work your plan!
4. Testimonials speak volumes! So use Testimonial Cards (find them on our
At 34.8%, Professional Referrals is one of the
Intranet) to highlight family members’
highest converting sources we have.
positive comments about your
And that begs the question: What can you
community. Bring these testimonials
and your team start TODAY, to increase your
when you go out on appointments,
referrals? No matter what approach you take
and you’ll have a resource far more
and what you decide to do, you must remember
memorable than a trifold.
this: Ask for the business every time! Happy relationship building!
7
Social Media News. Seniors connected in September. Overall, the post-engagement rate for Senior Lifestyle communities was 15.3%, and 47 communities posted an engagement rate even higher. Best of all was Carriage Court of Marysville. Their 11 posts racked up a 36.7% engagement rate.
8
September Event Recap. Call-tracking numbers are uniquely assigned to all paid media ads and direct mail. The collected data provide insight into which event generate the greatest response. For the purpose of measurable data, only calls more than 30 seconds count, and duplicate phone numbers are eliminated. • Monday and Sunday events received the most calls, averaging 11 and 9.5 calls per placement, respectively. • 10:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. events received the highest call volume, averaging 38 and 10 calls per placement, respectively. • Direct mail outperformed all other media sources, averaging 10 calls per drop. Directory was second-highest, at an average of 3.3 calls per placement. Top event themes Events with the highest average calls per placement: • Medicare Presentation: 37 • Lunch & Learn VA Benefits: 22 • Fall Prevention Seminar: 18.8 Top community performers Communities with highest average calls per media placement: Homestead House’s Fall Prevention Seminar: 33 Maurice House’s Live a Worry-Free Lifestyle: 21 Addison of Pleasant Prairie’s Fall Prevention Seminar: 18.5
9
303 East Wacker Drive, Suite 2400 Chicago, IL 60601 www.SeniorLifestyle.com 10