Senior Living Sales KPIs: Windshield vs the Rearview Mirror
Facilitating an effective sales meeting requires analysis of both leading and lagging key performance indicators (KPIs). Senior living sales managers at all levels, from the community to regional (and above), often spend more time examining lagging indicators and not enough time digging into leading indicators. Or, as we like to say, look through the windshield rather than the rearview mirror.
To improve the effectiveness of senior living sales meetings, managers should include these KPIs.
Lagging Indicators
Reviewing the completed activities and trends can be helpful in identifying barriers, which can be a learning exercise. In senior living, managers should examine:
- Completed activities vs. standards– quality & quantity (were activity goals achieved?)
- Conversion ratios – trending up or down (is the sales process improving?)
- Results – new leads, deposits, advances, and referrals (is sales activity turning into sales results?)
- Market rate comparison to actual rate (impact of sales results to revenue)
Leading Indicators
Examining the senior living sales plan for the week and month is useful in understanding the future opportunity. In senior living, managers should examine:
- Scheduled activities vs. standards – quality & quantity of planned sales activities including;
- Scheduled Tours & Re-tours
- Scheduled Assessments
- Scheduled Sales Calls/ External Business Development – both hunting and farming (finding new accounts & cultivating existing accounts)
- Scheduled Events
- Scheduled Call Outs & Lead Follow up/ Nurturing
Spending sales meetings and occupancy calls primarily focused on the “rearview mirror” will result in re-hashing information that is already documented in various reports. Instead, take the “windshield” approach and focus on what’s ahead. In the senior living CRM, identify sales-qualified leads and have the reps focus on those, rather than obsessing on lost leads. In the meantime, marketing can continue to nurture the “not ready yet” leads.
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Your headline caught my attention for two reasons:
1. I am intimately acquainted with the implications of either answer to the question itself. In fact, those that don't 'get' the question are giving those that do a huge aompetitive advantage.
I recently concluded a challenging contract with a national retailer, one where I was specifically hired to reverse a negative 2-year sales trend of their cornerstone product – apparently, they ‘had tried everything’. At about the same time, I came across the 4DX approach to successful execution, which completely blew me away (and you know EXACTLY what I'm saying!).
After several months of ‘poking around’, an off-the-wall behavioural approach showed up as the elephant in the room; and within weeks of testing etc., all the dials began a consistent and permanent change in direction, much to the delight and amazement of all concerned.
2. I'm just attempting to break into the industry and your article helped me to identifty several key behaviours (SKBs — you can quote me!) that will enable me to have substantial conversations with prospective employers.
Thank-you!!