A panel of senior living marketing professionals will share strategies and tactics for lead generation, nurturing and conversions given current restrictions regarding tours, events and community visits.
Congratulations! Your senior living lead generation is WORKING! You’ve enticed anonymous websites to give you their contact info, thanks to compelling content offers.
Now what?
Any form on your senior living website should gather basic info: first name, last name, email, and state. But it should also ask two required questions that will provide further valuable insights.
First, ask something like this: “Are you gathering this info for yourself or a loved one?”
A drop-down would appear with these choices:
You’re keeping the options simple here, because you don’t want to overwhelm people with questions. And you don’t want to create overly complicated lead nurturing paths, either. (More on this in a moment.)
Second, ask something along these lines: “What’s your timeline for making a decision about senior living?”
A drop-down would appear with these choices:
Again, you’d don’t want to overwhelm visitors with too many choices. And you don’t want to complicate the lead nurturing paths you set up.
Now that you’ve set up proper lead forms, you can think about the next steps.
See? Everything we recommended earlier with the website forms serves a purpose. By allowing your prospects to self-identify who they are and where they are in their journey, you can score and segment your senior living leads accordingly: marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) and sales-qualified leads (SQLs).
For example, an adult child who is looking to make a decision for her mother ASAP should be funneled directly to the sales team for immediate follow up. This is a classic SQL.
But you can place anyone who chooses one of the other timelines into a longer-term lead nurturing workflow. This way, you can nurture these “not ready yet” leads, or MQLs. The goal involves staying in front of them so that when they ARE ready, they will think of your community first.
So, let’s consider someone who is researching senior living for herself. If she is making her decision ASAP, she will become an SQL and go to sales. But if she chooses one of the following timelines, she’ll be considered an MQL primed for nurturing:
Now, here’s the thing: You’ll need to create a separate set of lead nurturing emails for each timeframe.
For example, if the person conducting her own research enters the 3- to 6-month workflow, she would receive one set of emails. Another person entering the 6- to 12-month workflow would receive a different set. And so forth.
Remember, you want to personalize the emails so that they match where the person is in their buying journey. An adult child researching options for her dad to move in 18 months is in a very different place from an eighty-year-old woman needing to move by the end of the year and researching for herself.
If you’ve been thinking, “Gee, that sounds like a lot of emails we need to write and set up,” you’re correct!
But, again: some emails will work in all of your lead nurturing campaigns. And others might only require a few tweaks. Plus, once you do the initial set-up, it becomes an extremely easy program to manage and even tweak, provided you use marketing automation, which brings us to our next best practice . . .
Your senior living sales and marketing teams don’t need to manually score leads, segment them, and send the emails. Marketing automation takes care of it. This way, the sales and marketing teams can focus on the RESULTS, specifically the analytics, so they can respond accordingly.
And it goes without saying, but most leads should change from MQL to SQL over time. At least, that’s the goal.
For example, let’s say a prospect in the “I’m an adult child researching for a parent in the next 6-12 months” category is opening your emails, downloading content, and spending more time on the site. You can change the lead score from marketing qualified to sales qualified. (And if you have a robust marketing automation system, you can program it to automatically make this change based on the lead behavior). Now, the sales team can follow up directly with the lead since the person appears to be super interested.
Bottom line: A good lead nurturing program helps salespeople focus on the best opportunities. And it helps the marketing team understand which types of emails and content drive conversions. Armed with this information, the marketing team can focus on creating more content like it.
Like everything else, email marketing best practices evolve. But certain evergreen practices will always remain true:
Remember, make it about the buyer. Don’t lead by talking about your community. Think about the pain points the person might be experiencing. How can you solve for these pain points? Offering a piece of helpful content is a great place to start.
For example, if one of the emails in your lead nurturing set includes inviting someone to have lunch at your community, your subject line could be something playful: Lunch on us! WE HAVE CAKE! (Then, include a cake emoji 🍰).
Test and see if the subject line with the emoji improves open rates, but also keep in mind that open rates are just ONE metric. Conversions are what matter most. In other words, do you get more people requesting lunch when you use a subject line with an emoji? THAT is what you need to pay attention to.
Marketing automation makes life easier because it reduces the manual labor. But you still have to use your noggin and regularly review the analytics and make smart decisions based on what the numbers are telling you.
You also need to make adjustments to lead nurturing emails when something unexpected happens. For example, if you run any lead nurturing campaigns right now, you’d be remiss if you didn’t acknowledge the pandemic.
Setting up a well-designed senior living lead generation program doesn’t just happen. And not every marketing or sales team has the requisite skill sets. Working with a reputable senior living marketing agency that has experience in lead generation can save you time and money.
A panel of senior living marketing professionals will share strategies and tactics for lead generation, nurturing and conversions given current restrictions regarding tours, events and community visits.
A panel of senior living marketing professionals will share strategies and tactics for lead generation, nurturing and conversions given current restrictions regarding tours, events and community visits.
When it comes to senior living sales, we’re a long way off from the “post-COVID” era. But we’re (thankfully!) turning the corner on COVID-19 (the first wave anyway).
As more and more senior living communities open their doors and return to this “new normal,” now is a good time to pause and consider the things you’ve learned over the last five months. What worked? What didn’t? And what can you do differently from a sales perspective as you move forward?
Here are three things we’ve learned about marketing during a pandemic. This includes insights from our own clients as well.
In our industry, the in-person tour has always been the ultimate “get” in the sales process. (Well, the ultimate get before the actual move-in!) But what many of our clients have learned during lockdown is this: virtual sales experiences can deliver move-ins, too.
So, what does this revelation suggest?
Well, maybe we’ve been spending too much time thinking about what the sales folks need to move prospects down the funnel. Instead, we should focus on the prospects’ needs. In other words, maybe the sales reps’ role is figuring out how they can help empower prospects to move themselves through the funnel.
That’s just one thing that’s been bubbling up.
It makes sense when you think about the shifts in how people research and buy today. We’ve all grown accustomed to being in control. For example, we all like being able to read reviews or use AI to improve the buying process (“Hey, Alexa!”). In addition, we can lodge complaints publicly on Twitter and ignore calls from unknown numbers. So much happens from the comfort of our couch with nothing more than a phone. People can now buy a car without having to leave their house or interact with a sales person.
So of course people are going to demand more and more opportunities for virtual sales experiences from senior living communities, like a 3D virtual tour. Or a reassuring live chat (with a real human). Or unvarnished videos of your residents and staff experiencing daily life in your community.
An important note: We don’t think virtual experiences are going to eliminate in-person tours. Buying a residence is still very much a tactile experience, and people want to see, touch, and smell. But perhaps sales people need to put less emphasis on pushing the in-person tour. Instead, they should focus on delivering targeted and effective virtual experiences that people crave. The better these experiences are, the easier it will be for the prospect to organically move themselves into the position of requesting the in-person tour when they’re ready.
TAKEAWAY: Rethink your overall marketing and sales process. The marketing team will definitely need to be part of these conversations since they often spearhead the creation of assets the sales team needs, like videos and live chat on the website.
Perhaps consider creating two “paths.” The first path will be the “live” sales experience. The second path can be a virtual one. What would the process look for each path, from start to finish? How would you nurture leads differently? How would you follow up with them differently? Don’t forget about measuring results! What would be considered successful? Will a longer sales cycle be OK if it produces more conversions?
COVID-19 forced everyone to dust off their crisis communication plan (provided they even had one) and put it into action.
How’d yours do? If your answer is “meh,” you’re not alone.
Too often, we simply go through the motions once or twice a year of holding drills and reviewing emergency preparedness plans. But drills and a real life global pandemic are two different things.
Another important point: crisis communications shouldn’t be issued only when a crisis hits. Effective crisis communication is an ongoing task, one that you should mix in with your regular content marketing.
For example, every season brings its own challenges and potential crisis. Perhaps your community is located in an area of the country that experiences severe weather from June to November (think hurricanes). Instead of waiting for something to happen, create and share your crisis communication plan for severe weather NOW.
No, you don’t need to be alarmist. But if your community is in a hurricane zone, perhaps it makes sense to have a section on your website that proactively talks about your community’s approach to bad weather. What happens if there’s a power outage? Flooding? What’s the approach depending on the storm category (the difference between a Cat 1 and Cat 5 storm)? How can families stay in touch? How do you send messages/alerts to families and/or where can they call into?
And this goes without saying, but ALL communities should be working on a crisis communication plan for COVID and flu for the fall of 2020/winter of 2021.
TAKEAWAY: Think about the worst case scenarios that could affect your community. Disease and weather top the list, so you should have content sections on both. Include an overview page. In addition, have FAQs about each particular topic. Other sections to consider: chemical accidents, fire, terrorist events. Yes, we know these are scary topics, but your content can be calming and reassuring.
Promote these sections on social media, to prospects and new residents/families, and to local reporters (who are always looking for go-to experts when disaster hits). Be the resource that residents, families, and prospects crave.
This information will go a long way in demonstrating that your community has put the time and effort into planning. It will also show that you learned from any mistakes/missteps from COVID-19. Because, let’s face it: no one was fully prepared.
Over the last five months, have you found yourself repeating things to people because they’ve forgotten you told them already? Have you found that you’ve had trouble remembering things?
You’re not alone. This pandemic has worn out everyone mentally. As CNN.com notes, “Experts say it all has to do with how the pandemic is affecting our cognitive health—meaning, our ability to clearly think, learn and remember.”
TAKE AWAY: Before COVID-19, you typically had to repeat marketing messages anywhere from 7-12 times (at least) before it started to sink into people’s heads. When it comes to senior living sales today, plan on doubling that—even for simple messages.
Ideas for pushing out your core messages:
Even during a pandemic, we marketing and sales professionals must continue to connect and engage with our prospects, both existing and new. Learn what senior living lead generation options are available to continue your work towards those 2020 marketing and sales goals!
Senior Living Lead Generation During COVID
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Well, it’s budget time once again. Time to reevaluate pricing, analyze trends, and build 2017 business plans, tactics, and strategies. Setting rates usually starts with an analysis of occupancy and vacancy by unit type; calculating rent, care, and community fee averages; evaluating current resident rates; and comparing competitor pricing.
Here are some creative senior living sales strategies to think about for 2017:
This strategy allows a pricing spread throughout the community, offering greater pricing elasticity to meet a wider range of financial options for prospects without eroding rate.
Select an equal number of…
Set Value and Premium Rates
This strategy works well in communities with 10 or fewer vacant apartments with undesirable views, locations, or amenities that are not selling. This short-term pricing strategy does not erode rate as the additional rate gained in Premium units offsets the discounts offered in the Value apartments.
Much like paying points on a mortgage, the greater the upfront move-in fee, the lower the monthly base rent.
For example, for every $2000 more paid up front, the resident base rent is reduced by $200.
Variable pricing benefits:
This strategy provides solutions for prospects who:
Rental CCRC/ IL where the length of stay is longest. It competes well against the buy-in model, as it offers control of the rate to the resident without requiring a large buy-in fee. It pays back the investment in the present where the buy-in model only pays back at the end of the stay.
It also works well in economically fragile markets where people need more options in order to create a financial solution. It also works well in more sophisticated metro markets where the buyer wants to be in control and is always looking for a deal.
This short-term strategy establishes a “can’t walk away from” price to move a volume of apartments quickly. Establish a defined time frame or a number of apartments offered to limit rate erosion. This approach trades rate for occupancy until the community reaches an occupancy percentage to turn the rate lever back on.
The best strategy is to identify a specific type of unit, such as studios, or a specific location, such as upper floor location that have been vacant for a long time.
Works well with communities under 80% occupied where the cost of vacancy outweighs the erosion of rate. This strategy also works with communities who are convinced that their only barrier is rate. Using volume pricing for 60 – 90 days will confirm or dispel the rate barrier theory. If no one buys at the volume rate, it’s not a pricing issue, so keep digging.
Check out other sales and occupancy growth resources in our Senior Living Marketplace »
Every month, I listen to community sales people speaking with prospects through recorded calls made through website phone tracking systems or by way of mystery shop companies. The purpose is to hear what the sales people are saying, evaluate how they are handling the inquiry process, assess their rapport building and discovery techniques, and look for opportunities to coach and improve the senior living sales teams.
It is often painful to listen to these calls, so here are some do’s & don’ts when making that critical first impression with a prospect.
1. Keeping people on hold for too long. It costs about $500 to generate a lead that actually picks up the phone, yet we too often keep them on hold for an eternity.
While on hold, they get to hear how much their call means and how wonderful the community is, but they wait seemingly forever before someone finally picks up the call. Don’t even get me started with dumping inquiry calls into voicemail or telling a prospect to call back!
2. Having the wrong tone. The difference between phone inquiries and in-person inquiries is that, on the phone, prospects cannot see a sales person’s body language. That means the prospect must rely on the sales person’s tone of voice. Too often, the sales person sounds rushed, distracted, disorganized, or bored/ disinterested.
3. Interrogating rather than conversing. Good discovery sounds like a conversation, but many inquiry calls sound like the sales person has a checklist they are trying to get through and that becomes a barrier to listening and developing rapport.
The conversation should be natural with the sales person listening 70% of the time and asking questions, digging deeper, and repeating/empathizing the other 30%. The only time that the sales person needs to take the lead in talking is to match their community solutions with the specific needs expressed by the prospect and schedule the appropriate next step.
4. Booking the tour too quickly. I’m always struck by how little time sales people spend in listening and understanding the prospect’s situation before they blurt out “when do you want to schedule a tour? Is this afternoon good or would tomorrow be better?”
Unless a sales person understands the prospect’s specific needs, timelines, budget range and/or financial insights (e.g. do they have to sell a home?), and other solutions they’re considering, then they are NOT ready to schedule a tour. Waiting until the tour arrives to do full discovery robs the sales person of the ability to personalize the tour based on the prospect’s unique situation, wants, and needs.
5. Focusing on selling real estate. Many sales people spend too much time focused on the real estate side of their community rather than on care, resources, solutions, value, and the lifestyle the community offers. Most of our prospects already have a real estate solution (their own home, living with family or in another care setting) so that is not why they are calling.
6. Focusing on selling current inventory. Our job is to find solutions in the prospect’s best interest, not sell what we currently have available. In one of the worst calls I’ve listened to, the sales person actually said, “Oh, you don’t really want a one bedroom. It’s a waste of money and way too expensive.” The issue with this statement: the sales person had no idea of the prospect’s timeframe and all she had available that day was studios. Once the prospect heard that the one bedrooms were too expensive and not available, she moved on to a competitor.
7. Being evasive. Too many sales people dance around questions they don’t want to answer. Sometimes, they flat out refuse to answer questions. I heard one salesperson tell a prospect, “I could not possibly give you any pricing – it is absolutely impossible!” Really? Would you rather book tours with completely unqualified families and waste time for both of you? Remember, transparency builds trust and helps prospects self-qualify.
8. Using jargon. Inquiry calls are often laced with industry specific jargon that is meaningless to the prospect. I’m talking acronyms like IL, AL, ALZ, CCRC, SNF, ADLs; titles, such as ED, RCD/RSD, CRD, MOD; clinical terms, such as CHF, COPD, and so forth. Don’t use jargon with prospects.
For example, what significance does the phrase “Activities of Daily Living” have to a family? Can’t we just interact as people and say, “We can help with personal care”? Jargon is usually used to express our expertise. But all it does is confuse and overwhelm people.
9. Ending the call without a next step. You’ve invested $500 to motivate a prospect to call, yet there’s no follow-up process AFTER the initial call. That doesn’t make sense, does it? Leaving it to the prospect to call back or “stop by” will not increase move-ins.
Too often when I look up the shopper or recorded prospect in the database, they have not been entered or we are lacking valuable contact information. It’s critical that sales people record the info and follow-up tasks!
Keep in mind that not every next step needs to be a tour. It could be an assessment, home visit, attending an event or support group, etc. But there should be some time-activated commitment to move forward at the end of an inquiry call. “Closing” is not an event. It is the outcome of multiple advances!
Remember, even the best sales people need reminders and refreshers from time to time. That’s why conducting mystery shopping and providing follow-up sales training and coaching are so important. Check out our Partner Marketplace for companies that specialize in both.
Over the years, I have seen many sales compensation plans – the good, the bad, and the downright puzzling. Some are based on a flat bonus per move-in model, others are based on a percentage of revenue, some speed up the per move-in bonus amount as the number of move-ins rises, some pay nothing until the salesperson hits a threshold – it is all over the map.
I just read a fantastic article by Lee B. Salz, a sales management strategist at Sales Architects in Minneapolis outlining five ways to break out of the “quota” trap and develop a comprehensive sales compensation plan that benefits the salesperson, the company, and its customers. “While earnings are an important and relevant point, they aren’t the only consideration when designing an effective sales compensation plan,” says Salz. Focused on tying compensation to special quotas, companies wind up with unproductive, unmotivated sales teams that produce only when they have to.
For a compensation plan to be effective, start by developing and documenting a sales process. Most companies ignore this step and instead jump right into writing commission checks as sales are closed. “You can’t reward for behavior if you don’t even know what the desired behaviors are,” says Salz. A better approach is to take a step back and figure out which results deserve those rewards (Prospecting? Closing sales? Collecting deposits? Professional referrals? Selling at market rate? All of the above?), and then wrap the sales compensation plan around those key goals.
Consider, for example, exactly what it takes to close a deal from concept to completion. In most cases it starts with an initial contact, then tours, home visits, creative follow up, collecting a deposit, and ultimately signing a lease. Only by looking at the sales process from start to finish can managers identify the important links in the chain and come up with effective ways to compensate reps for their progress.
Sales Managers are often frustrated with the focus of their salespeople, says Salz, and it is the sales compensation plan that causes this frustration. For example, asking salespeople to focus on selling at full market rate without using incentives or paid move-in sources, but then compensating them with a flat dollar amount per move-in, is a sure-fire way to cause the disconnect between desired activity and actual results. “Figure out what behaviors deserve the incentives,” Salz suggests, “and then come up with a sales compensation plan that positively reinforces those behaviors.”
If the expectation is that the salesperson moves in 6 new residents per month in order to grow census or maintain high occupancy, then historical conversion averages will help create the behaviors needed to produce the desired result. If the salesperson has a 25% tour: move-in average, they will need to generate 24 tours and if they typically convert 75% of their inquiries to tours, they will need to generate 32 new leads. Next, look at how many sales calls, events and prospecting activities will have to take place to generate the required qualified leads and tours. Once those parameters are in place, be sure to include decelerators for poor performance and accelerators for the salesperson who exceeds the goal. “Drive your salespeople to meet and exceed the plan that’s in place,” says Salz, “or you’ll wind up back at square one, with sales reports full of peaks and valleys.”
“If there isn’t a smile on the executive’s face when he or she signs that commission check, then there’s something wrong with the plan,” says Salz. Likewise, “If your compensation plan is structured properly, it should tickle you pink to write out that check,” Salz says. “If you are resentful or remorseful in any way, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
Many seniors and their families are unprepared for the costs associated with senior care. The good news is that there are companies coming into the industry to help families fund private pay senior living. But senior living sales people have to ask the right questions to uncover needs.
Over 80% of senior living prospects are veterans or a surviving spouse of a veteran. They need to understand the Aid & Attendance benefit and their qualification status, so they can incorporate the benefit into their financial planning. Keep in mind that the benefit is not a “yes” or “no” qualification. It is an “if” and “when.”
Seniors abandon millions of dollars of life insurance assets every year by surrendering their policies for pennies on the dollar or by non payment of premiums – because they do not know there are other options.
Seniors have the option to sell their policies today to supplement the cost of home care, assisted living, or skilled nursing care. Cashing out the policy today will provide much more revenue to fund care than abandoning or surrendering the policy. Life insurance policies are assets that seniors own and have the right to sell. Once the policy is sold, the asset is held in an irrevocable trust that pays directly for care. The senior can determine how much of the asset is to be set aside for inheritance, and how much to allocate for care. There is no cost to either the senior living community, the family, or the resident.
We are seeing an increased number of long-term care insurance policies presented as payment vehicles for care. The problem is that after paying premiums for decades, insurance companies often issue denials when it comes time to activate the policy as reimbursements for care, and it is very confusing for families to try to work through the bureaucracy on their own.
Typically, community teams try to make calls on behalf of the families. This is time consuming and often unsuccessful. Very few people seem to know that there are professionals who specialize in advocating for seniors and can work through the insurance process to validate claims.
Families need to feel comfortable with how much they can afford and how long the funds will last. Adult children responsible for figuring out a funding strategy for their parents are often stumped about where to begin. Most are unaware of companies and consultants that can help families with a cash-flow analysis quickly and comprehensively. The two most common mistakes made by adult children is determining their affordability range and leaving out income and only taking into account assets.
For many seniors who do not have other funding vehicles, their home becomes their financial resource. It is important to understand the plan and create a timeframe to rent or sell the asset and have resources available to support their goals. Companies exist that will coordinate the sale of the home and unpack/ settle the resident into their new living situation. There are even companies that will purchase the home!
It’s never comfortable to ask about money. But it’s better to stretch your comfort zone than leave families in the dark about all the options available to to them. Please reach out to Senior Living SMART to be introduced to any of these resources!
