Sell to the Ballerina, Not the Wheelchair in Senior Living Sales

In Senior Living Sales

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend David Smith’s One On One Sales Training and he showed us this picture to illustrate his prospect-centered approach. It brought me back many years when I was a sales counselor and a new resident named Bea scooted herself down to my office in her wheelchair to tell me that she was bored. We chatted for a few minutes and I asked why she was not enjoying any of the day’s activities. She just sighed and said “the problem is that everyone here is so old”. “But Bea”, I replied, “you are 99 years old and almost every resident here is younger than you!” Her response stayed with me; “when I look in the mirror, I see a young and vibrant woman”.

I now realize that I was seeing the woman in the wheelchair but Bea was seeing “ballerina self“.

So, are we selling to the woman in the wheelchair or the ballerina?

There are two different sales philosophies in the senior living industry today – transactional and relational.

Philosophy	Transactional	Relational
Target Demographic	Need based & urgent prospects	The “Not Ready” prospects
Available Market	10% of the qualified market	90% of the qualified market
How To Measure Effectiveness	More Activities – More Leads, More Calls & Tours, Less Time from Inquiry: Move-in (shorten the sales cycle), Do More & Be Quicker	Spend More Time in The Selling Zone – Face-to-face/ voice to voice/ planning/ creative, personalized & proactive follow up.
What Are We Selling	Features, Benefits of Real Estate, Lifestyle & Experience	Change
How We Are Selling	Get all the qualifying information including wants, needs, finances, time frame and then match information to community solutions and sell “better & difference story”.	Focus on readiness to change, stage of change – denial, thinking, planning or action. Build a relationship, help guide prospect to the best decision for them and learn life stories.