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Use Traditional Marketing

Use Traditional Marketing to Build Community Awareness

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While most prospects find senior living communities through digital sources (like organic search and paid ads), other more “traditional” marketing tactics can still be critical during this all-important “find” stage.

The primary purpose of these traditional tactics is not to generate leads but to make people aware that your community exists.

Remember, prospects and adult children often live within a small radius of your community. Effective signage, a presence in the local media, and a strong local referral network can help people become familiar with your community’s name long before they search Google.

Below, we dive into several ways to build brand awareness in senior living via these more traditional marketing tactics:

  • Local media
  • Referral networks
  • Direct mail
  • On-site and off-site events
  • Grassroots marketing

Local media

The target demo for senior living still reads local newspapers, magazines, and publications. The messaging for print ad campaigns or paid advertorials (a popular staple in weekly and monthly publications) should highlight services and reviews. For the call-to-action (CTA), you can experiment with “Schedule a tour” or “Attend our [fill in the blank]” (like a book club; events do exceptionally well in these campaigns).

Consistency is key when building awareness. You can’t run a few ads and expect immediate results. Success requires sustained effort over time.

Speaking of results, they can be subtle and difficult to measure. Consistent messaging often registers subconsciously: “Didn’t I see an ad for that in the newspaper?” “I think I drive by that place on my way to work; I remember seeing a sign.” “Oh, that’s where we donated school supplies last fall.” These small connections gradually build familiarity and trust.

Print ads are especially important for communities going through transitions, like lease-ups, acquisitions, or changes in management.

We recommend running half-page or quarter-page ads every month. Use a combination of evergreen content, such as resident spotlights, testimonials, and “Did you know?” facts, along with any upcoming community events. CTAs should be relevant to the content (learn more, call today, save your seat), and any URLs or phone numbers should include tracking for proper attribution.

Referral networks

For needs-based senior living (assisted living and memory care), prospects often “find” a community through a direct referral from a professional contact such as a discharge planner, social worker, physician, home care provider, adult day care center, or geriatric care manager.

Independent Living prospects might seek counsel from trusted advisors, such as elder law attorneys, financial professionals, spiritual advisors, and realtors, since their decision is more planned.

Building a professional referral network requires time and a collaborative approach. However, the investment is worth it, as these referrals tend to have the highest closing rate at the lowest price.

Direct mail

Today, you can buy direct mail lists that go beyond age, income, and zip code. You can now source highly targeted lists to include parameters like health criteria, diagnosis, and household demographics.

For example, providers needing to generate leads for memory care can buy a list of contacts within the community’s radius and include other qualifying income and asset criteria related to dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

The three essential components of an effective direct mail campaign include:

  • The quality and accuracy of your list (refresh your mailing list yearly)
  • The demographics (for example, health status, persona, financials, age)
  • The offer. Make it compelling! Think visually appealing design and an engaging message and CTA.

Including a QR code, vanity URL, or call tracking number will help measure each campaign’s ROI.

On-site and off-site events

A combination of various events—social, educational, networking, and community—can help attract different audiences at different decision stages.

Early-stage prospects in the awareness/research stage might be more comfortable attending an off-site event at a restaurant, library, church, or country club rather than booking a tour in your community. Dine & Discover, Lunch & Learn, and speaker/author events work well for these folks.

Prospects in consideration and decision stages are more likely to attend on-site events, such as educational programs (financial, legal, downsizing), open houses, Parade of Homes, support groups, and social events.

Grassroots marketing

Grassroots marketing is all about building meaningful connections within the community. Joining local chambers of commerce, donating to organizations like Toys for Tots, food pantries, or Meals on Wheels, and supporting school supply drives are excellent ways to establish awareness. Offering event space for community gatherings, hosting health fairs, and organizing immunization clinics further solidify your presence as a trusted and engaged community partner.

Yes, it is possible to get move-ins from hosting Girl Scout meetings, piano recitals, bridge groups, and even The Happy Hookers (get your mind out of the gutter—we’re talking about a knitting circle!).

Most of these tactics are outbound marketing—and that’s OK.

By “outbound,” we mean that the messaging is reaching a broad audience, most of whom haven’t expressed a need or interest in senior living. The common denominator is that the members of this audience live or work locally.

The hope is they will see your sign, print ad, or postcard or remember your outreach when there is an opportunity to refer. The lead volume for these tactics will be much lower (again, the goal is awareness, not lead generation). However, the closing ratio tends to be much higher in the long run. Senior living has a long sales cycle, and advancing prospects from awareness to close involves a multi-touchpoint and attribution strategy.

Weave these tactics into one comprehensive marketing strategy for senior living.

Do you need help putting all the pieces together and seamlessly executing various tactics? We can help. Get in touch to discuss your community’s marketing strategy.

Marketing Strategy for Senior Living

Marketing Strategy for Senior Living: A SMARTER Approach

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An effective marketing strategy for senior living begins with defining your business objectives and integrating them into your brand, growth, and resident (post-sale) strategies.

Below, we briefly explore each area, resulting in a blueprint you and your team can follow.

Strong business objectives build a strong foundation for your marketing strategy for senior living.

Every effective marketing strategy starts with well-defined business objectives. These objectives guide all subsequent decisions and ensure your efforts align with your community’s overarching goals.

growth-brand-resident-strategies

For senior living, objectives might include . . .

  • Breaking up with aggregators or reducing your reliance on them for lead generation
  • Attracting the “younger senior” with less acuity/frailty
  • Extending lengths of stay
  • Shortening the sales cycle

When developing your business objectives, focus on specifics and concrete figures.

Using the above list as an example, here’s what those concrete figures might look like:

  • Reduce dependence on aggregators by 30%
  • Bring the average age of new residents down from 82 to 78
  • Extend the length of stay in independent living from five years to seven years
  • Shorten the sales cycle for assisted living from six months to four months

Keep these objectives in mind when developing your brand, growth, and resident strategies.

Weave a killer brand strategy into your overall marketing strategy.

The goal is to create and maintain a strong brand identity that resonates with prospects, residents, and referral partners and helps differentiate your community from the sea of sameness.

Key components of a brand strategy include:

  • Your “why”: Clarify your community’s purpose and mission. What drives your team’s passion for serving seniors?
  • Ideal Client (Resident) Profile (ICP): Think of your best residents. They are your ICP. Does your website speak to your ideal resident, or is it trying to be everything to everyone?
  • Value proposition and unique selling proposition (USP). Your value proposition is how prospects benefit if they choose your community. (Think of it like this: What’s in it for them if they move in?) Your USP is that special something-something that makes your community different from your competitors.
  • Brand identity: Develop consistent messaging and visuals to establish trust and recognition.

Develop a growth strategy focused on driving new opportunities.

A growth strategy focuses on attracting, capturing, nurturing, and converting leads. The goal is to create a seamless journey for potential residents from awareness to decision-making.

Here’s a breakdown of essential growth elements:

  • Attraction: Use your website, social media, and other channels to increase targeted traffic and generate interest. Showcase testimonials, reviews, and affiliations to foster trust.
  • Lead capture: Implement tools like landing pages, forms, and calls-to-action to capture visitor information.
  • Lead nurture: Use marketing automation, personalized content, and other tactics to build relationships with leads over time.
  • Lead conversion: Leverage marketing technology (martech) to streamline the sales process and track key performance indicators (KPIs), such as:
    • Marketing-qualified lead (MQL) to sales-qualified lead (SQL))
    • SQL to tour
    • Tour to deposit or tour to move-in
  • Prospect re-engagement: For leads that get stuck in the pipeline, use digital retargeting with paid ads, targeted workflows to advance MQLs/pre-tour leads, and targeted workflows to nudge post-tour leads that have stalled. You can also use a workflow to re-engage leads sitting in the “cold” and “lost but not disqualified” status in the CRM. (We have effective workflows for all of these scenarios.)

Don’t stop once you close a prospect.

Post-sale strategies are just as critical as pre-sale efforts. By prioritizing resident experience, you can boost retention and strengthen your reputation, leading to more organic growth.

In fact, senior living professional Jamison Gosselin conducted a survey that revealed personal referrals (like friends and family) had a ton of influence on those learning about specific retirement communities (this was cited by 52% of respondents). Building an intentional customer strategy that fosters brand ambassadors will lead to increased referrals (and these leads tend to have the highest conversion rate).

Key elements to keep in mind during the post-sale stage include:

  • Onboarding plan: Moving is stressful. To make it easier for new residents to move in, provide valuable resources for downsizing, packing, choosing a mover, and planning for move-in day.
  • Welcome program: The first 30 days can make or break a new resident. Develop a new resident welcome program that’s as special on day one as it is on day 30.
  • Retention plan: Never stop delighting residents. Keeping residents happy will reduce turnover while creating new brand ambassadors.
  • Referral program: Develop a referral program that makes it easy for happy residents and their families to refer others to your community.

Bring it all together in one comprehensive marketing strategy for senior living.

Do you need help putting all the pieces together and seamlessly executing various tactics? We can help. Get in touch to discuss your community’s marketing strategy.

Fresh Ideas For Planning Events That Drive Traffic & Generate Leads

Marketing Events for Senior Living: Fresh Ideas That Drive Leads

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Editor’s note: We updated this article on 12/17/24 to shift away from pandemic-related suggestions..

Well-planned marketing events for senior living communities can generate qualified leads, re-engage stalled prospects, and create opportunities to develop new professional contacts and nurture existing relationships.

On the other hand, poorly executed events can be a big waste of time and money.

How can you make sure you’re putting together events that deliver excellent ROI? Here are three types we recommend: educational events, social events, and community events.

Educational events: Show that you’re an expert and a resource

Educational senior living marketing events will help position you as a trusted advisor and valued resource. Below are some topics and themes to consider.

  • Author Visit. Many authors do book tours, both in-person and virtual For in-person events, the author can speak and bring books for purchase and signing.
  • Downsizing/ Transitions. Invite real estate pros and downsizing experts for a lunch & learn series.
  • Financial Solutions. Same idea as above. Your community hosts experts for a casual lunch. Think VA benefits, life insurance conversion, and long-term care.
  • Memory Care Topics. Again, hold lunch & learn sessions on popular topics like brain fitness, education, research, driving, and dementia.
  • Support Groups. Ideas include caregiver support groups, Alzheimer’s support groups, men’s groups, bereavement groups, etc.
  • Continuing Education Units (CEUs). Do this in your community or bring your program to a local hospital or skilled nursing facility.

Social events: Be social and show off your community’s fun side

Give prospective residents and their families a taste of what your community is like by inviting them to attend social events and fun activities. Here are some ideas:

  • Art classes. Paint and sip nights can be a fun way to get people to mingle, and the prospective resident gets to bring home artwork that will remind them of your community.
  • Fitness classes. Offer day passes to your most popular classes.
  • Networking. Think breakfasts, lunch, cocktail receptions, martini mixer etc.
  • Dash & Dine. Stop by for a tour or event and take home dinner on us!
  • Brunch. Ideas include champagne, jazz, holiday, and Mother/Father’s Day.
  • Senior/Senior Prom with local high school (Star Dust Prom).
  • Holiday/ Special Day Socials / BBQs. Think of all the possibilities: Valentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, Mother/ Father’s/ Grandparent’s Day . . . and that’s just the beginning. You could focus on a silly day like National Hot Dog Day (third Wednesday in July). Invite a hot dog stand to set up shop on the premises and invite people from nearby towns to come by for hot dogs and ice cream on you.
  • Chef demonstrations. What better way to give people a sense of the food and menu options than by having your chef demo one of their top dishes or specialties (like cake decorating).
  • Fashion Show. Collaborate with a local store and use staff, residents, family, or professionals as models.

Community Events: Grass roots and local community

  • Host spiritual groups. Think parish nurses, Stephen Ministries, non-denominational meetings, or meetings with rabbis, pastors, priests, etc.
  • Host seniors’ groups. Think Red Hat Society, senior centers, and other related groups.
  • Host art shows for local schools/ artists or resident art
  • Host piano recitals for local teachers if you have a piano
  • Dinner & a movie if you have a theater
  • Sponsor a community yard sale
  • Host fundraisers. Consider fundraisers around the annual Alzheimer’s Walk or Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in September.
  • Sponsor a community health fair with free screenings
  • Host community group car wash (for example, for the local high school)
  • Host a variety/ talent show
  • Wreath/ miniature tree decorating – referral sources and families buy a wreath or tree and decorate it (usually with a theme) and raffle them off for charity at a social event.

Bonus: More great marketing events for senior living communities

Need help coming up with ideas? Get in touch and let’s discuss how events can fit into your marketing strategy.

Senior Living Marketing Perspectives: Defining the Sales Process

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Topics Discussed and Key Points:

  • The senior living industry from a sales perspective
  • Five situations prospects find themselves in
  • Tailoring your message for lead acquisition versus lead nurturing
  • Attributes of the best salespeople in the senior living space
  • The best way to approach personalization
  • Keys to empathetic selling

Episode Summary:

In today’s episode, Debbie speaks with Leff Bonney, an Associate Professor of Marketing at Florida State University where he teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in sales and sales management.

Leff has been involved in various consulting projects for major senior living providers to help them define their sales process and do a better job engaging with prospects and guiding them along the decision journey.

Some of the primary insights uncovered by Leff and his team include the fallacy of the persona-driven segmentation. Different situations may arise between customers who match established demographics. Therefore, Leff recommended shifting to situation-based segmentation that takes context into account.

Another unproductive practice is the one-size-fits-all approach that prevents providers from differentiating themselves from others, which of course is vital in attracting the right prospects.

Prospects find themselves in one of five situations when they come through the door. The top two situations are what Leff calls dazed and confused (comprising about 20% of prospects) and red alert (comprising about 30% of prospects), with the rest being either in the ready referral, prepared shopper, or tire kickers categories.

Asked for the attributes of top-performing salespeople in the industry, Leff names adaptability as the number one skill, as this allows them to navigate the often fast-paced developments that a prospect for senior living providers tends to undergo.

Another is curiosity, which allows them to paint the best picture they can of the prospect and their particular situation. Likewise, creativity minimizes the tendency for the salesperson to fall back on a one-size-fits-all approach.

In the same vein, the ability to personalize experiences dramatically boosts that all-important know, like, and trust factor, not to mention contributes to differentiation when done right.

Finally, Leff comments on the power of empathetic selling and how a focus on defining the problem instead of the solution, along with simple tweaks in copy, can make all the difference.

Resources Mentioned:

Leff Bonney on LinkedIn

Transcript

Senior Living Marketing Perspectives: Operating in the Senior Living Space Post-COVID with Amy McKinley

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Topics Discussed and Key Points:

  • Operating in a completely virtual environment
  • How salespeople can effectively address concerns related to COVID-19
  • Introducing empathy in the call and building a genuine relationship with the prospect with a no-touch system
  • The senior living space in a post-COVID world

Episode Summary:

In today’s episode, Debbie speaks with Amy McKinley, a 35-year veteran of the senior living space and the Co-Founder and CEO at Senior Source Consulting Group.

Amy discusses the overnight reality of having to advise providers on selling their community in a no-touch environment. Amy says that salespeople “now have to be more on point.” For instance, in-person tours and face-to-face mystery shopping have exclusively turned into virtual walkthroughs and phone calls—which arguably take more skill to manage.

She adds that, nowadays, “we have to be more transparent, but in a way that is meaningful to the prospect.” It is important to make people feel important on the phone. This is, indeed, more work, but if done correctly, can easily allow one community to stand out in a sea of ever-increasing noise.

Health and safety have obviously become top-of-mind concerns among both prospects and providers. It is vital not just to demonstrate the safety measures your facility adheres to, but also to give good reasons why a family member should make the move to that facility as soon as possible. One point to emphasize is that it is much better for that family member to live among a community than to be alone in these uncertain times.

Salespeople should never rely on filling the CRM alone. Unfortunately, most do. What Amy recommends is for the salesperson to apply tactfulness during the call, keeping an appropriate balance between discovery and building rapport. In other words, salespeople should never forget the lasting power of building genuine relationships.

Emotion, after all, is what creates urgency to make a decision. “They’re not going to get to that point if you’re just asking a checklist of questions,” says Amy.

Resources Mentioned:

Senior Source Consulting Group

Amy McKinley on LinkedIn

Contact Amy: 615-330-9553

[email protected]

Senior Living Marketing Perspectives: All Things Paid Search with Jay Buerck

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Topics Discussed and Key Points:

  • How the pandemic has impacted organic and paid search in the senior living space
  • Differences between Google and Bing for paid search
  • How to maximize organic search and, later, complement it with paid search
  • The steps to mapping out an effective SEO strategy
  • First-touch versus retargeting campaigns
  • Paid ads on Facebook versus Google and Bing
  • How to set proper expectations when running ad campaigns

Episode Summary:

In today’s episode, Debbie speaks with Jay Buerck, Director of Strategy at Digital Strike, a “search-focused marketing company” catering to businesses of all sizes. Specializing in organic and paid search, the company’s focus is to harness intent-based marketing from search engines.

In this conversation, Debbie and Jay do a deep dive into all things Google Adwords, PPC campaigns, and other strategies to increase a business’s web presence.

With over half of Digital Strike’s business being in the senior living space, Jay references a DialogTech study which found that search volume has been decreasing, up to 40% for certain providers. At the same time, 75% of searches related to finding a community have taken place online, with about 83% of those searches coming from individuals who do not have a specific community in mind.

“It’s vitally important to be online,” says Jay, “and increase your visibility, whether that’s through organic search or through paid search.”

Asked about maximizing organic search, Jay refers to the three pillars of SEO that Digital Strike subscribes to: technical, content, and authority. Anyone can start seeing a boost in their search rankings by optimizing all three of these foundational factors.

Jay also speaks on setting expectations when running ad campaigns, saying that it’s important to look not only at your company’s metrics, but those of others who have run comparable campaigns so that you are not looking at your data in a vacuum. It also helps to engage in conversation with stakeholders and refer to reports that reveal current market trends.

Resources Mentioned:

Digital Strike

Jay Buerck on LinkedIn

Senior Living Marketing Perspectives: Solving the Occupancy Puzzle with Julie Podewitz

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Topics Discussed and Key Points:

  • Why Julie decided to write a book specifically about the Regional Director role
  • How Regional Directors can develop productive relationships with different departments
  • How Regional Directors can plan their site visits in a way that is appropriate and adds value to all parties
  • How Regional Directors can create a system for higher conversions and set expectations with their team
  • Julie’s three-person coaching model for effectiveness
  • Why the senior housing lost/mismanaged lead statistic has not improved since 2007

Episode Summary:

In today’s episode, Debbie speaks with Julie Podewitz, Chief Sales Officer at Vitality Senior Living and author of the 2021 book Solving the Occupancy Puzzle: A Senior Living Regional Director Sales Playbook.

Asked why she chose to make the Regional Director the focus of her book, Julie says that this is “the role that has the most impact and the role we give the least attention to.” Julie has observed through the course of her career that “Regionals fail because of the lack of systems, the lack of specific expectations, and the lack of training and coaching.”

Julie speaks on the importance not only of communicating, but also of accountability between the Regional Directors of different departments, from sales and marketing to community relations. She also reminds Regionals to make it a point to “maintain their advisor status” in their interactions with prospects, taking care not to cross the line into friendship.

The value of connection extends to one’s strategy for converting prospects. “We’ve got to go back to those basics to build value and connect.” Similarly, Julie emphasizes that Regionals focus on one strategy at a time and double-down on it instead of spreading themselves too thin.

“The quality of your questions will determine the quality of the information you’ll receive.” Practicing these conversations is key, and the best way to practice is through regular roleplay. Julie describes her three-person coaching model for more effective roleplays, in which each of the three take turns (one permutation per training session) assuming the role of customer, sales counselor, or coach.

Resources Mentioned:

Solving the Occupancy Puzzle

Julie Podewitz on LinkedIn

Senior Living Marketing Perspectives: Business, Sales and Marketing Advice with Doug Davidoff

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Topics Discussed and Key Points:

  • How businesses can communicate with their target market to design better services
  • Creating an environment that makes prospects stay comfortable while in the pipeline
  • Tried-and-true advice for all sales professionals
  • The ever-evolving relationship between sales and marketing
  • Considerations around “high-tech, high-touch”
  • Identifying the touches that matter and ignoring those that do not matter
  • How letting go of (your feeling of) control gives you more control as a company
  • Creating a solid structure for your business to spark more creativity among your team
  • The truth about friction in the sales process and how to use friction to your advantage
  • The difference between a “challenger” and a “provoker” in sales

Episode Summary:

In today’s episode, Debbie speaks with Doug Davidoff, Founder and CEO at Imagine Business Development, a management consulting firm that has worked with over 1500 small and mid-market businesses. Doug describes his career as being about “eliminating or mitigating the conflict between buyers and sellers,” an approach that is applied at Imagine.

Imagine has discovered that most organizations already have the raw material to achieve what they want to achieve. What they need is the correct recipe to make their vision a reality. Doug says that the problem usually lies more in what organizations are already doing and have to unlearn as opposed to what they are not doing. Imagine ensures that their clients maintain the structure of their respective businesses “to enable them to achieve predictable, sustainable, and scalable growth, however they define ‘scalable’.”

Imagine has worked with countless businesses in many different verticals, and the number one issue that Doug found is a lack of empathy. Instead of creating a product or service from assumption alone, companies need to see the world through their customers’ eyes. In addition, companies have a tendency to “try too hard” or overestimate what they can do. Sales professionals simply need to solve for x. They need to map their customer’s journey to make their subsequent decisions more informed.

Historically, salespeople were responsible for communicating the value proposition. Today, that has become marketing’s job. Sales professionals now “facilitate the decision using the resources that marketing has created to reduce the effort involved to make a high-risk decision.” Sales and marketing, previously siloed departments, now work parallel to each other.

“Your job is not to sell the community,” says Doug. “Your job is to help somebody make a good decision about where they should spend their senior years.” With sales and marketing working in tandem, operating by the principles of empathy, the entire process becomes smoother. As Doug says: “The single best thing a company can do to increase sales is to make it easier for someone to buy.”

Links:

Imagine Business Development

Doug Davidoff on LinkedIn

Senior Living Marketing Perspectives: Learn about SMASH- The Senior Marketing and Sales Summit

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Topics Discussed and Key Points:

  • The origin of the SMASH conference
  • How SMASH has evolved over the years
  • Topics to expect at SMASH 2020
  • Lead generation, conversion, and management during and after COVID-19
  • Reimagining sales and marketing in the new normal
  • Interacting with prospects with virtual tools

 Episode Summary:

In today’s episode, Debbie speaks with Bailey Beeken, President of Senior Care Events and the Founder of SMASH—the Senior Care Marketing and Sales Summit.

Bailey discusses the concept behind SMASH, which was established in 2013. This series of conferences brings together C-level executives in the senior living industry, “curat[ing] the best of the best in leading edge marketing and sales.”

In its first year, the conversation was around social media and other branding platforms such as websites and how they can be used to market the company. In the following year, the focus shifted towards content creation and digital advertising for driving leads to these platforms. A couple of years ago, the primary topic became data management and how to create budgets and strategies around it. This year’s conference set for October 19-21 will go into considerations and best practices in a post-COVID-19 world.

With fewer leads coming in and heavy criticism from the media during these uncertain times, Bailey acknowledges that it is time for the senior living industry to “throw out the old playbook” and lead with purpose by “spending 80% of the time nurturing the 20%”. Communities must tailor their messaging around concerns regarding health, safety, and family by producing content at a cadence that is appropriate to the current climate. “We really have to reimagine the entire prospect journey and recreate all of those in-person activities [online],” agrees Debbie.

It is important for organizations to take advantage of virtual tools to connect and strengthen their relationships with families. “People are going to have to act with urgency. It is not just about getting revenue. The first movers will win here. They will not have all the answers, but they are willing to experiment. […] We have a lot of work to do to counter the message that has been told this past year and everybody has to get onboard with that.”

Links:

SMASH 2020

Phone: (917) 572-1118

Email: [email protected]

How COVID-19 Can Help Make Your Senior Living Sales Process Better

How COVID-19 Can Help Make Your Senior Living Sales Process Better

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Editor’s note: The following senior living sales content was inspired by discussions during our COVID-19 Webinar, which you can access for free here.

COVID-19 has forced all of us to change many aspects of our personal and professional lives, and this is especially true for senior living sales pros.

But here’s the good news: The adjustments you make to your sales process right now can serve you well over the long haul. Below are just some of the adjustments to consider:

1. Senior living sales tips: Stop selling. Start helping.

You’ve likely heard this advice before, especially if you’re a regular reader of our blog and newsletter. This isn’t a new strategy, by any stretch. But now is a great time to try it, especially if you’ve been skeptical of the concept.

So what do we mean by “stop selling, start helping“? No one likes being sold to (and definitely not during a global pandemic). But people do tend to be grateful for genuine help and concern.

Whenever you speak to a “prospect,” particularly during these uncertain times, forget the word “prospect.” Don’t think “how can I move this person to the next stage in the journey?” Instead, think of the word “human” and think about how you can help this fellow human.

Begin by asking questions…

  • How are you and your family adjusting to social-distancing measures?
  • What sort of activities are you doing?
  • What do you miss most?
  • Have you watched or read anything good lately?
  • What do you need help with?
  • What supplies are your running low on?
  • How can I help/be of service to you right now?

Listen to their answers. Share your experiences as well. And if they need help with something, help them—get them answers to their questions, follow up in a meaningful way, drop off a care package at their door.

And guess what? If you build stronger relationships by making a real connection and demonstrating genuine empathy, you will naturally move people closer to a purchase decision when the time comes. And when the pandemic is over, you’ll find that most of the prospects will see you in a very different (and more positive) light. You’ll have created a much stronger and enduring bond than you ever could have done when you were in constant selling mode.

A final note on this strategy: Yes, these sorts of conversations with prospects will take longer. But you’ve got the time, right? And here’s an important tip: try having these conversations face-to-face via virtual methods.

Which brings us to our next point . . .

2. Senior living sales tips: Make an effort to move from voice-to-voice contact to (virtual) face-to-face.

In the “old” days of just a few months ago, making follow-up phone calls to prospects was the norm. And it worked fine. A phone call was more personal than an email—hearing someone’s voice and all that. But given social distancing and the isolation we’ve all found ourselves in, we’re all craving VISUAL contact right now.

You already know that seeing someone’s face (and being able to read nonverbal gestures) can be critical to the sales process. You now have the opportunity to make visual contact a regular part of your sales follow-up process.

Use apps like Zoom or Facetime to connect with prospects. This visual contact better enables you to develop a relationship with a person, rather than a prospect. It also allows the person to see YOU as a human being rather than merely a sales rep trying to sell them something.

Suggesting video calls right now isn’t a hard sell, either. People around the globe are using these modes of communication to keep in touch with family and friends, so they are poised to accept this sort of communication from businesses as well.

In fact, Axios reports that this year’s Easter and Passover celebrations forced many older Americans to take the plunge and try video conferencing, like Zoom, for the first time. And Axios also wisely notes, “Older generations are usually slow to adopt new technologies, but history shows that when they finally do learn, they’re hooked.”

3. Senior living sales tips: Include more virtual events in your overall event planning.

Why have more virtual events, especially once things have improved? Well, COVID-19 has taught all of us that how we interact with brands and companies—including how we buy from them—can and will continue to evolve.

Not every sale—even for big-ticket items, like new living quarters—has to be done in person, thanks to technology. This is true, even for senior living communities. Some of our clients are reporting to us that they’re still making sales and move-ins during this time, albeit creatively and with much less in-person contact.

And now that consumers are seeing that they don’t need as much in-person time with sales people in order to successfully purchase something, demand for virtual sales processes will likely increase.

As a result, senior living sales and marketing teams will need to get creative and offer more virtual ways to engage prospects. This will be especially true for so-called “bottom of the funnel” events, like in-person tours, open houses, and lunches.

An important caveat: We don’t think virtual events are going to replace in-person events. But including virtual events in your offerings gives people (aka, your prospects) more choices—and ultimately more control.

4. Senior living sales tips: Clean up/update your CRM—and keep it updated.

No more excuses. You have the time to clean up your CRM, so do it.

Of course, the real problem isn’t the cleanup, though; it’s maintaining a clean database by getting in the habit of logging all details after every call on a go-forward basis

Again, you have the time right now. So after every call—even the long ones—get in the habit of immediately updating the contact record in your database with notes, info on the follow-up call, and any relevant tasks. For example, if you were talking to someone who was unsure about senior hours at the area grocery stores, assign yourself a task to get a list to the person ASAP. This goes back to the “stop selling, start helping” point above.

Note: Don’t have a CRM? (Or maybe you’re thinking of making a switch?) Here are six crucial elements to consider when choosing the right CRM.

5. Senior living sales tips: Focus less on lead volume and more on conversions.

Listen, we get it. You’re in sales. You live and die by the numbers. But consider this: would you rather have a ton of leads that never convert or a smaller amount of leads with a high conversion rate?

Lead volumes are down across the board due to the pandemic—some of our clients are reporting by more than half. But our most successful clients are working the leads they have in a sensitive and empathetic manner (see point #1 above) and seeing an increase in conversions as a result.

Think about that, because it’s a powerful point. Nurture leads in a more authentic, real way, and possibly convert more of the leads you already have. That’s not a bad approach right now—or in the future when we’re (hopefully) back to normal.

Need help thinking through your sales process post COVID—and aligning it better with marketing?

We can help. We’ve been in your shoes. We understand the enormous pressures you’re facing! Let’s chat.

MORE HELPFUL TOPICS:

What Can Sales People Do If They Cannot Sell?

Tips for Creating Virtual Sales Experiences in Senior Living

Senior Living Sales Tips: Characteristics of Super Star Sales Talent