Senior Living Sales Tips: How to Rock Site Visits

The role of a regional director of sales & marketing is tough. You have to manage up, down, and across various groups (corporate, community, and regional peers). Not to mention, you have the responsibility to impact occupancy with little authority. You have to get your results through influence.

And one of the biggest ways you can influence people (positively or negatively) is through site visits.

Here are some senior living sales tips for rocking site visits.

Senior Living Sales Tips: Take the Time to Plan

Effective site visits begin with solid planning, specifically communication, preparation, and collaboration with the Executive Director. Make sure you explain when you’re coming, why you’re coming, and what you expect of people during your visit.

Senior Living Sales Tips: Review Reports and Diagnose Before Your Visit

Don’t waste your actual site visits reviewing reports with the teams. Instead, review reports in advance of the visit to diagnose strengths and weaknesses and to identify trends. Then, during your actual site visit, share what the data reveals and coach team members based on your findings. This will result in a much more productive site visit for everyone involved.

Senior Living Sales Tips: Begin and End with the Executive Director

Too often, regionals walk right by the ED’s door and spend their visit with the sales team. Success in this role is greatly influenced by the partnership with the ED, so be sure to begin and end the visit together reviewing goals and outcomes.

Senior Living Sales Tips: Coach, Model, and Teach

Sales teams learn by practicing, observing, and doing! If creative follow up is an opportunity to improve closing ratios, plan to spend an hour with the sales counselor to model good follow up. Review active leads prior to going to the community and come prepared with some creative follow-up ideas. Brainstorm these leads with the sales counselor and follow through to model the behavior you want to reinforce.

Senior Living Sales Tips: Are You An Auditor Or A Coach?

In an ideal world, you should be both: audit before you arrive (e.g. review reports, as suggested above). Coach people during your site visit. Below are traits of each.

Senior Living Sales Tips: Focus

Site visits and coaching should be in alignment with your quarterly focus and tie into your overall improvement strategy. If your quarterly focus is to improve tour-to-deposit and move-in conversions, make sure you focus all of your time and energy on those areas.

Senior Living Sales Tips: Leave The Team With a Plan!

Every site visit will end with the creation of an action plan based on what you observe during the visit. Be specific in setting expectations, timeframes, and responsibilities. Don’t wait until the next visit to get updates. Review this action plan during your weekly calls.

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