The LIFT l October 2019

OCTOBER 2019 //

Inspiring Senior Lifestyle Marketing & Sales Teams to New Heights

THE MORE YOU KNOW THEM, THE BETTER YOU’LL SERVE. 1

R EACH THEM with content Did you know our Senior Lifestyle Intranet is a cornucopia of rich, wonderful resources for you and your prospects?

Visit intranet.seniorlifestyle.com and explore the trove of blogs, ebooks and articles – all created to help you, your prospects and their families become better informed about making smart senior living decisions.

Click over to the Senior Lifestyle Intranet and see what you can find that’ll help you help them.

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A Message

FROM THE CREW Know your target audience. This edition of The LIFT is devoted to that idea and offers strategies for zeroing in on your prospects – listening, responding and converting.

Subtle refinements coming to the Senior Lifestyles brand will further sharpen the two channels of prospects.

The brand will affirm the confidence and self-determination of independent seniors exercising their freedom to plan. To them we offer marvelous independent living communities in which their plans can be fulfilled.

And where seniors – and their loved ones – find themselves under pressure to solve a health-related problem (“Dad can’t go home from the hospital,” “Mom can’t live alone any longer”), the brand responds with urgency and kindness. We’ll help them find a Senior Lifestyles community that supports their needs.

You already refine your approach to each individual. We’ll help by subtly aligning the brand for the two audiences – independent living and health care.

Wishing you all a season filled with success, Your Sales & Marketing Leadership Team

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STAND-UP A Vit a l Co m p o n e n t to Yo u r S u cce ss.

Cindy Ames The Sales & Marketing Training Team’s monthly

to the customer how they will be able to

training webinar launched in October, and the

help, during their community tour. Connect

topic was Stand-Up Meeting. If you didn’t have

your customer with your solution-driven

the opportunity to attend, you can listen to the

team member, and the customer will quickly

recorded version in the Training Library on the

understand why your community is the right

Sales & Marketing Training intranet page.

place for their loved one.

Note: Instead of calling the trainings

Achieve your goals.

“monthly webinar,” do you have a catchy

Stand-Up Meeting is an ideal opportunity to

name we should use? If so, email me at

share sales stats. Complete the sales portion

cames@seniorlifestlye.com with your idea.

of your Stand-Up Meeting tool prior to your meeting, and you’ll be able to confidently share

Stand up for success.

occupancy data and other pertinent data with

Stand-Up Meeting is a vital component to

your team.

your success. Why is it so vital? Because it gives you, as a sales associate, time to share

With effective communication during Stand-

your customer’s stories with your team.

Up Meeting, you’ll build a sales culture and set

When you share the stories, you can begin to

plans to involve your team during a customer’s

create connections between team members

community visit. You’ll also keep your team

and customers before they even visit the

informed about and engaged with monthly

community.

budget goals.

Each customer deserves a personalized community visit experience based on their particular story and needs. So take your Inquiry/Planning Tool to your Stand-Up and review your plan with the team. Then ask the team members who would provide a solution for a particular customer’s need to explain

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MEETING:

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DDSM CORNER

Excel in Outreach.

Jacquelyn Katona, DDSM

I find deep value in outreach within each market I work, and over the years I’ve come to see the impact it can make on a community and increasing occupancy. Yet outreach isn’t always our first focus – especially when we need to also invest so much time responding to new leads, nurturing those leads and improving our conversion rates. Those priorities are very important, but it’s equally important to have a solid presence within your respective market so you can build key relationships that result in professional referrals. The challenges of outreach are outweighed by its personal and professional rewards, and learning how to excel in outreach is one of our teams’ greatest opportunities to grow occupancy.

Fun Fact: Did you know that Professional Referrals is one of the highest converting sources in the company at 34.8%? It’s right behind Employee Referrals (42.7%) and Resident Referrals (35.8%).

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10 Tips for Outreach Success To help us in our outreach journey, these are the 10 tips for outreach success that I’ve used throughout my career:

1. Complete your outreach plan prior to

5. Need to get key referral sources like SW

the start of the upcoming month and

and CM out to your community? Offer

review your top three SMART goals for

your community transportation to pick

that month with your ED. Throughout the

them up during their lunch break and

month on a weekly basis, you’ll want to

treat them to a quick tour and lunch at

discuss whether you’re on track to reach

your community.

your goal. If you’re not, why not? Should

6. Become your market’s trusted resource

you change strategies? The collaboration

and you’ll be ideally positioned to create

between ED and DSM is key to success.

awareness within your community at

2. Outreach is only effective when there’s a purpose and goal for each professional

large at internal and external events.

7. Offer your community as a meeting

visit. We nurture our prospects and

space for various local organizations – for

create next steps, and we should apply

example, Rotary Club, bridge clubs and

the same principle in designing and

women’s/men’s organizations.

managing outreach to professionals:

8. Partner with organizations headquartered

Always have a next step for advancing

in your market. To find those

the relationship.

organizations, start with their EAP

3. Visit residents in the hospital or rehab a few times every week. You’ll create

(employee assistance program).

9. Brainstorm with your management team

opportunities to meet and extend your

to discover their existing relationships

relationships with social workers, case

in the market and how you can leverage

managers, nurses, hospitalists and other

those relationships.

specialty doctors – plus, time spent with residents is its own reward.

10. Finally – and most importantly – plan your work and work your plan!

4. Testimonials speak volumes! So use Testimonial Cards (find them on our

At 34.8%, Professional Referrals is one of the

Intranet) to highlight family members’

highest converting sources we have.

positive comments about your

And that begs the question: What can you

community. Bring these testimonials

and your team start TODAY, to increase your

when you go out on appointments,

referrals? No matter what approach you take

and you’ll have a resource far more

and what you decide to do, you must remember

memorable than a trifold.

this: Ask for the business every time!

Happy relationship building!

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Social Media News.

Seniors connected in September. Overall, the post-engagement rate for Senior Lifestyle communities was 15.3%, and 47 communities posted an engagement rate even higher.

Best of all was Carriage Court of Marysville.

Their 11 posts racked up a 36.7% engagement rate.

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September Event Recap.

Call-tracking numbers are uniquely assigned to all paid media ads and direct mail. The collected data provide insight into which event generate the greatest response. For the purpose of measurable data, only calls more than 30 seconds count, and duplicate phone numbers are eliminated.

• Monday and Sunday events received the most calls, averaging 11 and 9.5 calls per placement, respectively.

• 10:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. events received the highest call volume, averaging 38 and 10 calls per placement, respectively.

• Direct mail outperformed all other media sources, averaging 10 calls per drop. Directory was second-highest, at an average of 3.3 calls per placement.

Top event themes Events with the highest average calls per placement: • Medicare Presentation: 37 • Lunch & Learn VA Benefits: 22 • Fall Prevention Seminar: 18.8 Top community performers Communities with highest average calls per media placement: Homestead House’s Fall Prevention Seminar: 33 Maurice House’s Live a Worry-Free Lifestyle: 21 Addison of Pleasant Prairie’s Fall Prevention Seminar: 18.5

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303 East Wacker Drive, Suite 2400 Chicago, IL 60601 www.SeniorLifestyle.com 10