The Regional Director of Sales and Marketing is a role that is pivotal to a senior living operator’s success; they can make a tremendous impact on occupancy levels, the health of the community sales teams, and most importantly the revenue of the company. But the challenges senior living Regional Directors of Sales and Marketing face today in leading the sales teams in senior living communities to occupancy growth are many:
- Competition among senior living communities is fierce, not only in the choice of physical community, but also in lifestyle, amenities, and monthly rates.
- Families are taking longer to make a decision. Greater access to information online is lengthening the decision-making process.
- Sales teams require more support, better support, expert guidance, and accountability to achieve the desired results.
- Sales team turnover remains high for a variety of reasons both internal and external.
- The characteristics of our customers’ personas are ever evolving, requiring constant tweaking of sales and marketing strategies.
- The digital marketing landscape seems to change before our eyes. New tools, technologies, ways of communicating, and social media platforms come and go on a regular basis.
Despite these challenges, the fundamentals of relationship-based selling have stayed the same. Fact: sales systems and processes work. Even the most naturally gifted salesperson will produce more when using a system. But success with a sales system requires mastery, and mastery requires practice. Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it is required to master senior living selling skills.
The Regional Director of Sales and Marketing supports it all. It is a challenging job; one that often goes undervalued and underappreciated by leadership above and sales teams below. A regional director wears many hats and carries a heavy load. The highest expectations are at the regional level, and the responsibilities are many and the pressure is high. Yet, there is often a lack of specific expectation, training, and guidance. All too often, they lack the structural foundations – such as a playbook, training, expectations, coaching, and ongoing support – necessary for success. This causes stress, which leads to burnout and turnover, which in turn stops the forward momentum of sales success.
The biggest gap in supporting this pivotal position is caused by a lack of tools, training, and guidance. We ask the regional directors to manage multiple communities, hold others accountable, identify problems, and create solutions. We require success yet fail to provide a roadmap to achieving it.
The lack of established regional director fundamental training may be because the job is so multi-faceted. Many corporate sales executives do not know where to start. Many do not have a roadmap. Often, a highly successful community sales director is elevated into a regional manager role, a role in which they lack the needed experience and skills in planning, training, mentoring, and accountability.
Three ways to support and strengthen your regional director sales team:
- Provide a playbook. Also known as a sales manual, this is a written guide to your company’s sales policies, procedures, measurables, and exercises.
- Set and support expectations. Outline your company’s specific expectations for sales success and provide your regional directors with the tools to support and achieve the expectations.
- Provide leadership coaching. Being an effective leader is not an innate talent, it’s a skill that needs to be developed, practiced, and refined. Provide your regional directors with a leadership coach who understands both sales and leading others to success.
Despite the many challenges faced by senior living providers today, sales management is one area where investing in the people can have a measurable impact. Giving your Regional Directors of Sales and Marketing the tools and support they need to be successful pays off in a healthy sales team, occupancy growth, and increased revenue.
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