by Jeff Gronemeyer Guest Contributor Contrary to popular opinion, you might not need more leads in your sales pipeline to close the senior living occupancy gap. “We need more leads” is the most often place people go when sales are slow. While new leads are needed and appreciated, more and more and more leads won’t […]
Almost everyone has experienced a pushy salesperson who used high pressure tactics like guilt, scarcity, and fear to attempt to make the sale. No matter the result, the encounter might have left you with a bad taste in your mouth about salespeople in general. It’s not surprising then, as a sales coach, one of the […]
Sales professionals in senior living and multifamily communities often feel the mounting pressure of month-end occupancy goals. The last two weeks of the month become a frantic scramble to sign up new residents, fill units, and meet revenue targets. While short-term pushes are sometimes necessary, relying on a reactive approach month after month leads to […]
Sooner or later, every senior living community is going to have a rate increase. While a rate increase may fill senior living salespeople with dread, there’s no reason to let it deter you from achieving your sales goals. Here are our winning strategies to sustain your sales levels in the face of higher prices: Promote […]
In the fast-paced world of senior living sales, it’s easy to get distracted and pulled away from sales activity. Getting swept up in what’s happening in the community, mastering new technology, and trying new tactics that promise the next big breakthrough are just a few of the common distractions from selling we hear. However, […]
Each month, Grow Your Occupancy’s sales specialists call and visit dozens of senior living communities to perform mystery shops and skills assessments. They see and experience what is working well and what is not. In other words, what are the big wins and misses in the senior living customer visit experience. For this month’s blog, we […]
Most senior living operators ask for reviews from their residents. What so many fail to do is to ask for reviews from prospects and their families at various stages during their journey. The sales and marketing benefits of asking for reviews starting at the inquiry stages all the way through to the resident stage are […]
To keep new lead flow occupancy and NOI high, many senior living operators turn to lead aggregators like A Place for Mom or Caring.com. While convenient, this reliance on paid lead aggregators comes at a high price to the senior living communities. Can senior living communities stop using the lead aggregators they feel they can’t […]
The executive director has perhaps the greatest influence over occupancy growth in their senior living community. In our blog, “3 Reasons to Empower Executive Directors to Be Senior Living Community Sales Leaders”, we shared 3 specific reasons why executive directors should be empowered to be senior living community sales leaders: In this blog, we share […]
For senior living communities, maintaining a steady flow of high-quality leads is crucial for ensuring stable occupancy rates and achieving long-term success. However, many communities face challenges in attracting quality leads in the first place. Without a solid strategy to attract quality leads, maintaining a flow of leads that convert into residents is a challenge. […]
Generating new sales leads for senior living communities is an ongoing challenge that requires a blend of traditional and innovative sales and marketing strategies. Waiting in your sales office for the phone to ring, or for an older adult and their family to walk in off the street to tour your community are unlikely to […]
In the competitive landscape of senior living sales, the challenge of lost leads stands as a significant hurdle toward achieving target occupancy rates. The time and money spent to attract and nurture a lead is simply too high to let leads slip away. When you add up all the expenses involved, from advertising, marketing automation, […]
Most senior living regional directors of sales and marketing (RDSMs) are promoted because of their success as community sales directors. It makes sense to promote high performing, dedicated, driven professionals, yet the rate of turnover and failure in this role remains high. Senior living sales requires a high level of skill, the ability to manage […]
It’s easy to be complacent about attracting new senior living leads when your CRM database is full, but that’s the time to work hardest to keep your sales funnel full. We all want more leads, but for most, this means more leads who will move NOW. Keep in mind, there are multiple ways to grow […]
January is a time of “new.” New year’s resolutions, new commitments, new goals. While looking at how to enhance our life is a positive, what tends to happen is an overcommitment; a complete overhaul of behaviors or setting the goal out of reach. It leads to frustration and failure. In fact, over 90% of “new year’s resolutions” are forgotten […]
Winter is here, and as the snowflakes start to fall, you want your senior living community’s occupancy rates to continue to rise! This is a time that many “relax” and wait until after the holidays, after the winter. In our effort not to bother people, we fail to stay connected and prospects go “cold” (literally […]
As the holiday season twinkles on the horizon, it’s the perfect time to add some extra sparkle to your senior living community’s sales and marketing outreach efforts. Here are seven of our favorite ways to help you not only light up your occupancy rates but also bring joy and warmth to your community. Let’s unwrap […]
It’s that time of year again. Around mid-October, fear and despair come creeping in, sending shivers down the spine! It’s budget meetings season! A time when we must address the rising cost of doing business and – GASP! – rent increases! We’ve all been there. We don’t need to live in fear of raising our […]
How many times have you looked in your CRM and noticed the cold lead numbers growing? Statistically, most senior living sales databases are heavily weighted in COLD leads. If a customer doesn’t move quickly through the funnel, or if they aren’t reached on the first or second call attempt, they often go COLD. Companies vary […]
Once the domain of teens and young adults, social media is now widely accepted by older adults and has become a part of their regular lives. According to a 2022 Gallup poll, 69% of all US adults aged 55 and older have a Facebook account, and 60% use it daily or weekly. What’s the takeaway from […]
The Grow Your Occupancy Sales Specialists are a team of experienced and highly motivated senior living sales professionals who support our clients’ community sales teams, fill in when sales positions are open, when the sales team needs a boost and when cold databases need a “deep clean.” They’ve worked in hundreds of our clients’ prospect databases. They […]
Converting 10 senior living prospects to move-ins in a month sure sounds like an impossible task! It’s right up there with monthly goals like walking 100 miles, reading 4 books, doing 20 random acts of kindness to strangers, or losing 10 pounds. With the right mindset and strategy, they’re all achievable goals for most people. […]
In the increasingly competitive senior living industry, guiding leads to, and through, the sales cycle is essential for occupancy growth success. This article explores the three crucial phases prospects take in senior living sales cycle: By optimizing each phase of the sales cycle, senior living providers can improve the prospect experience, increase conversions, and ultimately […]
There are endless choices today for seniors and their families when the time comes to consider a move to a senior living community. The National Center for Assisted Living reports that around 28,900 assisted living communities are currently operating in the United States. You don’t want to get lost in that crowd! The single most […]
Julie Podewitz, CEO and Founder of Grow Your Occupancy, had the opportunity recently to sit down with special guest Rick Shamberg on the Grow Your Occupancy Podcast and hear some of his stories and insights from twenty years in the Senior Living business. Today, Rick is the Managing Director of Scarp Ridge Capital Partners, a […]
Key Performance Indicators – KPIs. This practice of measuring performance in business has been around in one form or another for a long time. Depending on who you ask, KPIs have been around possibly as far back as the third century A.D. in China! They’ve only become mainstream for most of us in sales in […]
2022 is behind us, whew! For many of us in senior living sales, 2022 marked a symbolic turning of a corner away from the pandemic upheaval of previous years. Our community doors opened again to prospective residents, masks were mostly put away, staff returned to the workplace, and the fears that senior living communities were […]
Depending on who you ask, the U.S. is either heading into a recession or is already in one. According to a recent poll in The Wall Street Journal, economists think there is a 63% chance of a recession in 2023. If a recession in 2023 really does pan out, what might that mean for senior […]
By Melinda Haney As we head out of the pandemic, we head into 2023 nervous about the economy. Cost of doing business is higher than ever, therefore budgets are squeezed. As difficult as it is, now is the time to invest in your sales teams. With the economy weighing heavily on our minds, history can […]
By guest contributor Emma Grace Brown Senior living owners and operators today should be well-versed in the concept of collaboration. Some researchers say that working with people of varying backgrounds and different areas of expertise will generate stronger ideas. When put into action, your employees should feel the effects of collaboration and be comfortable with […]
By guest contributor Dr. Cameron Zargar, Content Director, Experience Care Digital marketing has not only changed the business world but also the long-term care industry, though the latter has been a bit slower to adjust. “Senior living long-term care tends to lag a bit in its adoption of certain things like technology and marketing automation,” […]
As COVID-19 restrictions have eased, in-person networking and prospect events have been added back onto the schedule at senior living communities. And for good reason: well-planned events attract new customers to your community. (If you haven’t added them back to your schedule, now is the time to start.) While virtual events have produced mixed to […]
Marketing events are a goldmine for attracting both highly motivated prospects and referral sources to your senior living community. If you don’t have an active calendar of marketing events in your sales toolkit, you’re missing out! Planning and executing effective marketing events doesn’t require a small army of event planners and staff. These 6 steps […]
I drive a nine-year-old car. I love my car. It’s incredibly reliable. It’s not fancy, but it gets me where I need to go. I want to drive it forever. It’s always started when I get in. Except for this week. I got into my car. It wouldn’t start. And my heart sank. I don’t […]
The doorbell rings unexpectedly. You peek out the window and see a familiar car in the driveway. It’s a surprise guest at your front door. The first thing on your mind: the house is a mess! On the way to answer the door, you frantically pick up things left lying around and throw them in […]
Senior living is a high-touch, emotional business. In our ever-growing digital world, technology is taking on a greater role in sales almost before our eyes, but there is still tremendous value in a truly personal touch. During a recent sales workshop a top sales director was asked to share her tips and tricks. Her response, […]
