Testimonials

“Thank you to Julie Podewitz and Grow Your Occupancy!”

Jill Berry, Vice President of Sales & Marketing

Country Meadows Retirement Communities

“We hired Grow Your Occupancy to do a sales leadership training workshop for our Executive Directors. Julie provided great role-playing exercises that drove engagement and raised the team’s overall sales acumen. After the training we had some Executive Directors commit to spending at least 3 hours a week on outreach. It definitely hit home.”

Gift Mutemba-Mutasa, VP of Sales & Marketing

“GROW is an amazing organization. They provide exceptional service and value. We need a rather large number of mystery shops done in a very short timeframe. GROW got them done – beautifully – with time to spare. I cannot recommend them enough!”

Cindy Longfellow, Vice President of Business Development, Sales, and Marketing

“Juniper was so fortunate to have Julie Podewitz of Grow Your Occupancy join us for one of our monthly trainings. Her enthusiasm is contagious. Her content was spot on and compelling. We were particularly impressed by the focus on those mid-funnel, perhaps beyond ‘not ready yet’, but certainly stuck in the decision making process type leads. The detailed tactics, approaches, and even specific questions to begin to move these leads forward were incredibly helpful. Comments from our team were resoundingly positive. Thank you Julie for a terrific, quick-paced, and impactful training!”

Cindy Longfellow, Vice President of Business Development, Sales, and Marketing

“The Grow Virtual Sales Specialists have had a very positive impact on our communities. They are incredibly responsive, professional and productive; making calls to both new and existing leads, schedule tours and aiding with move-ins.

It’s such a relief to know that every lead is being taken care of, from those at the top of the funnel to those who may be stuck along the way.

At Transforming Age, we’re making great use of the VSS teams in multiple communities. They help fill vacant Sales Director positions and provide support to our existing sales teams.

Using Grow Virtual Sales Specialists has proven to be a wise investment, as they significantly boost sales productivity and deliver excellent results, giving us a strong ROI.

It’s been a pleasure working with Julie, Dresden and their team!”

Paul Barlow, Vice President of Sales and Marketing

“We’ve engaged Grow leadership and sales coaching services earlier this year and although we did not budget for it, we are definitely seeing an ROI from the investment and will be including it in 2024 budgets as we see the value of continued engagement.”

Sara Robertson, CEO

“I would recommend Grow Your Occupancy to anyone and everyone! The team at GROW cares about our prospects and our sales team. They understand their responsibility not only to us, their client, but to our industry. Integrity, honesty, respectfulness and great follow up–that’s how I describe the team at Grow!”

Paula Rathgaber-Gomez, Vice President of Sales

“My confidence and results grew during my coaching sessions with Julie. I went from 4 move ins monthly to 5 and then 7. I am more comfortable giving advice, creating the journey for the customer. It doesn’t feel salesy yet I’m achieving greater results. Do yourself a favor – invest in sales coaching!”

Jessi Barton, Sales Director

“My new ED shadowed on a tour, and part of her feedback was praise around listening, but also connecting in a way that the family knew I was listening…. all I could think was, “that’s training from Julie!”

John Michael Foley, Sales Director

“We engaged the Grow team to support our CRM transition. This was a huge project for us with many moving parts and decisions to make. Julie and her team supported us every step of the way in making the integration simple and successful. We implemented the recommended activity and conversion benchmarks. We also engaged them to create our own branded training guide which has been immensely helpful in supporting our teams.”

Jill Berry, Vice President of Sales and Marketing

“Thank you so much for your amazing discovery you are doing with our prospects! I am always impressed with your emails and recommendations. You are such an amazing asset to the PSL communities you are representing!”

Kristin Hambleton, Vice President of Sales and Marketing

“We hired Julie and her team to conduct mystery shops for us. I had used other vendors before. The shops that I received were scored fairly and accurately. The best part of the shops was the constructive coaching to encourage the salespeople to try different techniques!  The salespeople accepted the feedback in a positive way using the coaching remarks to improve their performance. The audio was powerful and effective! What I particularly liked was the overall summary pointing out the high-level sales basics already in place, and then really helping with overall needs for the company. We will be using them again in 2nd quarter!”

Kristin Cherry, Vice President of Sales and Marketing

“I did love the training and took lots of tools from it. I borrowed her phrasing about matching your heartbeat to a community. I used it on my Friday tour, a very very very tough tour (we won over Stonebrook Village and Harbor Chase)! He emailed back over the weekend and deposited on Monday and repeated back that phrase as why we chose us!”

Sondra Jones, Regional Director of Sales & Marketing

“Using a virtual sales assistant for call outs, follow ups, and database cleanup has taken a huge burden off our sales teams’ shoulders. Removing this added stress allows them to focus on converting the highest probable leads by spending time developing deeper relationships with prospects.

Lola Rain, Head of Marketing

“Julie first trained with our teams almost 15 years ago. We immediately saw occupancy and revenue growth and have continued putting her sales practices into place through the years. Implementing proven sales systems is a critical component to support our portfolio growth and change.

We recently brought Julie and her team back to lead our strategic sales initiatives in a post-COVID landscape. Her tactical strategies are simple to implement, make sense to our teams, and keep us grounded in the every-day whirlwind of running senior living communities. I am also a huge fan of her book. I carry it with me and refer to it often. Everyone on my team has a copy!”

Patrick Dooley, President & Chief Development Officer

“Julie is a pro at what she does and an excellent resource for marketing ideas and approaches to the senior living industry. Her positive spirit and time-tested ideas can make a big impact on your sales. It is well worth your investment!”

Mark Hamby, Director of Sales

“One Lincoln Park started using (Grow Your Occupancy) coaching services in 2010 when our “magic number” was 50. It is now 6! Julie has been instrumental in helping keep our sales team focused and motivated. Every coaching call makes us feel good about what we have accomplished and leaves us with greater clarity as to what we need to do. She has become very much a part of our team and I’m convinced, is one of the main reasons for our success.”

Ana Johnson, Executive Director, Independent Living

“I have worked with Julie Podewitz for over 5 years. Most recently, Julie has been providing coaching calls to my marketing team for a large independent living senior property. Our coaching calls with Julie have provided that extra push that resulted in record occupancy. We couldn’t be more happy to have finally reached our goals and are pleased to report that we now have an extensive wait list. Julie’s positive approach and attitude is motivating and her methods are tried and true. I am confident that if you are looking for a “coach” to fine tune the sales process, Julie is your go-to person!”

C. Ryan, Regional Director

“During the 6 ½ years Julie worked with me (as Director of Operations and Vice President of Marketing) and our marketing teams, she is the one individual with the greatest impact on our collective success, growing to 95% company-wide census. As a coach and presenter, Julie has a direct but supportive approach and has successfully guided me and others on our teams to be better sales people, managers, and coaches ourselves. She has the ability to capture your attention and keep you engaged. As a coach, she infuses you with the belief you can do it and celebrates when you do!”

Gretchen Vakiener, Regional Vice President

“The training I received from Julie had great impact on my professional growth. Through her coaching, I have been able to develop my skills of active listening, drilling down and closing!”

Elizabeth Bartleman, Regional Director Of Sales

“Julie’s coaching resulted in my career advancement. Not only did I personally grow occupancy to 100% with a waitlist, but then was able to help others advance their occupancy as well. Julie has the ability to help people tap into their strengths. She is intuitive and gets to know the people she works with. I grew both professionally and personally and highly recommend her training and coaching. It’s more than worth your investment.”

Shelli Webster, Senior Living Sales Expert

“Julie Podewitz is the ultimate Sales and Marketing Professional. In the 18 years that I have been in sales, I have never worked with someone with such an innate ability to train others while giving them such a sense of pride in the career that they have chosen. Anyone who has the pleasure to learn from Julie should consider themselves extremely fortunate and soak up every bit of knowledge that she gives to them.”

K. Walker, Senior Living Sales Specialist

“Julie inspired our group of owners, operators, and marketing/salespersons to use her brilliant tips to make the best use of leads and convert them to sales! Packed with wonderful, useful, and practical information that is easy to understand and implement.”

Tara Eckhoff, Executive Director

“Julie’s presentation resonated with our team members. She provided real-world examples and tools to differentiate themselves from the competition, accelerate the sales cycle and connect with prospective residents.”

Sloan Bentley, Former President

“I have had the privilege of working with Julie Podewitz in various roles. As a mentor, Julie was able to share her sales expertise and coach me on all aspects of relationship selling and effectively leading sales teams. As a supervisor, Julie provided me with the tools, support and leadership that allowed me to do my job to the fullest. Julie is an expert in senior housing sales. She is passionate about ensuring customers are treated right and staff is engaged and excited to do their jobs. I have the upmost respect for Julie and know that whatever she does, she will do it at 110%!”

Peggy Scoggins, Regional Director, Sales Expert, Senior Living Consultant

“Julie has a passion for helping others succeed. She helped me to think in ways I never did before and changed my techniques while staying true to my own style.”

Lindsay Steele, Director Of Admissions And Marketing

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