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3 Reasons Discounts Aren’t the Answer to Increasing Move-Ins 

Increasing move-ins is the never-ending goal for any Senior Living community.

There’s no guarantee the current census of your mid-sized operation will remain stable. Whether you face high resident acuity or local competition, your revenue depends on driving Senior Living sales.

While it’s vital your sales counselors achieve a strong inquiry-to-move-in ratio, there’s another factor you need to consider. How your sales counselors achieve those conversions is just as critical.

Too often, sales departments rely on discounts and incentives to drive the sales process.

Though discounts have their place, you risk serious trouble for your community if they support your occupancy and revenue. Here are 3 reasons you can’t rely on financial incentives for increasing move-ins:

  1. Discounts Damage Revenue and Reinvestment

It’s obvious that discounts reduce your revenue. But when your sales team is under pressure to meet a benchmark, this can be easily overlooked.

Don’t forget that slashing monthly rents to secure move-ins creates a loss each month. The longer your residents occupy those discounted rooms, the longer you’re forfeiting revenue.

Even worse, you’re also losing the opportunity to reinvest any residual profits. If your community consistently uses discounts, then you may find there’s no extra income for…

  • Needed renovations that improve the touring experience.
  • More outreach activities to generate leads for your community.
  • Fuller staffing coverage to improve online reviews.
  • Readying apartments for more move-ins.

In other words, discounts force your community to forgo improvements that can generate even more revenue for your community.

  1. Discounts Cloud Metrics for Increasing Move-Ins

Increasing move-ins with incentives harms your community in another—less obvious—way. Discounts decrease the effectiveness of the metrics and benchmarks you’ve set for your community.

For example, your community may have the goal of 5 move-ins per quarter. But if each sale involves several incentives, you’ll need to increase your sales to compensate for the revenue you’re sacrificing.

In a situation like this, conversions are strong but revenue is weak, and the result can be confusion.

  1. Discounts Worsen Underlying Problems

Increasing move-ins with discounts can do more than damage your revenue and obscure your metrics. Perhaps the most serious consequence of all is that incentives can worsen underlying challenges in your Senior Living community. Here are a few problems you may experience:

  • You neglect building value for your community. It’s tempting to use incentives to patch over community flaws. Cutting the price makes it easier to overlook the real reasons you need to discount in the first place, such as dated furnishings, unengaged staff members, and more.
  • Your sales counselors use discounts to compensate for absent sales skills. If your team doesn’t fully understand the sales process, discounts become an easy way to mask real problems. Incentives can compensate for your department’s weaknesses in taking inquiries, conducting tours, and closing sales.

Offering financial savings to potential residents can be an effective technique if used wisely. But when your mid-sized operation constantly sends out emails blasts and direct mail offering steep price cuts, this is a sign of significant problems.

The key to increasing move-ins for your community isn’t cheapening your price. It’s building value for prospects so they’re ready to pay for all your community has to offer.

Bild & Company helps Senior Living organizations across the nation transition from relying on incentives to strategically driving revenue with proven sales systems.

Put an end to the discounts, and equip your sales department to achieve sustainable growth. Secure revenue growth coaching for your community.

 

Closing Your Senior Living Revenue Gap Is A Phone Call Away.

Contact Bild & Co to grow your
occupancy now at (800) 640-0688