Senior Living sales is a unique blend of art and science.
While there are effective strategies that your sales counselors should use for increasing occupancy at your mid-sized operation, knowing how to adapt those strategies to the unique needs of your prospective residents is an acquired skill.
These two factors come together in on-site community tours. While there are certain community features your sales team should always cover, there’s no denying the need for careful consideration of each planned tour.
Yet the reality is that many Senior Living sales counselors falter when it comes to touring your community for a simple reason—poor visit planning.
If your mid-sized operation is suffering from dipping revenue, then you may need to evaluate how your sales team is handling this important step in shortening the sales cycle.
Why Visit Planning Is Crucial for Senior Living Sales
If your sales counselors don’t take the time to plan for community tours, it may be because they don’t understand the importance of preparing for this activity.
Visit planning can mean the difference between driving more move-ins or performing at a mediocre rate.
To see why visit planning is so crucial, consider these statistics.
According to the results of a caregiver survey, Caring.com reports that caretakers with loved ones at an assisted living community reported the following reasons for their loved one’s move-in:
- 58% of respondents cited medical reasons.
- 27% reported their own needs as the reason.
- 20% didn’t give a causative factor.
That data depicts a variety of factors that may drive the adult child and his or her parent to tour your community.
Without individualized visit planning, your sales counselors may use a cookie cutter approach for the tour, appealing to one audience member, but not another.
Listening for Effective Visit Planning
Visit planning doesn’t start after your sales counselor hangs up the phone. In fact, it begins the minute you receive notice that someone is interested in your community.
Whether your sales counselor is responding to a walk-in or answering a phone call, he or she needs to know that visit planning can’t occur when there’s a major obstacle—excessive talking.
Excellent questions and listening are the keys to drawing out information needed for stellar community tours. You need to train your team to use effective listening techniques so they gather…
- How your prospect discovered your community.
- Why your prospect wants mom or dad to receive senior care.
- What medical conditions your future resident has.
- The needs, concerns, and emotions of all parties involved.
The answers to these questions will empower you to drive Senior Living sales so your community experiences better occupancy and revenue.
Turning Data into a Successful Visit
With key information in hand, your Senior Living sales counselors can now craft the best possible community tours for your future residents.
If medical issues have sparked the inquiry, then your team member can showcase your continuing care options. If the adult daughter has spent many stressful hours caring for her mother, then your team can highlight how your community can provide peace of mind.
After reading this article, you may realize how much your senior housing community struggles to experience superior on-site tours. If you have a low visit-to-move-in ratio, perhaps it’s because your sales team fails to follow an effective system for planning community visits.
Perhaps they’ve never had a system for visit planning, much less conducting inquiries or closing a sale, and the result is subpar occupancy and lost revenue days.
Bild & Company is a team of occupancy and revenue specialists. (We even have a free checklist to help operators diagnose the state of their sales departments. Check out our 13-Point Checklist: Close Revenue Gaps and Increase Occupancy for Your Senior Care Community.)
To get the help you need for better Senior Living sales, tap into our expertise in sales training for revenue growth.
