Implementing the Right Sales Systems Makes All the Difference! It's no secret that there's more of a struggle to fill up vacancies these days. Our stormy economic climate means that seniors communities that never had trouble filling up units before now have to compete on a whole new level. If you're not slashing rates, it's hard to contend with other communities that are especially when they're also offering incentives like unlimited health care & monthly rent for one low price. Potential buyers are also skittish due to the difficult real estate market. Yes, it's all too easy to get discouraged - and lose your sales mojo." The good news is you have it in your power to get results for your organization. I'd like to share the success stories of three awesome clients we've been coaching that are now seeing increased revenues and growth thanks to great executive and marketing teams that took our proven sales strategies onboard and made them work. Let's start with Heritage Senior Living. About nine months ago, we began training and coaching their executive and marketing teams for five different properties with Independent & Assisted Living. Thanks to their effective implementation of our Science of Selling," they've experienced 15% growth across the board. Their most challenging property, The Manor on Market Square, is in a high crime area of Philadelphia and was at 87% occupancy when we began coaching. Today it's at 100%! They also boosted the occupancy in another of their properties by 31%! How did they achieve these amazing results? By working on each individual aspect of the sales process, from converting inquiries to onsite tours, then converting onsite tours to sales. Add to that a systematic follow-up and Outreach program, as well as a management committed to holding their sales and marketing staff accountable to the new systems, and you've built a stairway to success. The Heritage management team Kevin McCollum, VP of Heritage, says regarding our sales strategies, The most important thing is to get total agreement from the leadership. It's got to become part of the culture of the company." Let's move on to a completely different company and a completely different challenge. St. Andrew's Village in Colorado, operated by The Stratford Companies, is an upscale Continuing Care Retirement Community that offers both rental & entry fee apartments. This is a market that's been hit hard in recent months but by diligently putting our systems into place nine months ago, they've managed to increase occupancy by 7%. What really motivated the marketing staff at St. Andrew's was our Activity Point System. We assign points to what we call Income-Producing Activities anything that furthers sales possibilities. We require people we're coaching to accumulate a certain number of these points every week because, we know, the more you try to make sales, the more sales you make! Finally, a really phenomenal success story. The Birches, in the Chicago area, is a full service assisted living senior community. Historically, their occupancy rate has always been full or nearly-full. Again, the economy has hit them hard taking them down to 84% occupancy. Not ideal by any standard. We began coaching and training them only two months ago. In that time, they've managed to get back to 93%. That's remarkable and the accolades go to Carol Weigel, the marketing director at The Birches, who committed herself totally to our program. By implementing same day follow-up calls, utilizing our connection sheets for calls and visits and initiating an Outreach program, she walked the walk all the way down the line and doubled her deposits in the process. All three of these success stories demonstrate that investing in your marketing team and giving them the tools to sell in this economy can turn things around quickly. When lower occupancy puts a big dent in cash flow, the best way to get it back on track is to fill those units up again. Again, you have the power to make that happen. Copyright (c) 2009 Traci Bild
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