Senior living sales are “high ticket” sales. With an estimated median monthly cost of $5,511 for an assisted living unit in the U.S. in 2024, approximately $66,126 in annual revenue at stake with every sale of an assisted living unit. (1) In many cases, there is much more at stake, once Level of Care charges and/or other any other a la carte services, Community Fees, possible Entrance Fees, and/or Second Person fees are included
If you have 10 or more vacant assisted living units, that’s approximately $793,512 in possible lost revenue that is at stake annually. With 20 or more vacant assisted living units, you could be facing possible lost revenue of $1,587,024 per year until those units are filled!
At The Heart of Senior Living Sales
Buying into a senior living community is also an emotional purchase. If a senior knows they need more help around the house, but they are emotionally attached to the family home they have lived in potentially for decades, it can be challenging to convince them to make a move.
If an adult child / responsible party needs to make decision about where Mom or Dad will live next, because their loved one needs additional care, there is also a lot of emotional investment in this decision.
Your Biggest Competition: The Senior’s Own Home
Your sales team’s biggest obstacle frankly will typically be the senior’s desire to remain in their own home. For many seniors, it can feel like losing some of their independence when they choose to move to a senior living community. So how can you help them make this momentous decision?
What are the top qualities you need to nurture in your sales team to be sure that they can close more sales and generate more revenue for your senior living community?
The Three Most Important Things
Frankly, the three most important things any sales professional must have are:
- A strong belief in your senior living community product;
- A deep and in-depth understanding of your top competitors in your market area, and knowing how to effectively differentiate your senior living community(ies) from your top competitors;
- And most importantly their valuable TIME.
Ideally, you will only have people on your sales team who are deeply invested in your community.
If your sales team is truly invested, they would be happy to have their own Mom or Dad move into your senior living community. If they don’t feel that way, you may want to sit down with your team to investigate what do they feel would need to be changed or improved in your community in order for them to choose it for their own family. Perhaps there are simple issues that could be addressed in your community’s overall strategic plan. If it remains clear over time however that they aren’t truly loyal to your community, or would not choose it for their own loved ones, that can be a red flag as well.
It’s not enough to just believe in your senior living community and product, however.
The Secret to Senior Living Sales & Marketing: Differentiate, Differentiate, Differentiate!
Your sales team needs to have a deep understanding of the top area competitors in your primary market area. Ideally, you should have someone on your team check the monthly fees, Level of Care fees, and fees for any a-la-carte services for your top competitors at least annually.
Or you can hire a professional mystery shopper once a year to tackle this task (The Roche Associates can help, and you can learn more about that in this recent blog post). Assessing your top area competitors will help your team to be able to differentiate your unique selling points.
In the end, however, your sales team’s TIME remains their most valuable asset.
Generating More Truly Age- & Income-Qualified Leads for Your Senior Living Community
This is why it’s important to find ways to qualify your leads to ensure that they are truly age- and income-qualified (you can read more about that in this blog post).
Your sales team’s time should be spent primarily in the selling zone – in conversation with prospects, doing in-depth discovery interviews with prospects, leading tours with prospects, and engaging in motivational interviews with prospects (if your team needs help with any of these, a sales training by The Roche Associates can also help!).
A top key to making sales is for your sales and marketing team members to conduct an in-depth, in-person Discovery Interview with any prospects before touring them through your community to get a deeper understanding of their wants and needs; fears and challenges; and their timeframe for making a move.
The discovery questions for the most part should be open-ended questions, such as:
-
Why are they considering a senior living community at this time?
- What might happen if they delay moving – what if they were to take a fall while home alone?
- What if Mom or Dad were to miss taking a critical medication?
- What if Mom or Dad were to wander away from home if confused?
In the case of assisted living or memory care, the search for senior living communities is often precipitated by an incident in a senior’s life (such as a fall or a recent hospital stay), and/or simply a need for more care than their loves ones can provide. Therefore, the situation is frequently more urgent, and the timeframe is typically shorter.
By understanding the challenges facing the prospect, whether it’s a senior or their adult child or another responsible party, your sales team can better tailor their community tour and sales pitch to meet the prospect’s individual needs.
In contrast, here are the top, most common obstacles that can obstruct sales:
- Lack of Belief & Enthusiasm in Your Product & Yourself
- Lack Of In-Depth Product Knowledge
- Not conducting an effective Discovery Interview
- Not Taking “Control” of The Sales Situation
- Ineffective Interviewing & Qualifying Skills
- Not Consistently & Persistently Communicating The Benefits, Advantages & Unique Selling Points of Your Product
- Not Creating Value Which Far Outweighs The Price or “Cost” of Your Services
- The Ineffective Addressing of Objections
- Lack of Direct “Closing” Approaches & Failure To Ask for The Order
- Lack of Persistent Follow-Through & Keeping of Promises
Conquer all of the above, and your team is well on their way to turning more prospects and leads into deposits, sales and move-ins for your senior living community! If you need help with training your sales team, schedule a complimentary consult with The Roche Associates’ President & CEO, Joe Roche.
P.S. Our unparalleled training on “Generating An Ongoing Stream of True Age- And Income Qualified Leads & Referrals” can help your marketing & sales teams both generate more truly qualified leads and referrals, and close those sales in a timely fashion. Please reach out to The Roche Associates to learn more if you’re interested in hiring us to train your team.
(1) Source: https://www.seniorliving.org/assisted-living/costs/
