How do you shorten the sales cycle in senior living?
Well without a doubt, this is the million-dollar question! If we had the answer to this question, senior living sales wouldn’t be the most difficult sales position around. And as a result of COVID, it’s only gotten longer. So here are some thoughts, based on drivers and trends, on where we need to take our sales efforts in senior living as restrictions begin to loosen in our communities.
Our target market has never been more tech-savvy. A recent AARP study indicates that “adults 70-plus have a particular fondness for tablets, with more than half (53%) owning one, up from 40% in 2019. These tablets aren’t just sitting on a coffee table gathering dust: 69% of those 70-plus said they use their tablets daily.” Another quote from the AARP article on the study states, “…technology gave older adults some good vibes, with 44% saying they have a more positive feeling toward tech now than they did prior to the pandemic.” So the landscape has never been better to transfer your sales efforts into a much more digital space. Another survey done in 2018 by Epsilon indicates that consumers want personalized experiences by brands they trust. And I’m not talking simple email personalization of the prospect’s first name when you send marketing emails. We’ll dive into more of that below.
(Sources: AARP Study and Epsilon Study)
The lengthy senior living sales cycle gap between Inquiry and Tour is problematic across all community types and levels of care, but particularly problematic for Life Plan/CCRC Communities. According to Enquire CRM’s latest benchmark study comparing 2020 against 2019, the gap was an average of 88 days for Life Plan Communities prior to the pandemic in 2019. In 2020, that gap clearly increased dramatically to 116 days (side note: I’m unsure how this isn't higher quite honestly with communities closed to tours in 2020) and clearly, this is a concern across the country as Life Plan Community occupancy dropped in Q1 of 2021 to a record low of 84.3% based on a study just released by NIC and Ziegler. I’m unsure how we’ve gotten to the point where we’re willing to accept a 3-month delay in our prospects coming for a tour, particularly given that only 23% of Sales Qualified Leads actually participate in an in-person tour. If we are cognizant of the speed to lead metric (critical for lead generation success), we have to be even more diligent about the concept of speed to tour.
(Source: Enquire CRM Benchmark Study and NIC/Ziegler Report)
Given these two dynamics of technology adoption in our target market like never before plus a major increase in the sales cycle, sales teams need help. We believe digital tools can help with the evolution of the sales process in order to meet the prospects where they are and recover occupancy. One of those digital tools is the YourTour platform. With YourTour, sales counselors are enabled to:
Sell from the prospect's perspective and meet them where they are in the process.
Make the best first impression in a competitive market.
Help the prospect evaluate faster and get "unstuck".
Find the right advance throughout the sales process.
Set up the in-person tour to be more meaningful and impactful while avoiding tour fatigue.
While our platform is young, we’ve already had a number of very solid success stories emerge from our senior living client communities. Here’s a quick set of testimonial highlights from our clients:
“YourTour has been a lifesaver this past year, particularly with the marketing of our expansion project. Without being able to bring prospects in we used YourTour to familiarize them with our campus, floor plans, amenities, renderings, apartment finishes, and were even able to share with them drone video that demonstrated views from all sides of the future buildings. It truly helped us convert $1,000 deposits to much larger and more permanent commitments of $10,000.”
- Lynn Ross, Director of Sales and Marketing - Arbor Acres Retirement Community in Winston-Salem, NC
“YourTour is the product we needed to adapt our sales process for our blue-sky community. The platform has been a huge win for us to provide solid expectations of the community as it's under construction. And it's helped us secure over 80 depositors in less than 6 months. Bottom line - YourTour has enabled our sales efforts to succeed in a very difficult sales environment.”
-Stovall Kendrick, Executive Vice President - Greenbrier Senior Living, Highpoint at Stonecrest in Summerfield, FL
Within a 45-minute Zoom call using YourTour, I was able to showcase the community, highlight our new apartments, and show floor plans and virtual tours. The next day, the couple I Zoomed with sent in a deposit check. They said they felt like they had been to the campus for a tour.”
-Stewart Rawson, Director of Marketing - Still Hopes Episcopal Retirement Community in Columbia, SC