4 Senior Living Sales Triggers That Increase Conversions

The pandemic began more than two years ago, but senior living communities are only just crawling out from the wreckage of 2020. That year, senior living sales inquiries decreased by a shocking 41%.1 After hitting an all-time low occupancy of 78.7% in 2021,2 occupancy now stands at 81% and rising.

But if a dramatic drop in residency wasn’t challenging enough, you also have to contend with an abnormally long sales cycle, which usually takes about 120 days.3 In fact, nearly half of seniors who are looking for senior living4 begin their search for a community two years before they actually move into one.

Challenging Times for Senior Living

There’s no question these are challenging times for senior living marketers. Studies show that new resident opportunities convert 30% of the time,5 so your sales team should be turning one out of every three prospective residents into move-ins.

So the question becomes, how do you get to a place where one out of three (or more) prospective residents convert? On average, seniors take around 25 sales touches before making a decision.6 But what’s the final trigger to seal the deal?

4 Senior Living Sales Triggers

Senior living marketers have been asking this question for decades. Today we’re taking a look at four sales triggers we’ve found deliver top results for our senior living community marketing partners. 

1. Call Your Potential New Residents

You know that many of your prospective residents use the internet because most of them found your community while searching online. But even though the current generation of seniors is more tech-savvy than ever before, they still value a personal touch.

Calling is a wonderful way to get a little more personal with seniors. Spending quality phone time with prospective residents shows them you genuinely care about their needs and are interested in providing solutions to their problems, not just selling them bedspace.

If your sales team is able to provide prospective residents relevant information that addresses their specific pain points and concerns, that phone call could be the deciding factor for them to choose your senior living community.

And don’t forget, phone calls convert 30% faster than web leads,7 which is especially important given the long senior living sales cycle.

2. Host a Tour

Personal interactions, either over the phone or in person, are undeniably important to the baby boomer generation. One way you can get that valuable face time with potential new residents is by inviting them to tour your community.

During the pandemic, in-person tours were understandably limited and potentially dangerous, so many senior living communities started relying solely on virtual tours. While these virtual tours provided a valuable alternative, and many communities plan to continue featuring these tours through their websites, when it comes to truly getting a feel for the community nothing compares to a real-life tour. And for many of the new resident prospects who’ve been researching your community online, experiencing your community themselves will be the last nudge they need to convert.

3. Get Online Reviews

Your reputation is everything, and if potential new residents continue to hear wonderful reviews about your community from sources they trust, it makes them more inclined to seriously consider your community and make the decision to move-in.

Make sure your online reviews and reputation are well-maintained. Start by encouraging current residents and their families to share their positive experiences with your community online. This can be as simple as adding a reminder about reviews with easy to follow links to staff email signatures, leaving review reminder cards at the front desk, or even offering a monthly gift card raffle for reviewers.

And don’t forget to respond to every single online review personally—no templates allowed—regardless of whether the feedback is positive or negative. Your response can be just as powerful as the review itself, and people will notice if you leave negative reviews unaddressed.

According to Senior Housing News, 21% of seniors based their senior living decision8 on online reviews. Another 40% based their selection on the overall reputation of the community. Your online reviews and reputation matter and are quite often a deciding conversion factor for your prospective residents.

4. Provide Testimonials

People love a good story. Video testimonials are a powerful marketing tool to help prospective residents get to know what life is like in your senior living community. Seventy-nine percent of people agree9 they prefer to watch testimonials to learn more about an organization. 

So gather a few of your best spokes-residents and ask them to talk about their life in your community. Use their first-hand experience to connect with prospective residents and let them hear from their future neighbors in their own words.

A Good Website Makes a Great First Impression

Consistent conversion is never easy, especially in a rapidly changing sector like senior living. Dreamscape Marketing can help you overcome these challenges. Connect with us at 888.307.7304 to schedule your strategy session.

 

For a list of references, please contact us.