Nurture Senior Living Leads – Personalized Sales Cycles
Walking potential residents through the senior living sales cycle requires both skill and compassion. Unlike traditional home buying, certain stigmas and concerns emanate from joining a senior living community. Often times the senior is not the only individual involved in the process. Additional family members, sometimes with competing goals, are also invested. With all of this in mind, nurturing senior living leads can sometimes feel like a tightrope walk. Here are some best practices to improve your sales cycle and help potential residents find their new home.
Keep it personal
Ultimately, the goal of a senior living community is for residents to prosper and engage life to their fullest potential. The best way to nurture senior living leads is to learn what their passions are, what their limitations are, their hopes for joining such a community, as well as their fears or concerns.
How you go about learning this information is equally important. Automated, impersonal kick-out emails or generic fliers can’t target this information. They also can’t be the catalyst for an engaging, ongoing conversation. Consider adding a level of familiarization and rapport-building through a video message. Platforms like Covideo can allow you to add a personal flare to your outreach. Plus, robust features like video-reply allow your potential resident or their family members to also respond in kind.
Consider interests, level of care, and more
Senior living communities hold additional responsibilities aside from simply housing residents. Identifying the interests, level of care, timetable/urgency, and other unique factors not only personalizes the process, it also allows you the opportunity to highlight differentiators your community can offer.
SmartBug Media seconds this notion, stating “Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, you can tailor the messages your [potential residents] receive […] based on things like their community of interest, level of care, and stage in the buying journey—helping you accelerate sales-ready leads and nurture those who need more time.”
When you nurture senior living leads, you have a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate your understanding and appreciation for each individual who eventually ends up becoming part of your community.
Act fast
Nurturing senior living leads traditionally takes an average of a few months to close. Your ability to shorten the sales cycle starts from the first interaction. Rather than checking for new leads once a day or a few times a week, respond immediately. Not only does a quick response start your sales cycle quicker, it also speaks inherently to many other intangibles that impact a potential resident’s decision.
Senior Care Growth doesn’t mince words on this subject, adding, “Responsiveness communicates a lot about your senior housing organization—including the kind of attention residents receive, the value you place on people, and your professionalism. Not only do slow response times indicate that you aren’t interested in the callers, they show that you may not have your act together at the living communities either. You need to respond within minutes, not days.”
Takeaway
Potential residents who are considering your community are coming from a vast array of circumstances. Whether this is an acknowledgement of waning independence or an exciting new chapter being shared with other seniors, how well you nurture senior living leads is ultimately connected to how personalized and attentive you can make the buyer journey. By personalizing your outreach, prioritizing detail gathering, and communicating promptly, you can not only shorten your sales cycle, but also deliver a fantastic transition for senior residents.
Interested in learning how one of our customers reduced their senior living sales cycle by 87%? Check out the case study here!
