Seniority's Top 10
Seniority was founded in 1997 upon a simple premise: senior living leaders need help to make their communities successful. In the space of a decade, our industry has changed dramatically. Nonprofits face fierce competition from for-profits. Aging communities are confronted by the fact that they must be revitalized. And while capital is flowing for repositioning, investors expect strong business plans and aggressive pre-construction sales.
In short, the industry demands expertise -- which means the rationale for starting Seniority is even more valid today.
This October we will celebrate our 10th anniversary. If you've got Seniority, you know how much we like to celebrate. And it won't surprise you that our plan is to stretch this party over multiple months. (Hey, you only get one 10th anniversary, right?)
Alongside the celebrating, however, we want to reflect on what we -- meaning our colleagues, our partners and our clients -- have come to understand about our work in senior living. Actually, this newfound knowledge is worth celebrating, too.
So without further adieu (and with a nod to David Letterman), here are The Top 10 Things We've Learned in 10 Years. Let us know what you've learned, too.
Sloan Bentley
President
#10: Sales is not a dirty word.
It wasn't long ago that only a brave or crazy few whispered the word "sales" in senior living. Back then, it was "admissions." Sales was OK for Mary Kay but not for nonprofit retirement communities.
We've come a long way. We learned that sales and marketing are critical for success. Moreover, instead of being a necessary evil, sales is really a good and natural process of sharing a product or service we actually believe in.
#9: But never use the f-word.
When you get serious about sales, you have to think about the language. No one wants to buy a room in a "facility." But "community" is another matter. A community represents a lifestyle for which people aspire. A community is the kind of place where Mom moves in and the adult child doesn't worry.
Seniority's founding president, Joe Anderson, used to fine people a dollar every time they used the f-word. We learned quickly to clean up our language!
#8: People buy peace of mind -- not easy-entrance shower stalls.
Remember those days when senior living ads were built around a bulleted list of services? The thinking was this is what consumers wanted -- a check-list: 24-hour nursing care, three meals a day, cable TV, the emergency call button, etc. Of course, the ads weren't very compelling. And the results weren't too good.
In the early 1990s, Seniority's parent company, American Baptist Homes of the West, embraced a consumer-oriented philosophy for sales and marketing. As we learned more about our customers, we began to understand that moving into a retirement community was a heart decision, not a mind decision, like buying an appliance. So we needed different language.
We learned that consumers are really buying security, not the call button. They are buying peace of mind, not the 24-hour nursing care. We learned the language of "benefits" vs. "features." Joe Anderson drilled this one into us just as he forbade the use of the f-word.
By the time we launched Seniority in 1997, we were all card-carrying members of the Benefits Club. Literally. We each had a pocket-sized card that listed the benefits we were selling: Independence, Security, Peace of Mind, Companionship, and Freedom. Now this was compelling. And the results showed it worked.
#7: You can't preach until you're baptized.
If you're selling widgets, you might be able to move them without any feeling about their quality or helpfulness. But you can't do that in senior living. You've got to believe in the product to sell it.
We learned early on that sales and marketing teams have to be evangelical about this stuff. We must be sold ourselves on the idea that continuing care is a great thing, or that assisted living is good for both residents and their adult children. We've got to believe these are communities where we would want to live someday.
Now, if we don't believe, we have to do some soul-searching. Maybe we don't belong in this business. Or perhaps we don't believe because our product is not up to muster. And if that's the case, what do we do?
We've learned that our desire to be true believers makes sales and marketing a force for quality improvement. We help get things into a shape we can sell.
#6: A shoe box is not a system.
Don’t get us wrong. The women of Seniority love shoe boxes. But when it comes to keeping track of prospects, the shoe box with index cards has got to go.
Ten years ago we saw a lot of shoe boxes and other homemade approaches to senior living sales and marketing. To be fair, shoe boxes had a leg up (or is that a foot?) over the absence of any practice for tracking prospects. Back when "sales" was a dirty word, the very idea of calling potential residents "prospects" was risky. You could be branded as a troublemaker and face the scolding words, "This is a not-for-profit retirement community, not a used car lot." Those brave souls who started keeping index cards on the sly should be regarded as pioneers!
But we learned we need a lot more than a shoe box. We need a system, which by definition means a process wherein data is stored, connected and used to move prospects along the sales path. A system is also replicable, which means that multiple people in multiple locations can tap into it and benefit from it. A system like computerized lead tracking makes the sales process easier, more efficient, and consistent.
With the advent of the Internet, we've seen online lead tracking become even more powerful. Ticklers, reminders, ways of segmenting prospects, automated letter and mail functions, up-to-the-minute statistics -- all of this is at our fingertips today. And that’s just one system among many which lead to success.
By the way, if you love those shoe boxes, don't fret about their future. Freed of the sales office, shoe boxes flourish as dioramas, play bricks, even shoe-box guitars.
Click here to read the rest of the Top 10.