Adapting For Today And Planning For The Future

Written by Karen R. Adams (Vice President of GSI)

These economic times call for innovation, creativity, and even a dash of daring.  To survive, and even thrive, it is important to be calm, focused, and efficient in your marketing efforts.

Understanding the markets that you serve, and those that you don’t, is critical in these extraordinary times.  You need to be the one that captures households that can and will move in spite of all of the turmoil, or perhaps because of it.  Furthermore, you cannot afford to neglect market segments that were not obvious to you in the past when the prospect pools were deep.  Operating from historic patterns of market draw may be telling you only what transpired under one scenario, not necessarily what is possible.

Many professionals are predicting that a significant period of time will pass before most housing markets rebound.  This does not mean that the retirement living markets will disappear, but it does mean that we need to evaluate all of our strategies, keep some, adapt some, adopt new ones, and abandon others.

There are some consistent strategies that are being discussed all around the country that make sense, but the trick is in their implementation.  These cross-cut sales strategies and tools, organizational structure, and retirement communities’ understanding of and ability to provide what the markets are seeking.

Arm Your Staff With Facts

The more your staff can respond to prospective clients with facts, the more confident they will be in assisting prospects in making a sound decision.  In turn, the prospects will feel that the staff is truly concerned with helping them make an informed decision, and not jus pushing them in order to make a sale.

Know the facts of the housing market: “Can I sell my home?” This is one of the most obvious areas of concern for prospects these days. There is a lot of fear and many global assumptions about the market.  When people hear a general trend they often apply it to themselves.  For example, declines in home values are hitting 40% and even higher in some markets, while others have seen minimal decline.  This dichotomy may even be present from neighborhood to neighborhood in the same area.  However, homes are indeed selling in many markets.  Understanding what is happening in your particular area (home sales, pricing, time-on-market), and having factual data to support it, will help sales staff allay many of the fears that they encounter.  It may also help to calm the “the sky is falling” emotions of staff.

Furthermore, these market-based facts are critical to supporting the CEO and the CFO in making decisions about other programs that can assist  potential residents in moving into their facility, such as providing home-sale assistance, deferring entrance fees, and other strategies that will effect the financial picture of the organization.

Staff should also understand that home equity can vary dramatically by age cohort, and that when a home was purchased can result in very different scenarios.  Older adults usually have owned their homes long enough that the homes are still worth substantially more than what they paid for them.

Programs that offer prospects facts about the current environment and concrete tips for selling a home are effective in helping to make a decision about selling.  These are best done by a reliable, neutral, outside source.

Demographics

Another aspect of arming yourself with facts and re-evaluating your assumptions lies in the scope and characteristics of your market.

• How is your market area defined geographically?  Is it based on where you have pulled from historically?  As a result, are you potentially missing market?   Is there more or less competition in a broader area, and might this effect your ability to expand your area?

• Redefining your market area involves evaluating realistic expansion areas based on what others have been able to accomplish.  You should also evaluate, by zip code, the depth of potential markets, realistically defined by age and income characteristics of who you can attract.  Finally, is there enough potential expansion market to warrant additional marketing costs or a survey to measure the markets’ interest in your product as it exists, or a re-defined product?  If there are such markets, it is penny-wise and pound-foolish not to communicate directly with the markets to measure their potential interest.

• How deep are various market segments (age, income, geographic area), and are there ways to attract some segments that you have not addressed in the past?

• Have the characteristics of the area been changing and how?  Do you need to reposition your message or your services?

• Can you offer things that the markets are seeking but that no one else is offering?  This could be the factor that entices people to move into your facility at a greater rate than would be suggested by previously-observed patterns.

Competition

It is also important to understand your competition.  Get a good handle on all aspects of the competing operation, including the number and type of units they offer, pricing, services, and what is included in fees.  This allows staff to assist prospects in making the right decision for them.  The “right decision” may not always be to select your facility,  but the sense that you are protecting the prospect will go a long way in creating a positive perception and positive “word-of-mouth” testimonials.

Detailed data on competitive facilities are also valuable in carefully refining your measure of potential demand and depth.

• See it, touch it, feel it: We are often amazed at how many Organizations are aware of competitive facilities, but how little they actually know about them, or about the feeling that prospects get when they walk through the front doors.

• How old are the competitive facilities, and more importantly, how well are they maintained?

• How attentive is their staff to their prospects?
  

• Some of the least “modern” facilities still draw significant attention from prospects via  CEOs’ open doors (giving the sense that they are valued all the way to the top), immediate attention from staff, listening, etc.

• Where does each competitive facility “fit” in comparison with what you offer?  The blurring of lines between “independent,” “congregate,” and “assisted” living has never been greater, and with markets delaying moving, the lines are further blurred.

• Know how your product compares with others in the market.  What makes you different?  What are your advantages and disadvantages?  Prospects are comparing your facility to your competitors, so the sales staff needs to be prepared to help differentiate and discuss what sets your facility apart.

Staff Is Key

All staff members, from top management to floor staff, must be pulling in the same direction.  The old adage that all staff members are marketing staff is never more true than during difficult times.

• Sales and marketing staff need to listen and understand the concerns of prospects.  They should be tuned-in to their needs and desires and to the possible barriers to moving.  They also need to have the skills and the organizational support that allows them to make serious decisions, on the front lines, that will assist the prospect in deciding to move.

• CEOs that are available and visible to prospects send a strong message that the prospect is important to the very top of the chain of command.

• CEOs who are flexible and provide a timely evaluation of proposed solutions for prospects are critical to meeting market demands while preserving the organization’s viability.  Canned responses no longer work.  Standard pricing, incentives, payment and move-in schedules have become barriers where once they provided efficiencies.

• Dining, housekeeping, care-givers – all departments must show as top quality at all times.  Trying to find a day when meals are particularly good for prospects to dine at the community may mean the loss of a sale while someone else courts them immediately.  The same holds true across all services.

• The yield from canned sales pitches will be small and random during these times.  This means that staff needs an extraordinary skill set, including the ability to:
  • Listen and hear the needs of prospects.
  • Think, identify the issues and barriers, and to formulate reasonable solutions.
  • Communicate effectively to both the prospect and to management about what each prospect needs, and the viability of possible solutions.
  • Engage others in team problem-solving for identifying solutions.

Organizational Checks and Balances

The Organization needs to create a structure that allows staff to act, but is, at the same time, accountable with a system of checks and balances.  In very difficult times, staff will often make promises that can, over time, prove to be untenable for the facility.  These promises can haunt the organization well into the good years that follow the bad.  Management may be unaware, primarily because they are in a crises mode of their own, and seeing occupied units is a welcome, immediate relief.

There is little doubt that creating new programs and options will raise concerns among existing residents.  More flexible move-in options, deferred entrance fees, and trial periods all result in residents wanting to know why they did not receive the same offer.  While the answers seem obvious, the need to communicate with residents is crucial to maintaining their support (remember, word-of-mouth can save you or kill you).

• Be up front and open about the situation.  Share your data to make key points.  Seek their understanding, and work with them to identify “rewards” for that support.  Even small things can let people know that they are you most valued core.

Summary

1. “The Sky Is Falling” is a self-fulfilling prophecy and the wrong focus.  Now, more than ever, we need to be focused, efficient and rational.
2. Go Back to Basics.  Assess your current situation, know your product, know your external environment, re-evaluate the tools and messages you are using and your assumptions.
3. Re-evaluate your market area and everything in it to determine if there is potential to draw from a wider area.
4. Listen, listen, listen.