Selling Senior Living Today

Not even 3 months into this new area of our business, our recruiter Darren Arnett has already helped one of our clients acquire the talents of a proven sales professional.  This placement was what we refer to as a “cross-over” candidate who brought extensive and successful sales experience from another related industry.  With initial coaching from us for the first 15 weeks in Senior Living, this sales professional is off to a great start in the client’s community.  Our client has subsequently asked us to begin the search for other candidates based on their experience with Darren and his first class service approach.

~ Rick Hunsicker
President/Owner
www.HunsickerConsulting.com
www.SellingSeniorLiving.com

Check out the Zillow.com blog for great information about what’s going on in real estate.  Here’s a quote from their May 25^th blog that you can use to help seniors who think waiting for their home to go up in value is a good idea.  Zillow suggests that it’s not going to happen any time soon in any appreciable amount.

“Here at Zillow, we believe the housing market is close to reaching a bottom in terms of home values, but we don’t believe it’s there yet. We think the bottom will come in Q3 of this year, and be followed by three to five years of negligible appreciation. With foreclosures still climbing and plenty of pent-up supply waiting on the sidelines, there will be a limit to how quickly home values will appreciate.”

~ Rick Hunsicker
President/Owner
www.HunsickerConsulting.com
www.SellingSeniorLiving.com

Here’s some good news from the Kiplinger Letter of May 28, 2010.

“The housing recovery is real and sustainable despite recent volatility brought about mostly by on-again, off-again tax incentives for home buyers.

There are three reasons we believe the recovery will continue:

House prices are very affordable.  It now takes about 18% of the typical household income to meet principal and interest payments on a single family home, which compares well with the long-term average of 26%.

Consumer confidence is improving.  It doesn’t drive all purchases by consumers, but it does play a role in expensive, long-term commitments.  A recent survey by the University of Michigan found that about three quarters of Americans believe that this is “a good time to buy.”  The outlook is likely to stay positive.

And credit conditions will ease.  Many lenders are still waiting for assurance that home prices are stabilizing, but the consensus seems to be moving in that direction.  Credit will flow more freely as a result.”

So, what does this mean to you and your customers?  It means it’s time for them to get their houses on the market and move to your community.  Hopefully this information, which you can share with your prospects, will get more of them to decide that now really is a good time to make the move.

My message this month is about Leadership in Senior Living.  I had the opportunity in late May to present a two hour workshop for the Executive Directors and Corporate Leadership team of a client on my perspectives on Leadership in Senior Living, drawing on my own personal and corporate experiences in the senior living business for over twenty-five years, as well as the lessons that we have learned about leadership from Abraham Lincoln and others.

It was a great experience to spend time really thinking about the characteristics of the most successful leaders in our business whom I observed over the last 25 years, as well as to explain how my family, friends and I were led through my personal “life and death” situation in 2006 and 2007.  And, it was great to learn the terrific leadership examples of Abraham Lincoln during our country’s most trying internal conflict.

There was much to learn and much to share in preparing and making this workshop presentation.  So many of the leadership experiences translated so well into what is going on in senior living today.  And, the positive feedback from the attendees proved that taking the time to really get into “What is Leadership in Senior Living?” was well worth the time.

If you are interested in learning more about having such a workshop for your leaders, or a shortened version as a key-note address at one of your meetings, please feel free to give me a call or send an email.

RickHunsicker@HunsickerConsulting.com 214-906-3801

The key factor in most senior living communities is the people.

I’ve said for years, that when you find a community with the right Executive Director and the right Marketing Director, you’ve probably got a very successful community.

That’s why we’ve started our new service called Senior Living Talent, with our new website www.SeniorLivingTalent.com.

Darren Arnett, a 10 year recruiting veteran, has joined the Hunsicker Consulting team to provide talent acquisition and career growth services for our clients and candidates.

If you are looking for the Right People for the Right Job, or are looking to move your career forward with the Right Job, please check our new website or give us a call.
~ Rick Hunsicker
214-906-3801

~Darren Arnett
972-955-3849

www.SeniorLivingTalent.com
www.HunsickerConsulting.com
www.SellingSeniorLiving.com

Next week we officially celebrate 2 years in business for Hunsicker Consulting and SellingSeniorLiving.com. During this time we have had many opportunities to serve many clients, large and small, for-profit and not-for-profit.

Over the last two years we have conducted sales training for well over 150 sales people and managers through our sales seminars, sales training for multi-community and single community clients, and seminars sponsored by other senior living vendors.

We have conducted several marketing audits (I call them Marketing Examinations) for banks, investors and community sponsors.

We have provided on-site and remote sales support for 6 corporate and community sponsors.

We have attended several national and state level industry conferences, including being a featured speaker.

Our Selling Senior Living Today newsletter was produced and has received good reviews from readers like you.  And we’ve produced a leading article on Word of Mouth Marketing.

And, based on this early success, and a great 2 year heart check-up from my 12/31/2007 heart transplant, we have decided to expand our service offerings, to include:

• SeniorLivingTalent.com – our new talent acquisition and career growth service for senior living communities, corporations and senior living sales professionals
• SeniorRelocationUSA.com – our new relocation service for seniors moving to communities

One additional new service is currently being developed, but it’s still too early to announce this innovative new service.

And, we are currently upgrading our SellingSeniorLiving.com website to provide you and other senior living professionals the information you need to be successful in these interesting times.

So, for those of you who have allowed us to serve you over the last 2 years, I want to thank you for your support and your continued friendship.

~ Rick Hunsicker
www.hunsickerconsulting.com
www.sellingseniorliving.com
www.seniorrelocationusa.com
www.seniorlivingtalent.com