Selling Senior Living Today

Did you realize what your Body Language tells customers can make or break sales for you?  Have you ever studied Body Language and it’s affects on sales success?

If you’d like to learn some of the ways the way you use Body Language can help you in your business of senior living sales, you’ll find great information in the Senior Living Excellence Sales and Marketing e-Learning Module on Body Language in Sales.

Body Language in Sales is one of over 45 e-Learning Modules in the new Senior Living Excellence Sales and Marketing library now available at http://www.sellingseniorliving.com/senior-living-excellence.html.

For more tips, subscribe to our monthly newsletter!

~ Rick Hunsicker
214-906-3801
President/Founder
www.HunsickerConsulting.com
www.SellingSeniorLiving.com

I’ve recently had an inquire from another consultant asking if I had a source for the statements many make about seniors living better and longer in a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC).  One of my colleagues found one such source that I want to share with you.

Most sites that refer to CCRC residents living longer use http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/ccrcrpt.pdf as their source. It has this paragraph on page 8:

“The information within this section relies heavily on the findings of William Scanlon and Bruce Layton in the United State GAO Report to Congressional Requesters. Statistics show that CCRC residents have a life-expectancy which is 1½ to 2 years longer than other elderly individuals. It has also been found that CCRCs reduce the risk of disease and disability and improve the health and functioning of their residents. Although little research has been done on what exactly causes these noticeable health benefits, many have attributed it to the more active approach that CCRCs take towards health care.”

The report was written by Jacquelyn Sanders, a third-year undergraduate student at Colgate University at the time. She doesn’t quote original sources for the statistics and in the report she refers to (by Scanlon & Layton), http://www.gao.gov/archive/1997/he97036.pdf

I hope this helps you in presenting to your customers the benefits of living in a CCRC vs. remaining in their home.

For more tips, subscribe to our monthly newsletter!

~ Rick Hunsicker
214-906-3801
President/Founder
www.HunsickerConsulting.com
www.SellingSeniorLiving.com

Would you like a sneak preview of one of the most innovative learning and training tools for senior living sales professionals?  Click on these two links for a preview of Senior Living Excellence.

Senior Living Excellence Introduction

Building Trust and Credibility

Hope you enjoy and learn!

For more tips, subscribe to our monthly newsletter!

~ Rick Hunsicker
214-906-3801
President/Founder
www.HunsickerConsulting.com
www.SellingSeniorLiving.com

Join us for the first Free Senior Living Summer Sales and Marketing Webinar Series brought to you by Hunsicker Consulting and SellingSeniorLiving.com.  You can register for one or all three of the webinars listed below.  Everyone who registers will receive the popular Executing Word of Mouth Marketing White Paper. These webinars will be presented by Rick Hunsicker.

Effectively Dealing with the Housing Situation – Friday, July 22 12PM CDT

Learn about why owning a paid for old house is a bad idea for seniors today, especially financially and how more communities are helping seniors get houses sold!  Sign Up

Advanced Sales Approaches for Senior Living Today – Friday, August 5 12PM CDT

Learn some of the newest and most effective sales approaches being utilized today by successful communities and how to effectively overcome the most common sales objections.  Sign  Up!

Build a Highly Effective Marketing Plan for 2012 – Friday, August 19 12PM CDT

Learn a unique approach to build your 2012 Marketing Plan based on how customers buy and get successful strategies to consider for your 2012 Marketing Plan.  Sign Up

Hopefully this tip will help you if you are in sales of senior living communities.  When a prospect says they are not ready yet, ask them if they have lived in a senior living community before.  Most will say they have not, and then you ask them how they know they are not ready if they have never lived in a community before.  The best thing to do at that point is to invite them for a trial visit to your community.  Trial visits result a high percentage of move-ins, since many seniors then realize that they are really ready after they experience the lifestyle.

For more tips, subscribe to our monthly newsletter!

~ Rick Hunsicker
214-906-3801
President/Founder
www.HunsickerConsulting.com
www.SellingSeniorLiving.com

Have you developed your Marketing Plan for 2011 yet?

Are your strategies and tactics based on connecting with your customer at each of the 5 Steps of their Decision Process?

It’s not too late to start your plan, or review and revise your plan, to make sure that you are reaching your prospects at each Step!

Step 1:  Need Recognition/Problem Awareness

Step 2: Search for Information

Step 3: Evaluation of Alternatives

Step 4: Purchase and Implementation

Step 5: Purchase Evaluation

Today it takes new and different approaches to be successful, and building and executing a plan with the customer in mind works! 

For more information on our Interactive Internet Workshops on Building Your 2011 Marketing Plan, email us today at RickHunsicker@HunsickerConsulting.com

~ Rick Hunsicker
214-906-3801
President/Founder
www.HunsickerConsulting.com
www.SellingSeniorLiving.com

Many of you have started thinking about your 2011 Marketing Plan, hoping to develop a plan that will provide improved sales results over your results this year.

I have discovered a new approach to help build the Strategies, Tactics and Action Plans that might help you in developing the most effective plan for the new year.  I’ll share some of this with you here and on other posts.

When people buy things, they typically go through 5 Steps in the Purchase Decision Process.  Those Steps are #1. Need Recognition or Problem Awareness, #2. Search for Alternative Solutions, #3. Evaluation of Alternatives, #4. Purchase and Implementation and #5. Purchase Evaluation.

Have you ever thought about building your Marketing Plan and your specific Strategies based on how you connect with the customer at each of these steps?

When you really think about it, you will realize that you really do need to develop your plan around what is happening with the customer as the go through these purchase decision steps.

For example, in Step #1. Need Recognition or Problem Awareness, is your plan designed to help prospects realize they have a need to do something now?  Especially today, with so many of our prospects sitting on the sidelines, will your plan for the new year include Strategies and Tactics that help the customer say something like, “Well, maybe we do have a need to move now, especially from a financial point of view.”  I mention the financial need because right now so many of our prospects don’t think they “need” to do something until they have a health need! 

I’ll be providing more information on this concept in future postings.

~ Rick Hunsicker
214-906-3801
President/Founder
www.HunsickerConsulting.com
www.SellingSeniorLiving.com

I’m returning from a visit with some industry friends in Birmingham and have been thinking about how we approach the development of our sales and marketing approach.

Do you approach your sales and marketing efforts based on the buyer’s decision making process or based on your marketing selling process?

Do you know the stages of the typical buying process?

Step one is deciding to decide, otherwise referred to as problem or need awareness.

Do seniors today think they need to sell their homes and move to a senior living community?

Many seniors don’t see the need if there are no “triggering events” forcing them to make the move, however, in many cases they may have a latent financial need to move that they are not even aware of. With home values still declining or stable at best, seniors with free and clearn homes may actually be better off selling now and moving to a senior living community.

Taking the time to help seniors understand the real costs of remaining in their homes compared to the real value you provide in your community will get many seniors starting to realize they may really need to move now, and therefore they may start “deciding to decide”.

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