The senior living industry is in a state of transition. A decline in insurance reimbursements, rising operational costs, shorter lengths of stay for higher acuity residents and prospective residents exploring alternative forms of care have caused communities to focus on attracting more private pay independent living and assisted living residents in order to maintain a healthy bottom line.
This move to reposition will be a hot topic among industry leaders and influencers for the foreseeable future. And there are sales and marketing implications of repositioning that senior living communities should consider early on to ensure the process is successful. I’ll be discussing these implications in detail at this year’s LeadingAge FL Convention & Exposition.
LeadingAge FL: 5 Aspects of Repositioning That Must Be Addressed
This year, I’ll lead a breakout session, Repositioning Your Payer Mix: Making the Shift in Sales and Marketing on Wednesday, July 24, 11 a.m.-Noon.
During this session, I’ll provide insights on the five vital components of repositioning and best practices for ensuring a successful community transformation and maximum financial return. Here’s a sneak peek of two of the components attendees can expect to learn about during the session:
1. External Brand Perception
The true test of your brand is whether the market views your community the way in which you intend. Your repositioned unit mix may offer more independent living accommodations than ever before. Does your market identify you as a provider of an active retirement lifestyle? If not, they’ll continue to associate your brand with your previous offering mix and choose communities that are more aligned with an aspirational lifestyle.
To uncover external perceptions of your brand, you’ll want to communicate with your prospects through phone calls, focus groups, in-person meetings, online surveys and other methods of garnering feedback to learn what they think about your community and its unique selling propositions. These insights will inform the development and implementation of your new communication strategy
2. Internal Brand Perception
Good external brand perception starts with good internal brand perception. That’s why it’s important to make sure internal stakeholders come to consensus regarding changes in the community’s culture and that all team members are made aware of what the transformation taking place entails. It impacts the way they speak, the way they deliver services and even how their success is measured.
As you establish new brand pillars, it helps to have formal training sessions with team members to address repositioning and how they should promote the community and its services moving forward. Failure to address this could cause confusion in the marketplace and have an adverse effect on sales.
Join me for this session to learn more about all the components of repositioning, as well as sales and marketing best practices you’ll want to take into consideration during the process. By the end of the session, you’ll be ready to set your community’s goals for repositioning and lead your team as its members set out to increase census and maximize your community’s income potential.
Connect with Us at LeadingAge FL!
Are you planning on attending LeadingAge FL 2019? If so, we’d welcome the opportunity to meet with you at the show. Visit the Creating Results team at Booth 207 during the convention. Or, email us with any questions about marketing your community at any stage of its life cycle — be it expansion, repositioning or census enhancement.