The Senior Living Executive Leadership Conference, the official meeting of Argentum was held this year at the end of April, in sunny Phoenix, Arizona. Hundreds of Senior Living providers and vendors from across the country traveled to Phoenix for a week of learning and networking to advance the industry of Senior Living.
Creating Results participated for the first time in the annual Argentum Classic, a golf event held to raise money for the Argentum Advocacy Fund. The Advocacy Fund gives Argentum the ability to keep the senior living industry at the forefront of legislative and regulatory agendas at both the federal and state level. Special shout out to Benchmark Senior Living, New Perspective Senior Living, Gordon Foods and Red e App for playing in the event with us!
The week was full of networking events including an Arizona Diamondbacks game courtesy of KARE and DAS Health. We also had a great time bowling on the last night of the conference and connecting with several other Senior Living organizations.
Sales and Marketing Educational Session Takeaways from the Senior Living Executive Conference
One of the Senior Living Executive Conference’s main goals is to help educate members of the Senior Living industry to better serve our residents. In the sales and marketing space there are two sessions we want to highlight that had impactful takeaways for providers to make real change in their organization with simple steps.
Cultivating Culture and Excellence Strategies for Regional and Corporate Teams to Drive High Occupancy across Communities
with Christy Van Der Westhuizen
If you haven’t seen her speak, Christy Van Der Westhuizen of Legend Senior Living is full of energy and passionate about Senior Living sales, both at a regional and corporate level. Her engaging session provided strategies to motivate both regional and corporate sales teams, which, at the end of the day, drive occupancy.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE SESSION:
There is a difference between managing a regional versus corporate sales team.
Christy outlined in her talk the differences between single-site communities and multi-site communities when it comes to sales goals. Rather than having an overall corporate goal it is important to have different metrics for each community as occupancy needs vary at different locations. She also provided great insights on how to motivate sales teams across a larger organization including celebrating group milestones, publicly recognizing high performance, having a theme to sales incentives, and even stack ranking communities’ sales performance. Her main point was the goal of a corporate sales leader is to become an “Obsolete Leader” and allow each local sales community to have their own agency around sales goals and metrics.
Ways to Hold Sales Teams Accountable
The other main point Chirsty made during her talk was around holding the local and corporate sales teams accountable. To do so, basic sales metrics like calls, tours and activities should be tracked and reviewed for organizations to understand what point in the sales process can be optimized at a given time. Larger KPI’s including conversion rates, occupancy numbers and forecasting of future months can help both salespeople and sales leaders understand where the organization stands and what changes need to be made.
Bringing the Ideal Resident Through Your Digital Front Door
with James Kelly, Brio Living Services and Larry Williams, Dreamscape Marketing
James and Larry, while they like to joke around, provided valuable insights when it comes to digital space and how it is changing in the senior living market. Dreamscape Marketing conducted a survey with Senior Housing News that provided insights for all Marketing professionals in the Senior Living market. Here are their findings:
1. Most of the industry leads are coming through digital channels even though marketers are most comfortable with traditional marketing tools.
According to the survey, Senior Living organizations are receiving the most leads through PPC, social media and organic channels. When looking at an organization’s comfortability with different channels, most marketers are most comfortable with traditional methods like direct mail and print advertising. Many sales and marketing leaders are focused on occupancy in their organizations and don’t have the time or resources to explore all the digital offerings that are out there. James of Brio Living expressed the value of working with an outside agency to navigate digital space and how it can be valuable to an organization.
2. Sales and Marketing Budgets will increase or stay the same in the coming 12 months.
Another key takeaway James and Larry shared from the Senior Housing News survey was around marketing budgets for the upcoming 12 months. Among those who were surveyed 49% of communities expected an increase in the marketing budget and 43% expected that budget to stay the same. With the increase in digital offerings out there like Further, Roobrik, Money Gauge and other marketing automation tools organizations need to invest in these digital tools to keep pace with other Senior Living competitors.
The Senior Living Executive Conference was another great conference to attend and connect with industry leaders that are helping to shape the future of Senior Living. This blog scratches the surface of all the sales and marketing knowledge that was shared and learned at the conference. If you’re interested in learning more about the conference or just looking for general senior living sales and marketing insights subscribe to our blog by filling out the form below.