Seniors Housing Business is the magazine that helps you navigate the evolution of the seniors housing industry.
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58 www.seniorshousingbusiness.com Seniors Housing Business n February-March 2015 Bluespire's Martino warns against attempting to move leads along too quickly. Many leads want to jump straight to looking at real estate, but ideally that step should be taken later in the process. "Don't let the prospect take control of the process," he says. "You can ultimately have more conversions at higher rates of ROI (return on investment) and meet your sales goals in a better, more streamlined way than just tackling everybody that walks through the door. That's hard to train and it's hard to get marketers to accept that." Prepare for pitfalls Events come with a lot of risks, and operators should be prepared to face them. But if well executed, events are some of the most rewarding ways to market a seniors housing community, says Martino. "You have to work harder and work smarter. You have to be a planner." GlynnDevins' Dunn echoes the need for smart planning, not- ing that sickness and weather can cause unexpected schedule changes. Strep throat once caused a big-name speaker to cancel an event, but a backup speaker was already in place in case of such an occurrence. "It's not just about that one event," says Dunn. "It's all the little parts around it, from a little reception beforehand or a little meet-and-greet after. There's a lot of work that goes into that to pull it off." Another challenge is know- ing how to deal with people who don't qualify as leads but who attend the events, resulting in wasted resources. Lifespace's Hulett refers to them as "suspects" (as opposed to prospects). They attend simply to enjoy the food or speaker but have no interest in the facility itself. She compares the scenario to "nosy neighbors" at an open house who attend out of curiosity and don't have a legitimate interest in buying. The solution, she says, is to do everything possible to weed out those people with questions during the RSVP process and confrmation calls and to be careful in targeting the leads in the frst place. "The biggest mistake anybody makes is not establishing the goals upfront and not being strategic about the implementation." Legacy's Joyce recalls one event the company hosted that included the giveaway of a big-screen television. "Everybody came out of the woodwork — we had a 20-year-old there." By focusing on events that are of interest to its target market, Legacy fxed the problem, says Joyce. "We've been very fortunate that we don't really see that." Joyce also notes that events can be a major imposition on an operator's current residents if they are not carefully planned. Lega- cy's solution is to allow residents to come down early "to partake without fghting the crowd" and to make them hosts, so they feel like part of the event. "If you're going to have a problem, that's probably a good problem — trying to fgure out how to accommodate the volume of people." n How to deal with people who don't qualify as leads but who attend events, resulting in wasted resources? Weed them out with questions during the RSVP process and confrmation calls, and be careful in targeting the leads in the frst place. — Kimberly Hulett, vice president of sales and marketing, Lifespace Communities