Author: Derek Dunham

Aramark, the largest U.S.-based food service company, is reentering the senior living industry and has tapped Varsity to help kick off the effort. 

Varsity’s work included the development of the new Aramark offering — Aramark SeniorLIFE+ — with the creation of a brand story, website elements, brochure and other sales materials. The Aramark SeniorLIFE+ product will include dining and nutrition services, environmental services, facility management, technology, and amenities that tie into a community’s concierge, activities and social engagement offerings.  

“To develop this service offering, it was important for us to partner with a marketing and branding team that understands the senior living industry,” said Aramark SeniorLIFE+ CEO Joe Gorman. “A senior living campaign requires an extremely focused knowledge of the end user of our services, but also a knowledge of the decision-makers at the communities we’ll be working with. Varsity knows both audiences better than anyone.”

The return to senior living is a natural next step for Aramark, which already serves the world’s leading educational institutions, Fortune 500 companies, world champion sports teams and prominent healthcare providers.

The Aramark SeniorLIFE+ program was officially unveiled in November at the LeadingAge Annual Meeting in Chicago. The new service will be promoted nationally throughout 2024. Visit the SeniorLIFE+ page of the Aramark website for more information.

 

 

The LeadingAge PA Annual Conference is an annual highlight for the Varsity team and this year’s event was no exception. It’s always a pleasure to meet with friends and clients and make new connections. 

We also pay close attention to the trending topics overhead at shows like LeadingAge PA. Here’s a look at four conversations we found ourselves in the middle of during our time in the Poconos: 

CONSOLIDATION – We’re seeing more affiliations, mergers and acquisitions (or at least hearing about them) than ever before, including for-profit skilled nursing systems taking over not-for-profit faith-based SNFs. The mergers and acquisitions market for the senior living industry is incredibly active and shows no signs of slowing. 

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT – Reducing or eliminating agency support continues to be a priority as communities recognized the importance of developing a skilled workforce and maintaining a stable team to meet the needs of residents.

REIMBURSEMENTS – The delicate balance between providing top-notch healthcare services and managing financial resources is a tightrope walk that retirement communities navigate with precision and care. Keeping pace with reimbursements for the healthcare end of the continuum is a big part of that daily struggle. 

MIDDLE MARKET STRATEGIES – The middle market is a growing older adult population and we’re seeing more conversations around strategies to target and serve those who fall into that often overlooked gap. There are some unique models that are working well. It’s a market that Varsity is intimately familiar with and one that we’ll continue to develop strategies for in the future. 

Yesterday, we celebrated our 200th Varsity Sales & Marketing Roundtable. Over 50 attendees tuned in to hear special guest John Spooner, co-chief executive officer of Greystone Communities, share his presentation, “Understanding the New Consumer Mindset.” Here are some highlights of John’s fascinating discussion.

More Than a Retirement Counselor

You may be called a retirement counselor or marketing assistant, but you have to think of yourself as the chief revenue officer. The organization won’t thrive unless you have success bringing new residents into the community.

The Three Buckets of Prospects

How many clients do you have that are sold on your community, but still won’t move forward? We put prospects into three buckets:

• Planners: They know what they want and they move through the process relatively fast.
• Procrastinators: A giant bloat in your database: They’re sold but they’re just not moving forward.
• Crashers: They wait too late, and come in after they’ve had a health scare. Now they need AL, but they really want IL.

‘I Understand and Want the Benefits of Your Community, BUT …’

The procrastinators say things like, “I couldn’t leave my home.” “Let’s talk next year.” “I’m not ready.” “I need to think about this.”

We call those F.U.D. (fear, uncertainty and doubt). Those are people that we have trouble moving through the process. Their objections are not unique. Sometimes it’s an emotional objection, sometimes it’s a financial objection. They toggle back and forth and switch to another one after you’ve got them covered. So the question is, at what point do we lose them? When the reality sets in that they have to make a decision.

Selling Senior Living Is Hard, Buying Is Harder

Selling is a difficult job. But buying is harder because prospects are coming into it without a lot of knowledge, trying to make a decision that most of them don’t want to make. That’s why you have so many people in your bloated database.

Prospects Have Created a Living Terrarium — and They Want to Stay There

We’re genetically engineered to conserve energy by minimizing energy expenditure. It’s easy to say, “I can’t move because I can’t change my doctor, my plumber, my friends.” Prospects have created this living terrarium that they are living in — they are not going to expose themselves to self-imposed chaos. They say, “I’m going to hit the easy button and live in my ecosystem.” Ecosystem equals status quo.

Battling ‘Status Quo’ Bias

Everything that prospects think or say is about seeking information that confirms their decision to do nothing and maintain the status quo. They are so fearful of making a mistake for an uncertain outcome that they can’t move forward. Simply put, their fear of messing up is more than their fear of missing out. Our job is to break the gravitational pull of that senior status quo. When you can move their status quo so that it becomes less than the community, everyone wins.

Your competition isn’t another community across town. Your competition isn’t “staying in their own home.” The REAL competition is NO DECISION. Some seniors are playing the same “no-decision” game with every community in town. They live in a constant state of indecision. You need to know how to recognize it and overcome it. They are thinking, “What if your community isn’t what I want?” Your job is to give them confidence that they’re going to go in there and be OK.

Prospects do not want to talk about you or your community. They want to talk to you about them. When you go to the doctor, you don’t want to watch a video of their latest operation, you want them to talk to you about your problem. The same goes for senior living. Don’t give a long description of the community … the choice of three entrees … the meal points program … the beautiful apartments — prospects want to talk to you about them.

Going Beyond Discovery 101 to ‘Radical Candor’

There are standard discovery questions that we all use. But it really needs to be about breaking the status quo. It’s about the art of personal engagement and addressing uncomfortable topics to give prospects personal insight. You have to learn to attack their outcome uncertainty and reframe questions to get them to understand why they have to break the status quo.

That requires radical candor. You have to challenge them by asking uncomfortable questions, like:

• Does the next five years of your life look like the last five years?
• That house isn’t working for you anymore, is it?

It might be unpleasant and it might be scary for you to be this forward, but it’s OK. The first two to three questions are difficult, but you will be surprised at the great outcomes. Don’t talk to prospects about all the contract options — talk to them about how they can break out of their little terrarium. Radical candor is about caring personally and challenging directly.

Your job is to ask and then to reframe the probing question into a statement that assures them they have the confidence to make this decision. Challenge their positions and biases, and then stand up and make a recommendation to them. You are the subject matter expert. You are the one they have turned to to help them spend the last years of their life. From your discovery, you know what is important to prospects. You can start with “This plan is a popular option” or “I personally prefer this option.” It shows that you have diagnosed their needs and have a personal recommendation. 

Indecision Junkie Recovery Program

To sum up, here are six steps to indecision junkie recovery.  

1. Own the flow of information.
2.   Employ “radical candor.”
3.   Anticipate objections and indecision.
4.   Use your discovery knowledge.
5.   Community  > Risk > Status Quo
6.   Make a personal recommendation.

What Your Community Can Offer Prospects

Security. Predictability. Safety. Dependability. Reliability. Permanence. These qualities represent what your community can offer prospects — the stuff deep down in their emotions that they’re looking for. You just need to wash away the fear by leading them through the mire and muck of “status quo bias” — giving them confidence to make a decision.

 

 

 

We hear over and over again about the extreme staffing shortages in senior living, and particularly about the lack of interest that younger people have in working in this industry.

But one twenty-something is bucking the trend. Alex Pavone, who graduated from Penn State University with a degree in health policy administration, said, “For many people, especially younger adults, senior living isn’t an appealing field. But for me, the industry is really intriguing. With the older population expanding, it poses a lot of opportunities for a long-term career.”

Alex’s interest in senior living started at a young age. “Volunteering at a community in high school, a college course in long-term care management, shadowing opportunities, as well as close relationships with my grandmothers,” she said. “These are a few of the things that sparked my interest in the industry.”

Alex’s recent visit to the 2023 LeadingAge Annual Meeting in Chicago made her interest even stronger. “I thought it would be a great opportunity to see what kind of resources are available to the industry,” she said. “The most fascinating thing was seeing the innovative products vendors have brought forward to serve these communities.”

Alex particularly loved the technology offerings. “I was especially interested by technology-based viewing of communities that allows you to ‘walk’ through the community without having to be there in person. This is a great resource for adult children as well as potential residents. Another technology I was excited about was robot restaurant servers.”

Currently working as an account manager and analyst, Alex has a strong work ethic, which runs in the family. Alex has seen her father, Michael Pavone, work to expand his business into many areas, including starting Varsity in 1992 to address the needs of the aging Baby Boomer population.

When asked what she has learned from her father over the years, Alex did not hesitate to share these three pieces of advice:

1. Never give up.
2. Hard work pays off.
3. When you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.

It’s not hard to see that wherever her career takes her (hopefully to senior living), Alex is sure not to work a day in her life.

 

Over 350 sales and marketing professionals from senior living organizations of all sizes across the U.S. participated in the 2023 Senior Care Marketing & Sales Summit (SMASH) in Henderson, Nevada. Two of Varsity’s roundtable participants attended the sold-out conference. In this post, Mark Hamby, Director of Resident and Family Services at Parkway Village, and Christine Hall, Senior Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Franke Tobey Jones, share with us 11 of the hottest trends that they heard about at SMASH. As you’ll see below, there have been a lot of new changes in the space since we posted about the top 10 senior living market trends during the pandemic.

1. Occupancy has flattened out. The average occupancy across senior living in 2023 was 80%. 20% of communities are under 60% occupied, so more communities are discounting this year.
2. AI is transforming the customer journey. Within five years, every webpage and follow-up email will be completely different for each prospect, with copy completely tailored to their interests.
3. Prospects are aging. 20% of prospects and 25% of new residents are 90+ years old.
4. Digital marketing is more important than ever. For all communities, 40% to 60% of leads are coming in digitally. One important feature that prospects want to see on websites is accurate, transparent pricing. Also, communities need to protect themselves from lawsuits by including HIPAA-compliant copy that assures prospects their information will not be sold.
5. The senior living industry is underperforming. According to Forbes, senior living is the third largest industry, but is also the most underperforming. Our space is doing 9% of total business, but we should be doing closer to 19%.
6. Adult children are shopping online at night. A huge number of adult family members are researching communities between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. Communities should consider hiring a call center or using a chatbot to ensure customers can get initial information after hours.
7. Speed to lead is critical. 70% of prospects will tour a community within seven days of initial contact, and during that time, sales teams complete about 10 touches. The first community to reach a lead is most likely to get the tour. Sales teams must reach out within 20 minutes to an hour, or the lead will go on to another community.
8. Online reviews are crucial. 91% of people looking for senior living communities are using Google reviews —  the highest percentage of any industry (80% said if the community doesn’t have four stars or more, they won’t consider it).
9. Value-select premium pricing is on the rise. Pricing of same-sized units is no longer identical. Consumers don’t want to pay as much for an apartment that looks out on a parking lot as one with a lake view.
10. Fear of COVID-19 is still the biggest obstacle to move-ins. It’s important to educate prospects, letting them know that fewer than 1% of 800,000 residents have contracted COVID and that communities continue to strengthen their safety policies.
11. Biggest selling tool: a welcoming atmosphere. Prospects put a huge emphasis on how they feel when they walk in to a community. A friendly, engaged atmosphere with smiling staff and residents is the best tool for closing sales.

It’s only been two years since Wallis Annenberg GenSpace opened in Koreatown. Already, this destination dedicated to enriching the lives of older adults is a runaway success. Its 200+ members spend four times the amount there than participants at most gathering spaces for older adults.

Research shows that about 5%–20% of people who are eligible to attend a senior center do, and they spend about three hours a month there. “Our members spend three hours signed up in a class every week — four times the amount of time that most members of senior centers spend,” said Jennifer Wong, Ph.D., Director of GenSpace. “That does not account for the time in which they are here sharing and socializing with other people.”

Jennifer came to GenSpace from academia and as a consultant for the California Department of Aging, where she  worked with stakeholders to develop a master plan on aging. “Joining GenSpace was really a chance to work on the ground and invest in community spaces and to see what’s possible,” said Jennifer. “How do we stay engaged and open to feedback to co-create spaces for older adults, who are the backbone of our communities?”

Jennifer wants to help other creators of spaces for older adults enjoy GenSpace’s success. “We have had people come and visit us from as far away as South Africa and Korea — either seeking to add new energy to their current space and programming or create a new center. It’s been really great to be kind of a learning lab — a place to offer our suggestions and our path.”

Here, Jennifer shares nine insights that can help you design a new space for older adults or enrich your current programming.

Nine Principles for Creating Engaging Spaces for Older Adults

1. Include older adults in the planning

“How can you create a space for older adults without including them in the process? Our program priorities were born out of research with focus groups in and around Koreatown. We asked older adults what they wanted and needed in a community space dedicated to them. The result? Programming in five categories: Financial security and safety; health and wellness; arts, crafts and culture; technology and devices; and social connection and storytelling. A sixth program priority is horticultural therapy, born out of a passion of our founder, Wallis Annenberg, to give back gardening and green space to people who may have lost access to it.”

2. Find innovative ways of attracting members

“We went to libraries, senior affordable housing towers, and a foodbank to share our programs and invite potential members in.”

3. Know your audience

“With our Koreatown location, there are up to 10 spoken languages here at a time. Our eldest member is 101 — older adults are no longer a monolith. Our team is sensitive to the needs of all of these cultures and ages.”

4. Find the right people

“GenSpace is located in a beautiful age- and disability-friendly space created through a partnership with architect Susanne Stadler, but it is only as strong as the people in it. The reason why people come back is not because of the place, but because of the warm, welcoming and dedicated team members, instructors and volunteers.”

5. Partner on programming

“Our incredible programming team creates wonderful opportunities and also partners with outside organizations to tailor their unique programs to GenSpace. A partnership with Music Mends Minds has brought musical and education programming designed for older adults with dementia to different audiences here. We also partnered with the YMCA to hire its most-attended instructors, resulting in fitness and wellness classes that are packed to capacity with a waitlist. Our horticultural therapist also partnered with LA Compost on a workshop series on the latest composting techniques and with an organization that specializes in growing and drying lavender.

6. Pivot to meet your members’ needs

“Our members came to us and said ‘we’d love to have a knitting club’ — to work on their own projects and connect through knitting. We started a class, then expanded to crochet. They are some of my favorite classes. In another instance, Kiara Burns, an instructor who teaches a seated barre class, found it was getting so full that she used her experience with it to create a different class — a seated strength class.”

7. Focus on change through education

“Through our leadership initiative, graduate students in the fields of gerontology, public health, occupational therapy and communications pair their academic knowledge with hands-on experience at GenSpace. Engaging with our members is the most important part of their academic career.”

8. Connect with the outside community

“Our generous founder, Wallis Annenberg, has close ties to the entertainment industry, and we hold events that serve as a forum for debunking stereotypes around aging. We hosted Hollywood icons Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Billy Porter and Sally Field, to celebrate their hit movie ’80 for Brady’ and talk about the importance of positive portrayals of older adults on screen.”

9. Bring generations together on equal ground

“GenSpace has created a true multigenerational environment. Younger and older adults mentor each other in different areas, but it’s really about creating opportunities to share new experiences.”

Find more information about Wallis Annenberg GenSpace and its innovative programs here.

If you’re in the Continuing Care at Home space, you already know the challenges programs can face, which can look very different in year three (or later) than they do in year one.

To help professionals from programs across the country come together and address their individual and collective obstacles, we’re holding quarterly hybrid CCaH sessions. The next session will be tomorrow, Wednesday, September 6, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET. Sign up now if you haven’t already by emailing DDunham@VarsityBranding.com.

An Early Look at Our Special Guest’s Presentation

We’d like to introduce our special guest, Steve Hopkins, CEO of the Jordan River Group. Here is a preview of the insider perspective he will be bringing to our session.

After extensive research, combined with his experience working with CCaH organizations, Steve has found that starting a program, although a major challenge, is not the primary challenge. Accelerating its progress is. He has tracked the progress of several programs, and his findings were that roughly 70% (including some programs he helped launch) were underperforming after five to seven years. One market study Steve recently completed showed that there were 8,000 age- and income-qualified older adults in the area, yet the program had only 200 members. Not only that, there are only about 40 programs across the country — and there is room for many more.

Steve is passionate about the field of CCaH and wants there to be more programs for older adults to consider, and more success for those programs.

In this session, he will be asking the question, “What are the barriers that prevent those who launch a program from accelerating it to its best scale? He’ll share the results of his research and the insights he has gleaned that can help programs reach their maximum potential.

Steve will cover challenges such as:

• How to prevent a CCaH program from plateauing at a certain level of market penetration
• Why organizations that offer residential living need to use a completely different approach to market their associated CCaH programs
• The barriers that prevent really good prospective providers from going forward
• Why it’s important to accelerate early growth so that a large member base with fewer health needs can help programs achieve long-term financial stability
• Why it’s critical for the aging services industry to strengthen its position in CCaH now — so that insurance companies don’t create their own offerings and take over the field

Don’t miss Steve’s vibrant discussion at tomorrow’s CCaH Working Session,10 a.m.–2 p.m. ET. The agenda will also include general sharing from participants and discussion on our qualitative survey results and quantitative interview insights. To sign up, contact Derek Dunham at DDunham@VarsityBranding.com.

About the Presenter

Steve Hopkins brings 20 years of experience in senior living to the table. He spent his first decade as Chief Operating Officer of Evangelical Homes of Michigan, complemented by a second decade with a specialized focus on the CCaH space. As CEO of the Jordan River Group, he has worked directly with six organizations to launch CCaH programs.

This week, we were excited to celebrate Varsity’s 150th Sales & Marketing Roundtable with a fascinating presentation by acclaimed Disney expert and author Andrew Lock: 5 Disney-Inspired Ways to Improve Your Business.

We started these virtual conversations in March 2020 when our clients asked how other communities were dealing with the unprecedented events of the coronavirus. To help marketing leaders across the country come together and share their knowledge, we coordinated a roundtable discussion via Google Meet. We never thought we’d still be doing these weekly gatherings as masks came off and mandates were lifted, but we’ve now hosted 150 roundtables, and we’re still going strong.

Our focus changed over the course of the pandemic, as our participants’ needs changed.  Here are 10 of our most popular topics over the past three years:

1. Resident isolation
2. Shifting to virtual selling
3. Dealing with loss (residents, team members, family)
4. Vaccine rollout
5. Compliance with vaccine requirements
6. Workforce challenges/retention
7. Event ideas
8. Dealing with crises beyond the pandemic such as fires, hurricanes, ice storms and active shooters
9. New technologies such as AI
10. Best practices in creative messaging, online search and social media engagement

More important than any one topic is the camaraderie and community that’s grown among sales and marketing leaders across the country as they’ve shared their challenges, tips and ideas. Since the beginning, we’ve had 26 states represented, from Washington to Florida and California to Massachusetts.

Here are a few comments from our participants on what they’ve found most beneficial about the roundtables:

“Collaboration with peers is ALWAYS beneficial! You can never stop learning new ideas and thoughts.”

“Sharing best practices, learning from presenters, getting to know other communities around the country, the Varsity team’s commitment to making them happen every week through COVID-19.”

“The info shared by the speakers has been relevant and thought-provoking.”

And here are some of the topics participants would like to see next:

“How to market legacy apartments next to shiny, new ones.”

“Some medical insight into the deadly fungal illness turning up in healthcare facilities.”

We hope you’ll join us as we explore these topics and others every Thursday at 12 p.m. ET, 11 a.m. CT and 9 a.m. PT

Email DDunham@varsitybranding.com for login information.

 

From an upswing in sales activities to new concepts in senior living and positive attention from the press, there were lots of successes for our participants this February. However, some attendees struggled with challenges like sales slumps and poor Google reviews — and their fellow participants jumped in with some welcome advice.

Prospects Falling in Love With Communities
The month of love was very busy for Roundtable attendees. There was a major upswing in activity after the holiday slowdown with lots of tours, applications and move-ins. Many communities are at or close to full occupancy. But higher occupancy levels create their own unique problems.

“We’ve had so much success that I don’t have move-in-ready inventory, which is a challenge in itself.” (Missouri)

One creative working solution that an Illinois participant found was marketing guest suites for a trial stay of one to two weeks, in order to “allow those people [who are interested] to try it out for a week or two, and get a feel for living here.” (Illinois)

Unique New Approaches to the Senior Living Concept
Many of the Roundtable attendees had exciting and fresh takes on what senior living can mean, with upcoming projects and expansions underway.

Zen Community
One participant is involved in a “Zen” contemplative care community opening in California later this summer.

“The community will be a contemplative care community with a much different approach to assisted living and memory support than we’ve done in the past. There will be Zen teachers who live in the community, a tea room, and a fully vegetarian offering based on the Greens restaurant in San Francisco. It’s been 10 years in the making.” (Delaware/California)

An On-Site Dog Grooming Spa
One participant added an on-site dog grooming spa. “In one of our apartment buildings, we took over a floor and added a dog grooming spa where we will have a groomer assist residents on campus.” (Arkansas)

Hybrid Home Expansion
Another participant is involved in a “hybrid home” expansion project. “A hybrid home is really the best of an apartment and the best of a cottage or villa. It will be three stories high with an open floor plan. We often hear prospects say they wish they had parking or a garage, and this model has an underground parking structure where every resident can have one car, kept underground and out of the elements.” (Pennsylvania)

Memory Care Village
One participant from New Jersey has plans for developing a memory care village based on the Hogeweyk concept from the Netherlands. “It is a self-enclosed village concept with its own supermarket, cafe, etc., and everything right there on campus. We’re hung up on the zoning process right now and we expect the local town to contest it. The position of the model, that the residents get to live a natural life, is the hook that draws people in. It’s not just dementia care, but dementia living.” (New Jersey)

Media Coverage of On-Campus Fun
A number of participants were able to invite the media to their community, where they got some coverage for fun activities put on to chase away residents’ winter blues.

“We had our indoor snowball fight yesterday! We ended up on the front page of today’s local paper, the local televised news, and even on CBS and ABC news. (Illinois)

ADVICE FROM THE ROUNDTABLE

Navigating Difficult Conversations With Residents
Dealing with an unhappy resident can put staff in treacherous waters, and even more so when the resident is inciting a tirade against the whole community. One participant shared an experience dealing with one such displeased resident, and the Roundtable weighed in with advice.

The Situation:
“We had very little blowback [about rate increases]. The only negative feedback was from just one individual, who seems to have started a campaign with their family and friends to give us 1-star reviews on Google. A lot of it is just not accurate at all. So that’s been a little challenging.” (Arkansas)

The Advice:
“We’ve found that it’s best if the response is quick, and acknowledges what they’ve said — and if you extend the courtesy to please contact as soon as possible and show that you want to learn more about this situation. At that point, you’re really trying to influence the future visitors and viewers as opposed to what they’re actually doing to the Google ratings.” (Pennsylvania)

“Sometimes in those situations, just posting the response and being timely is important. Also, try to drive the conversation offline because what you’re trying to flag for those reading the 1-star reviews is that you care, and that there might be another side to the story.” (Bill Mulligan, Varsity)

Sales Cycle Slumps
One Pennsylvania participant enlisted the Roundtable participants for help with an issue with one of their sales counselors who is in a “slump,” asking, “What do you all do when you have a slow sales cycle and you want to get it kick-started?”

“Maybe you could have a heart-to-heart with them. Ask them if they’re feeling intimidated by an area, or what their knowledge level is, just work with that person.” (Washington state)

“Speaking from personal experience, a number of years ago when I was on the sales side, I went through a slump period. I tried talking to other people and seeing what they were doing, and analyzed my own weak areas. I discovered something about myself, that I spent too much time launching into our community offerings when talking with the prospect rather than getting to know their story first. When I turned that around and focused on the person and said, ‘Tell me more about you,’ it made a really big difference.” (Arkansas)

Learn from your peers at our weekly Sales & Marketing Roundtables. Join us on Thursdays at noon ET, 11 a.m. CT and 9 a.m. PT. For login information, email DDunham@varsitybranding.com.

 

In case you couldn’t make it to our December Sales & Marketing Roundtables, here are some of the trends we saw in senior living last month, and a look forward to 2023.

1. Holiday Conversations. New Year’s Conversions.

Many participants saw sales activity gaining momentum in December. At this time of year, children come home for the holidays and notice that Mom and Dad aren’t getting around as well as they used to, and might benefit from senior living options. Sales and marketing leaders saw leads pick up, which will hopefully become conversions in January now that the busy holiday season is over.

2. Connecting With Kinless Seniors

A frequent topic of conversation in December was “kinless” seniors, or seniors who do not have family support, whether it be because they never married, never had kids, are widowed, or for whatever reason don’t have a support network nearby. Kinless seniors can be uniquely limited in their caregiving support, and senior living communities can be well equipped to serve them.

“There are quite a few kinless folks who visit us. And I see them as very proactive, coming in and talking to us about their future plans, making sure they have their legal documents in order.” (Washington state)

3. Nearly Universal Rate Increases — and Tips for Communicating Them

Entry fees and monthly service fees are being raised for 2023 in most senior living communities.

“The industry standard is a 9% to 10% increase, on average this year. (Pennsylvania)

Sales and marketing leaders shared helpful tips on how to best communicate rate increases with residents. It was agreed that it’s best to be extremely transparent with why fees have to go up, and to go into detail about why.

“We were extremely clear about why we raised rates and broke down the pricing for our residents. We were clear on what we spent on renovation and really broke it down. We also showed figures of how the minimum wage is going up, how utilities have increased, how the food bills have gone up.” (Massachusetts)

When using this up-front approach, residents tend to have less pushback and are more accepting of the current situation.

4. Loneliness as a Public Health Problem

Americans are spending more and more hours alone than ever before. Our time spent alone has increased by over nine hours a week. This trend started well before the pandemic, although 2020 surely exacerbated it, and we know that time spent alone dramatically increases as we age. We discussed that it could be valuable for sales teams to convey that time spent alone can be dramatically reduced for people who live in senior communities.

5. Competition Changing to At-Home Options

Sales and marketing leaders agree that their competition isn’t necessarily the other community down the road — especially for independent living. More often, they’re competing against home health agencies and private duty care.

“I have always said that I feel like other communities aren’t our competitors. We’re all competing against the home and the prospect staying at home.” (Washington state)

“It’s when the home is no longer working for them that people start calling us.” (Massachusetts)

See what’s new in senior living for 2023 at our weekly Sales & Marketing Roundtables. Join us on Thursdays at noon ET, 11 a.m. CT and 9 a.m. PT.

For login information, email DDunham@varsitybranding.com.