Category: Boomers Marketing

American culture values youth, vitality and enthusiasm far more than age, wisdom and experience. In contrast to this, we find Eastern cultures — such as Japan, Vietnam and Korea — where veneration and obedience to one’s elders is the cultural norm — except in the workplace. As Western influences continue to be exported to these countries, their views on the aged are also changing. EverYoung, a new start-up in Seoul, has recognized this issue and is addressing it, head-on.

Founded by Chung Eunsung, a 56-year-old veteran executive, EverYoung aims to leverage the knowledge and skill found in older workers to make Korea more competitive in the global market. The company specializes in teaching older workers basic computer skills that enable them to do work for Naver, the Google of South Korea. The workers do routine monitoring and assist with reporting and censoring information as mandated by the government. Those with advance computing skills are encouraged to teach coding classes to children.

The culture of the company is also important. Workers only have four-hour shifts, enabling them to spend time with family as they desire. The benefits package is also very rich — with special attention paid to wellness-related measures — all in an effort to keep an aging workforce healthy and active. Oh, and don’t forget the after-work social programs, such as the company rock band!

While all of this sounds nice from a personal standpoint, does it make sense for business? Initially, the company had 30 employees. Now, it has more than 400. According to government data, more than 13 percent of Korea’s current population is over 55+, but by 2030, that number will skyrocket to nearly 25 percent. In a society where workers are routinely forced to retire before they hit the age of 60, EverYoung’s model is set to scoop up talented employees that might not otherwise find work — and competition for the jobs is fierce.

In Korea, the state doesn’t provide much by way of retirement benefits, forcing retirees to rely on their young relatives for basic needs, often living in the same home with them (a very foreign concept for the Western world). EverYoung provides a source of income for this population, but it goes beyond that. It also provides a sense of worth and combats the psychological pressures of aging, such as loneliness and withdrawal.

Retirement communities in the United States are often very adept at putting their residents “to work,” offering them volunteer opportunities that enable them to contribute to their communities. However, as the Baby Boomers age out of the workforce and into the world of retirement, their demands for meaningful community contribution are going to increase. Stateside companies would do well to adopt the EverYoung model, as this “new” workforce is right around the corner and could be a great boon — both for the individuals and for business.

This past week, I had the pleasure of attending the third of four regional conferences being held this year by the United Methodist Association of Health and Welfare Ministries. Held in Boulder, Colorado, the event centered on development and engagement. For those who were unable to attend, you missed a great event with some excellent speakers. As I reflect on the session, I found that I came away with three key points from which I think that every person working in the aging services field can benefit.

Development must be part of the branding process.

When we undertake a branding process at Varsity, we look at the organization holistically. From the frontline staff all the way up to the C-suite, it’s important that everyone in the organization can articulate the brand and feel empowered by it. During the conference, many development professionals shared that they sometimes feel overlooked in the branding process. At Varsity, we work to include all departments in our Brand Odyssey, especially development, as we understand how important they are to any nonprofit organization.

Arguably, development is one of the most public faces of your brand. They are the ones going out into the community and working to articulate your mission and values to potential donors. If they don’t feel like the brand matches their goals, or they are forced to adapt a brand to their needs, it becomes harder for them to do their jobs. Marketers ― especially in faith-based, mission-focused senior living organizations ― desire brands that speak to vitality, energy and continued life. Meanwhile, studies have proven that donors are more likely to make contributions to organizations that they feel are helping those experiencing hardship. These two messages can easily be at odds! During our branding process, we strive to keep this in mind and balance the needs of both sides of the organization.

Digital marketing isn’t just limited to filling apartments; it’s great for donors, too!

We all know that it takes money to make money. The same is true for development. You have to invest time and resources into reaching the right potential donors ― at the right time, with the right message. Digital marketing, both through search engines and social media, provide this exact capability. But, because of the time and effort it takes to execute such tactics and then analyze the results, many development professionals shy away from them. Why wouldn’t they? In-person discussion sessions are far more likely to end up with a gift than a single digital ad. But, as Millennials begin to further explore charities, meeting them in the areas in which they congregate ― namely, on the web ― is going to be an important part of any development tool kit.

Think of it this way: If you could run targeted ads about your current capital campaign directly to people in a specific age range within your community, with additional data that says they are more likely to donate than the average person, would you do it? What if you could reach 5,000 of those people for less than $50? One or two donations would likely cover the cost of the campaign, so the rest is pure gifts for your organization!

Are you engaging, not only with current residents, but also with their friends and extended family as donors?

One statement that we seemed to hear over and over again was that the largest and best gifts usually come from those who directly benefit from the services offered by the organization. Sure, most development professionals know the value of establishing relationships with the current service users. However, expanding that reach to the children and family is a great way to work the same angle (those who have benefitted from the service) but also expand your potential donor base into adjacent areas.

I tip my hat to the United Methodist Association team for their hard work in putting together an excellent conference. At Varsity, we love seeing their member organizations succeed and grow, and we look forward to many more events together in the future!

In a crowded aging services marketplace, retirement communities are working around the clock to find ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. These tactics often include new amenities, varied dining experiences, and ever more involved life enrichment programs. While these upgrades are nice, and may help sway some new residents to sign on the proverbial dotted line, they often aren’t the deciding factor in choosing a community. We all know that location and culture trump granite countertops, lobster dinners, and symphony tickets.

So, let’s be honest with ourselves for a second, shall we? Most retirement communities are the same.

This is a blasphemous statement, I know! But, in a world populated by tens of thousands of communities, they just aren’t all that different when you get right down to it. Nonprofit communities all have a mission that involves caring for and supporting their residents to enable them to live their best life. The words might vary, but the intention is often very similar. So, naturally, these communities try to differentiate themselves from their competitors through physical amenities, unique programs, and better marketing.

Yet, as we opened with, these items usually don’t completely explain why someone chooses one community over another; they are supplemental factors to location and culture. Of course, you can’t change your location, but you can change your culture in a way that will make your community truly unique and quickly make you stand out from your competitors, attracting better leads and more new residents in the process. Here are three ways that you can grow your community culture and attract new residents.

SAGE USA

SAGE is a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting an overlooked and growing portion of the senior market. They advocate and provide services to older people who are GLBT. People in this market have special needs and wants when it comes to senior living and they can easily feel out of place at even the most “welcoming” community. Through their sagecare program, SAGE offers education courses for senior living leaders, managers, and front line employees. This education culminates in a credential provided by the organization denoting the level of training received (bronze, silver, gold.) By training staff in working with the GLBT population and implementing a culture of inclusiveness, you can quickly differentiate yourself from surrounding communities and have an inside track with a market that your competitors are probably ignoring.

SeniorAdvisor.com

Thanks to their strong marketing campaigns, you’ve probably heard of SeniorAdvisor. As an independent senior living review site, SeniorAdvisor has shown strong growth in the past few years. Unlike some other Senior Living referral sites, SeniorAdvisor doesn’t cost your community a dime and it performs two very important functions. First, it offers a forum for individuals to rate and review your community, independent of your digital presence. Of course, this doesn’t preclude you from asking your residents to review you on the site and leave feedback. By doing so, you can create a pool of positive reviews that demonstrates the culture of your community and provides a resource for potential residents who would like to know more about your community. Plus, the listings on SeniorAdvisor can create excellent backlinks, boosting your SEO in the process.

Also, SeniorAdvisor.com awards an annual “Best of” recognition to those communities who have had a sufficient number of positive reviews in the previous twelve months. This is a great credential to earn and includes both digital badges for your website and physical awards for your sales office. You should never underestimate the power of an independent review and recognition from an outside organization!

Find your niche.

This one is a little bit harder to articulate, as it’s not a certification or award, but rather a holistic piece of your culture that you must decide on. At one time, nearly every non-profit retirement was designed to service a niche in the local community. This is why we have organizations affiliated with various religious denominations, community organizations, and fraternal groups. They cater to these once large populations with a culture that was directly influenced by the common bond of membership. However, as membership in these groups has dwindled, so has interest in their retirement communities, forcing these nonprofits to go looking elsewhere for residents. Yet, the idea of a niche is still important; you just have to think about it in a different way.

Do you have a strong resident club that plays to a certain interest – perhaps the environment, organic gardening, or philanthropy? Find those niches and embrace them. While you probably can’t focus your entire community on a single niche (although some new communities are doing just that), you can use the interests of your current residents to connect with potential residents and help them see that the culture of your community lines up well with what they are looking for.

Knowing the culture of your community, and who that culture appeals to, can help you better market to future residents that are more likely to move in. While physical amenities can help sway a decision, a strong culture that attracts a broad range of residents can have a greater impact on your occupancy rates than any new restaurant or upgraded kitchen!

One thing nearly every retirement community can agree on is that they feel like they go unnoticed. Marketing managers around the country are all too familiar with the phrase, “We’ve lived in this area our entire lives and never knew you were here or what you did.” Of course, this refrain drives retirement living professionals batty, as they are often working very hard — and spending lots of money — in an effort to get someone to consider making their property home. To this end, one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle is a robust public relations plan that both informs the wider neighborhood of their existence and acts as a marketing tool that helps to bring in prospective residents.

Getting local media outlets to cover a retirement community isn’t always easy. While we, as professionals working in the industry, see and hear all of the amazing stories our residents share, it is often difficult to get reporters and journalists to pay attention. And why should they? While Mr. Jones may have an amazing story about his involvement in the Korean conflict, there is probably a Mr. Jones at every community. Finding an angle for a story that piques the interest of the media can be difficult, but we have some tips on where you can find those stories.

First, think quirky! Some of the best story hooks in your community may be hidden just under the surface and are things that you don’t even notice anymore. That resident whose apartment is entirely decorated with elephants may be old news to you, but his or her quirky collection may just be the interesting hook that a reporter will bite at. Nearly everyone has something quirky that makes him or her unique, so don’t be afraid to share it.

Next, try to tie someone’s life story into what’s currently trending. Perhaps a neighborhood in your community is undergoing a revitalization, and it’s the same area in which many of your residents grew up. Hearing how the neighborhood has changed, grown or even remained somewhat the same over the course of several decades can be a fun story to share! Every resident has a unique outlook based on his or her life experience, so sharing how those memories reflect on today’s society can be a great starting point for an article or interview.

Finally, embrace popular culture. What’s the latest fad that kids are into? Finding a way to connect your population to that fad or a public relations piece can be great fun! One great idea we had was to ask residents to interact with a fidget spinner, the toy craze that hit earlier this summer. While many parents and teachers saw the gizmos as silly, we found that some retirees loved to play with the toy — and we captured their reactions as they did!

Great public relations stories for your community are occurring every day. Finding a way to make the unique and different is what will appeal to reporters. If you remember to look for the quirky, keep an eye on trends and embrace popular culture, you’ll uncover a slew of stories in no time flat!

You’re excited. This is the day you’ve been waiting for since that fateful date nearly 12 months ago. You’ve spent hundreds of hours planning and designing, making sure everything is right. You’ve met with dozens of vendors and have a script for how the whole day should go. That’s right — it’s launch day for your new website!

But, three months later, you’ve realized that there was a hole in your plan. That new website is starting to feel stale already. The pictures haven’t changed. The blog hasn’t been updated. Your integrated Facebook and Twitter feeds are displaying posts that are already two months old. Getting the website to launch was such hard work, you assumed it would be all downhill once it went live. However, now you realize that that was the simple part; finding time to curate content, post updates on social media, change out photos and respond to inquiries isn’t just hard — it’s nearly impossible.

We’ve seen this time and time again within the senior living space. Finding the time to actively manage the digital presence of the organization is a big challenge. Many communities leave this task to marketing or sales managers who have to choose between posting a nice photo or having a conversation that could lead to a sale. Of course, the sale will always take priority, leaving the digital presence to stagnate over time. Finding quick, shareable content may be slightly easier than you realize, though. We have three proven strategies that will help you find additional engaging content quickly!

1. Don’t be a lone warrior.
   Amazing, shareable stories are happening around your community every single day, but you’re only one person. That’s why you need to enlist the help of your employees and residents. Start creating a culture of shareable moments today by encouraging others to share their moments with you. Yes, there are some pitfalls that have to be avoided regarding photo releases, but a little bit of training with your staff and residents could produce huge dividends in the form of wonderful, engaging photographs and stories that you might not have ever heard about otherwise.
2. Think small.
   Whenever your community is holding a big event or celebration, it’s easy to find shareable moments. Veteran events, innovative programs and food tastings always make for good content. However, it’s the smaller, daily moments that really make your social presence something special. If Mrs. Johnson is always walking her poodle around your community, stop and ask to take a picture. Share Mrs. Johnson and Fido with the rest of the world. After all, they are a part of the fabric of life for your residents. Showing families and potential residents what life is like at your community, day in and day out, is really important for a long-term social media strategy.
3. Stop being a perfectionist.
   Everybody wants their organization to look its best. However, just like a person, there are going to be slight imperfections that crop up. Maybe that picture of a vibrant, exciting resident shows another resident in the background in a motorized chair. That’s okay! That’s real life at your community. Yes, in pre-planned advertising, such as print or television, you’ll want perfectly shot, model-quality photographs, but social media is meant to capture everyday life. None of us look like models every day, and we can’t expect our communities and residents to do so, either.

Generating content for social media and blogs doesn’t have to be difficult. Your social media feed should feel like someone is walking the halls of your community, experiencing what life is like. It should never feel like they are enduring a sales pitch or having a digital “lunch and learn.” Be true to your community and show off what life is genuinely like there, and you’ll soon have more content than you ever thought imaginable!

LeadingAge PA is well known for an outstanding annual conference. In 2017, it only bolstered its reputation further with a well-organized and highly educational event. The Varsity team was out in full force at this year’s conference, meeting with old friends, making new ones and keeping abreast of the changes in the senior services industry. As I reflect on the event, I find that I had three takeaways that will certainly impact how I approach those we serve and their residents.

1) Residential living will give way to more in-home services.

James Orlikoff’s presentation on the shifting macroeconomics of health care and the shifting demographics of aging services was incredibly profound. During his presentation, he discussed how the United States has become mired in the current health care system we have and what impact it will have on the future of senior services. What really drove his point home, however, was the story of his own father who eschewed a retirement community until the very last minute, preferring instead to live at home with a caregiver. Not only was this option less expensive, but it also provided the peace of living your last days in your home. This is the type of care that many are going to begin seeking out. If senior living providers aren’t taking these desires into account, they may quickly find themselves left behind. As one colleague put it, “I didn’t like hearing what he had to say, but I needed to hear it. Things are going to change.”

2) Senior living providers must become more transparent.

Over the course of several presentations throughout the week, I was struck by how often the word “transparent” kept popping up. Whether the topic was crisis communications, survey results, marketing materials or the relationship with your board, communities must work to become as transparent as possible. In today’s social climate, where surveys and 990s rule the day, organizations cannot try to hide their foibles and hope no one finds out. Recognizing your challenges up front — and providing a plan to address them in a timely manner — is what’s expected. If there are issues at your community, whether real or perceived, act now to address them and, if needed, bring in an outside professional to help.

3) Community culture can’t be forced.

Much discussion was had regarding the culture of senior living providers —from how they treat their residents and staff to the impact they have in their local communities. These cultures are often quite strong, with well-established missions, values and goals. Increasingly, potential residents aren’t just evaluating the pricing scheme and floor plans of a prospective community, but also the culture of life there. While your culture and values may be very important to you, imposing them on potential residents could quickly become a turn-off. This isn’t to say that strong values are bad. Rather, we encourage you to better understand those values and be ready to articulate how residents of any background can embrace them. As James Orlikoff said in his presentation:

“Those senior services providers were quick to tell us what they were about. They told us about their missions and values. They were proud of the cultures they created. But not one of them stopped to ask my father about his values and what he wanted. It was a ‘take it or leave it’ proposition. He chose to leave it and go out on his terms.”

We certainly enjoyed #Connect17 with our LeadingAge PA friends. Kudos to the organizers, directors and staff, who created a fantastic event that certainly will change the way nonprofit senior service providers in Pennsylvania approach resident care!

Let’s face it — no one wants to think about something catastrophic happening at their community. Fires, floods and earthquakes are all very real possibilities that communities must prepare for. In modern times, we’ve also added situations, such as active shooters, elopements and bomb threats to the canon of issues communities should be prepared to handle. With this in mind, many organizations provide extensive training to employees who would have to respond to these events in hopes that they can keep residents safe and minimize physical damage to property and systems. However, there is another more serious type of damage that communities might face — a damaged reputation from poor communication.

To be clear, at absolutely no time should any organization try to preserve its reputation at the cost of others’ safety. That’s not what I’m talking about at all! Rather, I’m focusing on the story that comes out after one of these events occurs. In the world of public relations, this is referred to as crisis communication. Being able to keep cool and relay important information in the face of adversity is a skill that most people don’t inherently have, even in the best of times. Now, imagine yourself in a highly stressful situation where you are being asked tough questions and accused of malfeasance. At that moment, how you react to reporters and interested parities can either set minds at ease or exacerbate a problem to new heights.

Most communities don’t have the luxury of having an on-site, dedicated communications person. Usually, communications is handled at a corporate level or is defaulted to an employee in an adjacent field, such as marketing or human resources. These individuals are rarely prepared to handle an emerging situation, and corporate’s ability to respond may lag for a variety of reasons. News agencies today aren’t going to sit idly by while they wait for your PR director show up and take control of the situation. They are going to start fleshing out a story wherever they can find it, probably embellishing along the way in hopes of making the situation more interesting for viewers and readers. It’s in those critical moments, immediately after an event occurs, that you need to take control of the story.

To accomplish this, we recommend that every community have the following three items in place:

1. Resident, employee and family emergency alert system — Technology today makes this very easy. If there is an incident at your community at any time, you should have a system in place to immediately and efficiently contact current residents and their family members. The communications that go out on these broadcasts should be prepared in advance (as much as possible) and speak to the safety of those involved. In an emergency, the first concern loved ones have is for the physical well-being of their family members. Addressing those types of questions is your top priority.
2. Contact information for leadership — Communities should have a list of contact information for key officials that will be more able to handle difficult questions. This can help redirect reporters to individuals that they can talk to and alleviate the stress being put on staff that might be asked to comment on an issue.
3. Training for staff — Your staff should know and understand your policies about who can and can’t make statements on behalf of the organization. Employees generally know they shouldn’t try to act as representatives, but they may be asked by a reporter about what they saw or experienced personally. Until a situation is under control, employees shouldn’t respond to these questions at all. Therefore, providing a bit of training and information before an issue arises can help to mitigate any comments that might be made later on.

Every community owes it to its residents to have plans in place for a myriad number of emergencies — and most already have done this. However, it’s important that they take these exercises a step further and imagine the role that timely communications will play in incident response. Maintenance and security might be prepared for the next calamity, but is your executive director ready? How about sales & marketing? Now is the time to address these issues, before an incident occurs.

Nonprofit life plan communities are incredibly focused on their mission and values. These qualities generally start with their board of directors in collaboration with senior leadership. However, the board isn’t at the community every day, working directly with those involved in carrying out the mission. The vision they so eloquently craft during their quarterly meetings may not meet the everyday needs of associates and residents. Getting your board of directors actively engaged in your community can create positive changes that can have a ripple effect throughout the entire organization. But how do you go about it?

We asked the leadership team at Saint John’s On The Lake, Milwaukee’s premier retirement community, how they engage their board of directors, which includes community and faith-based leaders that share a unified vision. Renee E. Anderson, president and CEO, offers some great suggestions!

Says Anderson, “Outside of the seven board of directors meetings per year, board members serve on one committee, which typically includes both leadership and residents. Board members are frequently seen enjoying life on campus — attending lectures, concerts, dining, using the gym and the pool or visiting family, friends or parishioners.”

Anderson’s statement provides some clear insights into how Saint John’s board is more than just a steering committee. Ensuring that your board feels comfortable visiting your community and utilizing its resources alongside residents and associates can have a significant effect. By being actively involved, they become visible members of the greater community, creating personal relationships with those they serve. Naturally, this will lead them to think about the impact their decisions have on those living there day to day.

Also, it should be noted that using board members on committees is critical. Where possible, these committee assignments should be directly related to a director’s personal and professional talents. It makes sense to have accountants on the finance committee and skilled trades professionals working with the facilities team, but don’t pigeonhole your directors so quickly! Give them an opportunity to express interests in the committee work to which they’d like to be assigned. If someone is crunching numbers all day professionally, he or she might be eager to serve on the resident relations committee, as it provides a new and interesting challenge that he or she might not otherwise face.

Keeping the board engaged as business leaders is also important. Luci Klebar, director of sales for Saint John’s On The Lake, provides some insight into how leadership stays apprised of the issues that impact operations.

She says, “The Board meets quarterly and receives a financial update and leadership update. Additionally, a dashboard that identifies KPI on which the organization is working overall is provided. If there are variances to goal, brief reports are provided.”

Klebar highlights another tactic for an engaged board — consistency. By providing a standardized report that includes performance indicators and goals, directors stay focused on the most important items and are able to compare apples to apples between meetings. Optimizing communications in this way will also make for more efficient and productive meetings.

Every board of directors is different, and what engages one board might not be suitable for another. Knowing what individual passions have brought your board members to the team will provide you with critical insights into how they can become an integral part of the organization’s leadership. New board members look to those already serving, including senior management, to find their role. In short, give them something to do that they both enjoy and find meaning in, and your board will be better for it!

Anyone who has worked at a retirement community, for even a short length of time, has encountered a resident that never receives visitors. The situations may vary from case to case, with one resident having no children or family, while another has an extensive family network that happens to live far away. Regardless of the reasons, lack of social interactions with the one’s you love will leave anyone in the doldrums. If this continues long enough, mental health issues could arise, leading to more severe repercussions. It’s important for residents to have visitors that actively engage with them. But, how do you encourage family and friends to come visit when, more often than not, the last place they want to spend their Saturday is hanging around a retirement community?

In 2010, the CDC conducted a survey at residential care facilities, asking participants how many times  a resident received a visitor from outside the community. While visitation frequency varied among the group, 8 percent of those surveys received no outside visitors in 90 days. Extrapolating this, how many residents does your community have? That means, for every 100 residents, roughly eight of them have not had any outside contact in the last month. Now that’s a statistic to be concerned about.

As a community, it behooves senior living providers to make visitation not only easy, but also enjoyable for everyone. Taking a creative look at ways to engage residents, their families and friends will help encourage more frequent visitations and improved morale.

Some ideas include:

• Mani/pedi day, where residents and their families can schedule a manicure with a professional at your community. Make sure to provide plenty of magazines and really go for the full salon experience!
• Provide designated areas for dogs at your community. This way, families can bring their pets for a day with a resident.
• Schedule a bus trip to a local restaurant and invite the family to have a meal with the resident outside of your community.
• Plan a movie night, with a newer film that families may not have seen before. Bring in a popcorn machine and candy to really provide the full movie-viewing experience!
• Families can bring unfolded laundry and visit while folding it. Yes, this sounds incredibly strange, but look at it from another angle. Many residents spent years being productive and contributing to their households. The ability to feel useful and needed again can be a big ego boost to someone who doesn’t see many visitors (but, make sure the resident is okay with this before coming with your duffel full of clothes!)
• Organize a resident-family scavenger hunt. This provides time for meaningful interaction with the resident, as well an opportunity to explore the community.
• Host a traveling zoo! Many local zoological societies have a traveling zoo that they can bring to your community. Residents and families alike will love this event!
• Produce a trivia night, just like at the local pub! Many times, events are geared toward families with children. But what about having a pub trivia night? Offer adult beverages and hire a professional to host the game. This could encourage 20-somethings to visit and engage with their relatives when they might not otherwise!
• Many communities have cooking classes or demonstrations already. Why not have one that is family-oriented, where children and grandchildren can assist the resident in making a delicious dish for all to share!
• For those active residents, how about an on-site sports league with family and friends! Billiards, bowling, bocce and tennis make a great option. Pairing an active resident with a younger family member in a multi-week league will provide a great reason for ongoing interactions.

The key to all of these ideas is simple — by creating a little bit of enticement, you can encourage residents’ families to visit more frequently, having more meaningful interactions in the process. At the end of the day, this will not only make your community happier and more lively, but it will give you a unique niche in the marketplace that many other organizations aren’t yet exploring.

The Better Business Bureau has declared May National Moving Month, a time when the rate of moves from one living situation to another dramatically increases. This trend can be seen across many demographics, from college students leaving their dorms to begin careers, to homeowners making a change. According to the United States Census Bureau, about one in nine Americans changes domicile every year, meaning that roughly 40 million of us will celebrate New Year’s Eve at a new home when 2017 comes to a close.

Moving is often cited as one of the most stressful events for people. The process of packing up one’s life and shipping it off to somewhere new is stressful enough. Top it off with the mountain of address changes, changing utilities and new municipalities, and it’s easy to understand how the whole process can be overwhelming! Now, let’s imagine that you’re 70 years old and haven’t had to move in 30 to 40 years. How daunting a task must that move be! That is exactly the situation that new retirement community residents are in.

As retirement community marketers and specialists, we realize that the biggest competitors a retirement community has aren’t other senior living options. Rather, it’s the home the potential residents are already in. As they contemplate the move, they begin to look around their homes and realize the scope of the task at hand. Cleaning out all of those closets full of memories, changing neighbors and routines, along with having to sell the home causes retirees an incredible amount of stress. How can communities overcome this?

It’s simple, really — solve the problem!

Okay, it sounds simple, but we know that it’s really not. Every potential resident is different. The challenges that one individual finds overwhelming can be completely unassuming to another. It’s the job of the sales person/marketer to listen closely to what the customer is saying, work toward identifying the problem, and then offer a solution. Sales are more often won by listening instead of talking!

Let’s use an example scenario for what this might look like in real life.

Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins have looked at your community for several months. They’ve come to events and have proven a solid lead. But you just can’t get them to sign on the dotted line. Time is running out, and soon they’ll be forced onto the waiting list if they don’t make a decision. You call the couple, getting Mr. Jenkins on the line. You explain the situation to him in hopes that you can push through to the sale. Mr. Jenkins remains reluctant, however. He seems particularly hung up on your pet policy, since he loves his bulldog, Bluto. You remind him that your community welcomes pets and that there are plenty of other dogs in the neighborhood where the Jenkins would reside. Still, he seems wary. When you push him about coming for another visit, he hands the phone over to his wife. You mention to Mrs. Jenkins about the pet policy and try to reassure her that Bluto would make a fine addition to the neighborhood. That’s when you find out what the real problem is. Bluto has been having some health troubles the last few months and has been to the vet several times. He’s on some new medications, and Mr. Jenkins is wary of having to switch vets in order to move to your community. Eureka! Now you know what the problem is and how to solve it.

How would you go about solving this sales problem? Perhaps you’d provide the Jenkins a list of nearby vets. But what can you do to really build the relationship and seal the deal? Perhaps you could arrange a meeting between the Jenkins and a local veterinarian that has a good relationship with the community. Maybe host a resident-lead event where they can bring out their pets to meet with the vet. Getting creative about solving the problem can make the difference between a missed opportunity and a sale.

With so many people looking to move in May, now is the time to think about how you can make moving to your community easier. Having a toolbox of unique and helpful solutions will enable you to build better relationships by listening to prospect’s real needs more than trying to meet perceived ones.