A solid senior living sales plan is crucial for success with continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs, also called life plan communities) and other types of senior living communities. 

This means gaining more valuable information in the sales process to create more meaningful and actionable conversations for sales reps. All of this leads to improved engagement with prospects and turning conversations into action. 

If you’re thinking that creating a successful senior living sales plan is much easier said than done, you’re right. Maximizing your senior living sales plan takes skill, the relevant tools, and the right sales resource partners. That’s why we’re breaking it down into five essentials for senior living sales plans.

1. Know Your Audience(s)

To succeed in sales of any kind, you must understand the goals and needs of the people you’re selling to. Truly knowing your audience helps you tailor messaging and approaches to the specific needs, preferences, and concerns of your senior living community audience. When you provide them with useful, community-specific information, it resonates and builds trust. 

For example, if you’re speaking to the adult children of seniors, your messaging should be relevant and appealing to the “sandwich generation.” This group is taking care of their kids and their aging parents, so messaging that shows how senior living could make life easier for both them and their parents makes sense.

Senior living audiences are usually the adult children of seniors or seniors themselves, but don’t forget the folks who don’t yet realize they need senior living or believe it’s out of reach due to cost. Craft your messages to hit those needs and pain points. For starters, create a rock-solid value proposition. 

2. Identify and Solidify the Value Proposition

When you understand your audience, you can address very specific needs, wants, and concerns of potential residents and their families. A tight value prop clearly shows how a senior living community can meet its audiences’ needs, communicating unique benefits and highlighting differentiated features, amenities, and services. 

By understanding what sets your target market apart from other audiences, you can further differentiate your senior living community, positioning it as the best fit and the best value. To get the most from your value prop, keep it focused on: 

  • Why you’re relevant: How does your CCRC or senior living community meet your audience’s needs so they can make the right decision?
  • What they get: Focus on the benefits your audience will get, like peace of mind.
  • How much financial risk is involved: Show your audience why your CCRC or retirement community is affordable.

Once you have a solid value prop, put it to good use, and make sure it’s woven into your senior living sales plan.

3. Understand Lead Gen and How to Best Use It

You can’t have a successful senior living sales plan without understanding lead generation—and how to use it. Lead gen drives growth for communities, providing valuable visibility.

Lead gen helps expand your customer base by identifying and attracting prospective residents and their families who:

  • May not have previously been aware of your senior living community
  • Think they are too young for a CCRC or senior living community
  • Think they can’t afford senior living of any kind

Using lead gen, you’ll get your message to more people, and you’ll get more qualified prospects into your sales pipeline. It’s all about increasing opportunities for sales by generating inquiries, scheduling tours, and engaging with prospective residents and their families to truly build a relationship. 

4. Get the Most from Your Sales Enablement Efforts

Sales enablement provides your sales team with the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to engage with potential customers and close deals, improving their effectiveness and productivity. A well-run sales enablement program ensures that your sales team can provide a positive and personalized customer experience by addressing specific needs and concerns. This includes providing prospects with the information and details they need to help them make decisions. 

These days, this consumer education component means using digital content such as educational videos, virtual tours, informative and relevant blogs and articles, webinars, e-books, and more. Of course, all of this content takes effort, so make sure you’re prepared by:

Making Training a Top Priority

Ongoing sales enablement training and support ensure teams have the knowledge and skills necessary to close sales and build relationships. Training also boosts morale by providing your team with the coaching and resources they need to feel confident and successful in their roles. Remember: Engaged, empowered teams meet their key performance indicators (KPIs).

Locking Down Your Messaging

Knowing your audience helps you tailor your messaging and approach to the specific needs, preferences, and concerns of your target market. Understanding exactly what your audience is looking for, who they need you to be, and what information they need in order to make a senior living decision is crucial to making that lasting connection.

Having the Best Sales Tools and Materials

Using the right senior living sales tools can help your sales team be more efficient, effective, and productive. This means:

  • Increased productivity and revenue
  • A better customer experience
  • Streamlined sales processes

If you choose wisely, sales tools can automate routine tasks and provide real-time data and insights, making everyone on your team more productive and efficient. 

5. Tighten Up and Bolster Your Metrics and Reporting

When you have sales tools that provide insightful data, senior living communities can get the metrics and reporting that provide insights into trends in the market and the preferences of potential residents and their families. 

With the right data, sales teams are able to cater their sales efforts to meet the needs of their target audience. Plus, metrics and reporting empower senior living communities to track lead generation efforts and identify the sources of their leads.  

The Most Essential Element: The Right Senior Living Sales Tools

Each element we talked about here is crucial for senior living sales success. 

The good news is that you can get everything you need with myLifeSite senior living industry solutions. Our leading online tools are designed to work with a community’s sales plan. 

For starters, our MoneyGauge™️ tool gives your website visitors a preliminary assessment of your community’s lifetime affordability. You also can browse myLifeSite’s Resource Library to find the shareable educational content prospects need to make informed senior living decisions. 

When it comes to creating a solid senior living sales plan, we’re just getting started. Let’s keep talking. Learn more about what MoneyGauge™ can do for your business by requesting a demo today.

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