Man, we’ve been doing this for 16 years now as an agency. And found our way working for a lot of different verticals, a lot of different industries, some really cool companies, but in particular, in particular senior marketing to seniors. We’re at a time in history where in this country there are more seniors, more people who are aging than ever.
02:24 – 02:57
Right. And there’s a wave of our fellow citizens that are buying a lot of things. And so if you’re a company that is trying to have that conversation with them, market to them, sell to them, there’s a lot of new considerations for that. And in particular, senior living right. Where does mom or dad need to move into so that they are still thriving, still enjoying life in their latter years?
02:57 – 03:29
And so we we found ourselves as a growth marketing agency, working with senior living operators and helping them do a better job at that communication or that sales process of helping those folks choose a place to live in. Been really interesting for us. A lot of learning, a lot of experimentation, a lot of wins, some losses, but really insightful for us.
03:29 – 04:01
And I think it it really speaks to the importance of having this multi-pronged apparatus that a marketing team, a sales team and operations team can benefit from. So we should talk about that a little bit. What that means, what it looks like, what, what companies, operators should be thinking about. Because our customer today, all of us, we expect a different experience the way we buy.
04:01 – 04:28
Certainly the way our our senior neighbors buy is different than what it was. I mean, just ten years ago. Yeah. Right on. I think one of the biggest things like that I, that I always come back to is just the simple fact of when you talk about consumer behavior and you talk about that specifically, we can I’m glad that we’re kind of drilling into a niche, drilling into an industry, because we can be really specific about that industry.
04:28 – 04:49
But, you know, this is an industry, that you’re dealing with baby boomers who are typically the children of the the folks that are moving into a community, or you’re actually talking to the people moving into a to a facility and which are going to be what, your kind of, World War Two era folks. What is that?
04:49 – 05:19
The the last great generation or the greatest generation? I think it is. Well, what’s kind of very interesting about the last ten years is how much more savvy this audience has become. These guys are a lot. And I’m speaking, of course I’m speaking digitally, but I’m also speaking with how their expectations have changed and what their expectations are with the people that they work with or the companies that they work with.
05:19 – 06:06
And I think that’s the piece that a lot of owner operators are struggling with and have been struggling with a little bit over the last few years of like how to accommodate that changing behavior of their target audience and their loved ones. And that’s what I hope we can get into a little bit today. Yeah, every brand, aspires to deliver on some type of promise, and it’s easy to allow the the tactical things that are necessary to function as a business to get in the way or to, paralyze you from, that promise or delivering on that promise.
06:06 – 06:38
And when we think of senior living operators, you know, both of us have young kids. And I just, I love the comparison in my own head of what it was like to choose, childcare, right. As a parent to to find somewhere that I felt comfortable putting my daughter in, knowing that she was going to be okay during that day, that there was going to be something that she left every day with that she didn’t have before she got there, that me or her mom felt good about her experience there.
06:38 – 07:17
And I think it’s true. In senior, right. As an adult child of aging parents, you want to make sure that your parent is thriving, that they are in a good place, that they’re going to be well taken care of. And so for an operator, there are those considerations that they’re, committed to. And so they have to balance that with, well, how do I maintain that promise, maintain that level of commitment, and still do what’s necessary to market to my customer to make sure that my sales team is armed and doing what they need to do to close business, because at the end of the day, it’s a business.
07:17 – 07:42
And so the the that’s why I think there is such an opportunity for the conversation to evolve the same way these savvy customers have evolved. You have to change the experience so that we’re meeting them where they are, meeting them, where their comfort level is in creating a list of consideration. Right. Getting the Intel that they need to get.
07:42 – 08:071
So as marketers, we’re on the hook now to do a better job at providing that experience to make it easier for the sales team and operations team to deliver on that brand promise, but also deliver on the business goals. And that’s the thing I think I see a lot is like for these owner operators, there’s no doubt that the the operators that are in business, for the most part, there’s bad apples everywhere.
08:07 – 08:32
But you get into this business because you love people. I mean, you love caring for people. So the 9.99 times out of ten, these operators, when you move someone in, it’s a great experience for them. It’s awesome. They’re not going to move out because they get mad. You’re the the facility is going to do what they’re supposed to do in terms of care, in terms of safety, in terms of nutrition.
08:32 – 08:50
All of that’s cool. The the hard part where they’re behind these owner operators are what to do to get them to the door. Yeah. What should we be doing to get them to the door? That is the struggle that these guys have because we know if you don’t hit occupancy numbers, these businesses can go backwards very, very quickly.
08:50 – 09:18
It’s not cheap to run a senior living facility. So if you don’t have your occupancy numbers in line, you don’t have a pipeline following that. Right? Because change happens, change is happening. You need a constant flow of new tours and new new deposits, new lease lease agreements that are coming in at all times. And to build that funnel, to build that system is extremely difficult today.
09:19 – 09:48
I think a majority of the reason is because, I’d say over 90% of the interactions now are put on the shoulders of sales teams. There’s really a very still very much a disconnect between the the activity a marketing team does and the activity as sales team does. And while we preach a lot about that integration, about not siloing these things, which would be that’s the holy grail.
09:48 – 10:10
There’s still a lot of things both marketing teams should be doing and sales teams that should be doing that aren’t the same as what they have been doing. We work with with, salespeople all the time, and it’s really clear what their KPIs are. Closed business. Right? I mean, if you’re a sales person, you might have some leading indicators like your pipeline.
10:10 – 10:35
And how many contacts have you made this week or any of the number of kind of leading indicators. But at the end of the day, you’re looking for closed, closed business. I think that becomes very challenging when a majority of the consumers today don’t want to engage with the sales person the way that they used to engage with us in not just the salesperson, but people in general.
10:35 – 10:52
I don’t think that the consumer today, all that work that we used to be able to put on the lap of a sales guy and say, hey, give it to Mike, because as soon as Mike talks to him and Mike works, he is the man. And that’s true. You’re just getting way less at bats than you used to get.
10:52 – 11:15
You’re not getting as many opportunities to even let yourself shine. Yeah, because the way that everybody’s consuming media or content, shall we say, is not through the old school interactions of phone calls and tours. I think it puts these senior communities in this spot where they have to share a lot more on the front end than they’re comfortable with.
11:15 – 11:49
I think it puts facilities operators and owners. I think it puts operators and owners of senior living communities in a very scared position about the, all of the information that they have to give upfront before they talk to someone. I think that position to it, it comes out of either not knowing right or not trusting that ability to have both an empathetic approach to marketing, but also a very transparent approach in that marketing.
11:49 – 12:10
Because at the end of the day, marketing exists to do a good job communicating what it is you believe the value or benefit your product or service can provide, and bring them to the door, right? Yeah, maybe not buy, right, but bring them to the door no matter what it was, it’s hey, I don’t know how much he’s going to spend.
12:10 – 12:32
I like talking to Tena about this with the auto biz. We’ll get them to your lot. But we can’t sell the car. We can’t sell the car for you. Yeah, and that’s very much what. What marketing is at least. At least bring them to the door. I think it’s putting putting these operators, though, in a in a tough spot, not knowing.
12:32 – 12:59
Not knowing what to do, not knowing what to put sales on the hook for when you can’t get the connection that you used to be able to get. And I’m really talking to face to face and phone and phone calls. Yeah, yeah. Let’s talk a little bit in about, this connection that marketing is trying to create with that adult child or that senior, with all of the channels now that exists.
12:59 – 13:40
You know, we’ve done a lot of work on understanding customer behavior and what these users are doing now when they engage with content or specific channel. So I know for a lot of operators, there is a lot of trepidation around, releasing control of their content online, you know, particularly, arming the end user with questions or, perspectives that seemingly puts the sales team in the dark or in the corner.
13:40 – 14:03
And, and they think at a disadvantage. We’ve been seeing this, Mike, since we started us working primarily with B2B companies, this B2B thing, a lot of similarities with senior senior Live. Yeah. You’ve got a user buyer, economic buyer, technical buyer. You got a coach. There’s a lot of opinions. You got sons, you got daughters. You may have a brother or sister.
14:03 – 14:24
The guy moving in brother may be still alive. That has an opinion about things. Yeah, all of these guys and B2B, it’s so, so funny that B2B does this as well. We can’t. Our audience doesn’t understand this stuff. They don’t really know about it. They don’t really care about it. So you can’t marketing. You can’t talk about any of this stuff.
14:24 – 14:43
Yeah. Because we need to leave it up to the sales guy to do that on the fly in real time, because we’ll just confuse them. They. This is the price. You know, I’m always a big on show your price show everything. Yeah. So virtual tours show your pricing, put everything up front and retail. You have no choice. You have to do that.
14:43 – 15:03
If you’re a consumer facing brand, B2C, you have to show your price. I mean, that’s like going to the grocery store and you only know the price at the checkout. B2B is way different since you’re having conversations with people. You have the choice of when to introduce price, and most are still stuck on, let’s paint these walls up.
15:03 – 15:26
Let’s show them the entryway. Let’s show them how great everything is at the beginning. After we walk them through the house, then we’ll tell them what the price is. And I think that’s starting to backfire, at least with consumers, because now it’s like, okay, I’m coming in. I’m talking about a website. I’m coming to your website. You’re giving me next to nothing in some cases, some.
15:26 – 15:50
And this isn’t just senior, this is other organizations, other B2B companies we work with. You want my coveted information so you can have a dialog with me, but I’m not ready to have a dialog with you yet. So what’s happened is you’re kind of putting your your audience, you’re shrinking it way down only to the people with a quote unquote bleeding neck or urgent need.
15:50 – 16:14
You need. You’re only talking to the people that need a solution right this second. Well, we know that’s only, what, 15, 20% of the total audience, if you can be their resource. This is what I love. The Marcus Sheridan book, they ask you answer. This is his whole shtick is give them everything. Let them self identify what they’re looking for, for you to prove it.
16:14 – 16:43
And sorry. Now, do I think salespeople can still can, lead that narrative? Absolutely. Yeah. It’s just now you’re doing it in a video format rather than a coffee shop or in someone’s house or in your facility. You have to put that out. And that’s what I think. Certainly in the senior space, they’re super scared of of being that transparent because they’re worried that the audience isn’t going to understand what it what it is and what it means and how it works.
16:43 – 17:05
And, you know, the senior space, I think historically has been that I think they’ve come a long way in the last couple of years. They certainly, in the last year have made a concerted effort to to move into this, even with how they price and how care is being provided a much more open market, transparent environment. But this was clouded in fees before that.
17:05 – 17:26
You know, you didn’t really want to explain all this stuff out. And I think consumers are changing on that of like, what are you giving me up front that I can go off to be put? I’m trying to put you on the list of consideration. Help me do that. Don’t turn me away. By the only way I can be on your list, be on the list is if we’re going on a tour tomorrow.
17:26 – 17:50
Yeah. It’s a very reactive posture, though, because you’re right. The reason. The reason is changing so fast. Market is demanding the change. Yes. Right. I now I’m demanding as a consumer, someone looking for a facility to know all the things that I care about ahead of time or I’m not going to talk to you, I’m going to go to the next guy who is going to give me that information.
17:50 – 18:18
I did a little sample couple, that’s what, about a month ago, I’d say I did a little secret shopping and I did the top two, what I think are the top two referral sites for senior housing. In both instances, company A I was called every two hours for 24 hours straight. Now, they didn’t call me after 8 p.m. and didn’t call me again until, let’s say, 9 a.m. the next day.
18:18 – 18:44
But once that 24 hour automated phone and I never answered the phone one time, this was what 12 phone calls? No joke. Maybe eight phone calls. I didn’t answer any of them. They never left a message I had not. That was it. After that 24 hour timeline, it was over. Company B incorporated some text messages. Same approach. I think they lasted for 48 hours.
18:44 – 19:06
After I went 48 hours with no contact. They never reached out to me again. And this is the issue. This is the problem that if you’re not hot now, this is what I think the industry struggles with. If you’re not hot now, you don’t matter. If you’re not ready to to move in in the next 30 days. We don’t really want to talk to you.
19:06 – 19:38
And I think that ends up backfiring. Certainly cost you more when you’re going to fish in those ponds, catch another, catch another, catch another, catch another, rather than establish a meaningful, relationship or or or resource, establish a good resource for your end user or their loved ones. There’s no appetite. So we know that channels now, like Facebook or YouTube are critical components.
19:38 – 20:08
Now to continue in the conversation that you want to have with your customer, without the voice, the voice being there and you know, to your 30 day scenario, if if you if everyone was looking to move in to a facility and 30 days you you probably would have less reliance on marketing. But industry average is 120 plus days, you know, before someone is ready to move in.
20:08 – 20:39
And so from that initial, inquiry to the time that they’re actually ready to move in, where are you in the conversation? That’s the question that operators have to ask themselves, are you still having an active conversation with that customer? And usually the answer is no, because you stopped at the very beginning of the inquiry. Well, and and that beginning of the inquiry, when they inquire, they’re already half, let’s say, oh, it’s 30 days into their 120 day timeline.
20:39 – 20:59
They’ve already been scoping for 30 days. Now they’re reaching out. And that’s the that’s the short sightedness, I think of of and I get it too, like part of this, you know, we’re in the real it’s the real estate game as well. This is this is lease. This is. Yeah. Apartment. Right. Like you have to fill buildings that that is it.
20:59 – 21:25
That is crucial to the business staying solvent. So that appetite to make sure your pipelines constantly flowing is very, very important. But I think it’s getting overshadowed or trumped by it’s you already paid for it. The inquiry. Why aren’t you holding on to it? I was blown away that, you know, the amount of money that these organizations pay, certainly in senior living, to get an inquiry.
21:26 – 21:49
300 bucks, 600 bucks. Right. These aren’t cheap inquiries to throw them away after 48 hours of non responsiveness because they didn’t pick up your phone call or respond to a text messages or your text message, I think is a huge a huge miss when like what we I like joking about it is like put another 15 bucks dollar insurance policy on it, right.
21:49 – 22:14
Like, yeah, you spent 600. It’s not going to cost all that much more to nurture this guy for a year. Yeah. And, I not many know. And it is because of the fight between sales and marketing. Yeah, I think a lot of marketing teams, certainly in-house, I’m sorry to say, but certainly in-house. There isn’t that looking around the corner, there isn’t the opportunity for them to generate.
22:14 – 22:39
Maybe some ideas that they do want to have come to. Life is very difficult to get through, very difficult to get launched or activated. Then you’re you’re and why? Because you’re going up against leadership that doesn’t really understand it. In a sales team who’s taking credit for the revenue. So CEO, who am I talking to? Who am I listening to?
22:39 – 23:04
I’m listening to my sales team, my sales team’s giving me this insight. Marketing’s doing their thing that’s supposed to be supporting sales. But when when I have questions, I’m going to the sales team. How come we haven’t hit? What is it going to take to get this? How is this looking. And it I think it does put the sales squad in a in that hey marketing, give me my leads, give me my leads.
23:04 – 23:27
I’ll nurture these the way I nurture these. I’m going to close my close rate and just give me the leads. I don’t want to self-identify. I don’t want my audience to self-identify. I they don’t have to learn everything about our organization. Give me enough to have a meaningful conversation. I think that’s that’s where I’m hot on the what is enough to have a meaningful conversation is a lot more than it used to be.
23:27 – 23:56
Yeah. In the old days. We talk about this in the old days, man. Give us a text, add an LP. And we have we’ve got a meaningful come. You got a good shot of having a meaningful conversation now though. No, it is not that you need multiple, points of interest. You need to check boxes. You need to make sure, the target understand the, the target feels heard that you understand.
23:56 – 24:25
we were talking this morning and you said, you know, depending on care type. Well, our audience doesn’t really know what care type means. Explain it to them. Yeah. Explain what care type means and let them take their best shot at it. You can clarify it later, but they want to do this independent online research by themselves before they go in and talk or engage with with salespeople, with organizations.
24:25 – 24:56
And we’re not giving consumers today enough tools to be able to do that. So when they call, you are talking to a much lower probability sale than you other would otherwise would be talking to if they were able to self-identify themselves a little bit, and that that self-identification phase is so, so closely held in sales, organized, you know, in sales teams that, they don’t trust their consumers to be able to do it on their own.
24:56 – 25:31
Yeah. And that’s the issue. Interesting stat that when we talk about that demo, that specific audience, more than 83% of them are actively on social platforms. So there is a there is a megaphone that a lot of operators are leaving on the sideline and not utilizing to continue the conversation, to be able to give or expound on the, the, the value proposition that they believe they can provide to that customer.
25:31 – 26:17
Email, you know, this same audience, they are, infatuated with checking their email. They check email every day and open every single email this. And so the for operators who don’t have that channel in their toolkit of continuing the conversation, continuing to to prime that potential customer for the sales team, it’s a missed opportunity. And this is where I think there’s a there’s a great, arms race, if you will, for operators because the the guys who do this now will be the guys who win.
26:17 – 26:37
Yes. And it it, it is kind of shocking a little. And you know, certainly you know if I were a sales person straight up a, a sales person and that’s, that’s what I did. And you know, obviously it’s what I do a lot of but if that was my only goal, the worst meetings I’m taking are the ones where I don’t know anything about the user.
26:37 – 26:55
Oh yeah. Absolutely. And we get these, I get these. Hey, go I’m going to go, hey, Mike, I’m going to go have lunch with so-and-so today. What are you talking about? I don’t know, I have no idea. He said he’s got some. I happened the other day. Hey, I got a I got a couple new ideas I want to run them via.
26:55 – 27:16
Okay. Come on, come, let’s talk. And of course I do, because I’m a sales guy and I’m looking for every opportunity I can. Yeah, but I would take one of those for I’d. I’d rather not take ten of those to take one that says, hey, I’m looking to do I’m looking for a new website, man, or I’m looking to start generating some serious traffic to my website.
27:16 – 27:37
Can you help me? I would much rather talk to those guys. I think the same way with sales and I’m not sure why it hasn’t like gone over that hump of like, wouldn’t you rather know as a as a senior living salesperson that, hey, this is for her mom. This is child of loved one. It’s daughter. There’s three kids the care type.
27:37 – 28:02
She’s got early onset dementia happening. She’s going to need memory care. Don’t send her. And this is what happens. This is what sales and marketing. Not communicating between each other. When when marketing comes and says, I want to send this 12 email drip campaign to your everybody that fills out an inquiry. Sales team goes, no, no, no, no, no, we don’t want to talk about your example.
28:02 – 28:24
Like I don’t care about, tennis courts, tennis courts. The thing that my mother that’s coming. So if you send me an email about, your upgraded tennis courts. Yeah. And my baby going out of the wheelchair, you’re you’re now you’re you’re coming off kind of like a jerk. Yeah. Now you. And that is the that’s got the opposite effect on this.
28:24 – 29:02
Instead of addressing the important things of what you guys do in your facility for your memory care. Yeah. Unit, that’s a, that’s a good segue because we know that for an operator to maintain this commitment to the promise that they’re trying to deliver. Right. A place where Mom or dad can live, thrive, avoid loneliness, etc. the responsibility that they have is to build some level of trust with their potential prospect or customer.
29:02 – 29:59
And these barriers that exist, be it not knowing what you don’t know right in your marketing or sales effort, not knowing, some of the tools that are available to remove a lot of the ambiguity is a big problem for operators. Now, you know, when we say senior living operator and that’s maybe, too much of a inside baseball term owner operator for the most of these guys have a sales person or sales team and a marketing group that’s doing a lot of stuff, and some of that stuff is in support of the everyday needs of the facility itself, creating collateral, supporting events, supporting the sales team and oftentimes the work necessary for nurturing
29:59: 30:37
the prospect or waving the flag of who we are to our audience, to be able to cut through the noise or to differentiate ourselves from our competition, gets pushed in the corner and you lose the the ability to build that trust that you’re trying to create. So being able to create content that does that for you, that works on your behalf to do that educational content that talks about the differences of care or the considerations that someone needs to have, in their thinking when making this decision.
30:37 – 31:01
This is a hard decision, right? This is this is not a this is not an easy, for everybody. And this is a very touchy sensitive. And everybody’s sensitive for a different reason too. Right? So the the, the work necessary for the operator to convey that no longer can be solely relied on, that the sales team, sales team is going to do that.
31:02 – 31:25
Well, not not as long as the consumer has an apprehension to talk to salespeople. It used to be, hey, and this is where I think the growth from, the referral sites came from great and un biased. Yeah. Unbiased quote unquote, view. Yeah. That is going to help me walk through because I have no idea what the heck is going on.
31:26 – 31:50
I have no clue. So we’re going to get this guy or gal, they’re going to come in and help us work through what the options are. And what a great, great idea. I’m saying. Everybody’s got that opportunity now. Yeah, everybody’s got that to be able to do for their user. Give them everything. And now only opportunity responsibility. Because if you don’t if you don’t you’ll be lapped.
31:50 – 32:34
Yeah. And that that’s the arms race piece of this because of how sophisticated this decision is for the customer, operators are often really sensitive about how they steward that, that decision. Right? That journey. How are we making sure we’re walking shoulder to shoulder with this adult child or with this family who’s having to make this decision so that they see us as reputable, credible, that they see us as someone who can, give them some sense of peace, confidence in the decision they’re making.
32:34 – 32:56
And marketing, I think historically has not done a good job of proving that they can do that. Right. You didn’t have to get them to the door, and it was so easy to get them to the door. Two pieces of content. I we should get some stats on that. That would be really interesting to see, like how many pieces of content they need to see to fill out a form ten years ago.
32:56 – 33:18
How many pieces of content do you need to see today to fill out a form? Yeah, because that’s what we’re talking about, you know, and you said ten years. I mean, even eight, Mike. I mean, Covid was only four years ago. Seems like longer sometimes. But even that four years ago, that changed big time overnight how we talk to each other.
33:18 – 33:39
We never thought before Covid that we would have virtual and virtual existed. Yeah. But we didn’t think of it the way that we think of it now. Well, and certainly when you start talking about making a buying decision, oh my gosh, you’re skeptical now. It wasn’t acceptable. You want to you wouldn’t do that. No. Before drop a thousand bucks on anything.
33:39 – 34:06
A thousand people are buying cars sight unseen. Man stopping at the vending machine and picking them up. Yeah, and you’re able to do that? I think, it certainly speaks to how consumers and what, consumers have more faith in what they read right before it was, oh, my gosh, I got to talk to somebody now, it’s I mean, you want to dispute your Comcast bill or your dirty energy bill, like go to the chat, man.
34:06 – 34:33
You want to sit on the phone for 45 minutes? No. Let’s get a chat open the window. And, I sent a tweet or. Yeah, well, that’s got a really quick response, I’m sure. Right. It’s like, hey, I got a problem here, then you’re getting the call. So, yeah, the the ability now for the operator to have that level of trust from the prospect because that’s still so important.
34:33 – 35:28
There is a gap in how that trust is being formed. Yes. And a lot of that for us as consumers, this is all of us. We put a lot of a lot of stake in what someone is saying online. Right? We put a lot of credibility in the information that you are providing to me or not. I, I form an opinion on how credible you are based on what you are arming me with.
35:28 – 35:24
And the the best part about that Sheridan book is that he says in there every everyone plays this game of don’t share, don’t tell. Let’s get the inquiry and we’ll do the work ourselves in a room, a controlled environment and everybody’s excuse or the reason that they do that is they say, I don’t want to be commoditized. I don’t want to become a commodity.
35:24 – 35:47
Well, the sick joke about that is by not doing it, you are the commodity. Yeah. By not giving virtual tours, by not having profiles of your salespeople, by not allowing people to to see how much you are, what kind of care you have, what that care type means, how you can transition from each. Why not opening all of those things up to consumers?
35:47 – 36:25
You are just like everybody else. Yeah, and that’s what I get jacked about of like the opportunity here for for owner operators to to leapfrog that the the X factor that I believe exists now and we talk about often and you know, certainly in the agency space there’s an arms race on this is data. Because the more insight you have on who your customer is and what they care about, the easier it is for you to personalize your communication.
36:25 – 36:48
And that is still, a big, important factor for operators. And so far behind on that. Yeah, yeah. And that there’s your scalability too, right? If you really want to, you know, two things operate out of systems. Then you can start scaling. Right. And, you know, you got to have a few facilities for that to make sense for you.
36:48 – 37:14
Right? You got to have a few. You got to have a marketing team. You got to have a sales team. And once that happens, that’s paramount. That’s where you get a 1% improvement on a conversion rate, and it doubles your effort and it doubles. Yeah, man. Yeah, yeah. There is a, so there’s a disconnect. There’s definitely a gap on one gaining access to that data.
37:14 – 37:55
Right. I think operators are still struggling with well how do I even get it. You know that’s part one. And then part two. What do I do with it. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Okay I have some visibility to this data. How do I use it. How do I put it into my my marketing efforts, my sales efforts. And this is where we’ve had a lot of, cool success with refining what the roles and responsibilities are for a salesperson in a marketing person, because now that I have some data on who these folks are and what they care about and what their behaviors are, we can divide and conquer.
37:55 – 38:27
Yes. Now I can put sales on the hook for a very refined set of activities. Same with marketing. Have transparency on all of it, all the way through. Right? And now we can start to scrutinize what’s working, what’s not working. Where do we need to double down? Where are we where do we have some holes or some some deficiencies and that, you know, every operator, every business leader, business owner wants that.
38:27: 38:58
But there is this gap in getting the data and then knowing what to do with it. And, you know, that’s a piece to once you have that and it is the systems in these processes are set up that way. It makes it really easy to turn the turn. The dial up makes it really easy to go and and acquire or build and put them into these, these proven lead gen, lead nurturing lead closing systems.
38:58 – 39:24
Yes. Basically yes. That that it that I mean that’s the dream. That’s what you want want to have happen. Yeah. Yeah. Without that without that you are relying on successful salespeople and you are losing when you have bad salespeople. We have great sales team. Right. There’s a Now with that being said, you have a great sales team, small.
39:24 – 39:44
You got three salespeople and they’re all amazing. They’re not as amazing as they were five years ago. Right. That’s just not the same way. Not if they’re acting the same way they were three years ago. Now, if these three salespeople, I would argue that if there’s there are three great salespeople, they’ve got some great content of themselves online.
39:44 – 40:05
They’re integrated to some degree with their marketing team. They know who’s coming into them, who they’re bringing in. All of those things would help, but if you don’t have that, you are taking a crapshoot every time you hire a salesperson. Now, on how good is their ability going to be to to get someone on the horn and to get them into your building for a tour?
40:05 – 40:28
It’s it’s a much more of a liability. It’s a very, very risky investment. Yeah. Versus staple customer journeys of we know what our customer is looking for. I know sales guy. You’re excited. You want to talk to him really, really bad. They don’t want to talk to you. Yeah. Don’t worry. Our data says they’re going to be ready to talk to you in about 45 days.
40:28 – 40:45
Take work on these. That’s the game. And in the meantime, we’re going to incubate them. Yep. We’re going to keep them warm. We’re going to let them hear about what they want to hear about. We’re going to track what they’re consuming and what they’re not. Yeah. So when when you do get a call, when they call you. Yeah.
40:45: 41:11
You don’t call them. When they call you, you’ll have their persona. You’ll have their what they care about most. Yeah, yeah. And yeah. How cool would it be for a sales person to avoid the first 3 to 5 minutes of a conversation? Building a profile? Yes. To already have the profile, already have the profile. And instead use that time to build a connection.
41:11 – 41:34
I did this, I was telling you about the investment forum. I’m not going to say who it is, but it’s a huge investment company. And I saw a commercial on TV and they were like, scan this QR code. So I went on there, okay, scan the QR code. It went right to a contact form. Yeah, name, email. Rev no net worth.
41:34 – 42:02
Some sort of money question. City. State. Phone number. That’s it. Dude calls me back. 2 or 3 days later and he is laying it on. Hey, Nick. Talking to me like he knows me. Talking to me like we’ve talked before. Hey, Nick. What up? It’s it’s Jim. I’m just looking over your file here. He said that I’m looking over your file here.
42:02 – 42:22
I got to tell you, I think you’re a great fit with us. You are a great fit with us. Let me send you a packet in the mail describing what this looks like and how it’s going to work. And I said, no problem. That’s in the packet. Got a packet a few days later, called me again after I got the packet.
42:22 – 42:43
So another week goes by. Yeah. Nick, you got my packet right? Yeah. I think you are going to be great here. I’d like to set up our, our call to like get this run the enrollment call or whatever and really get this going and I said no and no thank you. But talking about feeling dirty, man. Talking about like, big deal too.
42:43 – 43:05
We’re talking about money. Yeah. Same thing. Yeah. And you’re making me feel like I’ve given you information that I haven’t given you yet. You know things about me. You are talking to me like you know me. You’re talking like you’ve studied me in some capacity. He didn’t know me from Adam. You didn’t know anything about anything. Yeah. And when you do that, it was AI1 acted on it.
43:05 – 43:28
I saw the commercials. I like the commercials I’ve heard about. I’ve heard of these guys forever and ever. I. There is some exclusivity to this, right? They have minimums that you have to have all two cool checkboxes on a you know, I got a buyer. Yeah. And that sales guy ruined it. And I don’t blame him. I blame the process, the framework that he’s working out of.
43:28 – 43:47
He didn’t know. He didn’t I mean he’s trying to hit is he is number. You not think he doesn’t even know he’s taking part in the in the thing that he was set up with. And that is so detrimental I’ll never work with him. Yeah. I mean, maybe in ten years from now, I don’t know what it would take.
43:47 – 44:14
Probably not. Probably not. Yeah. Because and that is the biggest fear certainly in a industry like senior. Oh we’re not talking about money. We’re talking about lives now. Yes. So you know money maybe in the now, I can close you talking about my money. Yeah. But when you’re talking about my loved one. Oh, my gosh, be the only thing that matters or that should matter is your ability to create some level of trust or confidence.
44:14 – 44:36
If they would have placed, your money would be a good fit here with your mother and had the same attitude I probably would. I gave him a piece of my mind. Yeah. I didn’t do it. I met with this guy, but I probably be. I probably write a review, you know, of. Yeah. I don’t know what kind of racket these guys are pulling, but.
44:36 – 45:10
Well, and I think that really, kind of capstones, the problem that we see that a lot of operators are faced with, they are paralyzed with the idea of implementing some of these self-identification. Yeah, these these, marketing experiences, these tools that would level up, educate. Right. Their buyer. Yeah. They’re paralyzed from by from doing that because of fear that we’re going to break our promise.
45:10 – 45:39
Right. We’re going to someone’s going to have an experience that’s going to do the opposite of what we’re trying to do. And instead, the work is rolling your sleeves up in figuring out how marketing and sales work together to be able to have a cohesive experience, right. An experience that your customer is demanding. Right. So we’re not trying to create some, some futuristic thing that nobody has done before.
45:39 – 46:17
No, there’s an expectation now from your customer that there is a seamless experience from the very first impression all the way through that closed business. My favorite example I stole this activity, shall we say recommendation. Go to your sales team. Ask them to give you the top 6 to 12 questions that they get asked every single time. On that first sales call, come back to the office and make a video about each one of them and answer the question to your best of your ability.
46:17 – 46:45
Now our our buddy, Phillip struts kind of let us in on the what is it interested versus committed. Yeah. Now of all the times that I’ve given that recommendation, I haven’t seen it come out yet. So a lot of guys being interested that weren’t fully committed to it. But those are the things now. Yeah. And and for some that’s a hard that’s a hard reality to come come to of like what.
46:45 – 47:17
Yeah. Got to put it up on the, on the internet. Yeah. For all my competition to see. Yeah. Three things. Nick that, we believe any operator today could start to do differently to, improve the customer experience, right? Synchronize their marketing and sales without compromising the promise or the commitment that they’re trying to make to the customer.
47:17 – 47:51
And we talked about this a little bit this morning. Some of these seem like no brainers, but we’re always surprised by how little these are implemented and the clients we work with. Number one, being able to, really take advantage of implementing some sort of CRM. I was I was talking with someone on the team this morning, and we were debating the differences between CRM, which CRM is the best?
47:51 – 48:20
And at the end of it, I said, you know, it’s really the wrong question. The better question is, do you have one? Right? Even if it’s a spreadsheet, that spreadsheet could be a CRM, right? But something that is managing the activity and the where are we with this relationship that we’re trying to create? Every single person that engages with your organization is every single person until they tell you, stop calling me.
48:20 – 48:40
I don’t want to talk to you. I’m doing something else. I don’t want to. I’ve unsubscribed for from your emails. Right. Thank you. I’m all set until that happens. And that is very, very rare. By the way, I know people hate saying no. Yeah. So you’re not telling me that half of your database are people that have said no to you?
48:40 – 49:04
No chance. Could they be out of market? Yes, perhaps. But did you get a stop contacting me? Very, very rare that that’s happening. And that that speaks to the benefit because, if you are investing any amount of, capital in your marketing, any type of funds into your marketing turn turns policy. Yeah. You want to know what’s going on with you, right?
49:04 – 49:33
What do we get for it? Yes. And so having that CRM, some type of database gives you visibility to what we’re getting. What what do we have. It gives you some cross visibility for teams. Right. So now now only the sales team know what that looks like. Marketing team knows what that looks like. Oh, so you had two conversations with that guy, right?
49:33 – 49:57
This is a tactic that we use to get that guy. We need to go do that again. It supports operations. Operation now sees hey this type of customer that we have, they do really well with the services we’re providing. Go close. More like that. Yeah right. So now everyone has visibility to where the wins are, where the challenges are.
49:57 – 50:29
And it it makes you, more dangerous in decisions that you need to make as a, as a business, as an operator. Second, and I love how you said earlier, you know, lead generation, lead nurturing, lead closing. When you really think about that, maybe a fourth one would be, lead operating right now. You you that lead has turned or has matured into an actual customer lead advocacy lead I’m looking for.
50:29 – 50:57
There you go. Yeah. So the the second piece of having some sort of lead nurturing system in place, I would say not hearing number three yet. That is huge because it’s an untapped we already know seniors open every every single emailing it. They open every email not doing that. And we see what others are doing too. Yeah. It doesn’t exist.
50:57 – 51:15
Yeah. So as soon as you give me a shred if I got another financial company that made me feel an inch taller than what the, the other one did they. That’s a big win. That’s a huge win for me. And that’s what the industry is going through right now. I think that’s the opportunity that that the industry has.
51:15 – 51:39
And again, to, to, to not breeders facilities have to not be too, insensitive to the paralysis because the reason most, most of these guys don’t do it is for fear that what we say in that email or in that communication is going to be different than the communication, that, voice, the voice conversation or a tour might actually have.
51:39 – 52:01
And the reason that they’re scared is because they don’t know, and the reason that they don’t know is because they’re not telling everybody. They’re only telling the people that come in and talk to the salespeople there. If that doesn’t happen, they’re never going to know what the real scenario is until they talk. And you’re right, once it goes over to sales, oh, I talk to them, I talk to them.
52:01 – 52:23
I know what what Jen’s going through. I know exactly what it is. Don’t send her that B.S. marketing stuff. Yeah, well, you are at a great advantage, sales guy now. Way better than what we could do as marketers. You’ve talked to them. Yeah, you’ve heard their pains. Until you’re able to drive that out of them at the front end, which is what they want.
52:23 – 52:39
They want to be able to share this stuff, give them the opportunity to do that. Then you can then you can nurture them properly. If you’re not doing that, you’ll never be able to nurture them. Yeah. That role says tennis courts, tennis court emails and it that’s why it’s so important to dig in and do the work. Yes.
52:39 – 53:09
Right. Not not to shy away from it. And you know the what’s been really interesting to see the last few years is, the marketplace is very forgiving. We as consumers. Oh, yeah, we are very forgiving. Yes. On content that we get. Oh, I mean, like the number of grammatical errors that you see in really in really, popular publications is astounding.
53:09 – 53:31
Do you know what I get a lot too. The reacted emails. Send an email. Oops. You’re sorry? Yeah. Guys, we sent this our mistake. I, you know, a decade ago that would be like, oh my gosh, look what they did as a rolling man. And you know, part of the reason for that was that 14 people reviewed the email before it went out, and they probably spent a ton of cash on.
53:31 – 53:50
Yeah, making it I think it might be a little different now, but yes, we are very forgiving. No problem. That’s just another day in the. Oh, decent of them. And almost does you does your more good. Yeah. Oh man. These guys made a mistake. Yeah. They’re is and there’s a balance. You’re right. You should not. That’s sloppy.
53:50 – 54:25
We’re not talking sloppy here. Shouldn’t be spraying. Yeah. Emails and yeah. Social post. Right with no focus. Yeah. Right. With no deliberate intention. And these are tools now that are available to us. Allow us to both be intentional, be deliberate, but also careful. Right. And personal and personable. So having some type of lead nurturing that is in the mix of how you are moving your pipeline.
54:25 – 54:56
And then third, and I think most important nowadays is this ability to understand the data that you’re gaining access to and then utilize it. Right. How do you get access to the data that is driving decisions that are going to make you a better operator? And there’s two ways to do it. Asking the consumer at the front end or demanding it comes from the sales folk.
54:56 – 55:20
I don’t see either happening today. Should it? Yes. Is it no. Either get that info from your consumer or hold your sales squad accountable to give that information. Yeah. And that’s I think the sales part of that. That is so hard, man. That is so, so hard to get that info from sales folks. Yeah. I think this is this would be a great debate.
55:20 – 55:49
That’s probably another conversation because I think it’s a lot easier today than people realize, oh, I say get it from from the get go. This is where marketing has, the most potential to be valuable, because our job should be to tee up our sales team to the very best, possibility. Right, to to arm them to the teeth with everything they need to close the business, win or lose, right?
55:49 – 56:10
You don’t want to spend your time chasing a loss. If it’s a loss, let’s get to that loss quick. I think about it sometimes, like I would. I should do the undercover. Undercover, job. You know that show Undercover Boss? I think it is. I should go and be a sales guy. I think I would be the number one sales guy in the country.
56:10 – 56:42
Why? Because I would. I would digitize, I would, all of my content would be radio. All. All available before anyone met me, the only thing I would be doing eight hours a day, six days a week, would be giving tours and following up with people that I gave tours to. That’s it. That’s all I’d be doing. Everything else, all those phone conversations, all those texts, all those emails would all, all be happening without me lifting a finger.
56:43 – 57:02
And I would be dedicated fully. I would be able to tour for acts would and anybody else could tour because I would have. I wouldn’t have to do all that front end work, that all these salespeople are doing now, my marketing, I’d be doing it, digitally. It’d be happening. The content exists, but I’m not doing it one at a time.
57:02 – 57:29
I’m doing it at scale. What do you say to the operator who says, that’s not how my customer buys it? I’d say you don’t know what your customer, which I’ve said that plenty of times. Yeah, yeah, a little nicer, but. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, certainly the pudding has proven that for us in our experience. And I think the correlation between a B2B company and the senior living operator is scary.
57:30 – 58:08
Scarily similar. And we’ve seen the proof of if you can create some autonomy, some automation in how you are meeting people, communicating with people at scale makes it much easier to make decisions about how the business grows. It goes back like, I would much rather give a tour to someone who’s already watched a video of me giving a tour than someone who hasn’t, because if they watch the video of me giving a tour and don’t like me, don’t like the building, don’t like the halls, don’t like my voice, don’t like my look.
58:08 – 58:38
Doesn’t like the vibe. Cool. Don’t come in. Save me the tour. That’s a hard, hard reality and a hard argument when you’re when you’re building occupancy. But at scale, when you really look at the numbers on it, it makes complete sense. Yeah, of course I would close double whatever it’s 4040 or doing good. I’d be at 60. No question, no question about it.
