The Differentiation Mystery

A worry-free home. A personal living experience. Warm staff. This is Aliviya Rose Manor, headed up by Terrance Schabilion and his wife Wendy. Their small, private community is nestled in a residential neighborhood, creating a comfortable environment and providing socialization and fun. It’s different. Seth Godin Purple Cow different. In their words, “Our home is the right size where our residents feel comfortable and a part of a group.​” In this episode, Terrance and I explore the true meaning of differentiation in the senior care industry, and he sheds light on three marketing differentiation secrets he swears by: 1) the power of Google My Biz, 2) the art of asking for Google reviews, and, 3) a warm cocoon in the shower. Listen to find out more!

Learn about Aliviya Rose Manor: www.aliviyarosemanor.com

Recommended reading: Purple Cow, Seth Godin, https://bit.ly/3J7OJtC

The Automation Mystery

Marketing automation isn’t really about the mechanization of communications, it’s about helping as many families as your community possibly can. There are two universal truths in marketing, says my guest in this episode, Sean Leonard, CEO of ActiveDEMAND:
1) We have too much information; and,
2) Everyone needs help.

With that in mind, our jobs become making marketing better, infusing it with the creativity, inspiration and sense of trustworthiness that helps older adults connect, get help before even having a conversation with a care community and make great decisions about their future care. Yet too often we inadvertently erode trust with inconsistencies in messaging and timing of delivery of communications. Listen in to learn everything from how to build trust at scale to how to make that very first call a win every time.

Follow Sean: www.linkedin.com/in/leonardsean/

Get details on ActiveDEMAND: www.activedemand.com/senior-living/

In this episode, Jenni Bost, Vice President of Marketing with Radiant Senior Living, and I unpack together the proper use of AI in marketing. The story starts with technology preceding artificial intelligence. She and I both believe in first gathering survey and analytic data to identify the types of marketing that have the biggest impact on sales. This data offers guideposts as to where to focus efforts. We discuss how the right marketing automation and CRM software can further strengthen relationships and success rates with prospects. Then we get right down to the nitty gritty on AI: My general stance is AI is the junior copywriter. It’s the marketer’s responsibility to: 1) give the junior copywriter rich topics and data points to start and 2) polish the junior copywriter’s “cruddy first draft” with additional research, quotes and industry insights. People read people, they don’t want to read robots. And Jenni weighs in from there. Have a listen!

Learn more about Jenni and her team: www.radiantseniorliving.com

Read the about the eBook referenced: https://www.bigbuzzinc.com/download-team-alignment-is-the-secret-to-achieving-higher-marketing-outcomes/

Learn more about the marketing automation referenced: www.activedemand.com

Too much management, not enough leadership. That’s what my guest, Shane Ness, Regional Director of Sales at MBK Senior Living, and I believe is the root cause of low occupancies from a sales perspective. In this episode, Shane and I explore the real secret to building trust and relationships with the sales team, a two-day “Tour Development Sales Training” he swears by for improving census fast and ways to connect person to person, heart to heart, rather than getting swept up in the busy-ness of sales. Together, we unpack what empowerment really is: asking from a place of curiosity, setting healthy boundaries, relentlessly sharpening emotional IQ. Shane even gives listeners a three-part approach to driving the sales effort while still putting people first. Listen now!

Learn more about Shane and his team: www.mbkseniorliving.com

Read the about the sales training referenced: www.bigbuzzinc.com/crista-senior-living-case-study

My guest in this episode is Niki O’Brien, Director of Sales and Marketing with Legend Senior Living and winner of 2016 Argentum Sales and Marketing Director of the Year. Niki loves solving problems with her team and is an expert on revenue growth, maintaining the highest level of occupancy and developing and executing sales strategies. In this episode, Niki and I explore sales strategy as framed “Heart Work,” a mainstay of Legend Senior Living’s culture. We discuss how strategy is different than tactical work, how to support in improving hopelessness and isolation one conversation at a time and Niki shares her approach to researching, understanding and taking action on a sales and marketing approach that honors whole person throughout the process.

Reach Niki and her team: https://legendseniorliving.com/

Get the Four Agreements book we reference: https://amzn.to/44hng1T

Get the Being Mortal book we reference: https://amzn.to/3LLbBRN

Get the Storytelling eBook referenced: https://bit.ly/3VphQOs

After families make the decision to move an elder into a senior care community, there is a natural feeling of disconnection opposed with a deep desire for involvement. My guest in this episode is Doug Wilcox, CEO of How’s Mom, an app provided by senior care centers to help families communicate with care staff and keep up to date on loved ones in senior care. Doug and I discuss how technology can make involvement easier, care more well-rounded and families more connected. We also discuss how involvement starts long before move-in: the more connected folks feel right from the onset, with family and peers, the more connected they will stay. Doug founded How’s Mom in 2018 when he recognized the need for stronger family communications while shepherding his mother through senior care. Listen in to this passionate, insightful take on involvement even across state lines.

Find out more about Doug and How’s Mom here:

www.howsmom.net

If we just shared our secrets and set and worked toward the right industry benchmarks, there are enough aged adults in the U.S. to get every operator in the nation to 100% occupancy. This is the philosophy of my guest in this episode, Cassie Tweten, Chief Sales Officer with Arrow Senior Living Management. Together, she and I explore seven challenges facing senior living sales teams now, we focus on the one challenge we deem “the shark closest to the boat,” and we envision a new future for senior living in which that challenge is eradicated industrywide. We delve into the importance of inviting micro-commitments throughout the marketing and sales cycles, and she offers ways to implement those across your communications. A change is gonna come!

In the episode, I mention our eBook: The Complete Data-Driven eBook: Calls to Action that Work: The Senior Care Industry Insider Report

Get that here: https://www.bigbuzzinc.com/download-calls-to-action-that-work-the-senior-care-industry-insider-report/

Are your communities addicted to referral agencies? In this episode, my guest Angie Hildebrandt from 31-location Our House Senior Living unpacks why the industry is glued to referral agencies, what it’s costing senior care organizations like yours and steps to take to stop using them in favor of nurture marketing that earns higher and steadier returns. She laments that her company was once investing six figures with multiple referral agencies, only to find the returns were far lower than the investment. In her words, they were quite simply, “A bad business decision” made before her time. And yet, she shares how it felt scary to move away from referral agencies – a sentiment I often hear from her peers. We discuss short-term and long-term approaches to righting the marketing ship, moving away from expensive placement agencies that only deliver cold leads.