Picking up the pace – how to optimise the later living sales rates
Our CEO and founder, Ali Powell recently participated in an Urban Living Webinar, hosted by George Sell from International Hospitality Media (IHM) on the topic of Picking up the Pace – how to optimise the later living sales rates.
During the webinar Ali shared her extensive expertise in the retirement and care sector along with a panel of experts in the field. The panel discussed the ‘elephant in the room’, which is that currently there simply aren’t enough sales being made to hit the monthly targets and discussed some of the key challenges the Retirement Living Sector is currently facing. However, in spite of these challenges, the webinar highlighted that it really is such an exciting place to be right now, with real potential and opportunities for future growth.
During the review the panel discussed what’s going right and what’s going wrong, they looked at how to understand the market and offer in order to optimise Sales. The panel reviewed some of the different types of retirement living offerings available and considered who the customers really are by highlighting the fact that adult children are often the gateway to a sale.
Whilst a potential customer might need to move, they might not want to move and it considered whether the customer really knows what an Integrated Retirement Community (IRC) is and what it can offer them. Potential customers will often have been researching their next home for some time before they even engage with the sales process, so consistent messaging and being clear about who the product is for is essential. The need for a good website, importance of engaging with the community, best practice for operators and marketers to reach their potential customers and their families, was shared. A key consideration is the need to share what should customers be doing, when should they start the process and whether digital marketing channels could be better utilized to support Sales and Marketing.
It was felt that one key failure of the industry is that who’s going to live in these IRCs is not considered until too late in the process, resulting in a mismatch between the price an IRC is sold at and the price potential residents are willing to pay. Marketing Myopia with the word retirement was also discussed and whether the focus of IRC marketing should actually be considered as hospitality with care in later life.
Please do watch the webinar and let us know your thoughts and ideas or if you have any questions about how to increase occupancy in the retirement living or hospitality sector by transforming your Sales and Marketing processes please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
