Oct 24, 2024
How to Build a High-Performing Sales & Marketing Team in Senior Living
Read Time: 5 min
In today's competitive senior living landscape, having a high-performing sales and marketing team) isn't just a nice-to-have—it's essential for success. At Senior Living CMO, we specialize in helping senior living operators build and optimize these teams to drive growth. But what exactly goes into creating such a team, you ask? Here's a breakdown of the 10 core elements that shape sales and marketing team (SMT) excellence and how organizations can foster these attributes to maximize impact.
Clear Vision and Goals
Alignment with Business Objectives: Everyone on the team must share a clear understanding of the company's long-term vision and goals. This alignment is crucial as all marketing objectives should sync with the broader business strategy and break down into actionable goals.
Measurable KPIs: Each team member should understand the KPIs that define success. While the corporate SMT may focus on aggregate metrics for the portfolio, community-level teams should concentrate on KPIs within their control. It's crucial to move beyond vanity metrics (e.g., website visits) and focus on those tied directly to business outcomes, such as lead-to-tour and tour-to-deposit conversion rates.
Strong Leadership
Strategic Leadership: Leadership is often the defining factor behind a team's performance. A clear vision, spearheaded by a marketing leader such as a CMO or fractional CMO, directs the team's efforts toward achieving business goals. Strong leaders understand market trends and customer needs and how to translate those insights into actionable marketing strategies, keeping the team focused on both long-term vision and short-term execution.
Empowerment & Trust: High-performing teams are empowered to take ownership of their work. A strong leader builds trust by giving team members autonomy while providing guidance when needed.
Resident and Family-Focus (Customer-Centricity)
Deep ICP Understanding: High-performing senior living teams know that their marketing must resonate with both residents and their families. Successful campaigns empathize with the emotions and concerns of these stakeholders, providing value through informative content and emotional engagement.
Sales Engagement: The sales team should personalize tours and highlight how the community meets those unique needs. Whether it's emphasizing specific amenities or the lifestyle of the community, the sales team must connect on a personal level to convert tours into deposits.
Community Building: Fostering a sense of community both online and offline builds strong relationships with residents and prospects, enhancing engagement and retention.
Sales & Marketing Synergy
SMT Alignment: The disconnect between sales and marketing is a common pitfall in every industry. In senior living, where lead nurturing is crucial, this misalignment can lead to inefficiencies and missed revenue opportunities. Marketing and sales must collaborate to ensure smooth handoffs and support the customer journey from inquiry to move-in. Marketing teams should share updates on new campaigns, while sales teams can provide insights into the quality of leads and the reasons behind conversions or drop-offs in the sales funnel.
Operations Insight: Understanding the operational side of senior living helps marketing teams craft accurate and compelling messages that resonate with residents and families and helps sales teams present an authentic narrative during the sales process.
Strong Team Dynamics and Collaboration
Collaboration and Communication: High-performing teams thrive in environments of open communication, mutual respect, and shared goals. Cross-functional collaboration is vital, and all members should adhere to an established meeting cadence and use consistent communication channels (e.g., Slack, Teams, Zoom).
Honed Expertise from Hybrid Teams: Whether in-house or outsourced, successful marketing teams consist of diverse skill sets—strategists, digital marketers, content creators, SEO specialists, and analysts—working together to achieve holistic goals. Large, centralized marketing departments are becoming a thing of the past as organizations increasingly opt for a mix of full-time staff, freelancers, and agency partners to drive results more efficiently and cost-effectively.
Process-Orientation
Standardized Processes: Documenting and standardizing processes ensures consistency, accountability, and scalability. Well-defined processes allow teams to track progress, identify bottlenecks, and make data-driven adjustments for optimal results.
Functional Marketing Systems Map: This map provides a visual guide to your organization's marketing function and looks at current and ideal states. The tool can be particularly beneficial in ensuring all marketing activities align with overarching business goals. Additionally, it provides a structured approach to execution and simplifies decision-making by highlighting what's working, what isn't, and what can be scaled. (If engaged as your Fractional CMO, I'll create this map within the first 30 days.)
Data-Driven Decision Making
Analytics and Reporting: High-performing teams rely on data to inform their strategies. Whether tracking occupancy growth or monitoring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, data is critical to optimizing efforts.
Testing and Iteration: Rather than relying solely on intuition, these teams continuously test and refine strategies through A/B testing and other data-driven methods to drive consistent improvement.
Attribution and Marketing Mix Modeling: Attribution and Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) are critical tools for data-driven decision-making. Attribution identifies which channels or campaigns contribute most to lead generation and move-ins, helping to optimize marketing spend. MMM goes further by using statistical analysis to assess how different marketing activities (e.g., digital, print, events) work together to drive performance, enabling more accurate budget allocation and avoiding waste.
Efficient Use of Technology
Optimizing Tools: High-performing SMTs leverage technology to streamline processes and gain valuable insights. Whether through marketing automation, business intelligence, or social media management platforms, the focus is on using technology to drive efficiency and free up time for more strategic activities.
Tech Stack Assembly: It's not about adopting every tool but choosing the right ones. Some full-suite platforms, such as Yardi and Real Page, offer MarTech modules, but selecting the right tech stack for your operational needs is essential.
CRM Note: A robust, shared CRM system is critical for capturing and tracking leads through the Lead-to-Tour and Tour-to-Deposit stages. Your CRM should provide complete visibility into the resident journey and make tracking performance at each step easier.
Agility and Willingness to Innovate
Innovation: High-performing marketing teams embrace innovation and are unafraid of taking calculated risks. Staying ahead of the competition requires a proactive approach as technology and customer preferences evolve.
Agile Teams: SMTs can swiftly pivot to seize new opportunities or recalibrate when campaigns underperform. Innovation might come through testing new channels, leveraging emerging technologies like AI, or experimenting with fresh content formats. While not every experiment leads to success, the insights gained drive continuous improvement. Agility is also essential when navigating crises or shifting priorities, enabling teams to mitigate risks and continue pushing for growth.
Culture of Accountability
Ownership of Outcomes: Every team member is accountable for their role and how it contributes to the marketing strategy. This accountability fosters focus, motivation, and clarity.
Transparency and Feedback: Regular performance reviews, feedback sessions, and clear expectations ensure everyone knows where they stand and what to do to achieve growth.
Conclusion
As the senior living industry becomes increasingly competitive, investing in these core elements will help you build SMTs that drive measurable business results and long-term success.