Huddle, sales management, and customer relationship management. Concierges re- ceive telephone etiquette and customer ser- vice skills training, while managers receive Manager on Duty training. The training activities are held every
other Thursday and topics are flexible based on “identified needs, turnover, or special requests,” said Howard. “I record the trainings and store the sales trainings on our SMARTHub so teams can access them for reinforcement.” Further, recogniz- ing that formal training should be enforced with regular coaching, Howard leads review calls to model how to use the training and tools to advance and close sales. One of the training outcomes was to de-
velop what Vitality calls a Leader on Duty program to ensure coverage for inquiries and tours on weekends and holidays. As a result, the weekend and holiday volume has increased significantly. “Each com- munity typically gets one or two inquiries or tours every weekend,” said Howard. “Without this program and training in place, we would not have captured these leads. They would have simply moved on to a competitor.” At LaSalle, sales training is held region-
ally each quarter and once a year. “I created a sales training for all new employees” that covers outreach, home visits, networking, and customer-relationship management, said Porter. “We have seen a direct impact from the training to occupancy increases, as well as associates sending emails about using
The sales team at The Splendido, a Mather LifeWays community in Tucson, Ariz., celebrated after having reached a milestone goal for pre-sales on Villa Homes in record time.
items cut in a time of budget distress, said Primo’s Miller. “Additionally, to provide quality training and coaching requires certain skills that are not often found in the regional and corpo- rate levels. Even if you have skilled trainers, if the training material is outdated or has
“We train on seven powerful elements of storytelling to gain a better emotional understanding of prospective residents and what’s important to them as they contemplate making a major life change,” said Urbaczewski.
the techniques, staff much more knowledge- able about the process, and the importance of asking the right questions.”
Outside expertise The unfortunate reality is that while train- ing and coaching are critical to a compa- ny’s success, it may be one of the first line
not adapted to industry changes, the results will still be average at best,” he said. He agreed with Mather LifeWays’ Mor-
gan that training needs to be flexible. “The coaching material should not be a standard 52-week coaching session that is provided to every sales counselor regardless of their skill sets or how they are performing,” said
Miller. “The coaching should be specific to the needs of the individual sales counselors at that exact point in time.” He asserted that solid research—in-
cluding surveys and focus groups, as well as mystery shopping, which his firm pro- vides—is the only way to uncover a se- nior living provider’s sales and marketing weaknesses. “Mystery shopping provides insight into how employees are interact- ing with your residents and family mem- bers,” he said. “It can be difficult to know how employees conduct themselves when an executive director or supervisor is not around. Mystery shoppers are tasked with interacting with specific employees and providing the company with the names of the people they interacted with. This helps to ensure that all of the employees are con- ducting themselves in the right way and giving the residents and family members the best experience possible.” Another outside training provider, So-
lutions Advisors, tackles all aspects of the sales process, from weekend tour coverage to effective prospect planning to identifying untapped potential in a provider’s database, and making phone calls. “We help them
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