Data – we’re collecting so much of it every day in our senior living operations. That’s a good thing because the numbers help to tell us the story of the health of our businesses. But with so much raw data available at our fingertips, it can be easy to succumb to analysis paralysis.
The good news is that the best senior living CRM software is designed to take in all this data and turn it into useful and informative metrics. Below are the top sales cycle metrics that every senior living owner-operator should watch to stay on top of their business.
1. Speed to Lead
Speed to Lead is a measurement of how fast a sales person is responding to new leads. The faster they respond to a lead’s initial contact, the more positive an impression your senior living community is going to make on them, and the more likely they are going to want to come in for a tour.
What should the speed-to-lead expectations be?
- Within 10 minutes of receiving the lead, an automated response – email, text, or phone call – goes out acknowledging their contact, thanking them for their interest,and letting them know a personal contact is coming shortly.
- Within 1 business hour, a personal call is made. This is a short, quick, and meaningful dialogue to learn more about their situation and let them know you value them.
2. Prospect Journey Ratios
- Lead to Tour Ratio
This measures all of the leads entering the funnel – whether they called, walked in, filled out a contact form, or were a referral from any source – who actually toured the community.
- Inquiry to Tour Ratio
This measures how effective the sales professional is at getting an inquiry to come in for a tour. What’s the difference between Lead to Tour and Inquiry to Tour? The sales person has to make a connection – a.k.a. an inquiry – with the lead. Why measure both of these? If there is a difference of more than 20% between Lead to Tour and Inquiry to Tour it can be an indicator of a lack of attempts to contact the leads.
- Tour to Move-In Ratio
This is a measure of the number of prospects who have toured the community who then go on to move in. Why is it an important metric? It identifies potential issues including the quality of the tour, the condition of the community, how the community stacks up against its competitors, and the sales director’s follow-up.
3. Average Time/Effort to Sale
A cutting-edge CRM like WelcomeHome tracks not only the numbers in the stages of the sales funnel – like leads, prospects, tours, deposits, move-ins – but also the intervals of time between each stage. What’s the benefit of that? It shows how much effort and time a sales person invests to get a prospect to move in, which is tremendously helpful in calculating and forecasting occupancy.
4. Net Move-Ins / Move-Outs
Increasing occupancy in senior living communities requires more move-ins than move-outs in any given time period – month, quarter, or year. The goal of sales professionals is to be net-positive so occupancy increases. If the community is showing an ongoing net-negative trend, it’s an indication of either not enough move-ins or too many move-outs. Either of these requires a closer look to identify problems in the community. Remember – it may not be a sales problem!
5. Average Length of Stay
A longer average length of stay has many advantages over a shorter average length of stay. When you add up the costs – marketing, sales, administrative, and operational – of moving a lead through the sales cycle to eventually becoming a resident, you can begin to see the financial benefit of longer lengths of stay. Outside of the financial benefits, a community filled with long-tenured residents feels different. For many, it’s obvious that this is home for the residents. The causes of shorter lengths of stay can include failing to attract residents with lower levels of acuity, or not selling the benefits of the community’s retirement lifestyle amenities. Whether a marketing, sales, or operations challenge, knowing the issue is half the battle.
6. Percentage of Stalled Prospects
In our blog, ”Don’t Let a Hot Lead Cool Off- Follow Up”, we talked about how sales professionals can keep their prospects warm or hot by moving them along in the sales funnel. The key activities that make this happen are following up and closing to a next step in the sales process (like giving a tour, scheduling purposeful follow-up, making a home visit, or getting a deposit). If the sales professional is not performing the necessary activities in the sales system, the prospects are going to cool off – and most likely look elsewhere.
Knowing the details of the prospects in the funnel – like how many are stalled and how long they are taking to get through the funnel – is helpful in identifying challenges the sales professional may be having in managing their prospect relationships.
7. Resident and Employee Satisfaction
Simply stated, the best predictor of high occupancy is resident happiness, and the best predictor of resident happiness is employee satisfaction. Although challenging to accomplish, surveying your residents and employees can tell you what you need to know about their satisfaction – or lack of.
Put your collected data to good use and turn it into useful and informative metrics. By watching these sales cycle metrics, senior living owner-operators can stay on top of their business, identify weaknesses and challenges, and more easily overcome them.
Experience for yourself what thousands of senior living professionals rely on to make their job easier: request a free demo of WelcomeHome’s CRM today.
