For those who say sales “is a numbers game”, here are some numbers for you!

By Susan Saldibar

For those who say sales “is a numbers game”, here are some numbers for you, taken from a ProMatura study:

“Impact that the Following Activities had on Conversion Ratios”

  • Outbound calls – 2%

  • Email/mail – 2%

  • Inbound calls – 15%

  • Planning – 19%

  • Creative Follow Up – 23%

  • Face-to-Face – 39%

(2016, ProMatura study of 302,159 sales interactions from 106 communities across 25 states.)

You may be shaking your head, thinking, “I knew that.” And you’d be right. Face-to-face interactions are bound to be more effective in moving a prospective resident towards a move-in than less personal methods of marketing.

But, now, put those numbers together with a 2015 study from the Harvard Business Review. HBR states: “Top sales performers spent 18% more time with customers per week. Yet, they interacted with 40% fewer accounts over the course of a quarter, which allowed them to spend more time with their accounts, relative to lower performers.”

What they are saying is that spending more time with fewer prospects garners more conversions. For the sales veterans out there (and I’m one), that’s a startling equation.

So, is “less” really “more”?  

I asked Katie Davis, Chief Strategy Officer for Sherpa (a Senior Housing Forum partner), why the old model, that seems to have been around for decades, no longer works in the senior living industry. “It’s less about what doesn’t work, and more about a realization of what does work,” she said. “In my experience, if you talked to most sales professionals in the industry, they would tell you that this inherently makes sense. Sales is all about relationships. The imperative then for progressive operators, is to encourage sales professionals to closely guard and manage their time . . . to become excellent self-managers. The data is clear,  how we spend our time dictates our results.”


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