QUANTIFYING LEADS, setting BencHMARKs
Carefully tracking lead sources is among the most difficult, tedious, and essential of regional sales
managers’ jobs. Especially now that providers are operating in highly competitive environments, sales managers have
to know where the best leads are coming
from, which are worth following, and
how far you go in trying to get the sale.
At Emeritus, about 37 percent of leads
come from professional sources (doctors,
social workers, and A Place for Mom, with
the latter accounting for about 80 percent
of professional leads), while drive-bys
account for 12 percent, and family and
friends, 10 percent. The move-in conversion rate is 23 percent for professional;
16 percent, family and friends; and 15
percent, drive-by. Emeritus expects 75
percent of inquiries to convert to tours.
That expectation is “tough on some
of our people,” says Melanie Hendrix of
emeritus. “So I tell them to pull all their
inquiries—Which ones were profession-
al? Which ones were Internet? Which
ones were referral? If 90 percent were
Internet, it’s okay if their inquiry-to-tour
conversion rate is lower.”
Horizon Bay gets 36 percent of its
leads from Internet sources, 26 per-
cent from professional sources (which
includes A Place for Mom), 17 percent
from resident referrals, and 21 percent
from media. collette Lombardo says she
expects 55 percent of inquiries to turn into
tours.
“WE’RE IN THE PEOPLE
BUSINESS—WE LEARN ABOUT AND DISCOVER
PEOPLE. SO I THINK WE’RE MISSING THE MARK IF WE
DON’T DO THAT FOR OUR OWN EMPLOYEES AND
RECOGNIZE THEIR INDIVIDUAL MOTIVATIONS.
ONE PERSON MAY NOT BE MOTIVATED BY THE
MONETARY AWARD, IT MAY JUST BE A SIMPLE LETTER
OF RECOGNITION ON LETTERHEAD FROM THE
REGIONAL DIRECTOR THAT THEY WANT TO SHOW
EVERY MEMBER IN THEIR FAMILY. ”
MELANIE HENDRIX, EMERITUS SENIOR LIVING
At Sunrise, Phaup doesn’t roll A Place
for Mom leads into the professional
category. And while professional referrals have the highest move-in rate of all
sources at 32 percent, Internet remains
the biggest lead source at 37 percent (with
25 percent converting), while family and
friends account for 13 percent of sources
(with 16 percent converting).
(Among Focus Group participants,
the move-in conversion rate for A Place
for Mom referrals ranges from 20 to 23
percent.)
Emeritus’ Melanie Hendrix (left) and Kimberly Taft expect 75 percent of inquiries to convert
to tours.
Accounting for drive-bys is surpris-
ingly controversial. Horizon Bay doesn’t
track them. “We don’t even give our sales-
people an option to put it in their system,”
says Hamner. “It’s made them ask more,
and in some markets, we spend a large
portion of their budget on media, so it’s
all the more critical that we dig deep and
track this metric. I tell my people that the
quickest way to get your ad pulled is to
not give it credit.”
“As a prospect is driving by, they may
think, ‘You know, my doctor did say I
should start looking.’ That’s what we have
to figure out,” says Taft. “We have to dig
deeper, and not just accept drive-bys as
the answer.”
You may see more drive-by leads in ru-
ral or secondary markets because they’re
more a part of the community, suggests
Phaup. “You’ve got these great Internet
sources, but in some of the rural markets
it’s going to be, ‘a friend’ told them, or it’s
going to be an internal resident, or the
fact that the community has been there
for so many years.”
Focus Group participants agree that
professional referrals from doctors, social
workers, and others remain the highest
converted inquiries to move-in. “When
we do receive that professional referral,
if it’s from a nursing home or a hospital
or a doctor, you’re moving them in,” says
Hendrix.
