LeadingAge Learnings
What 5,000 People
Talked About

Leading Age was great this year, some really excellent educational sessions. The overarching thought that sat with me for the entire 4 days was something I heard in the very first session on Sunday “the competition for senior living communities is not a comp set, it is fear”.

Fear is the Competition

Fear is such a motivator and a hindrance. Fear of the unknown, fear of what if no one likes you, fear of dying alone, fear of failing, fear of technology exploiting you, fear of losing independence. 

Cold Leads and the Trust Delivery System

Salespeople are in fear of cold leads, even though research shows that cold leads convert if you can get to the source of why people are not moving in. They need to figure out why and where people are getting stuck in the process. The ‘I’m not ready yet” is an emotional issue; it’s fear. You need to build up trust, and that just takes time. The Trust delivery system is your IT stack; it’s your emails, CRM, and technology to support communication. 

Marketing vs. Sales Leads

Operationally, it’s hard to move an organization, a board, or a C-suite into the correct attribution between marketing leads and sales leads. The fear of suddenly dropping all of those “leads” in sales that shouldn’t have really been there in the first place. A sales qualified lead is someone who wants a sales person- anything else is a waste of time for the sales team. A marketing qualified lead is someone who is researching on the website and self directed. Different stages totally. Marketing lead move in is a 70% longer stage because they are coming in earlier and not in crisis. 

Systemic Ageism and Culture Shift

There was a session on how to identify and fix systemic ageism- that just because you use a walker doesn’t mean your life is over nor that you cannot be independent. The fear of losing independence is greater than the fear of death. That fear is compounded by getting treated like a consumer instead of a community citizen. It’s this mind shift from “i pay for that so you owe me and I don’t have to do anything” to "I contribute to my community and this is what I bring to the table”  which was from a fantastic session on culture shift. 

Earned Media and Storytelling

Your organization is teeming with a host of stories to tell and so how do you know which ones will get picked up? AKCG public relations counselors did a fantastic job of explaining, at a very basic level, how and what they do in a way that makes anyone understand earned media. And earned media is where the world is heading now, it is both credibility and reputation building. Circling back up to that trust that people need to move from marketing into sales. 

AI and Cybersecurity

Lastly, yes there were a lot of AI panels. In fact the keynote was given by Ethan Mollick, a person I personally follow for his insights into the field. Most of it was the same, how to use AI in an operational manner and pretty formulaic. But the Wednesday morning session on Cybersecurity was eye opening. On my very first day back into the office I put into place a strategy that includes cross functional team meetings and formalized (and legally defensible) meeting minute procedures. As a creative technology company, 300FeetOut has been using AI tools for years in our internal operations. We have strict governance and guidelines for usage with clients and that needs to be documented, just like we do the accessibility and optimization for our retainer clients.

The lawyer’s last parting words were this “stop recording every meeting or you’re going to have to pay me to listen to it all when you get sued” I guess that’s everyone’s fear, legal fees!

Fear may be showing up in your funnel too, so see what it's costing you with our free website checklist at:

300feetout.com/agewell