The Sherpa team was pleasantly surprised by responses to a recent article in Senior Housing Forum on our new CRM. There seems to be real initiative to redefine how sales teams measure success. Salespeople across the board are looking to build better relationships with more quality leads. What they get in turn are better closing ratios and more desirable residents. Here are a few excerpts from the comments section from the article:
“Talk about how to sustain a sales culture in a department…this is it!”
“Finally, someone talking sense. I have never, and I repeat-never – subscribed to quantity over quality… we need to focus on those relationships that are good fits for our communities.” “David is the first person I heard a number of years ago talk about the importance of measuring the quality of sales contacts, not just the quantity.” “One of the hardest things to let go of was meeting the daily total of contact with prospects, be it by phone, email, or creative follow up. What I didn’t expect was that our totals really did not differ that much. The magic is that we now engaged our focus group of hottest prospects and the prospects did not hesitate to pick up the phone, stop by and visit, or email us triple the amount that would have normally taken place.”
In his article, author Steve Moran reflects on the benefits of a Prospect-Centered Selling® style used by the Sherpa CRM:
“At the end of the process sales people are a lot happier; residents have a much higher degree of confidence that they made the right decision and if someone chooses to not move into your community they are still going to have great things to say about you.”
Finally, Kent Mulkey, Executive Director of Keystone Place at Legacy Ridge, wrote a letter to Moran and kindly let us share it here:
“We are awaiting the roll out of Sherpa for all of Keystone, which should be soon. I saw a demo last year, and I will tell you, it is nothing like any other CRM ever. We credit David and Alex as a HUGE influence in us maintaining a 99% average occupancy. It is a way of life, a way of being with people. Colleagues in the industry are very curious about our success – how a top tier community, with high prices can maintain our occupancy. Well, it is not about price and not all that connected to the number of new inquiries.”
We are grateful for the support we’ve seen from salespeople and managers who are willing to make a difference in the lives of their prospects. Sherpa is a tool for inspiring change, and we are proud to be part of a group of people who are ready to lead the charge for a better senior living industry.
