I recently had an advertiser tell me that they are moving towards one sex Alzheimer’s units. They will service women at a couple of their communities and men at the others.

I know that one of the symptoms of middle-stage Alzheimer’s is amorousness, and the desire to undress, and if you do a search online you can find accounts of upset family members & area citizens unhappy with the actions of an Alzheimer’s patient.

Is this the new trend?

A quick Google search doesn’t show many results for “single sex Alzheimer’s care”, “Alzheimer’s care women only”, etc…

And will this rally solve the problem? When my Grandpa Charlie was in an Alzheimer’s community, his room- mate, who was his buddy until that point, climbed in bed with him. I hear there was a punch in the nose & then private rooms were assigned. If someone has cognitive impairment, will they not be inappropriate with the same sex? Maybe there is less chance???

What do you think? Has your community discussed only serving one sex per location?

Thank you to the senior communities and care providers that have decided to advertise in their area New LifeStyles guides:

Ft. Worth/Tarrant County

Accessible Home Health
All Care Professional Home Health
AXA Advisors
Classic Home Care
Courtyards at Ft Worth
Evergreen Private Care
Mustang Creek Estates
Remarkable Health Care

South Florida

Alzheimer’s Daycare Center
Cody Place
Elder Services
Heartland of Lauderhill
The Renaissance
Safety Net
Sunny Hills Assisted Living
Smooth Transitions

Orlando/Central FL

Good Samaritan Village

And a big THANK YOU to all of the advertisers in the 50th edition of our Dallas guide!  It will hit the streets & be available online in August. Bigger & better than ever!  

We couldn’t offer the print guide and web site free of charge if it wasn’t for our advertisers. So THANK YOU from us & all the users of New LifeStyles!

by Mona Hilton

 Part 1

5.      Cumbersome Proposal Process.

How many proposals and contracts have you seen go out the door with incorrect information, resident options or pricing?  And how many hours did your sales/contract team spend generating their last contract?

It’s no wonder it takes so long and has so many mistakes.  Most people “cut and paste” from past documents, change the names, chase down the resident options and details they need, calculate their numbers manually and then proof it as best they can.

6.      Outdated Communications Strategies.

How do you communicate with your current prospects and customers?  Is it at their convenience or yours?  What worked even 1 year ago, doesn’t work today.

Stop leaving voicemails that no one returns or sending out emails that don’t provide your future residents and family an easy way to respond.

Your prospects and clients are as busy as you are.  They don’t always see your call as a priority. 

7.      Unavailable Support Literature.

Do you have a library of community or property literature, answers to objections and supporting documentation?  And if so, are they available as resources to your sales team for 24/7 access when they need to grab one for a follow up or to address a client issue?

If you can relate to these challenges, don’t be alarmed.  You are not alone.  And they are very fixable.  The more challenges you face, the more you have to gain – in revenue – by addressing them!

The “old-style” database systems of yesterday are no longer relevant for today’s selling climate.  They only tell you “what happened” yesterday…but they cannot do anything to “make anything happen” for you. 

If you want to be able to compete in today’s climate, it’s time to take a look at what you’re doing and consider updating how you’re doing it.

What if you could have a perfect system for the senior living sales process that increased your sales conversion rates by 9% – 38% and solved all of these 7 challenges? 

Find more tips, webinars, videos and articles at www.OccupancyAdvantage.com or join us for a free webinar 

 You can also contact us 239-337-2667.  We’ll send you a link to a 90 second video introduction and let you decide if it’s time to consider a new way of doing business.

Everyone likes a good summer project or fun summer camp.  For New LifeStyles, we have just started Distribution Camp, with a goal of adding significant new distribution and making sure our key outlets are receiving enough books to meet demand.  We even have a summer intern who decided to be the only counselor at Camp Distribution.

Some of his projects:

Updating our hospital and social worker distribution, adding all new locations in our coverage area

Working with key retail outlets and large churches to become part of their resource offerings

Scouting newspapers and senior related media for large volume distribution opportunities such as health fairs and expos.

Communicating with libraries to be part of their online resource offerings while maintaining a presence at their location.

These are just a few projects on our list, but there need to be more.  YOU can help.  Distribution goals are different for retirement and independent living communities, assisted living communities, nursing and alzheimer care providers, home care providers and hospice organizations.

Help us help you!  If there is a great or even good place in your neighborhood for us to be, send us an e-mail or call.  If you send us an idea that works out, we will send you a nice gift.  If you don’t help us, we will send you virtual poison ivy!

Please take the time to think about it!  We are all here to help the senior and their family find a great solutions to a need or a desire to make a change in their lifestyle.

Thanks!  Doug

How Baby Boomers Will Change Retirement Living

Can You Do a Better Job of Staying In-Touch?

Misconceptions Stifle Sales

Are residents using tablets like the iPad?

The State of the Nation’s Housing 2011

So, Let’s Talk About Money

Toll of Caring for Elderly Increases

by Mona Hilton

Have you ever been so close to a situation that you knew there was a problem, but couldn’t for the life of you, figure out what it was?

I think we can all relate to that.  Sometimes our intimacy with a situation clouds our objectivity – especially in a tough competitive market.

We’ve worked with senior sales teams across the country, and we’ve seen them struggle with the same issues and challenges.  The faces, names and geographies change, but the challenges remain fundamentally the same.

Although these challenges may seem intimidating, they are by no means insurmountable.  It first takes seeing the challenge, then acknowledging it, and then being willing to make the sometimes hard changes required to address them.

Read More

More and more people are accessing web sites using mobile devices or smart phones (cell phones with web browsers on them).

At NewLifeStyles.com about 6% of visits are currently from mobile devices, thus driving us to create an iPhone App & upcoming mobile site.

Rather a senior is bored in a waiting room or line and thinking about retirement communities, or an adult child is told at a hospital or doctors office that their parents can not stay at home alone any longer, Chagnes are that those people might pull our their cell phones and start looking.

How does your site work on a mobile phone? Have you tried it? Can people easily read the text on your site? Can they find your contact information & call or email you? Can they easily complete any forms?

If you don’t have a smart phone, ask your friend, co-worker, kids, or even better, maybe a resident to check it out & give you their suggestions. We would be happy to do the same for you.

Like everything else, the easier you make it for your potential clients, the more leads you will get!

How to Write a Marketing Video in 5 Minutes

The MetLife Study of Thinking About Retirement

Are Leads Opting In or Out?

Last night, the Dallas Mavericks beat Miami in a crucial NBA Finals game.  Great, thanks Doug, we read the paper, saw that online or watched Sportscenter, how does that relate to my assisted living community or home care business???

The Mavericks are lead by Dirk Nowitski, he is their best player by far and has carried them through the playoffs.  Unfortunately, Dirk woke up with a fever yesterday and was nowhere near 100% for the game.  As the game went on, Dirk, tiring, was missing shots he normally made with ease and had to spend more time on the bench, downing extra water and covering his head with a towel.  He was a shell of his normal self.  The Mavs were falling behind, about to lose their chance in this game.  But, as hope was fading the rest of the team stepped up, combining with their depleted leader to launch a comeback and win the game in the last few seconds.

Read More