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What Does Jim Moore Have To Say?

Below is a recently published article written by Jim Moore. Please refer to our "Jim Moore in Print" page for a complete listing of articles written by Jim Moore for leading industry trade journals and how to obtain copies.

Strategy of The Month for September 2010

IT’S TIME TO FOCUS ON ORGANIC GROWTH

Professional Referrals – A Largely Untapped Resource

New sound bites are emerging to reflect the status our industry and the current economic dilemma:

· “Strong Headwinds” – Implying that forward progress and positive growth is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve.

· “Flat Is Up” – This means if you can just realize and sustain last year’s results, you are probably performing like many of your peers.

· “A Recession Is A Terrible Opportunity To Waste” – During these challenging times, astute businesses are redoubling their efforts to enhance and sustain “organic growth”. This means optimizing your existing operations.

Past newsletters have addressed organic growth initiatives like occupancy enhancements, expense reductions, market positioning and capital investment strategies.

Status of the Industry

Let’s first look at a snapshot of the current situation in our industry. Senior living occupancy declines since late 2007 have been more modest than originally projected. However, there is growing evidence that there is a correlation between slowed home sales velocity and decreasing home values leading directly to lower senior living unit absorption resulting in declining occupancy rates.

It has become very clear that there will be some delayed demand and absorption for senior living units during current recession due to the credit crisis, depressed home sales, significant consumer savings/investment portfolio losses and low consumer confidence. However, this delayed demand should result in a relatively strong upside once the housing market stabilizes and investment portfolios recover from current losses.

The economic recession recovery time could be extensive. There will be a number of external economic factors that will continue to impact the current senior living market. The existing high unemployment rate will likely prevail for several quarters. Normal employment levels will likely take substantial time to fully recover. Many companies may not – at least in the intermediate run – return to their previous employment levels even after a reasonable economic recovery. Consumer spending and the availability of consumer and business credit will likely involve more cautious and conservative lender decisions in the future.

This could have at least a modest impact on the demand for seniors housing in the short-run. Discretionary decision delay in independent living and, in some instances, lower acuity assisted living could have a growing impact on reducing stabilized occupancy.

Professional Referral Source Potential

Regardless of the product or services, most every sales and marketing initiative should place a heavy emphasis on referrals. In Senior living, there are two broad categories of potential referrals:

Existing residents and their family members.
External third-party professional organizations.

In my assisted living work, I have observed significant lost marketing potential because of a lack of focus and intensity on professional referral sources. Review Exhibits 1 and 2 and consider the following questions for each and every source listed:

Is the referral source relevant and likely to have a potential impact on my operation?

· Why?

· Why not?

· How – specifically?

How should I prioritize these sources in terms of direct potential, since I can’t deal with all of them simultaneously?

· Top Five

· Second Five

· Etc.

What is the best way to connect these sources?
What are the realistic expected outcomes involved with a linkage with each third-party source on your priority list?

· What is in it for them?

· Why is it likely to be a win-win situation?

What will be my specific plan?

· How many contacts per month?

· Specific approach

· Planned follow-up

· Etc.

The Big Take-Away

We will have some delayed demand during this difficult period in our industry. However, we can also experience stimulated demand by more pragmatically penetrating a broad spectrum of relevant professional referral sources.

Jim Moore is president of Moore Diversified Services, Inc., a national Senior housing and health care consulting firm based in Fort Worth, Texas. He has written several books about assisted living and Senior housing, including Assisted Living Strategies for Changing Markets. A new book titled Independent Living and CCRCs is now available. Jim Moore can be reached at 817-731-4266 or jimmoore@m-d-s.com.

To visit Moore Diversified Services, Inc. – www.m-d-s.com

To review information regarding Jim Moore’s new book - http://www.westridgepublishing.com/ILandCCRCmain.htm

Please bookmark this page as new articles will appear frequently

A sample of previous articles featured on our "Strategy of the Month" page

Learning From the Ones That Got Away (July 2010)

Creating a Community of Choice (May/June 2010)

Community of Choice or a Price Sensitive Commodity? (April 2010)

Hiring and Retaining the Right Teams (February 2010)

2010 . . . Modest Improvement For Senior Living (January 2010)

Are You Properly Planning for the Future (December 2009)

Cost Recovery for Campus Improvement (November 2009)

Communities Also Age in Place (September 2009)