How Roobrik Analytics is Driving Leads in Senior Living

Date: 2024-01-05 09:35 GMT 

Host: Adrienne Mansfield, ADage Marketing Group

Guest: Evan Friedkin, Roobrik

Welcome to a new episode of #WelcomeDisruption, where we focus on the dynamic landscape of senior living marketing and sales. Our recent podcast featured an engaging dialogue with Evan Friedkin from Roobrik, joined by our esteemed Adrienne Mansfield. The session highlighted innovative approaches and tools that are significantly influencing senior living communities.

In this podcast, Evan presents recent updates from Roobrik, emphasizing advancements in consumer assessments and new financial planning tools designed for senior living environments. Adrienne, with her rich experience, discusses real-world applications of these innovations and their impact.

Our discussion traverses essential areas such as the industry’s shift towards digital lead prioritization, the significance of storytelling in effective sales techniques, and understanding the customer journey in senior living to enhance marketing tactics.

Key topics include the role of enriched data in generating improved leads, tailoring marketing strategies to diverse audience needs, and the vital importance of trust in forging strong customer relationships in the senior living sector.

The transcript provided below captures this informative session, offering in-depth knowledge for professionals in senior living, marketers, sales specialists, and those keen on understanding the current trends and future directions in senior living marketing and sales.

We invite you to explore the transcript for insights that can redefine your strategies in senior living marketing and sales.

[Read the Full Transcript Below]

Transcript:

Transcript

This editable transcript was computer generated and might contain errors.

Adrienne Mansfield: All thank you so much for joining me today. I'm here with Evan and he is going to share with us what is new and exciting at Roobrik!

Evan Friedkin: Yeah, Adrienne, happy to be here. Hope everybody had a good holiday. Yeah, there's been a ton of updates to changes on the rubric team. I feel so about five years ago. I joined and I think to assessments is a time to get help and a few others that were not used a whole lot one for home care and over the past several years. We've released four or five additional ones for different consumers that are different stages in the decision-making process. And then I feel like we hit hyperdrive in last year where we just put the product team to work on creating all kinds of new products. And so we have always said that when consumers are looking at senior living there's really two questions that they're trying to answer.

Evan Friedkin: Do I need it? And can I afford it? We have mastered the art of helping consumers who are unwilling or basically don't want to talk sales people who are trying to Grapple with that question of do I need it? And so we decided that we're gonna release new tool that helps them figure out whether or not they can afford it. So it's not a cost calculator. We're not asking for assets or…

Evan Friedkin: anything like that where we're really just trying to help them understand. What are all the different ways that you can pay for care while also getting them to understand what is kind of their current situation and whether or not Senior Living is a fit based on kind of how things are financially all while helping the sales teams better understand and better qualify their leads from a financial standpoint.

Adrienne Mansfield: Yes, I implemented rubric at one of a life planning community and the results have been incredible the benchmarks that you guys have shared which is so helpful for agencies and for communities to know what they should be expecting set those expectations. Our client friend's house is double beyond the top end of the Border. They've got a really engaged audience and everyone is sharing their information and opting in which is so powerful for the sales team. It's not just that they have all that great data about the people who are inquiring on the website, which is their primary channel of inquiry, but then on top of that to have all that rich background and they've opted in our sales team is just completely enabled to jump in and get started.

Evan Friedkin: yeah, exactly. that's what we've seen in the industry over the past several years really which is there's been this major shift towards the prioritization of digital leads. But the sales training hasn't caught up enough on how do we arm the sales people to be ready to handle that influx and do it in a way that is meeting the consumers where they are and a lot of that starts with the marketing teams, which is how do we get more data over to the sales teams?

Evan Friedkin: And how do we coach the sales teams on how to use that data? And so that's a huge opportunity that we've seen. It's something that we're going to be leaning into more which is how do we really lean into sales enablement to help make the digital leads convert at higher rates while making sure that the data we're gathering in all from all channels is really translating over to sales. It's easy to read because sales love stories. They don't like looking at charts and looking at data then they've got a piece it all together. They'd rather have it told to them in a story. I'm guilty I'm a sales guy at heart. And so you give me an Excel spreadsheet. I'm probably gonna start sweating. But if you give me a good story, I'm gonna love it. So how do we take the data and make it a story and that's really what we're leading into.

Adrienne Mansfield: Absolutely. I saw a meme the other day on marketing Millennials that had someone with the spreadsheet and it says I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, from his Wizard of Oz because as a marketer, you live and breathe that data but as a salesperson you need the story. You need the quick high level tell me what I need to know. Where's the pain point? I think that a lot of organizations would benefit from charting that buyer's Journey. I just posted on LinkedIn just a 101 across all of the different, ccrc's Independent Living skilled nursing. What does that buying Journey look like and what do they need? You said sales enablement. I feel like I spent a good part of the last year really focused on sitting down with sales teams and asking them. What will advance this relationship for you?

Adrienne Mansfield: Is it a comparison tool to your point about finances? Is it understanding all of the ancillary services that we offer? What is it that we need to do to clarify you guys have done a phenomenal job at rubric of just identifying a gap and bridging it. there was go ahead.

00:05:00

Adrienne Mansfield: Bridging the Gap you guys, seeing an opportunity and then capitalizing.

Evan Friedkin: Yeah, so you just said that you ask sales teams kind of what they need. To make that easy. What are you hearing? I know we're hearing and that tends to give me more than a name email phone number. In the referencing digital leads.

Adrienne Mansfield: Yeah, absolutely enriching that data is step one.

Adrienne Mansfield: Absolutely. I actually was on a call yesterday with A line and we were talking about how inquiry used to data depend automatically all of your incoming leads. That is something that we do for our clients on an semi-annual basis is do that data append to get a really clear picture. So we build Predictive Analytics profiles. Which I've found to be super helpful. It tells us the demographic and psychographics of our audience. And it also helps us understand what they need from the sale. right so for someone who is searching for

Adrienne Mansfield: A spouse they're gonna have a completely different sales journey and need completely different things from the salesperson a lot more voice to voice a lot more home visits versus a busy adult daughter who's gonna need a lot more digital communication and I don't mean over exaggerate how different people are but truly there is some significant communication preference channels that are not as effective with certain older adults as it is with others. And so finding the right message and putting it in the right format to your point. Evan is I need a script but I also need an email. And leveraging those pieces together.

Evan Friedkin: And what I have and what I totally get a salespeople are busy they get a lot of digitally and they get a lot of referral leads. Obviously, they're gonna prioritize the referral leads because conversion rates are so much higher but at the end of the day,…

Evan Friedkin: you can't build and feel occupancy on just referral leads because the volume is a lot lower and so you have to backfill with the digital and so they're busy they get a lot of these They not All Leads are created equal but all should be treated equal to the sense that they're all families.

Adrienne Mansfield: No.

Evan Friedkin: They're all families going through one of the hardest decisions of their life. And it's very easy for a busy salesperson to deprioritize or not focus as much on the digital lead that comes in. And so what the more data we get them. Sometimes they just take the approach of I have a list of 100 people. I need to call today. I'm just gonna sit down and grab my cup of coffee and I'm gonna plow through this list and dial for dollars.

Adrienne Mansfield: Dial for dollars.

Evan Friedkin: Unfortunately, typically we're finding about 2% of the digital leads end up converting. And so one of the things that I've been really really interested in. It sounds like you're doing this is if only two percent of the digital leads are converting and you're calling a hundred leads, that means the first 98 potentially are going to be unqualified or not qualified enough because the salesperson didn't take the time to do it properly because the first 10 they called they didn't get anywhere and so they extend the same way and then it starts to progress.

Adrienne Mansfield: We lose momentum. Absolutely and I think it's a really beneficial for us to start by addressing that often a salespeople is buy or don't buy right maybe. coin flip Understanding,…

Adrienne Mansfield: it's really important and we do a lot of Education around.

Adrienne Mansfield: Has multiple steps. I know Sherpa methodology talks about kind of their emotionally feeling where they're in denial or their emotionally planning. I'm talking about the actual activities or behaviors which rubric is a phenomenal tool to use because first is awareness and then it's consideration and then we evaluate alternatives. Right, and one thing I think the senior living would benefit from in 2024 if I could just put a feather in 2024 It's post purchase Behavior. How likely are they to refer to us We should be building an entire Bank of every conversion should be a new referral generator, by breaking that so going back to the sales enablement breaking those pieces of communication down into steps.

Adrienne Mansfield: Here is where they're just comparing is senior living right for me. Right is it time so that's where rubric is so beneficial and then from there then we want to feed them contextual information that it's time to give up the license we have creative for that is it that we need to talk about low vision and safety. We have a creative for that. Is it about how to handle spouses who have memory loss and trying to maintain Independence is the caregiver piece for that? So it's really about segmenting your audience and delivering them contextual content that deepens their relationship with you. That makes them trust you. 

That's the goal in my mind of the sales process is deepening trust building that relationship and I always say relationships or relationships or relationships and my sales training. So for example, if someone asked you to move in with them on your first date

00:10:00

Adrienne Mansfield: That would be uncomfortable and we wouldn't like how that felt right? “Hey come move in!” “No, I just met you!” Right? The same is true here. What I say when we're asking for the sale, which we must ask for the sale, but when we're asking for the sale we should be as confident as when you ask your wife to marry you. We’re you pretty sure she was going to say yes?

Evan Friedkin: I don't do anything until I'm 100% sure and so I made sure I cross my teeth and dotted my eyes. before I asked that question.

Adrienne Mansfield: And so I always say to the ladies in the room. I'm like listen guys don't go out and spend thousands of dollars on jewelry that they can't wear. Unless they're pretty confident. They're gonna get a the same is true for our sale. We should have a relationship that's deep enough and committed enough that it's the natural Next Step. And I think that that goes back to home visits that goes back to not just Dialing for Dollars. But looking at your sales notes and saying what is this person need from me. How can I be of service to them? How can I support them? I think that that's where you take sales from transactional truly to relationship-based.

Evan Friedkin: Yeah that comes back to something that we talk a lot about which is trust is the backbone of that and…

Evan Friedkin: it trust is very difficult It starts building before that first interaction ever occurs with the salesperson, but it only takes one misstep to destroy it and that can come from the salesperson or it could come from a Miss a Miss aimed marketing email and so I think a huge opportunity shifting kind of off the salesperson because I think salespeople would kind of

Adrienne Mansfield: They're killing it hard job and 100% Our job is to make their jobs easier because their jobs are hard.

Evan Friedkin: salespeople for us. We're really easy to pick on. where the front lines most of the time it's really easy to pick on us and so I'm actually gonna pull off the salesperson and say and I think the opportunity really for marketing is how do you talked about the creative? I think it's how you refer to it the creative for all these different life events or these issues that a family member or a potential resident could be going through if they're not even thinking about potentially giving up the license and then you hit them with a give up the license guess who just destroyed trust and you may not have ever even realized it.

Adrienne Mansfield: Right, or if the adult daughter raised her hand about the license and the message. Somehow goes to the senior absolutely rust can be broken in a split second. And I think I appreciate that. We're shifting from the sales team to the marketing team because that's kind of where we sit but I think that to your point making sure that you've really understood who this person is catalog that correctly. That's where the segmentation comes in. So as I said, we were speaking with the line yesterday and we were talking about all the great marketing automation opportunities under the premise that we have the right fields and the right places. So for example veterans you were talking about ways to pay right? That's one of the to's that I have that I'm like Have you shared with them about Veterans Day and attendance?

Adrienne Mansfield: And we have a marketing material for that and so just being able to hit them with those things quickly and easily. Also I go back to when it comes to breaking down trust if I'm listening to Spotify and I want to be listening to classical music and all of a sudden some classic rock Pops in I'm startled right? I'm not in a line all the sudden you've broken I thought we were on the same page. And so I think that it's really beneficial for us to be listening to what they're sharing with us and only delivering not going out of our way to blast everyone but delivering segmented pieces. As it's appropriate to facilitate the journey.

Evan Friedkin: yeah, and That becomes easier when it's in the sales process when there's vacation…

Adrienne Mansfield: Yeah.

Evan Friedkin: because now you're able to gather more of that data where I've been talking with a lot of operators over the past several months is what about all the people that? Are pre sales funnel?

Adrienne Mansfield: I'm glad you brought that up because the dark funnel and we refer to the dark funnel. There's a Blog on our website about it, but the dark funnel is going back to that buying Journey that awareness and consideration. That's where they're checking out your Facebook. They're reading every single review. They're going through your carrying.com feedback. Right, they're doing their due diligence on the back end without interacting with you and they may do that before out They may do that after they fill out the form, but at the end of the day they're going to do that homework. So we spend a lot of time talking to our clients about What have you done for reputation management? And I don't want to say that there's anything we can do when it comes to. If there's a negative review.

00:15:00

Adrienne Mansfield: The old-fashioned approaches take it down. It doesn't work that way anymore for one with the algorithm. And for two I try to remind clients. This is an opportunity for you to Showcase your customer service. address it take accountability. We are looking into this reach out to this person offer a direct phone number. There are things that you can do to support that dark funnel search in a way that still positions your community. no matter kind of what's out there.

Evan Friedkin: Yeah, so we refer to them a little different we call them the hidden audience. I'm perfect example of it. I will have us in sales. obviously and I will avoid talking to a salesperson for as long as possible and usually to my detriment. So I tend to live in that world of how do I just gather up as much information as possible prior to ever even identifying myself? I'm only gonna identify myself when I maybe need the final two or three questions On the easiest sale possible when I'm ready to talk to them. But if you get me too early guess I'm probably gonna beat your worst Prospect. Maybe the one you give up on the fastest, but I'm probably also gonna have the shortest sales cycle.

Evan Friedkin: There's this disconnect in the way that I think and I think more and more of our audience is Shifting to make decisions that way younger. They're getting more tech savvy they're used to going online and figuring everything out on their own which could be good or could not be good. And so it's really good for really easy decisions like commodities. That kind of e throw in a decision like senior living and it's not great. But you need to adapt to the way people want to make the decisions and arm them with the information. They need make pricing a starting at rates available. Make sure that reputation management is taken care of giving them the resources that they can engage with with learn more about and…

Adrienne Mansfield: always

Evan Friedkin: make sure that you're in control of the messaging. And the possible outcomes that they can get they're going to go somewhere else and…

Adrienne Mansfield: Yeah.

Evan Friedkin: I promise you I know where They're all gonna end up there by accident…

Adrienne Mansfield: We all do. Because they can't get pricing.

Evan Friedkin: because nobody ever looks.

Adrienne Mansfield: I share this story all the time when I was talking about a short sale cycle. I actually took my and my mom and my uncle and I was like, we're touring through places today. This is how fast it's gonna go. I've already got all the materials. It's sitting there ready for you. Here's the coffee. Let's go right because I knew where we were going and I knew what we needed to do, but I will tell you that to schedule those tours. Two of them I had to go through. A service because I couldn't get the rates any other way. So we have been huge proponents of encouraging our clients at least to starting out rate at minimum. Build the value and write up front be clear about that but be transparent with your pricing because at the end of the day, they're either gonna pay it or they're not if it is truly cost prohibitive for that individual. Let themselves select. Right, but make sure that you're offering context around the value and continuing that conversation.

Evan Friedkin: And this is where we decided to get really lean into the can I afford Senior Living accessible which there is a lot of color that needs to go behind. What does that starting right actually entail? What does it mean is it looks like you might be used to paying 2300 a month for your mortgage. And now all of a sudden you're gonna look at this community that's 5,000 and they don't have the context yet but what are all the utilities that you're no longer gonna pay?

Adrienne Mansfield: right system cares in tools the

Evan Friedkin: What about

Evan Friedkin: what if all of that type of stuff and it's really difficult and I understand why most some providers don't want to starting at rates up because of that concern and so people might self-select out even when they probably didn't need to and that's why we're releasing the affordability tool and you're not gonna see any heart numbers in our assessment. It's all kind of light questions that indicate likelihood of being able to afford without starting at rates because we know we can show it if we want to but it's helping frame them up and tee them up on how when you see that starting out right if you haven't yet.

00:20:00

Evan Friedkin: how do you interpret that how do you have the background and the framing for how to digest that larger number than you may have expected and you are more likely to move forward even if that number could be perceived as out of your price range and…

Adrienne Mansfield: framing everything

Evan Friedkin: And that's what we're trying to do, which is how do we take those consumers who were not going to reach out to get the pricing but still want more information and Frame It Up. majority

Adrienne Mansfield: there's a phenomenal book. You've got to check out it's by Melina Palmer and it's called what your customer wants to tell you, but can't. Such a phenology talks a lot about framing a lot about Primacy. How do we introduce the idea? And I think it's helpful for us all as an industry to introduce the idea that This is more expensive sometimes than living at home. But have you considered how much you spend on this right? It starts to really knock it down quickly and again reinforcing those communities who do have a phenomenal programming and richment Reinforcing not just the community value itself, but the value of going off-site and going on activities and things that you just currently aren't doing at home. I think there's a lot of value to that as well.

Evan Friedkin: just yeah.

Adrienne Mansfield: And I think resident ambassadors are the biggest game changer when it comes to marketing. If you want my honest opinion the peer testimonial whether that's an adult daughter meeting with your prospect and having lunch and saying listen I made this decision. I know it's hard it was worth it. There's nothing we have sales people can say that's more beneficial than that. soliciting those peer reviews asking for those as much as possible. I think has been a game changer.

Evan Friedkin: Yeah, I think anything you can do to get somebody that's not you the salesperson talking about great what you sell is. and anytime I get a client that's willing to go say something positive I jump at the opportunity because quite frankly if I could put my client on the demo, I would because they're gonna trust them over me any day of the week mainly because hopefully is nothing to do with me person has everything to do with what my title is which As sales in the name.

Adrienne Mansfield: Yeah, absolutely.

Evan Friedkin: The student second. You see sales, there's automatically this Dynamic that's been shifted, which is now now you're in the buyer seller relationship and that's a weird relationship to be in and…

Adrienne Mansfield: It is.

Evan Friedkin: you've got to navigate through it because it's hard you've got and it comes back to trust you.

Adrienne Mansfield: It does.

Evan Friedkin: You need the buyer to understand that you are not in that to just make a sale. which means you probably need to talk about some competitive options.

Evan Friedkin: Being as equally reasonable as going with me as well second you're able to do that.

Adrienne Mansfield: Yeah.

Evan Friedkin: It's gonna build a lot of trust and…

Adrienne Mansfield: Yes.

Evan Friedkin: be okay with whatever decision the buyer makes and that automatically starts all the way back from the beginning before there ever you talk to you.

Adrienne Mansfield: Yeah that Detachment from outcome and genuinely just living the mission of I'm here to do what's right for you if that's going with me great if that's going elsewhere. That's great, too. I just want you to be successful and…

Evan Friedkin: Yeah, that's scary.

Adrienne Mansfield: it's hard and it's a big part but it's a big part of our business model as well. So I feel you and I like that I get to be a cheerleader for rubric because it's usually at my recommendation but we'll build it right into the budget. This is something that I know your sales team will benefit from this is something that I know as a marketer I can use this data very much. And the price point is more than reasonable to build that into our scope. So I think you're right. It does help to have someone who's not the salesperson going you really need this. This is something that will help you and whether that's a peer or whether that's a separate consultant. I think that there's benefit there for sure.

Evan Friedkin: Yeah.

Adrienne Mansfield: It's been such a pleasure to work with rubric. I think we've been involved with rubrics since it's onset really with your life communities down in Florida. And we've been huge fans and…

Evan Friedkin: Yeah.

Adrienne Mansfield: we're getting ready to release a case study. I will send a copy in advance to you about friend's house and how well they've done with rubric this year.

Evan Friedkin: Yeah, I've seen it from our end. Can't wait to see it from your perspective.

Adrienne Mansfield: Yes, we're really excited. So we'll be sharing that over as well and I can link to that in the podcast too. So is there anything new and exciting that you guys have coming up that you want to share with us?

Evan Friedkin: I will in the next two to three weeks I was with you.

Adrienne Mansfield: All right, so we will schedule a follow-up for February and see how things are going.

Evan Friedkin: Yeah, I'm joking with you earlier. I had to make sure what I announced that was coming. I timed properly so that my marketing person didn't yell at me. But there are quite a few new product developments on the roadmap that I think we really prioritize listening to client feedback and…

Adrienne Mansfield: I get it I do.

Evan Friedkin: not just the individual that bought us at the operator. But also the ones that use us and…

00:25:00

Adrienne Mansfield: Yes. Mm-hmm

Evan Friedkin: what I say the ones that use us are gonna be the salespeople and so I think it all comes back to sales sales get a lot of leads financially not all of them are qualified from a healthcare perspective. And so we're the problem that we're really trying to lean in and make sure that we're able to do more effectively for them is help them understand not coming back to my point of not only your leads are created equal we show you which leads our most likely to be the next move in prior to you ever even picking up the phone and talking based on the data that we're Gathering.

Evan Friedkin: And then feeding all of that into the marketing automation platforms so that the marketing teams can then use that data to tailor the resources. To show that they're continuing to support that decision for the consumer.

Adrienne Mansfield: Yes.

Evan Friedkin: And so that's kind of where we're going. And so there are several products that we're looking at to help support that and get more information back over to the sales teams that I'll be able to talk more about in the next few weeks, but that

Adrienne Mansfield: Perfect. I am super excited that you guys are gonna continue to equip us. We appreciate it so much and…

Evan Friedkin: Yeah, we do.

Adrienne Mansfield: you're coming to the industry is unparalleled. thank you so much Evan for your time today and we will reconvene when we have some new product roadmaps to talk about. Okay, Happy New Year.

Evan Friedkin: All Sounds good. Looking forward. All right. You too.