How To Talk About Price Without Losing The Move-In Day 18

“We love your community… but it’s just too expensive.”

If you’ve worked in senior living for more than five minutes, you’ve heard some version of that sentence.

And for many owners and sales teams, that’s exactly where confidence disappears. Discounts get offered too quickly. Rates get apologized for.
Or worse… families get quietly written off because someone assumes they can’t afford the care.

But what if the problem isn’t your pricing?

What if the real issue is how you’re communicating your value?

In this episode, I’m sharing the story of a family who chose a less expensive competitor… only to move into our community six months later.

Why? Because cheaper didn’t mean better.
And because one sales professional understood something most operators miss:

Price objections are rarely just about price.

Inside this episode, I break down my P.R.I.C.E. Method for having confident, compassionate pricing conversations that protect both your value and the move-in. Grab a pen, because this episode is education HEAVY!

✔️ How to qualify financially without making families feel screened out
✔️ Why leading with price kills trust before value is established
✔️ The difference between “too expensive” and “help me make sense of this”
✔️ How to respond when families compare you to a cheaper competitor
✔️ Why follow-up after losing a move-in may be your most overlooked sales strategy

Listen now to Day 18 of the All Things Senior Living Marketing Series.

Free resource: Assisted Living Pricing Conversation Worksheet Template

Stop winging pricing conversations.

This practical worksheet helps you confidently walk families through:
✔ Room rate breakdown
✔ Care costs explained clearly
✔ Community fee positioning
✔ Home care vs assisted living comparison
✔ Daily cost reframing for sticker shock conversations

Want early access?
Email: tiffany@startwithoccupancy.com

What’s Next

Day 19, We’re tackling something every small operator feels at some point:

How do you compete when you’re not the biggest… and you’re not the cheapest?

Because your size might actually be your greatest advantage.

If You’re Loving This Series, Share this episode with another owner or operator—because we really are all in this together.

Subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode in the 21-Day All Things Senior Living Sales & Marketing Series.

And if you're ready to increase move-ins with smarter systems, stronger messaging, and better conversions:

Momentum Marketing Bootcamp opens soon with Advance Access Pricing.
Enroll early for preferred pricing plus early access to select tools, templates, and implementation resources before the first live session.

For newer owners or communities under 50% occupied, stay tuned because Compass Rose XL (the senior living incubator) is also on the horizon.

Take what you need. Share what helps. Come back for more. 🎧

Transcript

Tiffany Updated voice 0:00

Let me tell you about one of my sales team members who lost a move-in based on price and then won it back six months later. This is going to be juicy. She had spent weeks working with this family and the son loved our community. He was hesitant about the move, AKA his mom didn't really want to do it, but he felt the pressure because of her medical condition and he wanted to find her the perfect community. Yeah, because she was bringing two Because of course, as sons often do, they want to make their moms very happy. So they completed the visit, met all the residents that they needed that we had set up during that visit, and attended a family event. Ultimately, she liked the community too. Everything was perfect, and then we got to pricing. Our rate was forty-five hundred dollars a month. The community down the street was thirty-two hundred dollars per month. And the son said to my sales team member,"I'm so sorry. We just can't afford the difference. And we're going to go with..." I'll let you insert the name of that place that's ten minutes away from you, um, because it happens every day to all of us, right? And after my sales team member did the necessary discussions, which we're gonna talk about later, and addressed their price concerns, here's what she did that most operators don't do. She didn't argue. She didn't apologize for her rates. She didn't offer a discount to try to keep them. Instead, she said this:"I completely understand. You have to do what's best for your family and your budget. I respect that decision. But I also want you to know that if anything changes or if the other community does not work out, we're here for you. I'm going to check in with you over the next few weeks just to see how your mom is doing. Would that be okay?" And the son said,"Yes, that would be fine." So my sales team member did exactly that. She said,"Hi, how's your mom? How is she settling into the new community?" And the son said,"She's okay. Everything is fine." My sales team member called again about a month later. Same thing."I was thinking about you," she said."How's your mom doing? I know the first thirty days can be an adjustment for the both of you. I was just checking in to see how things were going and how you are doing." And of course, he said,"It's going well." He said,"Mom is adjusting as can be expected," right? and I think he said that there were a few issues during the initial move-in process, but everything is fine, and we're okay. And thanks for checking in on us. three months later, she called back again and she said, How's everything going with mom? How are you guys doing? Are you enjoying the new community?" And this time, the son's voice changed a bit. He says,"Well, to be honest, it's not what we thought it would be at this point." Um, he said the staff has turnover. it seems to be a little bit high because there's new people coming in. Um, he said that mom was not getting the attention that she, he felt that she needed. and the activities were a little lackluster. He thought mom would be more involved. And so my sales manager, said, I'm so sorry to hear about that. If you ever wanna come back and visit us again, no commitment, but just to visit us again to have a refreshed view of things, let me know. I'll set it all up. We would love to have you just to take a look again." Three months since that conversation, the son called her and he said,"You know what? We're ready to come back and take a look. As a matter of fact, I don't even need to look. I just want to go ahead and m- move mom in. Is there any availability?" There was, and his mom moved in two weeks later. Here's what the son said that, when he signed the contract and moved his mom into our community. He said that he realized that the extra thirteen hundred dollars per month was not worth it. He said,"I was so focused on saving the money that I didn't think about what mom was actually getting or not getting, and how that would impact her, and how the level of stress for me is such a huge difference. For the lower price, it just wasn't worth it. I should have trusted my gut the first time." What my sales manager did is she won on value. And by the way, they ended up loving it. He loved her. He loved the fact that she kept on following up even after the move in decision was made. He said that was phenomenal. And so I wanted to talk with you guys about that because she won based on the fact that she honored the family's decision, she stayed in contact, and she let the other community prove her point for her because she knew her competition. And that's what we're going to talk about today, how to talk about price without losing the move-in, how to present your rates with confidence, and how to handle you're too expensive conversation, and how to stand firm on your value because you work hard, your staff works hard, and you deserve to get paid for it. Hi, I'm Tiffany Hill-Allen, and welcome to day 18 of our 21 days all things senior living marketing series. And today we're just gonna dive right on in.

Tiffany 5:51

Uh huh. Welcome to Start With Occupancy, the podcast for senior living owners, operators, and sales professionals./Hi, I'm Tiffany, marketing strategist and former corporate baddie who got tired of producing results for wall street and wanted to make a change on main street./I provide quick tips, idea nuggets, and case studies to help you with proven sales, marketing, and business development strategies along with leadership concepts so that you can inspire change, impact lives, and improve outcomes for the aging, their families and your teams./I'm committed to equipping you with the tools, the knowledge and resources that you need to excel in your business./With experience working inside senior living companies, large and small, I've developed a deep passion for advocating for the aging adult and those who care for them, all while driving business growth./So whether you're already in the senior care industry or maybe you would like to be, if your mission is to serve them, my mission is to serve you./Join me as we unravel the strategies and tactics that drive success in your business while making a difference in someone's life./The goal is to touch, guide, and impact the lives of 10 families per month!/Are you with me? It's time to be inspired, gain practical tips and own your future.

Tiffany Updated voice 7:22

So here's the truth. Pricing is the number one objection families have. It's not quality of care. It's not location. It's not amenities. It's price. And here's what I see operators do all the time. They lead with price before showing their value. And what I notice is that they apologize for their rates. You know, I know I'm expensive, but conversation, or they avoid the pricing conversation until the family asks, which basically puts you into more of a defensive mode, or they compete on price instead of value. And what I want you guys to understand is that value is what's going to help you get the move in. A lot of times they make affordability decisions for families based on their own ability to afford it or their money mindset, depending on how they relate to money. And the worst part for most operators is that they lose move-ins because they think or because they didn't know how to talk about price with confidence. Well, I'm not gonna allow that to happen to you if I can help it. The whole idea of this episode is to give you the strategies to help you have those pricing conversations. I'm going to give you my P.R.I.C.E. Method. It is an acronym for presenting the price of your community without losing the move-in. So let's start with the P, which means prepare. That's to qualify early without disqualifying the, the clients, the consumer, the family, the resident. The R is to reveal value. Show what they get before discussing the cost. The I is to itemize. Break down the four components of the rates clearly in the conversation. The R is to reveal the value. Show what they get before discussing the cost. The I is for itemize, and is to break down the four components of the rate and the cost very clearly. And then the C is to compare. You wanna compare the daily cost versus the alternatives. And the last letter is E for the P.R.I.C.E. method, and that's empathize. Handle the sticker shock that people have in long-term care with compassion while standing firm in your value. So let's break up each step. The first is P, and that is to prepare. And this happens during your discovery call before they ever visit your community. And here's the concept. You want to qualify families early, so you're not wasting their time or giving them false hope that your community is- affordable for them. But what you don't want to do is disqualify them based on assumptions that they may have about what they can afford or about the resources that can help them to afford you or about any of the programs that you have, the value that you are able to give them. Because a lot of times people are willing to pay more when they find that what you have is a value add into their mom's or dad's or auntie or grandmother's care. Why this matters is because families can tell the difference between if you're qualifying them or you're disqualifying them. And if you ask about budget in a way that feels like you're screening them out, they will shut down. So the key is to ask them questions that shows you want to help them, not to disqualify them. And they will open up, right? It's all a matter of how you position it. So here's the question that I teach, and it's not something that's original to me. It was taught to me early on, but it has been so impactful and I see how it works compared to other methods. And what I say is, How did your loved one prepare for this time in their life?" And why this question works is because it's open-ended. It's respectful. You're not asking, can they afford living with you? It's revealing their financial picture, their savings, their long-term care plan, their long-term care insurance if they have it, their VA benefits if they're a veteran, their home equity if they have a home that they own. Basically, you're looking at the whole picture by asking an open-ended question like that. It also shows that you care about helping them find solutions, not just qualifying them if they can afford you. And what you're listening for is something to the tune of, she has some savings set aside, or he has long-term care insurance, or we're selling the house. You're looking for those cues to help you to ascertain whether they can afford you. Or it might even be, we're not sure how we're going to pay for this. That's even another open-ended thing, right? So when summarizing a call, or if they prompt you before you get to that point and they're giving you those type of answers, this is something that you can say. Our starting rates are,$3,000 for a private room. Plus, we also have care costs, and the care costs are based on your mom's needs and her preferences, which is determined after an assessment is done." And then, you would continue that conversation from there, right? So at least you're giving them a heads up, but then you're letting them know a little bit of the process. Notice what you did by saying that. You gave them a starting rate. It's not final rates. Those come after an assessment, right? So you're giving them an agenda of how the process goes. The other thing that you didn't do is apologize or justify your rates. If they say something like,"Well, that's higher than we expected," even with the three thousand, then you could say something like,"Well, I understand. Let me ask you this. Are you aware of the available resources that might help you cover the cost of this? We can walk through some of them now, and I would be more than happy to give you more details when you come into the community to visit, and I can give you an actual sheet that has some other information about that." There are things like VA, Medicaid planning, and bridge financing and other resources that can possibly help you in the community. I'm also happy to connect you with some advisors and people who specialize in long-term care that might be able to help you. The key is, is that you're not disqualifying them, you're helping them, and you're assuming that they're gonna come see you. Now, if they're like,"Oh, Mom only has a thousand dollars a month. Three thousand is too much, and there's no home, there's no VA, there's no long-term care plan, there's no other options. This is our bottom line," then of course, you know,"Okay, I understand." And now this is where you can give them some of those resources over the phone because you, have been networking out and you know who to go to because this is now your business, right? That's a whole another subject. But that is the whole idea of why you go out to some of these networking events, why you go out and meet people in, in senior care, senior planning, long-term care planning, Medicare, insurance agents. This is why I highly-- we talk about all of this in the marketing segments of the things that I do or the trainings that I do, because when you have that, it helps you become the go-to expert. So no matter what, families are gonna wanna come, and they're going to want to see you. Now let's talk about the R. The R for the PRICE method, is to reveal value. It shows what they get before discussing the cost. And that is very key because if you go straight into pricing, you go straight into cost, then you become a commodity. And my goal for you is that you become a resource and, a solution for people. So R is where most, operators struggle with, right? they talk about the price and, really struggle with understanding their value. I'm gonna pin this real quick because I want you to also understand this is why understanding your market, understanding your competitors, understanding where you are and how you're positioned, what you offer compared to what they offer, this is why when you go through my initial course, Start With Occupancy, it talks about that. Because once you understand your positioning in the market and what you have that's different, whether it is your staff that's different, whether it's the longevity of your staff, whatever it is, that is going to be huge, in having these conversations when families do come in that will help you get them over the hump to decide on you being the community of choice for them. so here's the rule: value always comes first, price comes second. And why does this matter? Because if you lead with price, family has no context. They have no context for what they're paying for. Forty-five hundred dollars a month sounds expensive in a vacuum, right? It's forty-five hundred dollars a month. All she's gonna do is live there. That's the mindset, right? But forty-five hundred dollars a month for twenty-four/seven, care, three meals a day, medication management, help with any of their ADLs, and enrichment programs, housekeeping, laundry services, maintenance, peace of mind, that's a different story. Now you're, you're talking about something that's different. And here's how to do that. During the call and during the visit, we're gonna use something called FAB statements, and this is, features, advantage, and benefits. FAB, F-A-B. Features, advantage, benefits. It is basically something in the sales world. It's sales oriented framework for explaining a product or service that will benefit the consumer. So when you're trying to sell something, no matter what it is, using FAB statements is something that will help you to explain what you're selling to the consumer, explain what the advantage is of the product that you're selling, and then what is the benefit to them personally and how it can enhance their lives. It is something that's universal. I didn't make it up. It is just sales 101 training. So let's talk about this. What is a feature? A feature is what the actual product or service is. What is the advantage? It is why it matters to that person receiving the product or service. And the benefit is how it helps them specifically, how it's going to help them. The way we do it is that we explain whatever it is. You can do it with whether it is medication management, whether it is, enrichment programs for the residents, Whatever the feature is, you're going to explain the feature, the advantage and then the benefit for them. So I'm gonna give you a few examples. Let's say a feature is that we have a one to six caregiver-to-resident ratio during the day. That is the feature. The advantage is going to be that means your mom will get personalized attention. The caregivers will know her name, not just when she needs help, but throughout the day. They'll know all of her little idiosyncrasies and her personal preferences. The benefit to you is that when she wants to go for a walk in the garden or needs help in getting ready for an activity, there's someone there who knows your mom. She's gonna have personalized attention given just to her, and she will feel special, and you won't have to worry about her being overlooked. Here's another example. We include medication management in our care, services. It's automatically included. What is the advantage? Our trained staff administers the medication on a schedule and tracks any changes with your mom and how she reacts to them, as well as coordinate the refills between the pharmacy and the physician. And it's included, so therefore you don't have to second-guess, or have additional charges that are outliers. It's all-inclusive of our rates. So the benefit for the family member: you don't have to worry about whether your mom took her pills today or if she took too many or even if she forgot them. And you can rest assured that she will receive her refills on time without, having any lapse to get her medication and without you having to spend hours on the phone with the doctor's office and the pharmacy. And last but not least, the most benefit is that you don't have outlier costs that you can't, um, prepare for, Because it's all-inclusive, it makes it easier for you to plan future costs when it comes to your mom's care. And peace of mind is priceless, right?" So those are examples of features, advantage, and benefits. The key is by the time you get to pricing, the family has already seen the value. They want what you're offering. Now it's not just a matter of can we afford this? You have changed their thought process instead to,"Is this worth it? How much is all of this worth to me?" As opposed to,"Can we afford this?" Now pause this episode if you can right now and think about your last visit. Did you show value before you talked about price, or did you lead in with pricing and then tried to justify it? So the I means itemize, and this is where you're going to break down the four components very clearly for the family so they understand exactly what they're paying for, and what they're getting as a service from you. Your pricing should be broken down into clear, understandable components for them. So here's the concept. Families need to understand what they're paying for. I actually just had an example of this. This weekend, I was helping out an operator and, a family had pulled me aside and said,"I love this place. It is so amazing. It is one of the best places that I could have chosen for my mom." Um, she's a longtime caregiver. I actually have known her for twelve years when she was caring for her grandmother, then her grandfather, and now her mother. And so for her mom, she said this was the most absolute best place. it was a residential assisted living compared to the corporate big box because her mom was a former nurse, and she said that her mom would know going into those bigger places and would have certain anxieties about them compared to a residential home. But the only issue she had was that she did not get an invoice with clear pricing broken down, and that was one of the things that she wanted. She said that communication on pricing and money was a little bit, ambiguous because the owner, the operator, who has already confessed to me, doesn't feel comfortable talking about pricing. Money is not a comfortable thing for her to talk about. And so she always has a, she has a great heart for what she does, and she's very passionate about what she does, and she does a really good job. But she's not comfortable about charging and money and, and asking for more money and, and breaking down the money. That's just not her level of comfort. But that was one of the complaints the family had. And I say complaint very loosely'cause it wasn't necessarily a complaint, but very well it could be if this person needed that information for her taxes or for eventually Medicaid, and it stopped her from getting the the additional resources that she needs or would need in the future. So this is why having those pricing conversations and being very clear, is super important for families. And also when it comes to visiting competitors, if they don't understand what you're charging for, and how your pricing is structured, sometimes your competitors can confuse or muddy the waters in their head, and that can also lead to you losing a move-in. If you were to say forty-five hundred dollars per month, that feels like a big number. It's a big, scary number. Forty-five hundred dollars a month can be very big for a lot of people. But if you break it down into components and it makes sense, then the family can understand what is being offered. So here's the typical four components that I teach people that they should, in some form or fashion, even if it's all-inclusive, have their rates broken down into. If you're ready, you can write this down. Number one is the room rate, the cost of the actual apartment. Is it private versus shared? Um, what the sizes are, what's the amenities? That's the first rate. The second is the care rate. This is the cost of care based on their loved one's assessment. If you're not doing assessments, I highly encourage you to do an assessment and break down the assessment into the at least the ADLs so that you understand what level activities of daily living that they need the most. There's different formulations that you can do this for doing your, your care costs, and this is only determined after the assessment. So you wanna make sure that you have a way of assessing that, and adding a cost to that, whether you clump it all together in level one, two, and three, whether you do it à la carte, whether you're all-inclusive and you have an all-inclusive rate, you want to do that. The third one is the community fee. The community fee is a one-time move-in fee that covers administrative costs, orientation, it could cover, the flipping of the actual apartment. I would break it down so the family understands what the community fee is or move-in fee or deposit. A lot of time residential care home owners call it a deposit that's non-refundable. and then the annual increase. That is the percentage of increase that you are projecting for the future. I cannot begin to tell you how many residential assisted living owners that I have helped in the last four years that have never increased their rates, some in over seven years. And I'm like,"You have seven years of never increasing any of your rates for any of your residents, and yet your costs are increasing." The cost of staff increases, the cost of food increases, the cost of fuel increases or has increased even recently. their costs, there's legit insurance has increased, property tax has increased, so why are you not increasing the rates for your residents and giving them that expectation that when they move in, their rates will increase? And you would tell them ahead of time, typically it's between three and five percent. Typically, it's between four and eight percent. Typically, it's about ten percent. What you-- Whatever you feel comfortable about in doing that, I will tell you corporate-wise, it is anywhere between three to five percent. There has been some years, especially after COVID, that I've saw many corporate big box communities do their increases between five on the very, very low end, but typically a lot of them was between seven and twelve percent. So as a residential assisted living owner, I want this to be still profitable for you because you have to cover those costs or else your margins are gonna be too thin, and you run the risk of running into trouble if an emergency happens. We gotta still get you to make money, right? So here is how you would present that, and I'm gonna give you like a little script of this is how I would present it. I would say,"Let me walk you through how our pricing works. There are four components. The first is the room rate. The room rate is for a private one-bedroom apartment like the one you loved with the window, that, was facing the garden." Side note, by the way, notice how I included something that they loved, and what they noticed, right? Okay."The room rate for that is twenty-eight hundred dollars per month. This includes your mom's apartment, all utilities. It includes the housekeeping, the laundry, three meals a day, plus snacks. it also includes, access to all of our, resident programs and their enrichment programs, any of the outings that we do in terms of going to Walmart or, you know, museum, and all of the amenities that we offer. The second rate, is based on your mom's specific needs, which we'll discuss and we'll assess, before she moves in at the time of the assessment. This may cover medication management, assistance with, bathing and dressing, and any of her other personal care that she might need, including the number of times that care is needed. The third is the community fee or deposit fee, whatever you call it, and this is a one-time fee of twenty-five hundred that covers the administrative costs of the move-in, the orientation, the room prep and readiness for your mom, getting your mom set up in our system, and also the maintenance of our community. This is a one-time, non-refundable fee that goes towards the whole community. The fourth we have is an annual increase, and our rates are based off of four percent each year to keep up with rising costs and inflation, including labor. We notify families sixty days before a rate increase happens, and typically it takes place on..." this is where you insert the first of the year or anniversary date of move-in, however you decide to do it, but that's what you would tell them. It's transparent. There's no hidden fees. It's very specific. They know exactly what they're paying for, and it's fair. You're explaining the annual increase upfront, so that way it gives you room to either waive it, if that's what you decide to do,'cause some people decide to do that, or if you're wanting to go ahead and implement that. Now, the C in the price method is to compare, and this is a more of a sales strategy, but it's also a way of helping families understand what they're paying for. And this is taking the, the total cost and the daily cost and comparing the two together. And we're reframing, what the cost is in a way that makes it feel more manageable for, a family and/or a resident if you have independent living. And here's the concept, is that you're saying,"Okay, it's four thousand dollars per month." That does sound like a lot. But when you say, that breaks down to a hundred and thirty-three dollars a day," that's less than the cost of a cruise, per day or even a hotel. And so when you're putting it into those terms, you're giving them what you offer, which is so much more than what those other places would offer. A hotel, you're just getting a hotel, and you're not even getting it for a full twenty-four hours. Here, you're offering twenty-four hours, meals and utilities and laundry service and all the other stuff, right? And here's how you would present that. You might say,"So when you break it down, it's roughly a hundred and thirty-three dollars per day for everything that we just discussed, all of the meals, all the snacks, twenty-four/seven care, medication management, housekeeping, laundry, resident programming, utilities, and most importantly, your peace of mind." You might even wanna include coordination of care. You know, caregivers spend a lot of time on the phone between doctors and pharmacy and, and appointments, and you would be helping with that coordination of care if that is what you offer. Now, there's a worksheet that you can have on tap to give to them, that will help them to compare what the cost is, also to help them understand their costs broken down. And I do encourage you to have a rate sheet that you can give out to a family or to a referral source. It helps put everything into perspective for that family. I'm talking about a sheet that says, these are your costs that you're spending now at home. These are the costs that you would have with us. And when they start seeing that comparison, sometimes that hit home for some people. It's not for everybody, but some people it does. So you're basically giving them, what it cost for them to stay at home. And you might include if you stay at home and you get a at-home caregiver for the same amount of time, what would that cost you? So letting them know that, because sometimes people don't realize how much home care is. That's a whole nother conversation. It's how do you sell against home care? But, but we can talk about that in a different episode. It's$25 to$30, you know, for home care, per hour, right? Eight hours a day, that's gonna equal out to over$200,$240 a day. Um, plus you have groceries. You know, that's$10 to$15. I think nowadays that's about$20 to$25 a day. Um, plus utilities. What does that cost per day? Medication management, you have to find somebody who's going to be able to do that. Um, so when you're breaking it down to them and letting them see what it would cost them to have the same services of assisted living at home compared to what you're offering, it's going to give them some perspective. Plus you're managing, remember, the scheduling, the hiring, the firing, the, the accountability, the wor- you know, the worrying, the coordination of care, like all of that. That's easily$250 to$300 per day, if they were to do it at home. Plus they're still doing all the work. They're still having to oversee all of that. If their mom went into a nursing home, they'd be paying anywhere between$300,$400,$500 per day for a shared room in a medical setting, right? At least, and that's if they're private pay. Now$133 a day does not seem so bad. It seems like, oh, we're actually saving. This is going to be a low cost decision for us and we get all the benefits. And what are some of those benefits? that their loved one, gets to live in a community. So in their mind, they're just moving apartments or homes. So while it's difficult still for them, it's still better than having to be in an unsafe, unsecured, you know, en- an environment that will... that has more risk. but then also the socialization aspect of it, the, the nutrition aspect of it. There's different things that you can really talk to them about. So their loved one gets to really maintain their independence, where they can go, They have a community of friends. They'll be even at this big old age, getting new friends. And, a caregiver get to partner with us in the caregiving role, allowing them to have the support they need and deserve after doing this caregiving job for so long alone or only with family, and are just trying to figure it out. They now will have a partner with us. That's the value, right? So why does this work? It reframes the cost. It helps them to see what are the true costs to this. And it compares the alternatives, home care and nursing home and what your cost is compared to that. I know I said a lot, but I am going to give you guys a moment to soak that in because I think that is just so important, is to understand how to communicate about the price, be, and be confident in that. The last letter in our PRICE method, P-R-I-C-E acronyms, is empathize. And what we want to do is empathize with the sticker shock that most people will have who have not been shopping senior living or assisted living and don't know what the rates are on average in their area. And this is again, why it's important to know what your competition is doing and what the rates are. Soon as they hear, they're like,"Oh my God, that's too expensive. Who can afford that?" And so now you have to walk down that, that road with them, and see that objection they may have. And the concept is that when a family says,"That's more than we expected," they're not saying no to you, just letting you know that. They're saying,"Help me to understand why this is worth it and how much this costs and what is involved in all of this." Your job is to empathize with their concern. You're gonna stand firm in what you are charging on value, but you're going to explain, again, like we just talked about, what that looks like, when it comes appropriate timing to do so. The first thing you wanna do when they have that sticker shock is acknowledge their concern. Um, you want to do that. I... You know, something like,"I completely understand. This is a big decision, and I know the cost is a significant factor for you and your family." Because most times, by the way, side note, they're looking at how much money does Mom have and how long can I pay this money before, we gonna have to go out of our pocket? I will say many of caregivers, um, who are caring at home, and who, um, have someone that they're loving and caring for, go bankrupt in the caregiving process or spend down their own money to care for Mom. And so, a lot of times people are looking at what does this cost and how much is it gonna cost me if Mom runs out of money? And that's really the situation, right? So step two, besides, um, acknowledging them, is to ask a clarifying question. And a clarifying question might sound like,"Can I ask what's your biggest concern about the cost?" And mind you, this should really be happening once they're in front of you. Um, you're gonna go over the starting off rate before they walk into your community. When they walk into your community and you have shown the value, y- they have seen it, then you're sitting down for the cost, scenario and what is it going to cost them. This is when you're gonna break all of this down, okay? I just wanted to make sure I was clear on that. but it is the monthly rate, rate, the community fee, or something else. That's what we're asking them. What part of the cost about this do you have the most concern over? Is it the monthly rate? The, possible level of care rate? Is it the community fee? Or is there something else about it that you have, um, a concern about? And step three is to reframe that conversation. Basically acknowledging again from what their answer was after that question and say,"I hear you, and I wanna be honest with you." We may not be the cheapest option in val- in town. And if you know you're not, say it. I'm not going to be the cheapest option in town. But we're not trying to be. We're focused on providing the highest quality care and the best staff-to-resident ratio with the highest quality staff. And we wanna offer a community where your mom will thrive, not just survive. And that is something that you would say and stand firm on. It... Now, understanding that their concerns are with pricing, you know, you could say to them that I've had families come back to me after choosing a cheaper option, and they pretty much say the same thing. I wish I had just paid the extra money in the beginning for what I knew was being offered, because of the benefits Whether that benefit might be personalized programs, whether your benefit might be communication portal for families. Whatever you're offering, that justifies, and I say justifies not on their end where you're justifying it, but justifies to you on how you came up with your pricing. Whether you're a nurse, you have specialized skill. That's the justification, right? you hire out professionals to be, in your community. You have outings to the museums and different things like that, or you have a partnership with Lyft. I'm not sure what that looks like for you. But whatever you are offering that is y- the way you came up with your pricing, you want to, make sure that that is a part of what is being communicated. So where you're saying to them, families had come to you and saying that I... they wish that they had paid the extra money from the beginning because of whatever your benefits that you're communicating, is, that is what you're telling them. And this is where, again, knowing your competition and market position is so important and know your differentiation is key. If they truly can't afford it, you should know that already ahead of time as your, you know, part of your discovery that you did in the beginning. Don't forget to ensure you have explored step number four, is that you have explored their full financial picture. You want to have that picture breakdown and the cost conversation before so that you know that they can't afford it or if there's other resources that can help them too. For instance,"Is your mom or dad a veteran? Well, if they say yes, did they serve during the war? If they say yes in your initial discovery, you also know then, even if they may not, that there's veteran funds that is available for them, right? Or if they were married to one, right? So these are some of the things. Include them in the conversation to help them work it out on how they're going to afford it. So as you're offering the VA aid and attendance, as you're asking about the long-term care plan, if there's a house to sell, having partnerships with realtors that can help them to do that. Making sure that they have, access to a Medicaid planner if they have... if, if they're on the fringes, right? Understanding how that can help them, um, think about long-term care planning, especially if you are a Medicaid provider. So if you have a contract to accept Medicaid, then that could be, something that, would be helpful. If there is, um, family contributions, if they're siblings, have you guys thought about splitting up the cost even if it's only a hundred dollars a month? Again, that's something that you would go over. Then you would offer the connection."I'm happy to connect you with a VA specialist or a bridge program, advisor or a Medicaid planning specialist, They can help you see the options where you may not have considered" So that is what you're telling the family. Now, number five, you want to stand firm with empathy, and you want to say to them,"I want to help you make this work because we believe we can. We believe that we can help your mom. But I also want to be honest with you, I can't lower our rates just to match our competitor. Our price reflects the quality of care we provide, and I won't, compromise on that. What I can do for you is work with you on the initial community fee or the deposit, and we can break that up over, a series of months". Whether it's two months or three months. You decide on that. Figure out some flexibility so they feel like they're getting something out of it, but the monthly rate is what you're gonna tell them, covers our cost to provide the level of care that your mom deserves, and that is how you ki- you have that conversation. The key is to be empathetic but not apologetic, right? You're standing firm on what your value is and what you offer, and now if you are in a highly competitive market, that conversation might be a little bit different. and the strategies are going to be a little bit different. and we can cover that in another episode, but it will definitely need to have more prep, more research, more planning on your part in a competitive market so that you know how to position yourself when families come in.'Cause in a competitive market, your conversation's a little bit different than that, okay? And I'm talking about super competitive, like you have, seven communities and within a one-mile radius. I mean, very competitive. What you wanna do, again, is stand firm on your value, execute on your promises for sure, and remember that you don't win on price alone. You win on what you provide as a service provider. So here are some practical tips to make your pricing conversations even more effective: Tip number one is to use your FAB statements, which we talked about, features, advantage, and benefits, and you wanna make sure you do that before discussing the pricing. They need to understand what you're offering. And don't just list the features. Don't just what we call feature dump on them."We got this. We got that. We got this. We got that." You don't wanna do that. You wanna understand what their needs are and give them the feature that is most important to them, and then you want to go through each portion."This is the advantage. This is what it is." But you definitely don't wanna do what we call feature dumping. That's a lot. That's a big load to bear for a family. And then you wanna connect them, to, like I said, the benefits that matter, what matters most to them and what matters most to the resident and this particular fam- family. So an example of that, is we have a part-time resident programs enrichment director who also is a physical therapist. That is the feature. The advantage is she plans personalized activities based on residents' interests while also observing their movements to ensure that we capture possible fall risk behavior from our residents. So that is definitely An advantage. So if your mom loves gardening is the benefit, right? She'll have a garden club because we make it specialized. She won't be bored. She'll be engaged, right? we can also jump on getting the proper therapy needed to help maintain her balance early. Tip number two is break it down to daily costs. That is another tip that a lot of people don't really think about doing, is they'll say their total cost for the month, but What that costs for them daily. Tip number three, not to apologize for your rates. The moment you apologize, you've lost. You're telling the, family that even you don't think that your community and that your services or that your staff or that your care is worth the price because you're apologizing for it. So I don't want you to say,"I know it's expensive, but..." or,"I wish I could have lowered the price, but..." or,"I'm sorry, but this is what we, what we charge." Those are all apolo- apologetic language, and you don't wanna do that. What you do wanna say is,"Our price reflects the quality of care we provide," right? That sounds different, doesn't it? you might wanna say,"We're not the cheapest, but we're the best." I mean, go ahead and throw your chest out there. If you know it to be true, do it. or you could say,"This is what it costs to provide the level of care your mom deserves." And sometimes people are like,"You know, she may deserve it, but oh my God," you know? And people will say that, but when they go around to different communities and experience it, they'll see. And tip number four is don't make affordability decisions for families. That... This is one of the biggies. Even sales managers in communities do this all the time. Just because you couldn't afford forty-five hundred dollars a month doesn't mean that they can't. Just because your relationship with money and your relationship with savings doesn't mean that it is for that particular family. Many people assume that if somebody lives in a modest house, they probably couldn't afford it, or if someone is wearing older clothes, they must not have the money or if they didn't mention savings, that they probably don't have, have any, and that is not the case. Sometimes we have to probe and ask more questions. Um, a great story I have is when I had a family who came in, critical situation, where the mom needed a place to live because her husband was divorcing her. She was in the hospital with a back injury. It was just, like, chaotic. He wasn't willing to give her any money. He would only pay for the first month, and that was it, and then he was just gonna divorce her. It was just crazy, crazy. and the son came in tears from out of s- out of state, and I was the only one who explained how to get her Medicaid, and when I tell you she didn't have any money, she had$534 a month. That was it, and he was only willing to pay for her first month in. And the son was like, sticker shock, right? How much are you? How am I going to do that? And he's thinking,"I can't take my mom home." He was in a state of panic. Can I do nursing home? Can I do this? And I just explained to him the Medicaid process, how to walk through it, what it would be like, what was the wait time, what were some of the alternatives that he could do at this moment in time to help solve his situation. And he listened, and he would come back and ask me more questions, and I would spend the time with him. Then he would come back, ask me more questions. I would spend the time with him. He called me on the phone to say,"Tiffany, guess what? I found out." And I was like,"What?" And he said,"I found out that my mom and her husband have been paying on this long-term care insurance for, like, ever, since they got married." It was a second marriage. And, and she gets-- He gave me X amount of money per month. It has a total value of X amount of money, and there was no elimination period. That means from the day she moves in, it pays straight out. And he's like,"This is all I have to do. I found it in their paperwork as I was going through it." And I was like,"What? That is awesome. Well, that means she can afford anywhere. Your options just opened up." And he was like,"Yes." And he says,"But I don't wanna go anywhere because you were the only one with our situation that took the time out to help us. I want my mom to live with you guys." That was the biggest honor to me because he could have chosen anywhere to go, but he did not. So it was such an honor for him to choose me. And she was amazing. Oh my goodness, I loved her. I want you to understand that you don't know their financial situation. Let them decide what they can and cannot afford. Let them discover what resources might be available to them, even if they don't know what it is at that very moment. Just guide them. Talk to them. Tip number five is stay in contact even if they choose a competitor. I cannot begin to tell you how important this is because while you might be full, while you may have moved on, but you've had people look at you and decided to go somewhere else or decided to even stay home. What I would say is think about my sales team member that I told you about who won a move in six months later after they moved into a competitor only because she stayed consistent and she actually cared. She cared about the son and she cared about the mom. And here's the schedule. Call after two weeks of them moving into the competitor. Let them know you're just checking in. You want to make sure she was settling in well, that you enjoyed meeting them and speaking with them and that you're hoping the best for the future. Call 30 days later after that because usually the first 30 days, that's when you're still in a honeymoon phase, but that's when also some things are shown really quick and people have the highest rate of move outs within the first 30, 45, you know, 60 days. Call three months after that and six months after that. Just put it on a little tickler on your calendar. Still thinking of you, wanting to know how mom's doing. If you know anybody who might be a better fit for us, please don't hesitate to let them know about us. That's a form of marketing. You do know that, right? So that is also very good to do. And why does this work? It shows that you care. It shows that it was not just about the sale. It was not just about getting their money, but it was about them. It was about what was going on in their life and your passion for really taking care of aging adults and helping families is really your passion. And that, yes, you're going to get paid for it, but not a whole lot of businesses you get paid to do things for other people and be very passionate about it the way you are here that really impacts people's lives in the way that it does here. It keeps you on the top of their mind even when the other community doesn't work out, but it also keeps you on top of mind that even if it does work out but they have someone that they know, they can still refer to you, and it gives you an opportunity for a second chance to win the move-in over again. I say all that because I really want you guys to win. A quick win for you this week is to create a simple pricing worksheet. These are the things that you should include in your worksheet. Section one should be the four components. This is where you'll put the room rate, the care rate estimated based on final or you can say to be determined. you're also going to put what the community fee is, and you're going to put what the annual increase is estimated, and you can do the range. That should be given to everyone on your letterhead. That's section one. Section two should be the monthly cost. That's room plus care equals bl- per month. that way they can fill that out. You can have the daily cost breakdown. You can have that filled out for them, right? section four would be all that's included. What are you including? And this is the things: laundry. You're including housekeeping. You're including three meals. You're including, s- two snacks a day or three snacks a day or, snacks available whenever, twenty-four hours. You're including medication management if that's what you're including. You're including what resident activities, what events, w- utilities. And then on the bottom line, always put peace of mind because that's what families need, right? And then section five of this worksheet, you're going to put a comparison and alternatives, and this could be your home care per day. Find out what is home care twenty-four hours in your area. You're gonna find out nursing home. Who's your SNF providers that you get referrals from, and what do they charge per day for private stay? And then you're gonna put what your community does, and you're gonna put that all on a simple worksheet so that people can see it. Print it out, make it look nice, and use it on your visits for every family that comes in or as you see n-necessary. I will say the section one should be for every family. But if you do it nicely and you put it together, then you can actually have that for every family. The one thing I will say is that, you know, I thought about doing this as a template. If you guys think that you would want to see that in a template format, that you can utilize it and white label it and do what you want to it, let me know, and I will create that for you as well. But watch how it makes it so much easier to have pricing conversations with something like this, okay? Now, if you're thinking,"Tiffany, I want the complete pricing presentation script. I want to go deeper. I need the affordability calculator that you've also done to help families that you can give to them, um, the exact language that you use when helping families, who say"too expensive." this is some of the things I provide in my deep dive discovery training. We did a lot today, I think. but if you really wanna do more in a group cohort training session where we're going to go deep on the whole sales process, including these components, as well as the reasons why people don't move in and how to overcome that's going to be beneficial to you and to them. and the whole discovery process from beginning to end, that is my Deep Dive Discovery. If it's something that you're interested in, go to startwithoccupancy.com, and you can sign up for the wait list. It will be coming out in July. I only want a certain number of people in every cohort. So once the spaces and slots fill up, I will hold those other people to the next cohort. All right, so let's recap. Today we covered the price method for talking about price without losing the move-in. We talked about P for prepare, R for reveal, revealing your value. We talked about I for itemize. We talked about C for, compare. You want to reframe the daily cost versus the monthly. And we talked about E for empathize and handling that sticker, sticker shock. Oh my God, how much is this going to cost? And your action step this week, if you remember, is to create a simple pricing worksheet with those four components that we talked about and by each section. Use it on your visits with your families. And then on day 18, excuse me, day 19, we're going to talk about, how to win when you're not the cheapest or the biggest, right? We're going to hear about this because small operators, often feel like they can't compete with the big box communities. And I'm going to show you how to turn your size into an advantage. And you definitely can do this. Before I let you go, remember this. You work hard. Your staff works hard. You're passionate about what you do and the care you provide. You deserve to get paid for it. So stop apologizing for your rates. Stop competing on price. Start standing firm on your value because when you present pricing with confidence, families will trust that you're worth it. And when you honor their decision, even if they choose a competitor, you give yourself a second chance to win them back. Pricing isn't about being the cheapest. And when you show families what they're getting for their money, they'll choose you, even if you're more expensive. Until next time, we're here to inspire change, impact lives, and improve outcomes. I'll see you in day 19.