In Episode 23 of The Drake Insights Podcast, host Natasha Drake of Drake Strategic is joined by Tripp Higgins, President of MyLifeSite and senior living sales veteran. They dig into how financial data tools like MoneyGauge are transforming senior living sales, not just by improving conversions but by arming sales and marketing teams with powerful data insights.
Tripp shares how MoneyGauge is more than a financial calculator — it’s a self-service tool that helps prospects understand affordability while helping communities qualify leads and optimize marketing spend. With real-world examples and best practices, the episode explores how leveraging data can shape smarter pricing, guide marketing strategies, and make life easier for sales teams.
Whether you're a sales director, operator, or marketer, this episode offers a fresh take on how to drive occupancy with confidence and clarity.
To learn more, visit Drake Strategic at https://www.drakestrategic.com/ or MyLifeSite at https://mylifesite.net/
Full YouTube Episode: https://youtu.be/tO4E5p0o_TY
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is the Drake Insights Podcast,your weekly dose of cutting edge
senior living marketing insights.
Join me, your host, Natasha Drake for boldideas, proven strategies, and inspiring
stories straight from the experts.
Tune in and let's conquer the seniorliving marketing landscape together.
Natasha (00:17):
Hi guys.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Drake Insights Podcast.
I'm your host, NatashaDrake from Drake Strategic.
Let's get started.
So on today's episode, I am joinedby none other than Tripp Higgins.
I am sure you've seen him, you'vemet him at conferences, he's spoken
at your community about financialqualifications and really awesome, cool
MyLifeSite website interactive tools.
(00:39):
So he's joining us today to talka little bit more about not just
MoneyGauge and some of the financialcalculator tools that MyLifeSite
has that helps increase conversions.
But we're gonna dig in a littlebit about data and analytics in
general and just sort of, are weusing the data to its full extent?
Are we really analyzing that dataand are we using it to be more
(01:00):
efficient and effective with oursales, marketing, and ops tools?
So if you don't know Tripp Higgins,he is the president of MyLifeSite,
over 15 years experience in seniorliving, sales and marketing.
And so he's a lot like me.
We have a lot in common in that,that you started on the, the
community side of senior living andsort of shifted over similar to me.
So we do have a lot incommon in that space.
(01:22):
So would you mind Tripp introducingyourself to those that don't
know you or about you today?
Tripp (01:27):
So well, thank you Natasha, I appreciate the opportunity to be here.
It's always a pleasure.
Yeah, we do tend to havelong conversations 'cause
we have so much in common.
But I did start in senior living in 2009.
And spent the better part of 10years helping a community outside
of Buffalo, New York, that when Idid start, it was at 60% occupancy.
And I just thought that Zieglerand the Bank of New York and
(01:50):
Fitch visited you every month.
But yeah, I realizedquickly that's not the case.
And fortunately enough was ableto bring them back and into
the high 90s with a wait list.
And just recently, nowthey're starting an expansion.
So things are good.
And I parlayed that into comingback into the senior living world on
(02:10):
now you have the B2B side, where Ihave tools that do help educate the
consumer, educate the sales person, andmake the sales process a bit easier.
I always talked about the barriersthat we put in front of the prospect
and where we wanted to get them,and I'm all about removing those
and making it as simple as possible.
Natasha (02:30):
Yeah.
And we do, we've had many conversations.
This podcast has been long, long coming.
And that's where we really, we,we agree on, you know, I think a
lot of times, at least when I wasdoing sales, and you can probably
relate, we didn't have these tools.
I didn't have, and I was kind of forcedto have to, as a salesperson, to yeah
build that relationship, that trust,to understand the product, understand
(02:50):
real estate, understand targetaudience and marketing and events.
And then also sometimes being thatfinancial, you know, advisor at
many times and it's, you know, we'reasking a lot of these salespeople
to be experts in all these thingsand so, know, we're not here today.
This isn't a sales conversation.
This isn't okay use MoneyGauge.
This is truly to help open, I thinkthe eyes of a lot of, and the ears
(03:13):
of a lot of the listeners today ofmaybe thinking about this differently
and how this can help them, not justfrom a conversion tool and how you
know, all of these interactive tools.
I think sometimes, people mightthink they're gimmicky or,
you know, we don't need that.
We can just, our salespeoplecan, can close that.
And this is to just be another, anothertool in their toolbox to be able to
(03:33):
have better relationships with theirprospects and help with those conversions.
So can you talk a little bit, justto kick off though, to start, people
that haven't heard of MyLifeSite,MoneyGauge tool, can you kinda give
a little bit of background of, youknow, what they are and how they work?
Tripp (03:47):
Sure.
Yeah.
Well, MyLifeSite was started as aneducational resource for, for prospects.
So we have a, a pretty popular blogthat posts every week as well as a
whole resource library that communitiescan use to help educate that consumer
as well as our website, that a lot ofprospects come hundreds of thousands
(04:10):
to try to start their journey.
Yeah.
And we help them gain a little more focusas to questions they should ask and you
know, what they should be looking for.
At the same time, we did findthat everybody had a financial
question and that became one ofthe biggest barriers and certainly.
Studying a little bit of psychology oursubconscious brain is the one that makes
(04:31):
99% of our decisions every day have.
And when they see pricing,sometimes they're immediately
like, I can't afford that.
And that financialhesitancy is a real killer.
So we develop two tools, one of ourfinancial calculator that allows to
create lots of different scenarios,one-on-one with a prospect, and then
(04:51):
MoneyGauge, which is a front facing toolthat can sit on a community's website
or be texted, emailed, sit in a QR code.
And it's all about engagement andfinding that way to, you know,
break through that subconsciousbrain and get to the conscious brain
that wants to learn and almost getto that self-actualization state.
Let's get past that, that fear ofsort of Maslow's hierarchy of needs
(05:16):
of you need food, shelter, and safety.
Well, once we figure thatout with, we can afford it.
Now we can start to talk about howwe're gonna be living, celebrating,
enjoying life at that community.
And that's more the fun side of sales.
Natasha (05:31):
Right.
And to, so to clarify a little bit, so,and I didn't realize this as much in the
beginning, so there's two pieces to it.
One, that it's a tool for thesalesperson to use in person with
your prospect, which is great.
It's a way to bring them in, you know,
Tripp (05:42):
Yeah.
Natasha (05:42):
I have this great financial tool, you know, get them to come
in the door and work with you.
But then the, the MoneyGaugetool specifically is online.
And you know, I think what's great aboutthat, because I've brought this up,
almost every podcast so far this year.
Talking about boomers, talking aboutthe generation that wants sort of
that self sales, selective sales.
You know, online today, we canbuy whatever we want online.
(06:03):
We can get all the information online.
We don't have to speak to someone.
I know we want relationship.
I know we want them to meetwith a salesperson, but how can
we give them what they want?
They want transparency.
They want authenticity.
You know, they wanna be able to say theythink they know their financials best.
Even though we know they don'treally understand what that means.
And so I think we just have tothink differently about this, about
(06:25):
this tool and the MoneyGauge tool.
So can you talk a little bitabout that and how that works?
So basically a, a prospect can go on,it's a interactive the answer questions
and it basically can tell them.
I'll let you
Tripp (06:37):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Natasha (06:37):
talk a little bit about the tool specifically.
Tripp (06:40):
This is great.
No, no, you're selling me on it.
How do I buy?
This is great.
So we try to make it assimple as possible, right?
We talked about different barriers,so this is anywhere from seven
to eight to maybe nine questions.
We concentrate on age becausewe do connect that to life
tables in the back end.
We then ask for primary assets, sohome value, and then a, a lump sum
(07:02):
of their cash savings investments.
And most people right there go,well, no one's gonna share that.
Like, well, interesting enough,we're projecting to have close
to 230,000 people share thatinformation just this year alone.
Natasha (07:15):
Wow.
Tripp (07:15):
It is something people are pretty eager to try to share
because there's some reciprocity.
So we, we go through that and then weask 'em about their social security,
and then we ask 'em whether or not theyhave pension, is there other income?
And then we can even tielong-term care insurance to it.
Those numbers are then run against fourprimary residential options from smallest
(07:38):
apartment to smallest, largest apartment,which essentially cast the widest net of
you know who can afford to either pay thatentry fee or if you're not an entry fee
model, who can afford the monthly servicerate through so many different years
of, of care or time at that community.
We then tie it to economic assumptions.
(08:00):
So this is a, a very robustcalculation in the backend that
looks very simple on the front end.
And after answering those fewquestions, now that prospect then
sees a series of gauges that relateto a residential option, and that
visual is exceptionally powerful.
They now have sort ofrealized and sort of reframed.
(08:23):
Oh, I didn't think it was affordable.
And we see this with a lot of tools.
So people will figure like, oh, I'm, youknow, eligible for independent living.
This is my best spot, butyou know, I can't afford it.
Well, MoneyGauge helps give them that dataand self actualization look at, oh, I can.
And that leads to more appointments set.
Natasha (08:44):
Right.
Tripp (08:44):
And then on the sales side, they now get to understand
what apartments they can afford.
And what that financialviability looks like.
And that is powerful 'cause nowwe know where to start the tour.
We know the conversations instead oflet's give you the broad tour and you
know, you've got your oxygen tanksalong with you because it's an hour long
and they're walking and they probablyhaven't walked that long in a long time.
(09:06):
So
Natasha (09:07):
Yeah.
Tripp (09:08):
We kind of exhaust them and by that time, their oxygen pulse is
pretty low and they can't rememberanything that they just saw.
So MoneyGauge helps you really focus.
Yeah.
And the salesperson loves it becausenow they're working with self qualified
prospects that have taken the time,put those numbers in, and there's a
(09:28):
level of confidence that salespersonhas now as well as that prospect of,
okay, we've got a real conversationand this isn't just you know, saying
hello and figuring out, well, it wasnice seeing you and you know, move on.
Natasha (09:43):
Yeah.
Two things I wanted to mention whenyou, as you're talking about this,
is, is one you know, I want youto talk a little bit about this.
Most people think they can't.
The quote, I think you says, mostpeople think they live free at home.
I wrote that down the last time wespoke because I think that's so true.
Like, I don't have any, Idon't, yeah, this is high.
I'm not paying that.
And they start to realize, you know,we have a lot of those cost comparison
(10:05):
tools, but this is better than that,is it helps them really realize what
are they spending their money on athome, and how that relates to them,
you know, spending money there.
So that's number one to relateto what you're set saying.
So they, they really don't think theycan afford, they don't realize what
they're, what they're spending at home.
Tripp (10:21):
We find that, you know, upwards of 50% of the people that
are taking a MoneyGauge assessmentare not in a community's primary
market area, or not in their CRM.
Natasha (10:31):
Oh,
Tripp (10:32):
Which is fascinating.
And then we are starting tosee how many people are outside
of their primary market area.
Yeah.
And how demographics has sometimeschanged over time, where historically
they've always been marketingto the same zip code area.
And that we find, Hey, you knowwhat, there's a pocket here
that seems to be pretty strong.
(10:53):
Have we ever sent anything here?
Or, what's the latest lead list?
And where have you sent your lastmailers where MoneyGauge can start
to to help add, you know, a littlebit more data to why we're sending
it there and why we're making this,this purchase and this direct mail.
Natasha (11:08):
Yeah.
And I was gonna, I was gonna talk moreabout that 'cause obviously that's
where I come in from the marketing end.
You know, it's funny, so I'm literallyin the process of this right now, of
setting that target audience list, right.
For a client of mine, and it's sofunny, I always start with them.
We partner and we, we figure outwhat they believe the parameters are
and it it, every time it's the same.
Then they put the income level high.
(11:29):
They put the zip codes in thosehigh-end areas they put right?
And they start there and theysay, well, these zip codes,
no, no one would move here.
And when I start to pull, youknow, I do all the analysis,
market study, market data.
You can pull your MoneyGaugedata and use that data.
So that's one of the things where Ithink most communities and operators
aren't fully utilizing the data.
You have that information fromMoneyGauge, so you can see that on
(11:51):
average how many are actually qualifying.
You'll find it's actually lower thanyou think and you realize, and I think
that's what's, or even just to startthere, you know, these seniors are the
income level sometimes that we're putting.
It's like how much income doyou think they're really making?
You know, on pensions and social security.
Tripp (12:06):
Right.
Natasha (12:07):
We have to think about what are they spending at home, where's
their money coming from, their assets,their net worth, all those things.
So that's a great thing.
I mean, I just.
When you were telling me about thatbackend data, I'm like, that would
really help us each year analyze ourtarget audience, expand our list to
areas and pockets where we may not thinkof, or may not think they can afford.
And the other thing I wanted tomention too is I can hear some of the
(12:31):
salespeople or operators in my headgoing, great, so now these people
are gonna opt out on my website andthen I'm not gonna get that lead.
That's great.
When we talked, I think I mentionedthat, I brought that up and you were
like, what's great is you can set thatso you can set that bar so you can
decide if you want everyone to qualify.
And we don't.
Of course, you know, that's up toyou and how you wanna handle that.
Tripp (12:51):
Right.
Natasha (12:52):
But you can set it right, like tighter, what it has to come out
to, and whether it shows that theymay qualify or they definitely will
qualify because then they come in andthen you can have that conversation
with them and decide that later.
So why don't you talk a little bit aboutthat, because I think that's something
that I hear pushback from a little bit andit's good to know that it's, it's truly
customizable to how you want to use it.
Tripp (13:12):
It is, it is amazing.
And I always talk, you know,MoneyGauge is agnostic, so it
doesn't necessarily care whetheryou're entry fee or not, or rental.
And you can set what I call thatfinancial risk tolerance of what do
you look at as a qualified prospector what is not a qualified prospect.
So we have, you know, within thelife tables, we can adjust those.
(13:33):
We can adjust economic assumptions.
We can adjust years of care or,you know, delete that altogether.
But then we have one other level wherewe can, you know, say, well, you know,
if they have a dollar left at the endof seven years, we're gonna say yes.
Or if they have negative $250,000at the end of seven years, we're
gonna say yes or their lifetime.
(13:55):
So the, the flexibility of thesystem is, is truly remarkable.
And it's one of the things that Iconcentrated on when I first got to
MyLifeSite was how do we create theflexibility so that we are relevant
to any community regardless of whetheryou're IL or AL or in many cases
we're seeing some growth in the healthcenter AL, have memory care units to
(14:17):
help people understand affordabilitybefore there are events, before you've
exhausted the, the family and, and hadhad something happen that then forces
you to make a decision, you know?
Natasha (14:28):
Because we have to help educate that adult child, you know,
the, and the spouse who, who franklyis, is caregiving, doesn't, and doesn't
understand the expense that this islike, whoa, that is an amount that
they, they can't fathom or understand.
And so these tools are just helping themmake a decision and say yes and making
them feel confident in that decision.
(14:50):
Make them feel in controlof this decision, right?
Because the biggest thing right now is,is resisting change and wanting to feel
in control and choice in that decision.
I just feel like thisgives them that control.
I'm just thinking me, it makesme feel like I am doing the
financial qualifications.
I'm the one deciding and lookingat the information and, and
then it's also educating me inreturn on what all that means.
(15:13):
So, let's dig in a little bit.
If we can, Tripp, to the data.
I wanna, I wanna share a little bit, Iknow when we talked, I don't know if you
have it in front of you or if I'm puttingyou on the spot, but let's dig in a little
bit to, you know, your, your metrics thatyou shared with me in terms of conversion
rate, approval rates, you know, what youguys have seen, because I think that's
pretty impactful for listeners to hear.
Tripp (15:33):
Yes.
No, it is and, and you know, saida little bit earlier that we're
projected to have, you know, closerto 230,000 assessments so far this
year, and what, what we're seeing is.
Are averaging now 33% conversion.
And when I say that, I'm, I'mreferring that to what we can control.
So we can control an assessment that comesin and then who gives their name, you
(15:56):
know, phone number and in many cases, 80%of the time their first name, last name,
email, and now phone number and zip code.
We can make them, you know,either all required or, or not.
But we are seeing a 33% conversion rate.
So,
Natasha (16:13):
Wow.
Tripp (16:13):
you know, for every a hundred assessments, you're getting 33 names.
And, and of that we're seeingon average 56% approvals.
Yeah.
So what we are doing too is we're,we're giving the most qualified
prospects, the financially qualifiedprospects to your salespeople.
(16:34):
Start their day there.
And the numbers we're looking atanywhere from 70 to 125 to sometimes
more assessments per month.
Natasha (16:44):
Mm-hmm.
Tripp (16:45):
And we have some one community now that so far, year to
date, has over 4,200 assessments
Natasha (16:51):
wow.
Tripp (16:52):
with a 30% conversion rate and an 80% approval rate.
So they are looking at over athousand qualified prospects that
opted in, gave that information andnow realize that this is an option.
And that power is amazing.
Yeah.
Natasha (17:08):
And I think you said one of your, one of the communities had like
over 80 something percent approval rate
Tripp (17:13):
Yeah.
Natasha (17:14):
or something like this.
You have some that have, you know, reallydepending on the pockets or the markets
who are even higher than that average.
That's incredible.
Tripp (17:20):
We have some that are, are low, and in some cases we find, well,
you know, MoneyGauge isn't working.
I'm like, well, we'regetting a lot of assessments.
We're getting a highpercentage of prospects.
Now, if those prospects can'tafford it, use that knowledge.
That MoneyGauge isn'tworking, actually is working.
Let's refine and understand are wemarketing to the wrong zip codes
(17:42):
or has our primary market changed?
How do we, how do we then find thosepockets of people that can afford it?
Natasha (17:49):
So that takes me to my third way that this data and analytics
can be used outside of marketingand sales, which we talked about.
You know, sales tool, marketing,target audience focus.
Third is operations.
You know, I think they do pricingassessments each year trying
to figure out rates, it justkeeps going up and up and up.
And especially if you know you'retargeting the right audience
(18:11):
and no one is qualifying.
It's a tool now for your operationsteam to be able to look at, maybe we're
out pricing ourself in this market.
Maybe we do need to expand to a,to a new area, or maybe we need to
really look at what we're offering inthe, in the pricing we have compared
to our competitors in this market.
So I think that's really neat.
It's not just sales and marketing tool.
I mean, truly from a financialperspective, operators can use this
(18:34):
for their pricing assessments too.
Tripp (18:35):
Absolutely.
And I'm a big proponent of that'cause certainly using an Excel
spreadsheet just to add percentagepoints to a monthly service rate to
to, to an entry fee you know, hurtsthe salespeople because they're
always like, okay, now go sell this.
And you're like,
Natasha (18:50):
Yeah.
Tripp (18:50):
you just made it that much harder.
Now you've tied, you know, both our armsand one of our legs together, so we're,
you know, really kind of hamstrung.
Yeah, so it does, it doesoffer a lot of visibility.
Many times if I go to a communityand their occupancy is struggling,
I can usually see that by whattheir, their rental rates are, what
their entry fee is because they'veoutpaced what the median market,
Natasha (19:14):
Mm-hmm.
Tripp (19:15):
and the data, which equates directly to the salesperson's
frustration of we can't findany financially qualified leads.
Everybody doesn't thinkthey can afford it.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
So there's a lot, a lot ofpeople understand from the data.
Natasha (19:28):
I would say, you know, if that ever came up in a lot of the marketing
planning and marketing assessments, I do.
If that comes up, this is agreat tool to dig into that.
I mean, outside of the market studiesand feasibility and things like that
that you can do this is a great, anothergreat way because a lot of times we'll
say, well, let's pull the data thatthe salespeople have put into the CRM,
right, of those financial qualifications.
Well, how are they getting them?
Is it just quickly over a phonecall like this is truly giving you
(19:50):
that information to be able to lookat that and study the financials.
And I did want to point toback what you were saying about
the data and conversion rates.
Just personally, 'cause people haveasked me for, if I've used it, what I
recommend, you know, so I have used it fora lot of life plan specific communities.
So I just, I don't wannasay I've used it everywhere.
A lot of our life plan communitiesthat I have overseen and we have
(20:12):
seen, so I do all the marketing dataanalytics at end, doing our annual plan.
While maybe I think betweenChatbot conversions and the
MoneyGauge conversions similar.
You know, chatbot may have been higheror so on, but every, I wanna say almost
every single community, maybe nineoutta 10, the MoneyGauge conversions
(20:34):
were the highest quality conversions.
So meaning it may not be the highestnumber, but it was typically the
highest to move in every time.
So I would always pull that data, andif you're not pulling that data in
your marketing plan, you really should.
It's not just website leads, webconversions, it's truly we have
to dig into the conversion points.
Right.
And where are you seeing themost conversion points and not
(20:55):
just that, the quality of those.
So you're getting a lot of leads then.
Are they moving in, are they touring?
I just wanted to share kind of myfeedback of what I've seen, you know,
over the past couple years, usinga life plan specific communities,
did bring the highest percentage ofquality conversions from the website.
So that tells you something, youknow, I mean, I think it's, it's that
person that's really on there fillingthat wants to fill that MoneyGauge
(21:17):
out, wants to know their financials.
They're serious.
They're a serious prospect.
And you hear a lot of times these,these paid leads aren't good leads or
these digital leads aren't good leads.
Well, they are once they get to your site.
And how is your site then functioning?
To help them convert better, interactmore with your site, stay on longer, those
are gonna be your higher quality leads.
So this just, just helps with that.
(21:39):
Can you dig in a little bit to that too,because we talked about the best way to
leverage the MoneyGauge tool, like youhave seen best practices of language,
where it's placed, things like that causethat has an, an impact as well, right?
Tripp (21:53):
It absolutely does.
I mean, we're, we found certainlyit's pretty logical, right?
There's probably three primary places.
Your homepage, your pricing page,your residential option page.
And what we're finding is if peoplecan create a call to action that's
relevant to that page and a designthat is different enough from your,
(22:14):
everything else on that page, your eyesare designed to go to what's different.
It's kind of what helpedus survive as a species.
And they saw eyes throughthe bush at the night.
They were like, eh, we shouldpick up camp where somebody's
gotta stay up and watch that.
That's the same thing with thesecalls to action when you can relate
it to find out your, your best fitfor our residential options, or take
(22:35):
our free financial assessment tool or.
We have our affordability calculator ina make your decisions with confidence.
It is all about where you put it.
Don't hide it.
We do have some customers where I'mgoing, I know they've paid for it,
but I cannot find it on the website.
And it sometimes becomes thatafterthought of the digital marketer.
We're like, oh, well, we'llput it here and going,
Natasha (22:57):
Mm-hmm.
Tripp (22:57):
but no one gets to the bottom of that page.
Let's put it up make it more relevant,make it more visible, and you will
find that people do fill it out.
And that quickly becomes your lead
Natasha (23:11):
Mm-hmm.
Tripp (23:12):
lead aggregator where you are now finding not just a marketing
qualified or sales qualified lead.
This is a opted in,financially qualified lead.
I'm not sure there's somethinghigher than that because in many
cases these lead lists you have.
The one thing that they all havein common, regardless of where it
is in the country, none of thosepeople on that list know that
(23:33):
they're age and income qualified.
Natasha (23:35):
Mm-hmm.
Tripp (23:35):
So when they take a MoneyGauge, all of a sudden now they've got, you know a
solid foundation to kind of move forward.
And the salesperson, again, has incredibledata to now help that prospect get through
the first stages of that decision making.
We find that lead time of, of leadto move-in to deposit is much faster
(23:59):
when you've started with a MoneyGaugeassessment as opposed to wait till the
end of three months of working withthem or six months to find out that,
you know, that apartment they hadtheir heart set on is not affordable
and that you've got to get them intothe one bedroom and den that's there.
Natasha (24:13):
And I do love, you know, I have a, a podcast
coming out soon about language.
I feel very strongly about language interms of dignity, respect, lots of things.
But this specifically, when wetalked, we talked about this and
I think that's really important.
You know, many times I see.
Take our financial calculator oryou know, it, it's very salesy
or use the MoneyGauge tool.
People don't know what that means.
So I think that's like, I think you gavea couple options or ideas that were like
(24:38):
explore your options with confidence orbe in control of your financial future.
And I know people think that's salesy.
No, that's what people wanna hear.
They wanna see those control, confidence,you know, it's your financials.
Be in control of it.
Right.
Because a lot of times when you'retrying to buy something, you're, you
feel completely out of control of it.
Right?
You don't have any control over it.
So just, and I'm gonna just say thatas a blanket statement, in marketing
(25:01):
in general, everything you say,your language, it is so important.
We really need to look at that interms of how we're messaging things
and that, and, and so if you havethis tool or you have other types of
interactive tools on your website.
Your messaging and your marketing andyour language, just by making some of
those slight tweaks or adjustments orplaces like Tripp's saying can help
impact if you're not seeing the results.
(25:22):
If you have MoneyGauge, you mightneed to make some changes to your
messaging and where you have it located.
And that's in terms of any, anyconversion point, interactive
tool you have on your website.
So little, little marketing advicethere on you for your website.
Tripp (25:35):
It's, it's brilliant and it's, it's one of the lowest
cost pieces you can do to
Natasha (25:40):
Right.
Tripp (25:41):
And measure change and your ROIs to, oh, we're getting more
assessments now that we raised itup and we changed the messaging bit.
Yeah.
Natasha (25:50):
So is there anything more we wanna dig into?
I don't wanna exhaust it, but isthere any more you wanna share?
I think you went into all this.
Who are the best at usingit, how they're using it?
Kind of recap that
Tripp (25:59):
Yeah,
Natasha (26:00):
or did we
Tripp (26:00):
I'll,
Natasha (26:00):
everything?
Tripp (26:01):
I'll tell a quick story.
So a
Natasha (26:03):
Okay.
Tripp (26:03):
newer community starting out was using MoneyGauge, having difficulty
finding financially approved prospects.
And they're like,
Natasha (26:12):
Hmm.
Tripp (26:13):
know, what is wrong?
And we, we dug in and you know, welooked at all the zip codes and we could
group those and kind of understand,okay, let's look at those zip codes
and what is their median home value?
What is their income?
Historically, what has it been now?
And what I saw a trend of isa lot of homes that were, you
know, $800,000 plus, but savingsof about a $100,000 on average.
(26:37):
An income of just social security.
So if you figure in $2,000 times 12is, you know, $24,000, but if your
monthly service rate is averaging $8,000people run outta money pretty quickly,
even if their home values at $800k.
And in many cases, that home valuehad been sub gentrified where this,
(26:59):
this neighborhood is changing a bit.
But we really identified and helpedthem go, gosh, you need to concentrate
a little bit north of the river that,you know, many cases people don't feel
that they would ever wanna come downto where they are, but we were able
to really adjust their marketing spendby truly understanding and seeing of
the that point 1500 assessments, whatwere the numbers telling us and, and
(27:24):
what what we could do to affect change.
And in some cases, some customers have toomany financially qualified leads coming in
and they're trying to figure out a processof how to take care of all of them.
Like, well, that's a good problem to have,but, you know, you know, we are being
able to identify those zip codes is great.
We can even dig into, and this is kindof crazy as to the time of day, most
(27:47):
of the assessments are being takenas to the day that they're taken.
And if some people can absorb thatto go, okay, well how do we use that?
To better time our digitalspend to make sure that we're
visible and not just pay to
Natasha (28:02):
Mm.
Tripp (28:02):
be there, but be there when it counts.
You know, and I obviously refiningthat marketing spend you can save
far more than what MoneyGaugecosts just on a monthly basis.
You could basically payfor MoneyGauge, I think.
And,
Natasha (28:16):
Right.
Tripp (28:16):
ultimately move forward with much more refined plan based
on the data that you're seeing.
And,
Natasha (28:23):
Yeah.
Tripp (28:23):
ultimately we see success that way now.
Natasha (28:26):
Yeah.
And I think that's my biggest, that'sthe reason why when we, when we've met
and we've talked about this, you know, I,this is not, and it was sort of similar
to the I had a, another podcast Engrainand sort of how their conversions are.
And it's the same kind of thing.
This isn't just a conversion toolwe're putting it on to try to get
people to, you know, whatever.
It's downloadable content.
I want the listeners to think differentlyabout this and this type of tool and, hope
(28:52):
that what Tripp is sharing is impactful.
Because it was to me when we spoke, likeI hadn't even thought about a lot of
these things and how we use that data.
And so in general.
You know, I wanna recap some of this thatwe've talked about so, you know, get a
lot of pushback on these types of tools.
And you just said, if you really lookat the impact and how this can help you
in the long run, save money in terms ofthe amount of move-ins you're getting
(29:15):
at, and efficiency in general, and thenpricing conversations and all of that.
I wanna talk a little bit just to recap.
So, number one, we said Great forboomers, you know, self-selective
sales, things like that.
Transparency, you know,authenticity, increased conversions.
Clearly that's, that's clear.
But, you know, we, we talked about,and I'll let you recap what you just
(29:35):
said, sort of in terms of sales,marketing, operations and, and how,
I just wanna make sure everyonehears how that's gonna help you.
The data is gonna helpyou, from the back end.
Tripp (29:44):
I mean, the data you're collecting obviously helps
you refine your digital spend.
And I think one of the, the biggeradvantages is your salespeople now,
consider, save their energy and focusit on the most qualified leads and
sort of rev their engine up to thenbe able to work with maybe the ones
that didn't come across as qualified,but maybe have a son or daughter
(30:05):
that's gonna, you know, help them out.
And so the data that comes throughis more than enough for a salesperson
and a community to be very successful.
Yeah.
But then digging a little bit deeper, youcan truly understand a little bit more
of that DNA of your primary market areaand, and help sort of future plan there.
(30:26):
In many cases, we could then identifywhich apartments tend to be, you know,
the most affordable within your primarymarket area, so that if you are looking
at expansions, maybe we concentrateon that one bedroom den as opposed to
putting too many two bedrooms that arepriced out of, you know, what we find
is the largest pocket of of opportunity.
(30:48):
Yeah.
Natasha (30:49):
Right.
Tripp (30:49):
Yeah.
Natasha (30:50):
think
Tripp (30:50):
There's layers and layers and layers that can be refined and go, oh,
how do we, how do we work through this?
Or to our benchmarkingdata across the country.
Being able to, where is thebest place to possibly expand?
And, you know, trulyunderstand where that,
Natasha (31:07):
Yeah.
Tripp (31:07):
know, $150 million community needs to go next.
Yeah.
Natasha (31:12):
Especially these large operators that use this tool, like
you're saying, across the country.
I know a number of them that use it,you know, in all different states
be able to analyze all that data.
In terms of financial, yeah.
What age, obviously, is it adultchildren, what pockets have those?
Yeah, what are those incomequalifications in each area?
That's.
That's really interesting, especiallylike you said, I didn't think about that
(31:33):
for expansions and building new if, if awhole area is only qualifying for the one
bedrooms, they only want the one bedrooms.
Now I know, I have seen, itdepends on the market, man.
You're like, it's all the two bedrooms,three bedrooms, two bedroom dens, or it's
more of the studios and one bedrooms,depending on where it's located.
This can help you get thatinformation, not just from your CRM.
A lot of times we're pulling things fromthe CRM that's sales person's putting in.
(31:55):
I'm not saying they're not disqualifyingthat information, but think about this.
This is information your prospect
Tripp (32:00):
right.
Natasha (32:00):
is putting in and getting straight from them
to start that sales dialogue.
You, you come with it your chatbotinfo and your, your financial
calculator info already to initiatethat conversation with the prospect.
So, it's, it's just incredible.
I think, and even just here onthis conversation, I'm finding out
more and more ways you can use it.
And I just, I wanna just reiterate thatto the listeners is, is that in general.
(32:23):
You know, I think we as an industry andas a whole are I think I, I have data.
It was, we're using less than aquarter of the data that we actually
have truly to, to analyze and makewise decisions and save dollars.
We're really just behind on thatin the industry, and so we need
to get behind how we're using notjust AI, but these online tools.
(32:47):
You're all this information you'regathering, whether it be from
paid digital advertising, butthen also specifically for these
engagement tools on your website.
We need to be using these tomake better wise decisions to
save money in the long run.
And I just, they have the data, wehave it on the backend, let's use it.
Let's analyze it, let'smake better decisions.
I feel very strongly about that.
(33:08):
That's why you and I, I think everytime we talk we're like, yes, yes,
everyone should be doing this.
It's so important, especiallywith this boomer generation.
So, thank you so much for coming on and,you know, sharing all this information.
I think a lot of people don'tknow the depth of truly how
this tool can help them.
You know, outside of being a websitetool I wanna leave it with you, you
know, any other, besides what I justdid, kind of took the, as you can
(33:32):
see, I'm really, obviously I'm a bigadvocate for using these types of tools.
You know, ending tips that you wannaleave key points for the listeners today.
Tripp (33:40):
Well, you know, we're, we're all about helping people, help people.
So ultimately, you know, with myexperience and background, with
the tools we have now to be able toengage with communities and help them
better engage with their prospects,it truly gets down to look, let's,
let's help people, help people.
Let's not make this moredifficult than it needs to be.
And, and our tools are much more thanjust something that sits on your website.
(34:05):
The data that is collected and thepercentages of people that fill it out
are much larger than anybody anticipated.
That we're, we're finding wecan add so much more value.
And it's senior living's, almostlike a whitewater rafting trip.
You're always in a class fourrapid, you never have a break.
Right?
So we, we try to find that eddy, andhopefully we can be a little bit of
that eddy, where it's the calm wateron the side where we can start to
(34:27):
make better decisions and have a planas to how we're gonna hit the next
quarter, or, you know, next rapid.
If I could use that analogy there.
Natasha (34:36):
I love it.
That's great.
Tripp (34:39):
Okay, how are we gonna attack it?
Because we all don't wanna falloutta the boat again, so let's.
Natasha (34:44):
Well, and I think a lot of times, yeah, I mean, sales and marketing
can be like, what is this tool, whatis, what is Natasha bringing on now?
What, and it's, it trulyis, I feel the same way.
Everything that I'm trying to dois not to just to generate leads.
It's as, as a sales person atheart, where I started too.
It's, I wanna make your lives easier.
I wanna bring you the right qualifiedleads, and I wanna give you the data
on the backend to help you do it.
So I totally agree.
(35:05):
I any way we can help each other,at least from a sales perspective
and then also from a marketing dataperspective makes my life easier.
So anyway, thank you so much Tripp for,for being on joining the podcast today.
And thank you all for watching anotherepisode of the Drake Insights podcast.
I look forward to seeing you next time.
Bye.
This is the Drake Insights Podcast,your weekly dose of cutting edge
senior living marketing insights.
Join me, your host, Natasha Drake for boldideas, proven strategies, and inspiring
stories straight from the experts.
Tune in and let's conquer the seniorliving marketing landscape together.
Natasha (00:17):
Hi guys.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Drake Insights Podcast.
I'm your host, NatashaDrake from Drake Strategic.
Let's get started.
So on today's episode, I am joinedby none other than Tripp Higgins.
I am sure you've seen him, you'vemet him at conferences, he's spoken
at your community about financialqualifications and really awesome, cool
MyLifeSite website interactive tools.
(00:39):
So he's joining us today to talka little bit more about not just
MoneyGauge and some of the financialcalculator tools that MyLifeSite
has that helps increase conversions.
But we're gonna dig in a littlebit about data and analytics in
general and just sort of, are weusing the data to its full extent?
Are we really analyzing that dataand are we using it to be more
(01:00):
efficient and effective with oursales, marketing, and ops tools?
So if you don't know Tripp Higgins,he is the president of MyLifeSite,
over 15 years experience in seniorliving, sales and marketing.
And so he's a lot like me.
We have a lot in common in that,that you started on the, the
community side of senior living andsort of shifted over similar to me.
So we do have a lot incommon in that space.
(01:22):
So would you mind Tripp introducingyourself to those that don't
know you or about you today?
Tripp (01:27):
So well, thank you Natasha, I appreciate the opportunity to be here.
It's always a pleasure.
Yeah, we do tend to havelong conversations 'cause
we have so much in common.
But I did start in senior living in 2009.
And spent the better part of 10years helping a community outside
of Buffalo, New York, that when Idid start, it was at 60% occupancy.
And I just thought that Zieglerand the Bank of New York and
(01:50):
Fitch visited you every month.
But yeah, I realizedquickly that's not the case.
And fortunately enough was ableto bring them back and into
the high 90s with a wait list.
And just recently, nowthey're starting an expansion.
So things are good.
And I parlayed that into comingback into the senior living world on
(02:10):
now you have the B2B side, where Ihave tools that do help educate the
consumer, educate the sales person, andmake the sales process a bit easier.
I always talked about the barriersthat we put in front of the prospect
and where we wanted to get them,and I'm all about removing those
and making it as simple as possible.
Natasha (02:30):
Yeah.
And we do, we've had many conversations.
This podcast has been long, long coming.
And that's where we really, we,we agree on, you know, I think a
lot of times, at least when I wasdoing sales, and you can probably
relate, we didn't have these tools.
I didn't have, and I was kind of forcedto have to, as a salesperson, to yeah
build that relationship, that trust,to understand the product, understand
(02:50):
real estate, understand targetaudience and marketing and events.
And then also sometimes being thatfinancial, you know, advisor at
many times and it's, you know, we'reasking a lot of these salespeople
to be experts in all these thingsand so, know, we're not here today.
This isn't a sales conversation.
This isn't okay use MoneyGauge.
This is truly to help open, I thinkthe eyes of a lot of, and the ears
(03:13):
of a lot of the listeners today ofmaybe thinking about this differently
and how this can help them, not justfrom a conversion tool and how you
know, all of these interactive tools.
I think sometimes, people mightthink they're gimmicky or,
you know, we don't need that.
We can just, our salespeoplecan, can close that.
And this is to just be another, anothertool in their toolbox to be able to
(03:33):
have better relationships with theirprospects and help with those conversions.
So can you talk a little bit, justto kick off though, to start, people
that haven't heard of MyLifeSite,MoneyGauge tool, can you kinda give
a little bit of background of, youknow, what they are and how they work?
Tripp (03:47):
Sure.
Yeah.
Well, MyLifeSite was started as aneducational resource for, for prospects.
So we have a, a pretty popular blogthat posts every week as well as a
whole resource library that communitiescan use to help educate that consumer
as well as our website, that a lot ofprospects come hundreds of thousands
(04:10):
to try to start their journey.
Yeah.
And we help them gain a little more focusas to questions they should ask and you
know, what they should be looking for.
At the same time, we did findthat everybody had a financial
question and that became one ofthe biggest barriers and certainly.
Studying a little bit of psychology oursubconscious brain is the one that makes
(04:31):
99% of our decisions every day have.
And when they see pricing,sometimes they're immediately
like, I can't afford that.
And that financialhesitancy is a real killer.
So we develop two tools, one of ourfinancial calculator that allows to
create lots of different scenarios,one-on-one with a prospect, and then
(04:51):
MoneyGauge, which is a front facing toolthat can sit on a community's website
or be texted, emailed, sit in a QR code.
And it's all about engagement andfinding that way to, you know,
break through that subconsciousbrain and get to the conscious brain
that wants to learn and almost getto that self-actualization state.
Let's get past that, that fear ofsort of Maslow's hierarchy of needs
(05:16):
of you need food, shelter, and safety.
Well, once we figure thatout with, we can afford it.
Now we can start to talk about howwe're gonna be living, celebrating,
enjoying life at that community.
And that's more the fun side of sales.
Natasha (05:31):
Right.
And to, so to clarify a little bit, so,and I didn't realize this as much in the
beginning, so there's two pieces to it.
One, that it's a tool for thesalesperson to use in person with
your prospect, which is great.
It's a way to bring them in, you know,
Tripp (05:42):
Yeah.
Natasha (05:42):
I have this great financial tool, you know, get them to come
in the door and work with you.
But then the, the MoneyGaugetool specifically is online.
And you know, I think what's great aboutthat, because I've brought this up,
almost every podcast so far this year.
Talking about boomers, talking aboutthe generation that wants sort of
that self sales, selective sales.
You know, online today, we canbuy whatever we want online.
(06:03):
We can get all the information online.
We don't have to speak to someone.
I know we want relationship.
I know we want them to meetwith a salesperson, but how can
we give them what they want?
They want transparency.
They want authenticity.
You know, they wanna be able to say theythink they know their financials best.
Even though we know they don'treally understand what that means.
And so I think we just have tothink differently about this, about
(06:25):
this tool and the MoneyGauge tool.
So can you talk a little bitabout that and how that works?
So basically a, a prospect can go on,it's a interactive the answer questions
and it basically can tell them.
I'll let you
Tripp (06:37):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Natasha (06:37):
talk a little bit about the tool specifically.
Tripp (06:40):
This is great.
No, no, you're selling me on it.
How do I buy?
This is great.
So we try to make it assimple as possible, right?
We talked about different barriers,so this is anywhere from seven
to eight to maybe nine questions.
We concentrate on age becausewe do connect that to life
tables in the back end.
We then ask for primary assets, sohome value, and then a, a lump sum
(07:02):
of their cash savings investments.
And most people right there go,well, no one's gonna share that.
Like, well, interesting enough,we're projecting to have close
to 230,000 people share thatinformation just this year alone.
Natasha (07:15):
Wow.
Tripp (07:15):
It is something people are pretty eager to try to share
because there's some reciprocity.
So we, we go through that and then weask 'em about their social security,
and then we ask 'em whether or not theyhave pension, is there other income?
And then we can even tielong-term care insurance to it.
Those numbers are then run against fourprimary residential options from smallest
(07:38):
apartment to smallest, largest apartment,which essentially cast the widest net of
you know who can afford to either pay thatentry fee or if you're not an entry fee
model, who can afford the monthly servicerate through so many different years
of, of care or time at that community.
We then tie it to economic assumptions.
(08:00):
So this is a, a very robustcalculation in the backend that
looks very simple on the front end.
And after answering those fewquestions, now that prospect then
sees a series of gauges that relateto a residential option, and that
visual is exceptionally powerful.
They now have sort ofrealized and sort of reframed.
(08:23):
Oh, I didn't think it was affordable.
And we see this with a lot of tools.
So people will figure like, oh, I'm, youknow, eligible for independent living.
This is my best spot, butyou know, I can't afford it.
Well, MoneyGauge helps give them that dataand self actualization look at, oh, I can.
And that leads to more appointments set.
Natasha (08:44):
Right.
Tripp (08:44):
And then on the sales side, they now get to understand
what apartments they can afford.
And what that financialviability looks like.
And that is powerful 'cause nowwe know where to start the tour.
We know the conversations instead oflet's give you the broad tour and you
know, you've got your oxygen tanksalong with you because it's an hour long
and they're walking and they probablyhaven't walked that long in a long time.
(09:06):
So
Natasha (09:07):
Yeah.
Tripp (09:08):
We kind of exhaust them and by that time, their oxygen pulse is
pretty low and they can't rememberanything that they just saw.
So MoneyGauge helps you really focus.
Yeah.
And the salesperson loves it becausenow they're working with self qualified
prospects that have taken the time,put those numbers in, and there's a
(09:28):
level of confidence that salespersonhas now as well as that prospect of,
okay, we've got a real conversationand this isn't just you know, saying
hello and figuring out, well, it wasnice seeing you and you know, move on.
Natasha (09:43):
Yeah.
Two things I wanted to mention whenyou, as you're talking about this,
is, is one you know, I want youto talk a little bit about this.
Most people think they can't.
The quote, I think you says, mostpeople think they live free at home.
I wrote that down the last time wespoke because I think that's so true.
Like, I don't have any, Idon't, yeah, this is high.
I'm not paying that.
And they start to realize, you know,we have a lot of those cost comparison
(10:05):
tools, but this is better than that,is it helps them really realize what
are they spending their money on athome, and how that relates to them,
you know, spending money there.
So that's number one to relateto what you're set saying.
So they, they really don't think theycan afford, they don't realize what
they're, what they're spending at home.
Tripp (10:21):
We find that, you know, upwards of 50% of the people that
are taking a MoneyGauge assessmentare not in a community's primary
market area, or not in their CRM.
Natasha (10:31):
Oh,
Tripp (10:32):
Which is fascinating.
And then we are starting tosee how many people are outside
of their primary market area.
Yeah.
And how demographics has sometimeschanged over time, where historically
they've always been marketingto the same zip code area.
And that we find, Hey, you knowwhat, there's a pocket here
that seems to be pretty strong.
(10:53):
Have we ever sent anything here?
Or, what's the latest lead list?
And where have you sent your lastmailers where MoneyGauge can start
to to help add, you know, a littlebit more data to why we're sending
it there and why we're making this,this purchase and this direct mail.
Natasha (11:08):
Yeah.
And I was gonna, I was gonna talk moreabout that 'cause obviously that's
where I come in from the marketing end.
You know, it's funny, so I'm literallyin the process of this right now, of
setting that target audience list, right.
For a client of mine, and it's sofunny, I always start with them.
We partner and we, we figure outwhat they believe the parameters are
and it it, every time it's the same.
Then they put the income level high.
(11:29):
They put the zip codes in thosehigh-end areas they put right?
And they start there and theysay, well, these zip codes,
no, no one would move here.
And when I start to pull, youknow, I do all the analysis,
market study, market data.
You can pull your MoneyGaugedata and use that data.
So that's one of the things where Ithink most communities and operators
aren't fully utilizing the data.
You have that information fromMoneyGauge, so you can see that on
(11:51):
average how many are actually qualifying.
You'll find it's actually lower thanyou think and you realize, and I think
that's what's, or even just to startthere, you know, these seniors are the
income level sometimes that we're putting.
It's like how much income doyou think they're really making?
You know, on pensions and social security.
Tripp (12:06):
Right.
Natasha (12:07):
We have to think about what are they spending at home, where's
their money coming from, their assets,their net worth, all those things.
So that's a great thing.
I mean, I just.
When you were telling me about thatbackend data, I'm like, that would
really help us each year analyze ourtarget audience, expand our list to
areas and pockets where we may not thinkof, or may not think they can afford.
And the other thing I wanted tomention too is I can hear some of the
(12:31):
salespeople or operators in my headgoing, great, so now these people
are gonna opt out on my website andthen I'm not gonna get that lead.
That's great.
When we talked, I think I mentionedthat, I brought that up and you were
like, what's great is you can set thatso you can set that bar so you can
decide if you want everyone to qualify.
And we don't.
Of course, you know, that's up toyou and how you wanna handle that.
Tripp (12:51):
Right.
Natasha (12:52):
But you can set it right, like tighter, what it has to come out
to, and whether it shows that theymay qualify or they definitely will
qualify because then they come in andthen you can have that conversation
with them and decide that later.
So why don't you talk a little bit aboutthat, because I think that's something
that I hear pushback from a little bit andit's good to know that it's, it's truly
customizable to how you want to use it.
Tripp (13:12):
It is, it is amazing.
And I always talk, you know,MoneyGauge is agnostic, so it
doesn't necessarily care whetheryou're entry fee or not, or rental.
And you can set what I call thatfinancial risk tolerance of what do
you look at as a qualified prospector what is not a qualified prospect.
So we have, you know, within thelife tables, we can adjust those.
(13:33):
We can adjust economic assumptions.
We can adjust years of care or,you know, delete that altogether.
But then we have one other level wherewe can, you know, say, well, you know,
if they have a dollar left at the endof seven years, we're gonna say yes.
Or if they have negative $250,000at the end of seven years, we're
gonna say yes or their lifetime.
(13:55):
So the, the flexibility of thesystem is, is truly remarkable.
And it's one of the things that Iconcentrated on when I first got to
MyLifeSite was how do we create theflexibility so that we are relevant
to any community regardless of whetheryou're IL or AL or in many cases
we're seeing some growth in the healthcenter AL, have memory care units to
(14:17):
help people understand affordabilitybefore there are events, before you've
exhausted the, the family and, and hadhad something happen that then forces
you to make a decision, you know?
Natasha (14:28):
Because we have to help educate that adult child, you know,
the, and the spouse who, who franklyis, is caregiving, doesn't, and doesn't
understand the expense that this islike, whoa, that is an amount that
they, they can't fathom or understand.
And so these tools are just helping themmake a decision and say yes and making
them feel confident in that decision.
(14:50):
Make them feel in controlof this decision, right?
Because the biggest thing right now is,is resisting change and wanting to feel
in control and choice in that decision.
I just feel like thisgives them that control.
I'm just thinking me, it makesme feel like I am doing the
financial qualifications.
I'm the one deciding and lookingat the information and, and
then it's also educating me inreturn on what all that means.
(15:13):
So, let's dig in a little bit.
If we can, Tripp, to the data.
I wanna, I wanna share a little bit, Iknow when we talked, I don't know if you
have it in front of you or if I'm puttingyou on the spot, but let's dig in a little
bit to, you know, your, your metrics thatyou shared with me in terms of conversion
rate, approval rates, you know, what youguys have seen, because I think that's
pretty impactful for listeners to hear.
Tripp (15:33):
Yes.
No, it is and, and you know, saida little bit earlier that we're
projected to have, you know, closerto 230,000 assessments so far this
year, and what, what we're seeing is.
Are averaging now 33% conversion.
And when I say that, I'm, I'mreferring that to what we can control.
So we can control an assessment that comesin and then who gives their name, you
(15:56):
know, phone number and in many cases, 80%of the time their first name, last name,
email, and now phone number and zip code.
We can make them, you know,either all required or, or not.
But we are seeing a 33% conversion rate.
So,
Natasha (16:13):
Wow.
Tripp (16:13):
you know, for every a hundred assessments, you're getting 33 names.
And, and of that we're seeingon average 56% approvals.
Yeah.
So what we are doing too is we're,we're giving the most qualified
prospects, the financially qualifiedprospects to your salespeople.
(16:34):
Start their day there.
And the numbers we're looking atanywhere from 70 to 125 to sometimes
more assessments per month.
Natasha (16:44):
Mm-hmm.
Tripp (16:45):
And we have some one community now that so far, year to
date, has over 4,200 assessments
Natasha (16:51):
wow.
Tripp (16:52):
with a 30% conversion rate and an 80% approval rate.
So they are looking at over athousand qualified prospects that
opted in, gave that information andnow realize that this is an option.
And that power is amazing.
Yeah.
Natasha (17:08):
And I think you said one of your, one of the communities had like
over 80 something percent approval rate
Tripp (17:13):
Yeah.
Natasha (17:14):
or something like this.
You have some that have, you know, reallydepending on the pockets or the markets
who are even higher than that average.
That's incredible.
Tripp (17:20):
We have some that are, are low, and in some cases we find, well,
you know, MoneyGauge isn't working.
I'm like, well, we'regetting a lot of assessments.
We're getting a highpercentage of prospects.
Now, if those prospects can'tafford it, use that knowledge.
That MoneyGauge isn'tworking, actually is working.
Let's refine and understand are wemarketing to the wrong zip codes
(17:42):
or has our primary market changed?
How do we, how do we then find thosepockets of people that can afford it?
Natasha (17:49):
So that takes me to my third way that this data and analytics
can be used outside of marketingand sales, which we talked about.
You know, sales tool, marketing,target audience focus.
Third is operations.
You know, I think they do pricingassessments each year trying
to figure out rates, it justkeeps going up and up and up.
And especially if you know you'retargeting the right audience
(18:11):
and no one is qualifying.
It's a tool now for your operationsteam to be able to look at, maybe we're
out pricing ourself in this market.
Maybe we do need to expand to a,to a new area, or maybe we need to
really look at what we're offering inthe, in the pricing we have compared
to our competitors in this market.
So I think that's really neat.
It's not just sales and marketing tool.
I mean, truly from a financialperspective, operators can use this
(18:34):
for their pricing assessments too.
Tripp (18:35):
Absolutely.
And I'm a big proponent of that'cause certainly using an Excel
spreadsheet just to add percentagepoints to a monthly service rate to
to, to an entry fee you know, hurtsthe salespeople because they're
always like, okay, now go sell this.
And you're like,
Natasha (18:50):
Yeah.
Tripp (18:50):
you just made it that much harder.
Now you've tied, you know, both our armsand one of our legs together, so we're,
you know, really kind of hamstrung.
Yeah, so it does, it doesoffer a lot of visibility.
Many times if I go to a communityand their occupancy is struggling,
I can usually see that by whattheir, their rental rates are, what
their entry fee is because they'veoutpaced what the median market,
Natasha (19:14):
Mm-hmm.
Tripp (19:15):
and the data, which equates directly to the salesperson's
frustration of we can't findany financially qualified leads.
Everybody doesn't thinkthey can afford it.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
So there's a lot, a lot ofpeople understand from the data.
Natasha (19:28):
I would say, you know, if that ever came up in a lot of the marketing
planning and marketing assessments, I do.
If that comes up, this is agreat tool to dig into that.
I mean, outside of the market studiesand feasibility and things like that
that you can do this is a great, anothergreat way because a lot of times we'll
say, well, let's pull the data thatthe salespeople have put into the CRM,
right, of those financial qualifications.
Well, how are they getting them?
Is it just quickly over a phonecall like this is truly giving you
(19:50):
that information to be able to lookat that and study the financials.
And I did want to point toback what you were saying about
the data and conversion rates.
Just personally, 'cause people haveasked me for, if I've used it, what I
recommend, you know, so I have used it fora lot of life plan specific communities.
So I just, I don't wannasay I've used it everywhere.
A lot of our life plan communitiesthat I have overseen and we have
(20:12):
seen, so I do all the marketing dataanalytics at end, doing our annual plan.
While maybe I think betweenChatbot conversions and the
MoneyGauge conversions similar.
You know, chatbot may have been higheror so on, but every, I wanna say almost
every single community, maybe nineoutta 10, the MoneyGauge conversions
(20:34):
were the highest quality conversions.
So meaning it may not be the highestnumber, but it was typically the
highest to move in every time.
So I would always pull that data, andif you're not pulling that data in
your marketing plan, you really should.
It's not just website leads, webconversions, it's truly we have
to dig into the conversion points.
Right.
And where are you seeing themost conversion points and not
(20:55):
just that, the quality of those.
So you're getting a lot of leads then.
Are they moving in, are they touring?
I just wanted to share kind of myfeedback of what I've seen, you know,
over the past couple years, usinga life plan specific communities,
did bring the highest percentage ofquality conversions from the website.
So that tells you something, youknow, I mean, I think it's, it's that
person that's really on there fillingthat wants to fill that MoneyGauge
(21:17):
out, wants to know their financials.
They're serious.
They're a serious prospect.
And you hear a lot of times these,these paid leads aren't good leads or
these digital leads aren't good leads.
Well, they are once they get to your site.
And how is your site then functioning?
To help them convert better, interactmore with your site, stay on longer, those
are gonna be your higher quality leads.
So this just, just helps with that.
(21:39):
Can you dig in a little bit to that too,because we talked about the best way to
leverage the MoneyGauge tool, like youhave seen best practices of language,
where it's placed, things like that causethat has an, an impact as well, right?
Tripp (21:53):
It absolutely does.
I mean, we're, we found certainlyit's pretty logical, right?
There's probably three primary places.
Your homepage, your pricing page,your residential option page.
And what we're finding is if peoplecan create a call to action that's
relevant to that page and a designthat is different enough from your,
(22:14):
everything else on that page, your eyesare designed to go to what's different.
It's kind of what helpedus survive as a species.
And they saw eyes throughthe bush at the night.
They were like, eh, we shouldpick up camp where somebody's
gotta stay up and watch that.
That's the same thing with thesecalls to action when you can relate
it to find out your, your best fitfor our residential options, or take
(22:35):
our free financial assessment tool or.
We have our affordability calculator ina make your decisions with confidence.
It is all about where you put it.
Don't hide it.
We do have some customers where I'mgoing, I know they've paid for it,
but I cannot find it on the website.
And it sometimes becomes thatafterthought of the digital marketer.
We're like, oh, well, we'llput it here and going,
Natasha (22:57):
Mm-hmm.
Tripp (22:57):
but no one gets to the bottom of that page.
Let's put it up make it more relevant,make it more visible, and you will
find that people do fill it out.
And that quickly becomes your lead
Natasha (23:11):
Mm-hmm.
Tripp (23:12):
lead aggregator where you are now finding not just a marketing
qualified or sales qualified lead.
This is a opted in,financially qualified lead.
I'm not sure there's somethinghigher than that because in many
cases these lead lists you have.
The one thing that they all havein common, regardless of where it
is in the country, none of thosepeople on that list know that
(23:33):
they're age and income qualified.
Natasha (23:35):
Mm-hmm.
Tripp (23:35):
So when they take a MoneyGauge, all of a sudden now they've got, you know a
solid foundation to kind of move forward.
And the salesperson, again, has incredibledata to now help that prospect get through
the first stages of that decision making.
We find that lead time of, of leadto move-in to deposit is much faster
(23:59):
when you've started with a MoneyGaugeassessment as opposed to wait till the
end of three months of working withthem or six months to find out that,
you know, that apartment they hadtheir heart set on is not affordable
and that you've got to get them intothe one bedroom and den that's there.
Natasha (24:13):
And I do love, you know, I have a, a podcast
coming out soon about language.
I feel very strongly about language interms of dignity, respect, lots of things.
But this specifically, when wetalked, we talked about this and
I think that's really important.
You know, many times I see.
Take our financial calculator oryou know, it, it's very salesy
or use the MoneyGauge tool.
People don't know what that means.
So I think that's like, I think you gavea couple options or ideas that were like
(24:38):
explore your options with confidence orbe in control of your financial future.
And I know people think that's salesy.
No, that's what people wanna hear.
They wanna see those control, confidence,you know, it's your financials.
Be in control of it.
Right.
Because a lot of times when you'retrying to buy something, you're, you
feel completely out of control of it.
Right?
You don't have any control over it.
So just, and I'm gonna just say thatas a blanket statement, in marketing
(25:01):
in general, everything you say,your language, it is so important.
We really need to look at that interms of how we're messaging things
and that, and, and so if you havethis tool or you have other types of
interactive tools on your website.
Your messaging and your marketing andyour language, just by making some of
those slight tweaks or adjustments orplaces like Tripp's saying can help
impact if you're not seeing the results.
(25:22):
If you have MoneyGauge, you mightneed to make some changes to your
messaging and where you have it located.
And that's in terms of any, anyconversion point, interactive
tool you have on your website.
So little, little marketing advicethere on you for your website.
Tripp (25:35):
It's, it's brilliant and it's, it's one of the lowest
cost pieces you can do to
Natasha (25:40):
Right.
Tripp (25:41):
And measure change and your ROIs to, oh, we're getting more
assessments now that we raised itup and we changed the messaging bit.
Yeah.
Natasha (25:50):
So is there anything more we wanna dig into?
I don't wanna exhaust it, but isthere any more you wanna share?
I think you went into all this.
Who are the best at usingit, how they're using it?
Kind of recap that
Tripp (25:59):
Yeah,
Natasha (26:00):
or did we
Tripp (26:00):
I'll,
Natasha (26:00):
everything?
Tripp (26:01):
I'll tell a quick story.
So a
Natasha (26:03):
Okay.
Tripp (26:03):
newer community starting out was using MoneyGauge, having difficulty
finding financially approved prospects.
And they're like,
Natasha (26:12):
Hmm.
Tripp (26:13):
know, what is wrong?
And we, we dug in and you know, welooked at all the zip codes and we could
group those and kind of understand,okay, let's look at those zip codes
and what is their median home value?
What is their income?
Historically, what has it been now?
And what I saw a trend of isa lot of homes that were, you
know, $800,000 plus, but savingsof about a $100,000 on average.
(26:37):
An income of just social security.
So if you figure in $2,000 times 12is, you know, $24,000, but if your
monthly service rate is averaging $8,000people run outta money pretty quickly,
even if their home values at $800k.
And in many cases, that home valuehad been sub gentrified where this,
(26:59):
this neighborhood is changing a bit.
But we really identified and helpedthem go, gosh, you need to concentrate
a little bit north of the river that,you know, many cases people don't feel
that they would ever wanna come downto where they are, but we were able
to really adjust their marketing spendby truly understanding and seeing of
the that point 1500 assessments, whatwere the numbers telling us and, and
(27:24):
what what we could do to affect change.
And in some cases, some customers have toomany financially qualified leads coming in
and they're trying to figure out a processof how to take care of all of them.
Like, well, that's a good problem to have,but, you know, you know, we are being
able to identify those zip codes is great.
We can even dig into, and this is kindof crazy as to the time of day, most
(27:47):
of the assessments are being takenas to the day that they're taken.
And if some people can absorb thatto go, okay, well how do we use that?
To better time our digitalspend to make sure that we're
visible and not just pay to
Natasha (28:02):
Mm.
Tripp (28:02):
be there, but be there when it counts.
You know, and I obviously refiningthat marketing spend you can save
far more than what MoneyGaugecosts just on a monthly basis.
You could basically payfor MoneyGauge, I think.
And,
Natasha (28:16):
Right.
Tripp (28:16):
ultimately move forward with much more refined plan based
on the data that you're seeing.
And,
Natasha (28:23):
Yeah.
Tripp (28:23):
ultimately we see success that way now.
Natasha (28:26):
Yeah.
And I think that's my biggest, that'sthe reason why when we, when we've met
and we've talked about this, you know, I,this is not, and it was sort of similar
to the I had a, another podcast Engrainand sort of how their conversions are.
And it's the same kind of thing.
This isn't just a conversion toolwe're putting it on to try to get
people to, you know, whatever.
It's downloadable content.
I want the listeners to think differentlyabout this and this type of tool and, hope
(28:52):
that what Tripp is sharing is impactful.
Because it was to me when we spoke, likeI hadn't even thought about a lot of
these things and how we use that data.
And so in general.
You know, I wanna recap some of this thatwe've talked about so, you know, get a
lot of pushback on these types of tools.
And you just said, if you really lookat the impact and how this can help you
in the long run, save money in terms ofthe amount of move-ins you're getting
(29:15):
at, and efficiency in general, and thenpricing conversations and all of that.
I wanna talk a little bit just to recap.
So, number one, we said Great forboomers, you know, self-selective
sales, things like that.
Transparency, you know,authenticity, increased conversions.
Clearly that's, that's clear.
But, you know, we, we talked about,and I'll let you recap what you just
(29:35):
said, sort of in terms of sales,marketing, operations and, and how,
I just wanna make sure everyonehears how that's gonna help you.
The data is gonna helpyou, from the back end.
Tripp (29:44):
I mean, the data you're collecting obviously helps
you refine your digital spend.
And I think one of the, the biggeradvantages is your salespeople now,
consider, save their energy and focusit on the most qualified leads and
sort of rev their engine up to thenbe able to work with maybe the ones
that didn't come across as qualified,but maybe have a son or daughter
(30:05):
that's gonna, you know, help them out.
And so the data that comes throughis more than enough for a salesperson
and a community to be very successful.
Yeah.
But then digging a little bit deeper, youcan truly understand a little bit more
of that DNA of your primary market areaand, and help sort of future plan there.
(30:26):
In many cases, we could then identifywhich apartments tend to be, you know,
the most affordable within your primarymarket area, so that if you are looking
at expansions, maybe we concentrateon that one bedroom den as opposed to
putting too many two bedrooms that arepriced out of, you know, what we find
is the largest pocket of of opportunity.
(30:48):
Yeah.
Natasha (30:49):
Right.
Tripp (30:49):
Yeah.
Natasha (30:50):
think
Tripp (30:50):
There's layers and layers and layers that can be refined and go, oh,
how do we, how do we work through this?
Or to our benchmarkingdata across the country.
Being able to, where is thebest place to possibly expand?
And, you know, trulyunderstand where that,
Natasha (31:07):
Yeah.
Tripp (31:07):
know, $150 million community needs to go next.
Yeah.
Natasha (31:12):
Especially these large operators that use this tool, like
you're saying, across the country.
I know a number of them that use it,you know, in all different states
be able to analyze all that data.
In terms of financial, yeah.
What age, obviously, is it adultchildren, what pockets have those?
Yeah, what are those incomequalifications in each area?
That's.
That's really interesting, especiallylike you said, I didn't think about that
(31:33):
for expansions and building new if, if awhole area is only qualifying for the one
bedrooms, they only want the one bedrooms.
Now I know, I have seen, itdepends on the market, man.
You're like, it's all the two bedrooms,three bedrooms, two bedroom dens, or it's
more of the studios and one bedrooms,depending on where it's located.
This can help you get thatinformation, not just from your CRM.
A lot of times we're pulling things fromthe CRM that's sales person's putting in.
(31:55):
I'm not saying they're not disqualifyingthat information, but think about this.
This is information your prospect
Tripp (32:00):
right.
Natasha (32:00):
is putting in and getting straight from them
to start that sales dialogue.
You, you come with it your chatbotinfo and your, your financial
calculator info already to initiatethat conversation with the prospect.
So, it's, it's just incredible.
I think, and even just here onthis conversation, I'm finding out
more and more ways you can use it.
And I just, I wanna just reiterate thatto the listeners is, is that in general.
(32:23):
You know, I think we as an industry andas a whole are I think I, I have data.
It was, we're using less than aquarter of the data that we actually
have truly to, to analyze and makewise decisions and save dollars.
We're really just behind on thatin the industry, and so we need
to get behind how we're using notjust AI, but these online tools.
(32:47):
You're all this information you'regathering, whether it be from
paid digital advertising, butthen also specifically for these
engagement tools on your website.
We need to be using these tomake better wise decisions to
save money in the long run.
And I just, they have the data, wehave it on the backend, let's use it.
Let's analyze it, let'smake better decisions.
I feel very strongly about that.
(33:08):
That's why you and I, I think everytime we talk we're like, yes, yes,
everyone should be doing this.
It's so important, especiallywith this boomer generation.
So, thank you so much for coming on and,you know, sharing all this information.
I think a lot of people don'tknow the depth of truly how
this tool can help them.
You know, outside of being a websitetool I wanna leave it with you, you
know, any other, besides what I justdid, kind of took the, as you can
(33:32):
see, I'm really, obviously I'm a bigadvocate for using these types of tools.
You know, ending tips that you wannaleave key points for the listeners today.
Tripp (33:40):
Well, you know, we're, we're all about helping people, help people.
So ultimately, you know, with myexperience and background, with
the tools we have now to be able toengage with communities and help them
better engage with their prospects,it truly gets down to look, let's,
let's help people, help people.
Let's not make this moredifficult than it needs to be.
And, and our tools are much more thanjust something that sits on your website.
(34:05):
The data that is collected and thepercentages of people that fill it out
are much larger than anybody anticipated.
That we're, we're finding wecan add so much more value.
And it's senior living's, almostlike a whitewater rafting trip.
You're always in a class fourrapid, you never have a break.
Right?
So we, we try to find that eddy, andhopefully we can be a little bit of
that eddy, where it's the calm wateron the side where we can start to
(34:27):
make better decisions and have a planas to how we're gonna hit the next
quarter, or, you know, next rapid.
If I could use that analogy there.
Natasha (34:36):
I love it.
That's great.
Tripp (34:39):
Okay, how are we gonna attack it?
Because we all don't wanna falloutta the boat again, so let's.
Natasha (34:44):
Well, and I think a lot of times, yeah, I mean, sales and marketing
can be like, what is this tool, whatis, what is Natasha bringing on now?
What, and it's, it trulyis, I feel the same way.
Everything that I'm trying to dois not to just to generate leads.
It's as, as a sales person atheart, where I started too.
It's, I wanna make your lives easier.
I wanna bring you the right qualifiedleads, and I wanna give you the data
on the backend to help you do it.
So I totally agree.
(35:05):
I any way we can help each other,at least from a sales perspective
and then also from a marketing dataperspective makes my life easier.
So anyway, thank you so much Tripp for,for being on joining the podcast today.
And thank you all for watching anotherepisode of the Drake Insights podcast.
I look forward to seeing you next time.
Bye.
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