Boost Your Occupancy

By Ali Powell

Tips and trick to boost your occupancy with guests speakers from the retirement living sector.

We all know that sales velocity is critical to profit and IRR. But how do you speed it up?

There are l... more

· Business

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FAQs about Boost Your Occupancy:

How many episodes does Boost Your Occupancy have?

The podcast currently has 9 episodes available.

Boost Your Occupancy episodes:

January 03, 2026 Episode 9 - Guest Speaker Henry Lumby, CCO of Auriens
Boost your occupancy for later living and care homes
In this episode of Boosting Your Occupancy with guest speaker Henry Lumby, Chief Commercial Officer at Auriens we cover:
· Auriens: An overview of Auriens and perspectives on the evolution of both the business and the wider sector, particularly the shift towards integrating care. Also some insights about the future of Auriens.
· Prospect-centred selling: How this approach differs fundamentally from traditional residential selling that focuses primarily on features and benefits.
· Customer insight and psychology: The importance of understanding why people move, how they make decisions, and the emotional drivers behind later-life transitions.
· The value of home visits: Gaining deeper insight into real needs, challenges, and family dynamics, and better understanding the circumstances of loved ones.
· Creative follow-ups: Why thoughtful follow-up and planned calls materially improve engagement and outcomes.
· Events programmes: Designing prospect-focused events as an effective tool for lead generation and long-term nurturing.
· Community outreach: Building awareness, trust, advocacy, and waiting lists through consistent local involvement.
· International lessons: Insights that can be applied to the UK retirement living sector to encouraging earlier moves which covers integrating care provision, growing demand for rental tenure, leveraging community ambassadors, and offering more affordable options to expand the addressable market.
· Raising awareness and fundraising for Motor Neurone Disease and Henry’s inspirational brother, Hugh.
...more
41min
October 24, 2025 Episode 8 - Guest Speaker Nick Somani, CEO of Kara Healthcare
Boosting Occupancy Episode 8 with Guest Speaker Nick, CEO of Kara Healthcare
In this episode:
* How Nick bought his first care home for £1 – and turned it into a thriving success
* The turnaround secrets behind Kara Healthcare’s growth and multiple national awards
* Why people buy into people – and how empathy, training, and culture drive results
* The three biggest growth opportunities for the care sector over the next five years:
i. Technology with a human touch
ii. Hospitality standards
iii. Talent, culture, and leadership development
* The importance of first impressions – and why empathy should always come first
* How mapping the customer journey and combining brilliant standards with a strong culture creates excellence
* Inside the Kara Training Academy – empowering teams with courage, confidence, and conviction
* Why positivity, belief, and uplifting people are the ultimate performance drivers
Key takeaways:
* Empathy should run through every stage of the customer journey. Human connection and a personalised approach are critical for boosting occupancy.
* "When you uplift people, you don’t just get better results - you create a culture where everyone believes in what’s possible”.
...more
29min
August 15, 2025 Episode 7 - Guest Speakers Paul Morgan and Karen Gray, Wallacea Living
Boosting Occupancy
* Wallacea Living overview
* Creating awareness and interest pre-opening – marketing approach
* Importance of community relationships
* Events focus and successful delivery
* Reframing later living positively – Generation Joy campaign
* Sector is about helping people live better lives – to thrive socially, physically, and emotionally
* Transparency about the offering and benefits has been key to building trust
* Building trust and emotional connection
* Customer experience is seen as a critical differentiator in the sector
* Deep discovery – all about the person and customer psychology
* Importance of creating a vibrant, inclusive lifestyle and community
* Making visits memorable and use of technology and interactive tools
* Consistency coming from a values-led culture and recruitment
* Sales is everybody's job
* Strong hospitality influence
* Personal touches – Paul and Karen’s latest holiday and concert experiences
...more
41min
May 21, 2025Episode 6 - Boosting Your Occupancy with Guest Speaker Debbie Harris, Autumna
Ways to increase your occupancy
list text here
...more
37min
April 14, 2025 Episode 5 - Guest Speaker Lex Cumber, Untold Living
Boosting Occupancy in Retirement Communities
In this session with Lex Cumber, Sales & Marketing Director for Untold Living, we cover:
• Lex’s background and experience
• Understanding customer psychology in the context of Integrated Retirement Communities (IRCs)
• The critical role of psychology in the purchase decision
• Customer centricity vs. product centricity
• The shift towards person- or prospect-centred selling
• The complexity and nuance of the customer journey
• The fact that over 60% of the purchase decision is driven by trust and emotional factors
• Practical tips to enhance effectiveness including spending more quality time with prospects, building connection, untangling obstacles, advancing conversations, and the vital importance of timely responses
• The two-part nature of the journey: 95% is about moving away from the family home, and only 5% about moving towards a retirement community
• The urgent need to accelerate sales rates
• The importance of delivering excellent customer service at every touchpoint – from phone calls to tours to follow-up
• Focusing on what really matters: measuring key conversion ratios such as:
o Visit to Move-In (USA: 33%, UK: 15%)
o Lead to Move-In (USA: 11%, UK: 2%)
• The UK’s need to stop resisting change and adopt new sales approaches – focusing on controlling the controllables
• The importance of capturing and benchmarking the right data
• The call for greater professionalisation in sales – robust processes, clear methodology, and having the right people with the right skills (e.g. empathy and active listening)
• Learning from international best practices – including extended opening hours, using AI to support marketing and sales, and consistently tracking Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Addressing the perception and knowledge gap around the sector
• Being honest with ourselves when something isn’t working
• The wish that more people were genuinely obsessed with customer service and experience
• A recommendation to read Unreasonable Hospitality
• The desire for a consistent, sector-wide way to measure customer experience in IRCs – for the benefit of both operators and customers
• The increasing attractiveness of working in the sector
...more
32min
November 01, 2024 Episode 4 - Boost Your Care Home Occupancy
Boost Your Occupancy - Special Care Home Management (CHM) Podcast With Commercial Acceleration
For a care home to remain viable it must maximise its occupancy rates. But keeping occupancy levels high is no easy task.
For a care home to remain viable it must maximise its occupancy rates. But keeping occupancy levels high is no easy task.
In our special podcast we look at:
• Customer-centered selling
• Customer psychology and selling change
• Most common challenges to keeping occupancy high
• Ensuring the critical foundations are brilliant
• Digital marketing to reach families (decision-makers) and residents
• Prioritising marketing and sales as the growth engine to getting customers
• Techniques and tips to boost quality lead generation and sales conversions
• Troubleshooting through my ‘Occupancy Optimiser’ programme and Sales and Marketing strategies
• How care homes can ensure they keep residency levels as high as possible?
• The importance of sales and marketing
• Turning enquiries into residents
Join Ali Powell, CEO and Founder of Commercial Acceleration as she talks to host of Care Home Management (CHM) host Alan Rustad
...more
27min
March 03, 2024Episode 3 - Guest Speaker Honor Barratt, Birchgrove
Tips to achieve faster sales rates
In this podcast we are delighted to be joined by Honor Barratt, Birchgrove's Chief Executive. We cover:
Birchgrove
Reasons why Honor and Ali are so passionate about the sector
Impacting loneliness and bioge vs chronological age
Achieving 100% occupancy and a waiting list
The importance of off-plan sales on sales velocity
The lifecycle of fill-up and the different sales skills required
Recommendations for improving sales rates - including follow-up, home visits, try before you buy, call handling
Customer perception and awareness and the time for the UK to reach a tipping point
Importance of data and insights
Key metrics and need for a common language and more benchmark data
Rental growth
Shortage of affordable retirement living
Inspiration from hospitality and intergenerational
...more
34min
February 06, 2024Episode 2 - Guest Speaker Margot Cooke, Aline (formerly Sherpa)
Optimising Conversions
In this session with Margot we cover:
The current occupancy situation
Importance of sales velocity on driving revenue and profitability
The stigma in the UK
The complexities of selling in the retirement living and care sector
Re-thinking
Average sales lifecycle durations
Managing the leads efficiently to convert
The key conversion metrics to focus on
Assessing the customer journey to optimise it
Aligning sales and marketing
...more
19min
November 24, 2023Episode 1 - Guest Speaker Angela Wallace, LifeCare Residences
Fill Up Faster
In this podcast we are delighted to be joined by Angela Wallace, LifeCare Residence's Head Of Marketing. LifeCare Residences recently won the Retirement Living Best Marketing Award.
Angela’s career with LifeCare Residences
The huge opportunity for retirement living
Insights about the campaign that won the Retirement Living Best Marketing Award
The two target audiences for LifeCare Residences
The importance of a customer centricity and how this is brought to life
The main marketing priorities for 2024
Recommendations for shifting the negative customer perceptions of the retirement living sector
3 Tips for boosting occupancy
Why Marketing in the retirement living sector is a great career choice
Successful ROI metrics on marketing
...more
14min

FAQs about Boost Your Occupancy:

How many episodes does Boost Your Occupancy have?

The podcast currently has 9 episodes available.