By Steve Moran

Senior living might be the most collegial industry in the world. I hear it all the time: “We are not really competing with each other,” “We have different products for different people,” “There are enough residents to go around,” and “Our real competition is home.”

Yep, I believe that … sort of ….

I believe it is both true and untrue. Mostly I believe this thinking keeps us from excelling at what we do.

Untrue

It is untrue because if a prospect is looking at your community and one down the street, you are in competition. If they pick your community, that is 50-70 thousand dollars that goes to you and not the other community, and if they pick the other community, it means they are receiving that 50-70 thousand dollars instead of you.

If your attitude is that it doesn’t matter, that is a problem, or should be a problem.

Mediocre 

In a very short period of time after Nvidia went public, they were at 20 times their IPO price. The reason for this was threefold:

  1. A well-defined strategic vision
  2. A maniacal commitment to being the best, being ahead of the market
  3. A special kind of paranoia that recognized that threats could appear at any time and come from anywhere.

What If …

What if your senior living organization had a commitment to be the very best in the country or your region? What if you were constantly looking for ways to be better than the competition? What if your commitment was being able to say to a prospect, “If you go there, you will have an okay experience … but if you come here it will be amazing, and here is why”?

What if you were constantly assuming there were people out there — direct competitors and adjacent competitors — who would love to put you out of business? How would you think about what you do?

Honestly …

What is interesting is that, as senior living operators look at vendors they are purchasing products or services from, this is exactly the kind of thinking they want from those vendors. They want vendors who are relentlessly committed to being the best at what they do, so why shouldn’t operators think the same way?

I believe …

If you did this as a corporate leader, if you did this as an executive director, you would soon find yourself with full communities, with a wait list, and able to charge a premium price for what you do. What is curious and may seem counterproductive is that your customers would be more delighted with you, even paying a premium, because you would have created something special.