Older Clientele Again

On October 30th, I wrote a blog about the potential of servicing senior citizens, "Older Clientele". Today I received a call from a dealer who assured me that the interest is definitely there. I agree! Building additional sales by working with senior citizens is correct.

The provider who called me operates a company in a midsize town in New England. He asked me what I thought would be the best way to reach this market?

Older clientele are a little different, so the best way to cater to this segment of the market is to change a few things in your showroom. These potential customers are probably peers with your parents, so when you see what your folks like and do, there is some of the answer.

Most senior citizens are members of a house of worship senior group. I never realized before I looked into this that there are so many “elder” clubs and they all have a large number of attendees.

Make contact with one and offer to sponsor the “coffee and doughnuts” at a meeting. This is a rather a small investment, but it develops a fine ROI. Tell them you would like to speak about products and some ideas for safety and comfort in the home. Bring speakers from the various companies whose products you handle. 

I also suggest you run a special advertisement in your local newspaper for 12 weeks. Arrange to have your ad always appear in the same place. When I was a DME dealer, I always placed my ads on the obituary page. Those ads were always successful. Each quarter, I offered a different comfort item. One quarter we featured a Ride-a-Stair unit, another time a great hospital type bed, then a new tub, and even an exercise bicycle. They were all OTC cash sale items!

There are so many similar comfort items, all comparatively inexpensive and are over the counter cash sales. Very often, some of our senior citizens told us about an item they saw and we followed all these up as leads. We ended up selling very expensive mattresses. Via word of mouth, we developed a very excellent following. Our store became an attractive place to see what we displayed.

When I or one of my staff went to a meeting, the comments were always “great ad” and became a trademark for my company. By always having our advertisement placed on the obituary page, it was seen by all the readers.