We surveyed more than a hundred senior living executives to uncover insights into how they achieve higher marketing outcomes through team alignment.

When asked how often the sales and marketing teams of your peers’ entire organization meet, 3% of teams met once annually, 24% met once quarterly, 48% met once monthly, 23% met as needs arise and 2% indicated their marketing and sales team never meets together. In our experience, once quarterly is the sweet spot, and in our eBook we offer a framework for quarterly pulse meetings.

We also asked study participants how often the whole marketing and sales team reviewed the organizational mission, vision and values, and 11% of teams reviewed them once annually, 57% reviewed them once quarterly, 27% reviewed them once monthly and 5% reviewed them as needs arise. We went on to ask how often the entire marketing and sales team collectively reviewed the organizational brand standards, including positioning, differentiators and value proposition, and 14% of teams reviewed them once annually, 47% reviewed them once quarterly, 34% reviewed them once monthly and 5% reviewed them as needs arise. Both of these datapoints revealed quarterly as the majority answer, and we are in agreement with that frequency. The quarterly pulse meeting is a good time for 5-minute reviews of each.

In your peers’ organizations, the responsibility for team alignment fell on various individuals, with 65% of respondents indicating that it is the role of C-Suite executive(s), 51% mentioning managing partner(s), 27% stating that the owner(s) are responsible and 22% noting the involvement of outside consultants. We find that internal stakeholders have the highest impact on team alignment by creating a culture of continuous improvement with a cadence of accountability. Outside consultants can be valuable when new knowledge, trends or benchmarking are needed to further amplify team alignment and marketing results.

In adhering to brand standards, several factors can potentially derail your organization, as reported by our survey respondents: 22% of your peers attributed derailing to new ideas, 41% pointed out a lack of alignment on brand standards, 48% emphasized a lack of communication about brand standards, 55% mentioned a lack of data backing brand standards and 14% indicated their organization doesn’t have brand standards. In adhering to the strategic marketing plan, there are several factors that can potentially derail your organization, as reported by respondents: 24% of respondents attributed derailing to new initiatives, 46% pointed out a lack of alignment on the marketing plan, 54% emphasized a lack of communication about the marketing plan, 44% mentioned a lack of data backing the marketing plan and 16% indicated their organization doesn’t have a strategic marketing plan. Team alignment can support in keeping marketing efforts on track. In our eBook, we will also explore best practices for achieving team alignment over the long term.

Get these complimentary educational assets from our eBook, Team Alignment is The Secret Weapon in Achieving Higher Marketing Outcomes:

• Maximize Inputs and Outputs from Whole-Organization Sales and Marketing Meetings
• Hone Additional Activities and Assets to Sharpen Team Alignment
• Achieve Higher Marketing Outcomes with Documented Processes
• Get Senior Living Industry Benchmarking: 7 Best Practices in Team Alignment