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STRENGTHEN YOUR BUSINESS FOR THE NEW YEAR |
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Good intentions swirl about every New Year. Everyone has visions of making 2005 the best year ever by meeting goals and following through with various objectives. But we all know it’s easier to dream than to implement. It’s important to work on your business not just in your business. By which I mean that sometimes it takes an outsider’s advice to help get you on the right strategic track. Do you want your funeral home to do better this coming year than last? Do you want new families in your client base, strengthening your funeral home financially and increasing its role in the community? Some might focus on last year’s negative and sulk. But I’ve got a few easy to implement marketing strategies that might help. The first step is to measure the health of your business – get a yearly check-up, so to speak. Take a minute to fill out the questionnaire below. |
You need planning and management to successfully blend all the ingredients you need. But it’s crucial to do so, not just to grow, but to protect your current operation and income from competitors. In most funeral homes, preneed sales management is not a full-time job. But it’s a necessary one. Often, the owner supervises. Unfortunately, many owners lack the necessary patience and coaching skills. Owners often have other management priorities that leave little time for the preneed department and often find themselves consumed with properly servicing atneed clients. When owners find themselves managing preneed reactively, and not for long-term planning, they miss out on what’s needed to reach the next level to fully protect their future. In order to reach that goal, you must define what you expect and determine how to get there. Especially for most preneed counselors and programs, clearly defined goals and successful lead systems are critical. |
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Marketshare How many funerals did you do last year? ______________ How many did your competitor(s) do? ________________ What was your average atneed sale without cremations? ______________________________________________ How many funded preneed contracts did you write this year? ______________________________________________ How many last year?______________________________ What was your average preneed sale without cremation?______________________________________
Income How did you fund your preneed contracts? Insurance?_________________ Trust?________________ Did you use an insurance company that will be a good provider in the future?_____________________________ |
Did you earn the maximum commission rate? ____________ Is your preneed contract growth reliable, or can you expect future shortfalls?_________________________________ Can you easily get a better preneed funding arrangement? ______________________________________________
Concerns How are you going to offset the rising rate of direct cremation replacing traditional funerals?________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Are your preneed contracts generating shortfalls for your loyal customers?__________________________________ Did your preneed program bring in new families you have never serviced before?______________________________ |
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Critical Questions (Will you...)
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It is easy to figure out what some realistic goals should be (for example: preneed contracts should equal .60 X # of atneed calls). So determine your goal now. What does this mean for you? Write it down somewhere. If you service 100 families a year, you should be able to write 60 funded preneed contracts within the same year. Now, it’s a lot harder how to figure out how to get there, what systems to use and what paths to follow without wasting a lot of money trying to figure it out. You can try a bunch of different ideas, have some failure and so on, or you can let someone else use their money to figure it out for you. There are some very good people in the industry who can consult with you and help set up the course/systems that have proven successful in the past. That can both shorten your learning curve and save you the cost of trial and error. I can even help point you in the right direction, based upon our 26 years of preneed experience around the country. Fill out the above survey and fax it to me (Fax 504-837-4983) for a complimentary analysis.
Preneed Sales PlanningAs I said above, a big part of the year-end job is setting goals for your preneed program. That’s simple if you think all you need to do is handle the “walk-in” & “call-in” business. Plans are more complicated if you’re trying to grow your business by getting new families, preserving traditional funerals, and countering the rising cremation trend |
Consumers’ definition of “value”, what they want from a funeral service is beginning to change. Most funeral homes should have a similar vision at this point. You will need to ensure that there is a persistent, consistent approach to developing and retaining business. You must track its implementation with a validation scheduleHow are you going to pay for this?Part of the health checkup survey above asks if your preneed contracts are getting full upfront commission value and backend growth from your funding source. Each insurance product out there has pros and cons. You need to pick the right one that works best for your situation and your area. That can be tricky – you can’t listen exclusively to the insurance company or trustee rep selling product in your area. We use five companies throughout North America to fit various towns, situations, and the people in them. Each city is different. You can best help your families and maximize your earnings by ensuring you use the right mix of plans with the right products. If you’d like to see my comparison of preneed funding options and companies, e-mail me at quinn@preneed.net or call.
Developing a Marketing Plan Frequently, funeral homes use a top-down process toward implementing a preneed plan handing down a goal or a dictate to care well for every family that |
calls. Unfortunately, you need goals in the preneed side of this business. And ideally, those goals should be achieved from the bottom up. Use systems and plans as building blocks for an overall tactical sales plan. This will help ensure that your goals are specific, attainable, measurable and profitable. You need to base that planning process on a sound understanding of current marketplace trends and savvy preneed systems deployment. That’s why you should do a demographic survey of your service area – it costs less than $300 and can save you thousands. You should also include a critical look at the strengths and weaknesses of your funeral home. Examine your preneed counselor and the competition. Everyone should have a clear idea of your goals and how to get there, what paths the counselors will follow to reach families before they need you. If you need advice on those systems - paths for counselors to follow, I covered the four primary ones in a previous article (Blueprint To Preneed Success, January 2003). I can send you a reprint. Check-ups are good to evaluate and ensure your future health – whether personal or for the business. On the outside, things can appear ok, but undetected problems can rob you of a healthy future. Good luck with your annual check-up. Quinn Eagan and his family have been in the funeral service continuously since 1854. Currently, he is president of Preneed Funeral Program, Metairie, LA. He can be reached at 504-837-8868, faxed at 504-837-4983 or emailed at quinn@preneed.net. |
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