20 Years of 2x Preneed
Precoa celebrates two decades of proactively crafting preneed's future
Even if you are not familiar with the preneed company Precoa, you may be familiar with their tagline: 2x Your Preneed. Precoa has long been celebrated by leading funeral homes for its proactive, results-focused approach to preneed, along with its dedication to creating the highest quality experiences for families, funeral homes, and Advance Funeral Planners.
This year, the company has something of its own to celebrate. Founded in 2004, Precoa is turning 20, and we recently sat down with two members of the company's leadership team —Tyler Anderson, SVP Business Development and Tyler Hornibrook, CMO—to get a sneak peek at the story of how and why they started.
Tyler Hornibrook (TH): It all started because Bret Davis and Mark Hornibrook had a vision to prearrange every family in America. Mark had created the first preneed insurance product, and Bret was a leader in preneed marketing and sales. Their overlapping experience and expertise gave them each a unique perspective. They knew that by being proactive, they could help funeral homes be more successful in their markets and help families experience more meaningful services for their loved ones. They called their approach ProActive Preneed®.
Tyler Anderson (TA): Here's the brilliant thing about what they dreamed up: If you sit down with most people and explain what prearranging is, they love it. But ask those same people if they're planning to prearrange soon, and fewer than 20% will say 'yes.' Precoa was designed to change that. Our model gives families a clear way to be proactive and follow through by prearranging with one of our partner funeral homes.
TH: It reminds me of business writer Donald Miller's analogy of imagining your service or product as a life-saving cure. If you believe that a prearranged funeral can truly help people and improve their lives, you owe it to them to be proactive. Otherwise, why are they going to be proactive in seeking it out? Mark and Bret had seen the variety of obstacles that get in the way of prearranging families, so they took a step back and mapped out the entire preneed pipeline. When they sat down at Bret's kitchen table in 2004 with their wives, Jenny and Ane, to create what would become Precoa, they imagined rolling marketing, appointment setting, and sales all together into a tightly integrated system. It would be a huge endeavor. But they were passionate about preneed and committed to making it work.
TA: I think it's important to appreciate the scope of what they envisioned because it's as unique today as it was twenty years ago. There had always been gaps in the preneed journey that led to inefficiencies and, more importantly, missed opportunities to show families the real value of a prearranged funeral. By bringing a marketing company, an appointment setting company, and a sales company all under one roof, Precoa raised the bar for preneed across the profession. As a former competitor prior to merging The Outlook Group and Precoa, I have to admit we took notice.
TA: It bridges the gap between interest and action. Most people don't wake up in the morning and think, "Today's the day I'm going to prearrange my funeral" unless they have a good reason. That might be because someone they loved recently passed, or they've reached some milestone in their lives like the birth of a grandchild. The point is, if they're walking into your funeral home, their main motivator is typically an event related to their mortality.
TH: For everyone else, it's just too easy to put off. It's like going to the gym or eating more vegetables—you know it will be good in the long run, but you can come up with a dozen excuses why you don't need to do it right now. At Precoa, we believe putting an intentional plan in place is one of the most important things you can do for your loved ones. It's truly a gift.
TA: Funeral professionals get this. Day in and day out they see the power of funeral service firsthand, and they also see the difference a prearranged funeral can make. The trouble is that most funeral homes only have the bandwidth to prearrange people who already know and trust their brands. This is great, but being proactive is also about building relationships with new families—newcomers to your market, people undecided about their funeral preferences, and segments of your market you may have never tapped—and educating them about the meaning of ceremony, ritual, and gathering at your funeral home.
TH: That's the driving force behind what we do. We saw how important it was to remove all the barriers between being aware of preneed and actually sitting down to create an intentional plan. It's more than just a matter of generating leads. It's building a cohesive, tightly-knit system for channeling leads into quality appointments that result in more prearranged families. Our aim is to help funeral homes be exponentially more successful than they could have been on their own.
TA: As someone who grew up in a funeral home and has been around this profession my whole life, I can't tell you how much that means. Owners and staff are juggling so many responsibilities and wearing so many hats that preneed often becomes a series of hand-offs. When responsibility for preneed is split up like that, it's hard to keep up the momentum, let alone the focus. It's reassuring for our funeral home partners to know that preneed is one hundred percent taken care of—and that they will see a sustained increase in the number of families they'll serve.
TH: In 2004, Precoa disrupted the traditional preneed model. We're 20 years into this and, sure, there have been imitators. Different pieces of our model have been copied, but the results don't really pan out. The reason is because it misses the point. To truly be proactive, you need to anticipate every step it takes for a preneed prospect to become a prearranged family. There are no shortcuts.
TH: It's really apparent in how we approach our marketing. If you asked most marketers about their end goal, they would say it's to generate a lead. But our goal is to generate an appointment with a presentation, which leads to prearranging more families for our funeral home partners. That means more than just creating awareness and interest. Those are both critical functions of marketing, but you also need to know whether that interest is converting into action.
TA: You know, what you just said about turning interest into action is actually pretty rare in the profession. When a funeral home works with multiple vendors to handle marketing or manage sales, the experience often feels disjointed. It's too easy for the buck to get passed and for sales to blame marketing for poor lead generation or for marketing to blame sales for not working the leads they're generating. For an owner, it becomes hard to see the full picture.
TH: Exactly. And it gets even more confusing when you try to look under the hood at your preneed program's performance. At best, the data set is fractured, and it's almost impossible to see how a 'like' or a 'click' has anything to do with a prearranged family. This makes it hard for funeral homes to accurately measure performance, which is why understanding pipeline metrics like contact rate, set rate, hold rate, presentation rate, and your conversion rate is so critical. Again, our passion for preneed is why we started tracking leads through the whole pipeline. This gives us so much confidence in the results that we actually invest in our partners' marketing.
TA: Data and analytics are rarely mentioned in the same breath as preneed, but that's never been true at Precoa. It's baked into everything we do. We spend a lot of time on the front end of our lead generation programs, using data models to drive the right messages to the right people at the right times. But we spend just as much time tracking what happens after a lead has been generated.
TH: In an article Mark wrote years ago called "The Art & Science of Marketing," he laid out the foundation for our approach. Performance is based on results. You can have a marketing piece that looks and sounds great, but the only way to know it truly works is if you track it through every stage of the pipeline. We're really taking a performance marketing approach, ensuring that marketing activity has a clear tie to sales. That's where our Funeral Planning Center comes in.
TH: Yes. Back in 2004, Bret Davis actually served as the Funeral Planning Center's first manager. Bret and Mark knew that every preneed lead is special. It represents a person who raised their hand and asked for help. We all know how frustrating it feels to wait for a follow-up that never comes, and that's even worse when it's a follow-up about something as meaningful as planning your funeral.
TA: That's just bad customer service. It ends up reflecting poorly on the funeral home, which is the exact opposite of what a preneed partner should be doing.
TH: Absolutely. The whole preneed experience, from the marketing and follow-ups to the experience of sitting down with an Advance Funeral Planner, are touchpoints with your brand. A partner should care just as much, if not more, about your brand as you do.
TA: But let's go back for a second because I want to make sure we acknowledge another reason why Precoa cares so much about follow-ups. It relates to what you were saying earlier about directly investing in our partners' marketing. The fact is, when leads get dropped, efficiency rates drop too, which means we've just gambled away the marketing dollars we've spent. According to Proxima, many companies estimate that between 40-60% of their marketing budget gets wasted, and a lot of that is due to inefficient follow-ups. We have a big stake in making sure our appointment-setting process is as effective as possible.
TH: Yet as we all know, follow-ups are hard. You hear a lot of 'no's,' and most salespeople would rather get a cavity filled than spend nearly 40% of their week making phone calls. Their time is better spent meeting with families. That's where they're most effective, and that's why their performance improves dramatically with support from the Funeral Planning Center.
TA: We often refer to the Funeral Planning Center as the heart of ProActive Preneed®. Everything is designed to flow through it. Our scheduling specialists take pride in educating themselves about the funeral homes and communities they serve, so it's great to hear a partner like Tom Lord say it feels just like an extension of his firm.
TH: We love hearing from our partners that their scheduling specialists feel like part of the team. Families will often mention specialists by name and talk about the heartfelt conversations they've had and the genuine connections they've made. It's so great to see Precoa's purpose in action.
TH: Earlier, Tyler said that you rarely hear about data and analytics in preneed, but almost as rare is any discussion of support. There are layers upon layers of logistics happening behind the scenes of any high-performing program, and these often get overlooked.
TA: If we're talking just in terms of headcount, it takes the equivalent of a full preneed department to achieve sustained growth. By that, I mean more than a quarterly check-in or a session or two of sales training. Who will be tracking follow-ups? Who will be managing operations so that marketing campaigns and events run smoothly? Who will be building reports and analyzing data so that you can assess trends and make more informed business decisions? There are a lot of roles and accountabilities to keep in mind, and ideally you have a whole team of people solely dedicated to and responsible for your performance.
TH: It's one thing to come in and give people advice about how they can improve their preneed programs. It's another to actually do it. A great example is a conversation we recently had with a partner who shared his years-long frustration at the lack of commitment and infrastructure to grow his program. He said it completely changed overnight when he partnered with Precoa, in large part because of our level of support and commitment.
TA: We believe support is what partnership is all about. It's working together side-by-side, finding creative ways to solve problems, and propelling each other to new heights. Nothing pleases us more than to hear, "Precoa thinks of everything."
TH: One funeral home owner recently shared that they absolutely loved their field manager, and they were so excited to learn that this support was only the tip of the iceberg. Whenever funeral homes have the opportunity to visit our home office, they're wowed. They see how passionate we are about preneed and how many people are working behind the scenes to help them serve more families.
TA: It’s hard to express just how much we admire the craftsmanship and dedication on display at funeral homes every day. We see them out there doing everything in their power to help people in need, and we’re inspired to bring that same drive for quality and care to preneed.
TH: The answer comes back to data. Data is and always has been what connects every piece of the preneed pipeline. One of our first strategic hires at Precoa was a data analyst. Given both Mark and Bret’s backgrounds, it was important to see precisely where we could test and improve our effectiveness. Twenty years later, we have analysts in departments across the company. They’ve analyzed millions of preneed data points and lent their insights and expertise to many of our cross-functional teams.
TA: The sheer scope of the data we’ve gathered and analyzed has led to a lot of important insights about shifting consumer preferences, trends, and preneed performance. We get to share this with our partners, and they find it extremely valuable to know so much about their businesses.
TH: Data has also allowed us to make a series of incremental efficiency gains. On the surface, this doesn’t sound very exciting, but when you look at how these add up over time, you find that the difference they make is pretty staggering.
TA: The integration of our model is an important piece of this. When you have strong alignment, you’re able to ensure clean handoffs and clear communication from start to finish. It’s rare to find this when you’re working with multiple vendors. They’ll often have their own goals and metrics they're sharing, which can lead to missed handoffs. Unfortunately, these can reflect back on your funeral home.
TH: Our goal is for you to know more about your preneed marketing and performance than ever before. You shouldn't have to look over your partners' shoulders or be forced to step in and take the reins of their program if you don't want to. This is why another partner said he literally doesn’t have to think about preneed anymore. That was evidence to me that we’re achieving what Mark and Bret set out to do.
TA: That reminds me of so many other funeral home owners who also say they notice the difference with Precoa immediately—that it feels different to know their preneed program is being fully managed and starting to grow, and then they see the proof in the data. That’s actually how we start our relationship with prospective partners—we give funeral homes a free market share analysis, which projects the addressable market for the funeral home. We don’t overpromise, but our partners often mention how surprised they are by that initial projection. The data often reveals potential in their market that they always suspected was there, and they’re usually even more surprised by how soon we reach those numbers.
TH: It’s funny to think back on those early days and remember how much Precoa felt like a start-up. We were renting a small, shabby office, and it was hard to imagine celebrating a fifth anniversary let alone a twentieth. Yet word kept spreading about our model, and funeral homes across the country were actively seeking us out. When we signed three landmark partnerships within a few months of each other, we thought, “Okay, this idea has legs. ProActive Preneed is working.”
TA: If you were a competitor of Precoa’s, you knew about the company. Otherwise, it flew under the radar with one important exception—premier funeral homes loved Precoa. They told our story in study groups and started recommending us left and right because they recognized we were doing something very different.
TH: Another factor that defined us early on was our people. Given all their previous experience, Mark and Bret wanted to create a workplace rooted in their shared values of kindness, progression, and craftsmanship. They also recognized that a passion for funeral service wasn’t just limited to people already working in the profession. They wanted to attract talent from both inside and outside the funeral profession and get them excited about the power of a meaningful funeral. Today, you see this unique blend at work in our culture, which is made up of people who embody our values and are committed to helping funeral homes prearrange more families.
TA: Speaking of values, don’t forget to mention “Base Camp.” Before I joined Precoa, I found it really inspiring that a company would intentionally slow company growth to double down and focus on the quality of their offerings.
TH: That’s a great point. In mountaineering, ‘basecamp’ is where you stop and acclimate to the new levels you’ve climbed. The years between 2010 and 2014 saw Precoa more than double in size. We had grown beyond Mark and Bret’s original vision, and growing pains were inevitable. Our leaders saw that by slowing down and taking a short-term step back, we could concentrate on improving the experience for our funeral home partners and the families they serve, as well as for our employees.
TA: When you do the right thing for your customers, it always pays off even if that payoff isn’t immediately clear. I think Precoa’s intentional focus strengthened the company, and as a result, Precoa’s merger with the Outlook Group was made possible. It was dubbed a “preneed love story” in the profession, but in truth, it was two like-minded companies coming together with a shared vision, purpose, and values. At Outlook Group, we believed people were at the center of what we do and that preneed could continue to evolve the conversation around ceremony, ritual, and gathering with families across the country.
TH: The merger went into effect in 2017, and today it’s hard to imagine Precoa without the talent who joined us from Outlook. Their knowledge, leadership and expertise expanded our perspective and opened a new world of capabilities. It was only then that we could start scaling up and providing the highest quality preneed to even more funeral homes and families. The flywheel of progression was turning, and it seemed like nothing could slow down our momentum.
TA: And then COVID hit. In the span of a couple months, the entire funeral profession faced a new landscape. Funeral homes were on the frontlines of the pandemic, and Advance Funeral Planners suddenly saw their livelihoods at stake. But you can’t count out the people of Precoa. We took action immediately, and within weeks we had developed Remote Preneed, a suite of new tools and appointment options. We wanted to make sure families could continue prearranging with our funeral home partners.
TH: It goes to show that we don’t take the idea of partnership lightly. We stand by our partners through thick and thin, and our aim is to build partnerships that last. That’s why it means the world to hear a funeral home like Sytsema, who has been with us since 2009, say that Precoa is “part of their family.” We feel the same way.
TA: And we develop close relationships with the funeral homes who have joined us in recent years as well. I think of a firm like Holloway Funeral Home, who say preneed is now one less thing they lose sleep over at night. It’s an honor to be entrusted to take care of a funeral home’s preneed program, and we’re grateful for the opportunity.
TA: The short answer is that we’re going to stay focused on creating the absolute highest quality preneed experiences for funeral homes and families. There has been a lot of research over the past few years about rapidly shifting consumer preferences and how businesses are challenged to keep up. We’ve been developing new ways to help our partners stay ahead in this landscape without ever having to sacrifice quality or effectiveness.
TH: If you were to chart Precoa’s innovations since we started, you’d see an upward curve rising sharply over the past few years. Our pace is rapidly accelerating, which is exciting. There are foundational advancements like the Funeral Planning Center, but as we continue to build on these, we’re also developing new ways to reach families. For instance, we recently acquired the life-planning brand Everplans, which will be another new and exciting tech-forward way for funeral homes to connect with families.
TA: I can’t wait! This will be a core technology in our profession for many years to come, and I’m looking forward to how it will help our partners prearrange more families. At the end of the day, that’s the driving force behind our commitment to being proactive and staying innovative. We want an ever-growing number of people to know how meaningful and important a funeral can be.
TH: In fact, we’re fast approaching the milestone of 1 million prearranged families. That will be another reason to celebrate as we keep progressing towards Precoa’s vision of prearranging all families.
TA: It’s easy to look at consumer trends like rising cremation rates and assume that people no longer care about having a funeral at a funeral home. But it’s simply not true. Consumer preferences shift with enough education and guidance, and I’m excited that we can provide our partners with omnichannel strategies, innovative platforms, and in-depth resources so they can continue evolving the conversation about funeral service and shaping the future of the profession.