chevron_right
What do I need to do to grow call volume? I get that preneed allows me to lock in my market and secure future business, but it sure feels like these are families I probably would have served anyway. Instead of just sustaining call volume, I really want to increase it. – New Growth Strategy Needed
Dear Growth Strategy: It sounds like you're already off to a good start. Like you mentioned, preneed is a valuable safeguard that keeps families from your competitors and locks in future business. These are the families who are often your biggest fans.
But this strategy is almost entirely defensive. On its own, this prevents you from tapping into your full potential. The flip side—a strategy that proactively engages new families—is the secret to the increased call volume and explosive growth you're looking for.
Defense is vitally important, but if you're always standing under the other team's basket, you'll never score points of your own. Similarly, you can't grow your business just by focusing on protecting your turf, making sure competitors aren't siphoning off funerals, and making it harder for new entrants to take hold in your community.
In past columns, I've often mentioned two of the biggest challenges funeral homes are facing today, which are the rising costs of doing business and declining funeral values. If you're solely relying on walk-ins and call-ins – the families that likely would have come to you after a loss anyway – you're never actually adding to your book of business. This means that even if your call volume remains the same, you'll start to see your margins decrease.
And for those families who know your funeral home but have not yet gotten around to taking the next step and prearranging a funeral, the future is even less secure. You might have a great relationship with someone in your community, but their kids live two states over. Without a plan for their funeral, their children or next of kin – who have no connection to your funeral home or even to the importance of ceremony and gathering after a loss – become the decision-makers.
By proactively reaching out to not only the families you know, but to every family in your community who is statistically most likely to preplan, you can solidify the plans of those who know what they want, and educate those who may not be aware of the power of a funeral service at your funeral home.
Your biggest advantage with proactive preneed is that you start prearranging new families in addition to the folks you're already serving. These incremental sales result in increased revenue, but an even bigger benefit is that you begin shifting consumer norms.
As you've probably already experienced, people today don't automatically value funerals like they used to. Whether it's because they're among the 6 in 10 people who no longer live in their hometowns, or they're part of the growing number of the religious unaffiliated—28% of the U.S. population according to a study released by Pew Research earlier this year—there are fewer community and institutional ties between families and funeral homes.
Pair this with other factors and family dynamics, like the fact that 36% of divorces now occur among people 50 and older, and you see why it becomes harder and harder to build and maintain relationships with customers without being proactive.
A proactive approach allows you to reach new families, younger families, and—most importantly—families you might not have served otherwise. These are people who would not have chosen you by default, and they represent incredible value.
Many of these families may be new to your brand, new to your community, and undecided on their preferred funeral home or even their funeral preferences. You have the opportunity to share your story with all these new families, and this is where preneed gets fun.
A lot of funeral homes have trouble remembering when preneed actually felt fun.
But that's exactly how preneed feels when you start connecting with new families and growing your book of business. You get to show off what you do and build up brand equity throughout your community as you share why everyone deserves to experience the healing benefits of ceremony, ritual, and gathering.
This results in a better overall funeral experience for everyone involved and higher average funeral values for funeral homes.
You also get to share the value of what you do at a time when it doesn't come across as self-serving. Families are more inclined to listen when they're not sitting across from someone immediately following the loss of a loved one, and experiencing real emotional distress.
The aim here isn't to write more preneed just to write more preneed. It's to write more preneed for a purpose. Being proactive empowers you to expand your footprint and deliver a more positive brand experience across the board.
Once you get started, you open yourself to many more exciting possibilities.
By taking care of offense – proactively reaching out to families who are likely to preplan – you'll start to see benefits on defense as well.
When you meet with new families, you're expanding your market share and ensuring business for your funeral home in the future. By educating families on the power of ritual, ceremony and gathering after a loss, you're creating lifelong advocates for your business and locking in a plan for families who otherwise could choose another funeral home at the time of need. There's a fluidity to preneed that allows you to play both defense and offense, breathe easier, and improve every part of your business.
When you move off your back foot and to a place where you can start expanding your market share, you can also have fun and try new things. If you're not worried about defending your business, you can start finding new people. You can test out new technology, new lead generation opportunities, and new creative assets. And you can take the time to let the new strategies work their magic.
Balancing your offense and defense isn't easy. It requires constant care, coaching and ambition. It also takes a keen eye for data. It's certainly possible to do it yourself, and there are funeral homes around the country that take the DIY approach. But a growing number of funeral homes choose instead to work with a trusted partner who can relieve the burden of preneed and allow them to focus on their at-need volume and other parts of their business.
But here's the great news: this strategy works.
One of our partners tells a story of receiving a letter from a competitor not long after his funeral home started taking a proactive approach to preneed. The writer of the unsigned letter was upset that they had started losing market share, which our partner only saw as proof that being proactive was working.
But this wasn't the only mail he received. He received piles of positive mail, too, from families who were grateful for the relief they felt after prearranging their funeral. For him, that was the true victory.
Tyler Anderson is the Vice President of Business Development at Precoa, with extensive experience in helping funeral homes grow their preneed business.