Earlier this year Rick Baldwin used a comment by famed hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, in his post: “How To Be Exceptional In The New Normal”. Here Bruce Buchanan, CEO of The Buchanan Group adds his perspective to Rick’s. As funeral professionals we are torn by two forces when we take on a client. One, we… [Read More...]
Expert Opinion: Game Changers
April 17, 2012 By 3 Comments
Game-changers are those events that intervene in our lives, on athletic fields, and in our businesses that forever change everything. In our personal lives we identify marriages, deaths, and moving to a new city as the easiest examples of game-changers. In baseball, a homerun changes everything. In business, innovation is the most thought-of example. Look… [Read More...]
The Secret Sauce: How We Might Resurrect DeathCare
April 9, 2012 By 15 Comments
Is it possible that in some markets people no longer care? In this series on Funeral Apologetics I have pointed out that our real problem is cowardice and have endeavored to share some techniques that might help the profession fight for itself. Several very thoughtful individuals (whom I also admire) have suggested that, in their… [Read More...]
Don’t Confuse Me With Your Facts
April 3, 2012 By 1 Comment
Apologists must be aware of 4 generally accepted fallacies: Consumers think in a well-reasoned rational way In fact, emotions are closely interwoven with the reasoning process. Most often they are dominant. Consumers can readily explain their behavior and thinking 95% of our thinking is unconscious. Our rational mind serves mainly to make sense of behavior… [Read More...]
Disenthrall Yourself of Your Dogma
March 26, 2012 By 6 Comments
“The Dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise to the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and we shall save our country.” … [Read More...]
Funeral Apologetics 101A: Eight Principles of Successful Optimism
March 22, 2012 By 7 Comments
How interesting! As I step out to encourage this profession to not give in but take a stand and fight for itself I find more than I expected joining the cause. Apropos of everything my friend, Bruce Buchanan, brought an article to my attention published via The Wall Street Journal that succinctly expresses many of… [Read More...]
Funeral Apologetics 101: Stop Clinging To Your Despair
March 19, 2012 By 13 Comments
[Apologetics (from Greek ἀπολογία, "speaking in defense") is the discipline of defending a position (often religious) through the systematic use of information.] Much of my career has involved business turnarounds. This experience serves me well as a funeral home consultant. Over the course of more than 30 years I have learned a lot about human nature…. [Read More...]
The Problem is Not Cremation…
March 13, 2012 By 15 Comments
…The problem is cowardice!! There, it’s been said. Plain and simple: We have been unwilling to stand up for what we believe and now we are not sure we believe it any more. After all how long can you get beat up and still try to stand? So, instead of taking a stand we assume… [Read More...]
EXPERT OPINION: How Are Funeral Directors Like Bankers?
February 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I serve on the Board of Directors of a community bank based in Orlando, Florida. In that capacity I receive frequent educational correspondence and one I received this week highlighted the striking similarities between what we do and banking. The author says: “Bankers often forget that they are in a retail business where people have… [Read More...]
Differentiating Your Funeral Home: Reinvent The Obituary
No One Dies So Poor He Doesn’t Leave Something Behind. Blaise Pascal Ya wanna know how to make a difference and set your funeral home apart? Take some of your advertising budget and hire a good journalist to do what this video talks about and post them on your site. Don’t put it in… [Read More...]