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A Bank Commercial Might Make A Good Funeral Home Concept
The March Of Dimes & Funeral Service
The March of Dimes was founded in 1938 by Franklin D. Roosevelt to eradicate Infantile Paralysis (Polio). With the advent of Jonas Salk’s vaccine in the early 1950’s the disease was largely eradicated in the Western World. In 1994 the United States was the first nation to be certified “Polio Free.” What does this have […]
The Case of The Reluctant Successor
Case Studies in Succession Planning: The Case of the Reluctant Successor It comes as a surprise to most owners to learn that more than 50% of potential successors, whether they be children or key employees, either don’t want the business or can’t swing it financially. But many owners operate on the assumption that when it […]
Six Blind Funeral Directors – Fourth Installment
What, Then, Shall We Become? So, considering the issue from a theoretical, rational and contextual perspective, we are left with the question: Now What?! When this most recent transformation began several decades ago the question was: “how can we adapt?” I believe that question led us down some unfortunate rabbit trails. It is less about […]
Six Blind Funeral Directors – Third Installment
Six Blind Funeral Directors – Third Installment In our prior two installments we looked at our future from a theoretical perspective and a rational perspective. This installment we will focus on a contextual perspective. A Contextual Approach To The Future A study of the evolution of contemporary American DeathCare beginning in 1850 suggests that our […]
Six Blind Funeral Directors – 2nd installment
Six Blind Funeral Directors – 2nd installment A Rational Approach To The Future Last week we explored the theoretical approach to our future using the allegory of the Six Blind Funeral Directors. This week we explore a Rational Approach. Our first question is: What do we know? We know that our market has changed and […]
Six Blind Funeral Directors Describe Our Future
Six Blind Funeral Directors Describe Our Future Chapter 1 The Theory of DeathCare We are all familiar with the parable of the six blind men describing an elephant. As we struggle with imagining the future of funeral service a survey of trade journal articles and convention agendas can’t help but bring this parable to mind. […]
Obituaries and Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence – Doing more efficiently that which is already done poorly. It’s all the buzz – Artificial Intelligence. Of course the excitable “hand wringers” among us are already speculating about its disruptive potential. Perhaps this time they are right. It remains to be seen. AI’s first toehold is in the writing of obituaries. Feeling, […]
Finish Well
Posted on March 25, 2023 By Thomas A. Parmalee Forty-three years ago, Alan Creedy took over the financially distressed OGR Service Corp., the for-profit arm of what is now the International Order of the Golden Rule. With a background in accounting and psychology, he had no idea he was about to start his life’s work, […]
Global Pandemic: How Should We Then Live
I know this is a politically charged topic. It is not my intent to influence anyone’s perspective. These words so precisely express my own viewpoint and are so encouraging to me that I feel compelled to share them. The words of C.S. Lewis guide us yet today. It’s now clear that COVID-19 is a deadly […]
Covid – 19 and The Reinvention of Spring Burials
Covid – 19 and The Reinvention of Spring Burials Talking with funeral directors across the nation and Canada I am hearing (as you are experiencing) that you are busy but the services are mostly abbreviated or direct. So your revenue is deeply affected. Many wonder what funeral service will be like after we struggle to return […]
Creedy Not Bloodless After All
Blood Drives…Something You Can Do During the Pandemic Well there is a picture you can’t unsee. Me giving blood at Pierce Jefferson Funeral Home in Greensboro. A few weeks ago I suggested to some of my clients they hold a blood drive. Several of them took me up on it. The first was Danny Jefferson […]
Callaway – Jones Stay At Home Arrangements Helper
Callaway Jones Funeral offers “Stay At Home” Arrangement Helper. My friend, Cody Jones, of Callaway – Jones Funeral Home is offering a guide for his customers to prepare for arrangement conferences, sign documents and make choices. He has given permission to share it. click on the link below. And while you are there explore his […]
CRaKN WAIVES CASE FEES
CRäKN ELIMINATES CASE FEES DURING CORONA CRISIS TO HELP FUNERAL DIRECTORS WORK FROM HOME CRäKN is a relatively new funeral management tool that enables funeral directors to coordinate all aspects of delivering services via smart phone and pc. You and your staff and many of your vendors interact remotely in real time. CRäKN facilitates every part […]
Creative Thinking During the CoronaVirus Pandemic
This is an example of great creative thinking from O’Connor mortuary. CLICK ON THE PHOTO BELOW
How To Know When You are Ready To Exit Your Business
How To Know When You are Ready To Exit Your Business The answer to this challenge is both situational and personal. Whether you plan on leaving the business altogether or you want to work as long as you are able, most people agree that achieving financial independence should be a primary goal. You may want […]
Managing An Underperforming Family Member
Managing An Underperforming Family Member WOW! What a topic! If you have ever attended a county fair, you may have witnessed a Mule Pull. This is a contest of mule teams pulling a weighted sled. Sometimes you will see an interesting and metaphorical phenomenon: A team of two mules will be pulling the sled. One […]
Online Funeral Arranging: What I think and a Harvard Study that Supports It.
While I was involved in preneed marketing I observed an odd and, yet, consistent human behavior. Research suggests that many people would prefer to plan their funeral with someone other than a funeral director. YET, when a death occurred they don’t want to talk with anyone BUT a funeral director. So as the internet has […]
Collaborative Healing: Our Real Purpose
Sometimes people ask WHY we have funerals. Good Question. Unfortunately, many of our colleagues aren’t quite sure themselves so they stumble. With almost 40 years under my belt (and you thought I was overweight?) I have come to a conclusion and have coined a phrase I welcome my readers to adopt: Collaborative Healing My friend […]
Recruiting At Zaxby’s
Recruiting at Zaxby’s The single greatest challenge facing funeral service is not cremation. It is our inability to find and recruit and retain good quality funeral directors. Fully 2/3 of the current licensee labor pool is over 55. Our inability to replace this work force has very nasty consequences. Not only will families be underserved […]
Two Questions Professional Experts Ask Themselves Before Meeting With Clients
These two questions will help you set the stage and provide the service your families are looking for. Today, there are two schools of thought on how to attract more families: Low cost Hyper service To be financially successful as a low-cost provider requires a level of discipline and cost control rarely seen among funeral […]
Should You Join The Family Firm?
Should You Join The Family Firm? When John decided to pursue his career by coming to work at the family funeral home he thought (as did everyone else) that someday he would succeed his parents and own the firm. John is now 46 and his parents are in their late 60’s. In retrospect, John realizes […]
Inside the Mind of Funeral Consumers
Several years ago the Funeral Service Foundation commissioned an unorthodox market research project. They retained one of the foremost market research firms – Olson Zaltman – to study the funeral consumer’s unconscious thoughts about funerals. They broke the research into two segments: What consumers actually thought about funerals at the unconscious level What consumers actually want […]
What To Do When Your Heart Isn’t In Your Work Anymore
Call it what you want: Career fatigue, burnout, and boredom. The truth is almost all of us go through times when we feel our heart isn’t in it anymore. In fact, research shows that only one in three of us are actually engaged at work. I realize there are circumstantial issues that contribute to this; […]
The Neurosis That Defines Funeral Service: Perfectionism
I have a book on my office shelf entitled “Perfectionism…Sure Cure For Happiness”. The reason this is important is that, having performed almost 100 culture assessments in funeral service I know that perfectionism is the dominant industry neurosis. Yes, I agree, “Funeral Service Is In The Details”. But it’s how we measure performance that gets […]
Business Partners: The Rainmaker & The Operator
Partnerships, by their very nature, are problematic. They are worse when there is not a clear vision of role differentiation that is understood by all and mutually respected. This role differentiation is key to smooth and successful partnerships. When differentiation is not present roles tend to overlap and conflict. Competition among partners develops and eventually […]
Why I Am Not A Funeral Home Broker
Why I Am Not A Funeral Home Broker Jack B. Stalk has a special goose. His goose lays a single golden egg every year. That annual egg has enabled Jack to live in a nice home, drive a luxury car, take nice vacations, eat well, put his four kids through college and be a well-respected […]
5 Ways To Breathe Life Into Your Business
This week I was privileged to be interviewed by Sebastian Thalhammer of Austria. You may or may not have heard of Sebastian but he is a pretty interesting media guru who somehow decided I had something to say. So, Here is my “15 minutes of fame.” Actually, it’s 45 minutes but it does have some […]
New & Improved Funeral Home Valuator
I have chosen to celebrate the re launch of my new website with an updated and improved funeral home valuation calculator. This calculator is part of my effort to help practitioners access quick and easy tools that will help them make better choices for their business. You can use these calculators any time and as […]
How to Make Change More Fun And Effective
It seems like funeral service has been talking about change for my entire career of almost 40 years. Sometimes it gets a little…well you know…boring. It seems like everything changes: While we all feel stuck and even depressed as we try to accommodate (rather assimilate and build) what we feel like is out […]
The Intentional Funeral Director
What is an Intentional Funeral Director? Some years ago I attended a Men’s Retreat at my church. The plan was that we would all ride to the camp on the church bus. What the pastor told us before we climbed on board set the whole tone. He said: “Some people rise above their circumstances and […]
What Would You Pay?
Big Question!! How much should the value of a funeral home be discounted if the facility is being sold for other use? A funeral home in your area has accepted an offer for their real estate that is much greater than the business is worth. How much would you discount the value of the business if you […]
Difficult Conversations For Those Who Hate Conflict
Funeral directors are notorious for being conflict avoidant. Yet they have a job where they must engage in difficult conversations with staff, vendors and their customers. I used to attend a church with a pastor who would go to bizarre lengths to avoid conflict. He was beloved by the congregation and staff alike. But the […]
Merchandising Urn Arks
I think I saw my first Urn Ark around 20 years ago. I was immediately taken and still consider it to be the best way to dignify the ceremony in a cremation. Most funeral homes that use them… and, sadly, too many do not…don’t charge for them. That practice doesn’t bother me but I do […]
How To Be Smart About Buying Caskets
It has now become routine for me to analyze what they are paying in “True” wholesale prices for caskets. In the process I typically save tens of thousands of dollars for them over the course of a year. But what I do isn’t rocket science. Nor does it always require they change vendors…although it often […]
Funeral Service and Post Traumatic Stress
After the Newton Massacre I brought up the issue of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in a blog entitled: PTSD: The Slow Leak in Funeral Service’ Tire I got so many responses I republished it as: The Unspoken Affliction:PTSD and the Funeral Director Since then I have received a number of comments and participated in several discussions […]
Conventional Incentives Don’t Work As Well As They Used To
The conventional incentive rewards the individual…usually with something monetary. Like so many things, incentives have evolved and become more complicated than a simple financial incentive. Not everyone is money motivated. A personal example: As long as I am earning what I need, money is not a motivator for me. I am, instead, motivated by discovery and […]
Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation
In light of our recent presidential election this is especially fitting. The invective, threats and vitriol directed at our President – Elect pale in comparison to what President – Elect Lincoln experienced. Let’s remember that he had to sneak into Washington because of the very real threat of assassination. People didn’t protest they rioted. His […]
Buy Sell: The Texas Shoot Out Provision
I love the story of two little boys fighting over the last piece of cake. Mom comes into the kitchen as they are pushing and shoving and with “Solomon – like” wisdom says, “Johnny, Billy, there is enough for both of you. Johnny I want you to cut the cake into two pieces and Billy […]
Rice Paddy to Rice Paddy in 3 Generations
Sociologists have discovered there is a saying in every culture that is best illustrated by the title to this article (which is the Chinese version). Basically, it refers to the lowly peasant who works hard to break out of the rice paddy life by starting a business which he then passes on to his heirs. […]
What Proof Do You Require?
We live in a litigious society. More and more practitioners are ending up in lawsuits. Often it isn’t really their fault. Lawyers will tell you to make sure you always CYA! Richard Callahan, former funeral home owner and funeral director has spent the last 20 years of his career as an Expert Witness in a […]
Too Busy To Succeed
Most of us know that success requires that we spend, at least, some time working “on” our business instead of “in” our business. Yet, in practice, we find this piece of essential wisdom to be nothing more than a tired cliche’. Having spent the bulk of my career studying funeral practitioners and all of my […]
A Comment That Changed My Life
Many years ago I fell prey to a “woe-is-me” episode. A friend made an offhand comment that changed my life direction and I want to share it with you. But, first, let me say that his comment really offended me. That’s a true friend…someone who tells you what you NEED to hear regardless of how it […]
5 Ways Funeral Directors Sabotage Progress
The prevailing culture in funeral service is Passive Aggressive. I have talked about the “ten call man” before and how that person subversively undermines a business. But, unwittingly, owners and staff can undermine themselves. Here are 5 ways you can commit “self-sabotage.” Never permit short cuts. It’s necessary to establish procedures and rules to avoid […]
Knowing Too Much Causes You To Underserve Families
Some years ago a study was conducted. A group of people were divided into “tappers” and “listeners”. The tappers were asked to pick a popular tune and tap it out and the listeners were asked to identify it. The study found that the “tappers” predicted that the listeners got it right at least 50% of […]
What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do
Every once in a while you run across something that is so sound that you can’t improve on it. This advice from Daniel Pink is one of those. Watch this 81 second video and you will see what I mean.
Merchandising Rental Caskets
I like the approach demonstrated in the attached picture. My friend, David Storke, shows this wicker green burial casket on top of his rental. He tells me that he no longer has any trouble explaining “combustible” caskets to his families, the wicker casket is a great conversation piece (he has sold 2 for “green” burial) […]
Part 3: The Owner Is Ready
Maybe you are anxious to exit your business. Or perhaps you dread the day you will no longer be involved. Either way for a successful business transfer you need to be ready. It has been my experience that when people think they are ready and even eager to exit the business they have only given […]
Universal Requirements For Successful Family Transition
There are 3 Universal requirements for a successful family business transfer: A competent successor The Business is ready The owner is ready Part 1 – A Competent Successor A successor is competent when they have demonstrated both the ability and willingness to run the business. For most small businesses however this is a major challenge. Yes […]
Merry Christmas
The message at the end of this video is the message I pray all my friends and family will embrace. Merry Christmas to ALL.
Should Women Wear Pant Suits?
I seem to have a penchant for joining fights that aren’t mine. Not long ago I was presenting a seminar on dress and decorum to funeral directors at a large state convention. Several women asked for my opinion on wearing pants. Frankly, I hadn’t thought about it so I didn’t have one. Since then, I […]
Thumbnail: What’s It Worth?
A lot of my readers are curious about what their business is worth but aren’t yet ready for a full valuation. They just want an idea. Well, as you can imagine that gets kind of messy. There are a lot of moving parts in a valuation; but if you just want an educated guess click […]
Is Funeral Service Ready For Innovation?
Uhhh…NO! I got an email from Harvard Business Review today. It invited me to take an assessment on innovation readiness for my company. Instead, I took it as if I worked for all of funeral service as I know and experience it. The results weren’t surprising but still disturbing. I did my best to be […]
Employee Pushback – A Strategy
A client and friend of mine recently spent days revising the staff schedule to be more efficient and effective. He took great pains to think about its impact on staff and did his best to devise a plan that would work best for the funeral home AND create the least inconvenience for his staff. After […]
The Lesson of the $300 Shoes
Last week’s blog sparked a lively conversation on and offline about clothing. From those conversations I think it might help to add one more insight. It was 1989. George H.W. Bush was president. I had just come from a podiatrist because my feet were in constant pain. I have flat feet. My prescription: wear only […]
A Fat Man Dresses For Work
“My name is Alan and I am overweight!” Last week I was shocked when someone said to me, “Alan, you are always well dressed and so professional looking.” It really took me aback. I certainly don’t see myself that way. But I DO see myself as a professional who has a responsibility to myself and […]
This Is What I Would Tell My Staff
What happened to social etiquette? You spend a couple of million dollars on a new building and you let the public be disappointed the moment they enter the door. I visit a lot of funeral homes and the experience ranges from abysmal to glorious with a whole lot more on the abysmal side than the […]
Casket Merchandising and The Hawthorne Effect
The Hawthorne effect occurs when individuals modify or improve an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed. The concept is more simple than it sounds. People change their behavior when they are being observed. Where this applies to casket merchandising is subtle but important. The profession has come to rely on a […]
Confronting Passive Aggressive Behavior at Work.
Most people in the funeral profession are almost pathologically averse to confrontation. As a result, the predominant internal culture in funeral homes is Passive Aggressive. If you have been a subscriber for long you know I have a personal issue with what I call the “Ten Call Tyrant”. He or she is that individual you […]
Creedy & McQueen Earn Exit Planning Certification
You’re here…NOW WHAT! There are more ways to transition a business than just selling to a consolidator. You can transition fast and you can transition slow. You can plan to have your kids succeed you or your employees or another funeral home operator. But the one entity you want to protect yourself from is the […]
Serve more families, work less and be more profitable
Staff shortages among licensed professions have been successfully addressed by changing the model in the medical and legal professions. The solution is simple: focus skilled licensed staff on the right duties and supplement them with trained lower level staff. The result: Licensees handle more cases, work fewer hours, produce more income and, as a byproduct, […]
Check Their Math! How The Herd Instinct Works In Funeral Service
WARNING! This is not about caskets! A couple of decades ago I was visiting with 3 funeral home owner friends. They were discussing among themselves that the expensive makeovers of their selection rooms, popular at the time, were not working as advertised. Having heard nothing but glorious praise about these “retail” style showrooms I was […]
Lest You Misunderstand
Last week’s post was about casket discounting. I just want to make myself clear. I still meet people who believe their salvation is in the selection room. They even have incorporated their arrangement rooms inside their showrooms. (What kind of message does that send??) What I want my readers to know is that I resent […]
The Curse of the 25% Casket Wholesale Discount
So, it’s not my hunt…not even my dog; but I just hate being played. A few weeks ago I was working with a client in the Midwest: 50 to 60 calls 30 – 35 caskets sold a year He was so proud of himself. He had just negotiated a 25% discount from one of the […]
You Don’t Need Another Licensee
Lessons From Radar O’Reilly Some years ago there was a nationwide nursing shortage. Then some very wise doctor’s and hospitals realized that there really wasn’t a shortage…there was a problem. Too many nursing duties were non – nursing tasks. Things like paperwork, bathing patients, cleaning rooms etc. Doctors and hospitals were using nurses as glorified […]
Families Aren’t Your Typical Consumer
Many consider the advent of the Internet to have ushered in the “Age Of The Consumer.” The balance of power (inherently favoring the holder of information) has clearly shifted in a way that at least provides parity between vendor and customer. In the case of those unfortunate products and services which are considered commodities, the balance […]
Ragman: An Allegory of Death and Resurrection
As we prepare to celebrate Easter author Walter Wangerin, Jr. offers us a poignant allegory of Christ’s glorious work for us on the cross. Ragman I saw a strange sight. I stumbled upon a story most strange, like nothing in my life, my street sense, my sly tongue had ever prepared me for. Hush child. […]
A New Approach To Price Shoppers
I subscribe to the Harvard Business Review Blog and an interesting article came through today that I wonder might have application to those of you who might be challenged by low price competitors. It is a way to separate those who are truly price shoppers and those who are looking for value. It also might […]
Lessons From Bar Fighting
While I was in college I spent a summer as a Merchant Seaman on a Great Lakes iron ore carrier. Some of the crew “took me under their wing” and while in port one time invited me to join them on a trip into town. On the way one of them turned to me and […]
Is Coca-Cola Still “The Real Thing”
Why Adaptation May Not Be the Right Strategy “You Can’t Manage Change…You Can Only Get Ahead Of It.” Peter Drucker Last year, for the first time in the history of the annual Best Global Brands report, it was reported that Coca-Cola was no longer the most valuable brand in the universe.Interbrand, a leading brand […]
How To Overcome Negative Stereotypes
“The best way to break a negative stereotype is to shock the stereotype” The Funeral Profession plays to the negative stereotype by the persona they cultivate: Formal, unapproachable, dignified, conventional, guardians of the past and so on. I have found one of the best ways to shock a stereotype is with humor. If I owned […]
Why We Fail: How Blame Game Defeats Us
Why is it so important in the funeral service culture to find blame? Blame is always a counterproductive force that slows us down and PREVENTS us from the personal accountability we need to move us to a higher plane. Some years before my engagement with funeral service I was employed as a project manager and […]
4 Ways To Compete Against Low Price Competitors
There are two fundamental assumptions you must make in order to compete effectively against low price competitors: Some people buy solely on price…but it is the smallest part of your market Most people buy on value Let’s talk a minute about the value buyers. People want value for their dollar. You do. Most people you […]
Why You Should Be A jerk More Often
Happened across this excellent advice the other day. Some things really are worth sharing. “Now, when I spell jerk with a small letter “j”, I’m referring to someone who is willing to say or do something that pushes a peer or subordinate far out of their comfort zones in order to make them or the […]
The Funeral Director Who Invented Social Media
I am glad I don’t have to compete with Frank Dawson. His use of social media for the past 50 years has built a veritable competitive fortress. Ron Hast, the recently deceased owner of Mortuary Management magazine, had a very compelling habit. It was shortly after I started my career at Batesville Casket Company in […]
7 Steps To Reinvent Yourself
Gonna keep this positive. So just a word for background. Any casual observer would see that the declining results funeral service is experiencing signal a much greater problem: A growing segment of the public isn’t sure why they need us or, worse, what they need us for. Now to better news: Statistically, the odds are very […]
How Casket Discounts Work Part 1
We All Know The Questions…It’s Time For Some Answers
Sometimes the course of our lives depends on what we do…or what we don’t do. Will my kids be able to enjoy the same rewards and lifestyle as I have? What am I supposed to do with the investment I have in facilities and rolling stock? How can I get myself, much less my […]
I Am Tired of Talking About Change…Aren’t You?
We need to quit talking about change and figure out HOW we need to change if we are going to be sustainably viable. Don’t you think it’s time we learned HOW we need to change? Announcing the 21st Century Summit WE need to learn how to ask tough questions: How much am I worth and […]
How Funeral Directors Confuse Being Nice With Being Kind
When it comes to customers funeral directors are often the nicest people. But being nice and being kind are two different things. It takes courage to be kind. There is risk to it. You don’t really have to be more than just agreeable to be nice. Smile, never say anything bad about anybody and NEVER, […]
The Fallacy of Casket Discounts
Ever since it was revealed that SCI enjoyed a big discount the discussion around the convention lunch table has been preoccupied with the subject of discounts and rebates. For more than 15 years I have heard a lot about percentages but never about dollars. It’s not my dog much less my hunt but I think […]
Reinvention: Islands of Excellence In A Sea of Mediocrity
“one cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it.” Peter Drucker The Cornerstone Assumption of the funeral side of DeathCare is that being nice is the same as being effective. Our “worldview” of being nice people is that we must never, ever make waves or create awkwardness. We run pell-mell from any form […]
Is A Scarcity Mentality Keeping You From Being A Good Leader?
A Scarcity Mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life. People with a Scarcity Mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit – even with those who help in the production. They also have a a very hard time being genuinely happy for the success of other people. Yet it is […]
Are You Really A Team…Or Just A Workgroup
Most people speak of those they work with as a team. But, in my experience, people rarely understand what a team really is. In funeral service what typically represents a team is really a group of people who are very nice but work towards their own ends independently. If the firm has clear standards and […]
Boomer Owners: 6 Signs That It’s Time To Talk
The saying goes, “It’s lonely at the top.” Who do you talk to when you’re the boss? Edgar Schein, Professor Emeritus at the Sloan School of Management at MIT, observed that the most common self – image among business leaders is that of the “Lone Warrior – Hero.” I have found this to be true […]
PTSD: Who Helps The Caregiver?
Many Funeral Directors consider themselves caregivers. This article causes me to see a two way street. As you read it think about the critical role you can and should play with your customers AND their guests. But to those of us who support the practitioner, let’s think about the critical role WE should and can […]
Best Veterans Ad Ever
I found this ad on youtube. Produced by Boeing it is, in my mind, the best tribute to veterans I have seen. To all you veterans out there: Thank you.
It’s All In The Attitude
My friend, Howard Beckham, responded to last week’s video on customer service at Starbucks with the following comment. I feel if all of us would adopt his attitude we would see much happier customers. Thank you Howard. “Many years ago as an 18 year old working at J.C. Penney Co. I began to understand the […]
Customer Service: What Does It Look Like
Here is a great video that you should watch with your staff and talk about. QUESTION: How do you mentally prepare yourself to wholeheartedly serve people each day?
Do You Hate Confrontation?
Most of us do, especially those in the helping professions. Yet, we all know that our jobs require that we occasionally interact with others in challenging ways. When we engage this way our blood pressure rises, palms sweat and we may even lose sleep. For those of you who supervise or manage others here is […]
The Unspoken Affliction: FD’s and PTSD
A while ago I wrote on the subject of funeral directors and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the belief that there was a lot out there. This is a sensitive subject that will benefit greatly from transparent vulnerable open discussion. But who wants to be first? Finally, a young man has stepped up. He has […]
Wanna Know What Your Brand Stands For? Write Its Obituary.
Nothing brings greater clarity than an impending death. You have spent a career writing obituaries for others. Now it turns out that if you AND your staff take the time to write your firm’s obituary it will reveal some interesting insights that will help you establish your brand better…or…learn you don’t have a brand after […]
Reinventing The Obituary
People are wondering what impact Baby Boomers will have on DeathCare. I believe one trend you as a practitioner can get ahead of is the reinvention of the Obituary. These two examples appeared in the Winston – Salem Journal on the same day. You will have to click on John Litcher to read his. John […]
Pennsylvania Deprives Consumers of 21st Century Services
The Regressive Elements in Pennsylvania have apparently won a victory…or have they? Last week’s Circuit Court Reversal regarding the Pennsylvania Funeral Licensing Law probably caused some champagne corks to fly in Harrisburg. But this “victory” begets the question: “What Have We Done To Ourselves?” Funeral Service’ legacy of “circling the wagons and shooting inward” is about […]
10 Barriers to Succession Planning Part 3 of 3
This week we finish our discussion of barriers to succession with: 4. Serving more than one master. Change is hard enough. But there is an old biblical reference that is always true: “You cannot serve two masters.” The business needs to stand on its own and only insiders should have influence. Too often non participating […]
10 Barriers to Succession Planning Part 2 of 3
Last week we began a discussion of the ten things that are the most frequent barriers to real succession planning. Failure to plan this important event is an invitation to disappointment frustration and alienation among family and staff. This week continues that discussion with #7. 7. Entitlement Often referred to as the “lucky sperm club” […]
10 Barriers To Succession Planning In the Funeral Business — Part 1 of 3
Speaker and family business expert John Davis made this comment as he addressed the St. Thomas Center For Family Enterprise: “When I introduce the concept of making the B.O.S.S. successful all heads turn towards the father. I announce to the father he has just been demoted, and that the real boss around here is four […]
Signs Your Preneed Program is Underperforming
With almost 30 year’s experience I think I can safely say I know something about Preneed selling and marketing. Sadly, it has been my experience that most independent funeral homes practice a form of benign mediocrity in which everyone fails to reach their potential but they all love working together. “Happy Failures” is what we […]
MERRY CHRISTMAS
As we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I hope this video brings you a little joy.
Empathy / Sympathy A Very Important Difference
Unlike most other professions funeral practitioners must operate within an often sensitive emotional environment. Let’s call it emotionally charged. We know too well that sympathy can often backfire but empathy is never lost. Sympathy can often take someone lower but empathy often lifts up. God was angry with Job’s friends but I have always been […]
How To Stop Customers From Fixating On Price
Equalize Price Points to Crystallize Personal Relevance. This is the first recession to show a measurable impact on DeathCare. Most surprising have been the many reports from rural and “rustbelt” funeral directors that cremation has recently spiked, not because people in their markets want cremation but BECAUSE THEY CAN’T AFFORD BURIAL. YIKES!!!! A recent article […]
Are You A Change Champion?
There are, in fact, many firms today that remain in denial that our profession has changed dramatically and will continue to change into the foreseeable future. We cannot help them. I have lost count of the financial statements I have analyzed over the last several years. What strikes me is that virtually all of them […]
The Excellence Trap: How We Confuse Efficiency With Effectiveness
Are you a shop foreman or a leader? In recent years a new focus has crept in to the profession. We are trending toward becoming shop foremen instead of leaders. The belief being that we must measure everything and compare everyone to everyone else. This is, in fact, a good idea and a long time […]
Sharks and People
One man sat at a stop light. The woman in front of him was going through papers on the seat of her car, and when the light changed to green she didn’t go. A green light is not a suggestion, you know, it is more of a commandment. But she didn’t notice. When the light […]
Caregiver or Martyr? Beware the Rescuer Trap
Are you addicted to helping others or are your customer relationships creating unhealthy responses? Perhaps you’ve fallen victim to the Rescuer Syndrome. One of the common threads I am discovering as I get deeper into the study of culture within the funeral profession is the belief that one must be a “suffering servant” doing what […]
Making Myself Unnecessary
I am a little annoyed with myself. As I address this topic of Leadership i find that I have fallen into the same trap as most others. I have succeeded in treating the difference between managers and leaders as two ends of a continuum and conveying the impression that one (managers) is bad and the […]
PP*2 ≠ FF
Protecting the Past and Perfecting the Present Does Not Equal Finding a Future. Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic is a behavior often seen in organizations responding to massive change. Why is that? and why is it so prevalent in DeathCare. It turns out our century old culture is to blame and resolving a […]
Now For Something Completely New
As I travel about the country I encounter a lot of good ideas and some bad. It seems to me that my readers might enjoy learning about some of these first hand. Not long ago I encountered a young funeral home owner who had improved on an old idea. In fact, when I first saw […]
What DeathCare Can Learn From The Way Women Dress…An Epiphany
Insights come from the strangest places. This time from why women dress the way they do. My wife has bad feet. Most women do. Why? Because women’s shoes are not designed for practicality. They are intended only to create an impression. Comfort and productivity, as purpose, are lost in favor of competing with others. When […]
FUNERAL SERVICE : YOUR FLY IS UNZIPPED
OR WHY FUNERAL DIRECTORS ARE NEUROTIC A pastor friend once told me: “The test of love is whether or not you are willing to tell someone their fly is unzipped.” Funeral service I love what you do and I love many of you. Your fly is unzipped. My phone rings: “Al, this is Ron.” Me: […]
Our Industry’s Self Talk: The Bad and the Great.
Alternative Title: It’s Time To Get Over Yourself! Not long ago I was part of a group studying the challenges of recruitment in the funeral profession. I was stunned to hear the “table talk” of practicing funeral directors. Our conversations centered around why people wouldn’t want to be funeral directors…the long and unpredictable work hours, […]
On Motivation – Money Is Not The Answer
Did you know that money is not a motivator. It is only a hygiene factor. Paying too little creates dissatisfaction…paying fairly only takes away the bone of contention…paying too much does not create enthusiasm and can often lead to dissatisfaction. So what really motivates people. It’s simpler than you think and if you are as […]
I Wish I Had Said That:
Sometimes you read stuff and it fits so perfectly all you are left with is: “I wish I had said that.” Just as I was preparing my next followup article on how to make yourself unnecessary Linked-In published this blog post. Since I couldn’t improve on it I will just share it. If you are […]
On Becoming Unnecessary
Funeral Service is simultaneously over managed and under led. The key to overcoming the “Being Necessary” complex is to recognize the difference between management and leadership. It is the overmanagement that creates all the physical and emotional stress in this profession. More to the point the current trends in misapplying management data is turning professionals […]
Are You Too Necessary?
Saturday morning, January 7, 2012 my phone rings at home. “Al, this is Bob. Guess where I am?.” Bob Neiman is a successful internet entrepreneur who flies his own plane and dominates a narrow niche in the construction industry. Bob and his wife Amy have been friends of ours for many years now. Amy is […]
4 Early Signs You May Be Losing Control of Your Business
Recently I read something that triggered an insight. In my Funeral Home Consulting practice it is clear that businesses don’t just suddenly spin out of control. Except in the rare case of disruptive innovation like an unconventional competitor, calamity does not occur overnight. “Things” start happening well before the challenges are apparent. Almost all of […]
He Is Risen
Here is a short video for Good Friday to remind us that Jesus lives. Watch it, you might be surprised where He lives. Have a wonderful Easter
Is this REALLY a Hill Worth Dying on?
I think I can make a very strong case that funeral service as a profession makes a vital social contribution to society. For me that makes it a noble profession. Unfortunately, the profession doesn’t act with nobility as often as so many of us would wish. Not long ago I spoke of Alpha Dogs and […]
“If You Find You Are Riding A Dead Horse The Best Strategy is…
to dismount.” Archimedes once said, “Give me a lever long enough and I will move the world” For the last 30 years we have been pushing harder and harder on one and only one lever with diminishing results and it’s time we stopped. Many of you, dear readers, know that I have been a bible […]
PTSD: The Slow Leak in Funeral Service’ Tire
As we enter our 3rd month following the Newtown disaster our nation has long since settled back into its routine fighting over symptoms and ignoring causes. I find myself reflecting on a hidden issue. A secret only occasionally mentioned and then quickly dismissed. No doubt those directly involved following this latest trauma are still affected […]
Why The Answer Is Not Just Increasing Volume
I am an accountant. As I have watched the financial metrics of funeral service continue in their long slow decline over the past 30 years my natural response was “make it up in volume.” But then I had the good fortune to get my hands dirty. I actually managed a funeral home and worked along side […]
Esse Quam Videri
I have to admit I tense up whenever someone begins using the Ritz Carlton as an example Funeral Service should use to fashion its own customer service profile. Not that we can’t learn some things from the Ritz. We most certainly can! But it is a dangerous recommendation when we fail to “Go Deep” on […]
The Road To Reclaiming Our Future
There is a way to a better future for Funeral Service. In fact, for those who are willing to closely examine the Sacred Cows I truly believe we will rediscover that we make a vital contribution to society. I say that not only because I have believed it for more than 30 years but because […]
ALPHA DOGS AND THE ROAD TO NOWHERE
WHY WE CAN’T AFFORD TO FOLLOW YOUR LEAD ANYMORE Alpha Dogs are frequently those “Type A” personalities that exercise undue influence on others, especially organizations. You find them in every group of people. By their nature and sheer force of personality they tend to cause people to follow their lead whether they know where they […]
EXPERT OPINION: 5 Tips for Positioning Your Funeral Home for Success in the New Year
Did your funeral home achieve all of its goals for 2012? Does the increasing number of families selecting cremation with no services have you concerned? 2013 is a new year that brings a new set of goals to help reboot you business and your team. The New Year is the perfect time to create new […]
Doing Nothing Costs Too Much
On my office wall I have framed photos of three men. If I asked you what they have in common I anticipate I would get many different answers but, for me, there is only one answer. Each, in his own way, despite significant personal tragedy and unimaginable public pressure and emotional stress understood the importance […]
WIND IS CHANGING-UPDATE
If you were not able to access the video on this week’s post, “THE WIND IS CHANGING” it is now working or you can go directly to youtube by clicking here.
The Wind Is Changing – The Conversation Project
For months now I have been telling DeathCare that the wind is changing in our favor. The public attitude toward death and dying is changing at the GLOBAL level. For the present those involved in this are all “grass roots” initiatives springing up independent of each other wherever I look. I have examples in Singapore […]
Burials down 4%…Cremations up 2.5%…Calculate Your Funeral Cliff
With all the hype about our nation’s pending FISCAL CLIFF, I was recently asked when we could expect funeral service to reach it’s fiscal cliff. For a number of years now it seems that if it weren’t for bad news we wouldn’t have any news at all. Rumor has it that Batesville was reporting last […]
HAMMERS, NAILS, PEWS AND HEARSES
My discussion of reinvention / transformation has sparked more comment (online and offline) than most any other topic. Clearly it is on every one’s mind. As we continue to explore this topic it is important…maybe critical…that we realize that we have an obligation to ourselves and to the public to be conscious of keeping a […]
Terrorism and Funeral Service: The Secret Sauce
What is the link between Terrorism and Funeral Service? Well, you have to read a very short story and watch an even shorter video to find out. But the rewards will be worth it because I am going to reveal some of my secret sauce. A few years ago a friend shared that: “Alan see […]
REINVENTION: THE ARRANGEMENTS CONFERENCE–ENTERING THE “HOLY OF HOLIES”
In Old Testament Days the Hebrew Temple contained the “Holy of Holies” behind the “Veil of The Temple”. The Ark of The Covenant which, in turn, held the stone tablets on which were written the Ten Commandments and Moses’ rod was inside this area. So sacred was it that only one priest was allowed to […]
REINVENTION: PROFIT CLINICS
There is a level of neglect in our profession that will (and is) causing too many to approach the end of their careers facing great disappointment, forcing the postponement of retirement or spending retirement much more humbly than anticipated. It is too dangerous to be considered benign. Dangerous, certainly, at the individual firm level. […]
Reinvention: A 3 Pronged Plan
I once heard a sermon that now seems appropriate to this last in my series on reinvention. We all know the story of Jesus healing the blind. This sermon wondered not about the healing but THE DAY AFTER. The man’s whole life was turned upside down. He had KNOWN HOW to be blind. His livelihood depended on […]
REINVENTION: The “Valley Of Death”–Your Cycle Of Grief
Last week I referred to Andrew Grove‘s comments relative to the reinvention of Intel in which he referred to the process as the “Valley of Death.” Strategic Inflection Points: what happens to a business when a major change takes place in its competitive environment… what is key is that they require a fundamental change in […]
What You Should Know About Reinventing Yourself Before You Start
Reinvention will soon become the latest catchword in the DeathCare professions. I agree! Reinvention has been a long time coming. But I fear that many have already mistaken cosmetic touchups to our traditional practices as reinvention thus fooling themselves into continued complacency. There are many shades of reinvention and the magnitude of the one called […]
New Research: Why 99% of Funeral Facilities Reinforce Negative Stereotype
The Funeral Service Foundation has just released the results of its “Bleeding Edge” research project with world renowned Olson-Zaltman Associates simultaneously revealing both disturbing and encouraging insights. Recognizing that the growth of cremation has more than doubled (leaping from 1% to more than 2% annually in the last several years) The Funeral Service Foundation commissioned the unconventional market […]
The Non Question: Why Are Funerals So Expensive?
This question and its brother: “How much does a funeral cost?” Are non questions. When we attempt to answer them directly with rational logical explanations we only end up annoying most people. Especially if we weigh them down with a litany of hours, cost of having a building and the time we waste being ready […]
Video: If You Want A High Performing Organization Are You Measuring The Right Things?
My hero, Peter Drucker, believed: “For the organization to perform to a high standard, its members must believe that what it is doing is, in the last analysis, the one contribution to community and society on which all others depend.” For more than 30 years I have believed that DeathCare makes just such a contribution. […]
A Model For Change Within Your Organization
Here is an interesting perspective on implementing change within your own organization. Most funeral homes and cemeteries are at level III. One or two are possibly at level IV. To my knowledge, I have never been exposed to a level V. Where Do You Fit on The Scale? Will it be your tribe that changes […]
The Simpler The Strategy The More Likely The Success
Why do DeathCare Practitioners get these “Deer In The Headlight” looks when you use the word “Strategy” in their presence? I think it’s partly because they don’t really know where to start what can really be a pretty simple activity. And, besides, somebody keeps changing the starting point every darn day. If you attend enough conventions […]
Lessons On Leadership: Peak Performance From Adequate People
Peter Drucker was the first to draw a parallel between Leadership and Orchestra Conductors when he observed: “A great orchestra is not composed of great musicians but of adequate ones who produce at their peak. [A great conductor] has to make productive what he has…the players are nearly unchangeable. So it is the conductor’s people […]
You Must Be Present To Win
In the near future the difference between winning and losing in DeathCare will be a result of one factor: LEADERSHIP. Yet many owners and general managers are confusing supervision with leadership and are in danger of turning themselves into nothing more than shop foremen. Too many funeral home owners blame their staff for the lack of […]
Licensing Laws: Barrier To Survival
I feel like maybe I have backed myself into a corner. Price-Led-Costing A simple concept; but for an industry steeped in generations of pricing from exactly the opposite perspective and whose most respected financial advisors continue to advocate cost-led-pricing this is bound to be a real challenge. To enable you, dear reader, to flip the […]
Building A Competitive Fortress Through Your Pricing Strategy
Last week I addressed our broken pricing model referred to as Cost-Led-Pricing. Apropos of everything this article came to my attention Tough times add hardship to heartache: More families ask for help paying for funerals underscoring the problem created by our outdated pricing strategy and causing me to wonder if maybe we won’t need to eventually […]
This Blog Is Interrupted For Something Much More Important
I know you are busy but YOU HAVE TO READ THIS! If you want to know what our future is about then I want to share a key example. Something that began just a few years ago and is now starting to pop up with a frequency that makes it into a trend. A trend […]
A Broken Business Model: Wringing More Money Out of Your Best Customers Is Not Sustainable
This image illustrates so well the folly of our more than century old pricing model. All was good until the market changed about 30 years ago. Because we didn’t know anything else (and neither did our advisors) our response to the growth in cremation has been to beef up our burial prices and focus […]
A Strange Bathroom Encounter–A Rite of Passage
It was between sessions at an NFDA convention and busy in the bathroom. An older gentleman approached me and asked brusquely, “Are you Alan Creedy?” Given his demeanour, for a moment, I wasn’t sure whether to say yes or run. I finally said yes. What he said next made me wish he had chosen […]
Expert opinion: What To Say When They Say “Dad Wanted Nothing”
A few years ago I was meeting with a husband and wife who operated a very successful funeral home. Like most successful people they were always looking for new ideas to help them stay in front of their competitors. To protect their privacy I’ll call them Bill and Jane. Over the course of our two […]
Are You Tired of Burying Your Local Treasure?
My friend, Ed Mazur of Kapinos-Mazur Funeral Home, ran a very successful PR / Public Service program in his local community. The campaign featured this poster and newspaper ads. Weekends were set aside to encourage parents to clean out unused medication from their medicine cabinets and bring them to the funeral home. On the first […]
Expert Opinion: Size Matters: Making the Case for Growth
Why is bigger better when it comes to creating memorable experiences? Look at any successful service business, whether it’s a hospital, a hotel, a restaurant or even a funeral home, and you’re bound to come away with one undeniable message: the experience you create for your customers and guests is crucial to the future of […]
Kudo’s to Batesville Casket
One of my favorite bloggers is Caleb Wilde who writes “Confessions of A Funeral Director.” He recently Posted this photo. Texting while Driving: A Great Way to Support Your Local Funeral Director For those of you that don’t know, Batesville, Indiana is the Mecca of the Funeral Industry as it houses the great Batesville Casket […]
Why Families Seem Ruder Today and Some Tips on How To Respond
Funeral Directors are increasingly distressed about being treated rudely by families. This rudeness often causes practitioners to lose control of vital conversations at critical moments. Industry vendors know that Funeral Directors can be very rude as well. In my opinion the reasons both are rude is fundamentally the same. And Yes! Funeral Directors can […]
Expert Opinion: Some Things Are Obvious
Here is an excerpt of an interrogation of a witness in a Massachusetts trial court: Lawyer: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? Doctor: no. Lawyer: did you check for blood pressure? Doctor: no. Lawyer: so, it’s possible the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? Doctor: no Lawyer: […]
Death Goes Mainstream
last week in my article “Funerals as Counter Culture” I made a bold statement: “After 50 years of steady decline in public attitudes towards funerals the pendulum is swinging back our way. Like Croci in the spring, the signs are poking through the frost…” No sooner was that article published than I was exposed to […]
Funerals As Counter Culture
Are we rapidly moving toward a “Post-Funeral”culture? I don’t think so. After 50 years of steady decline in public attitudes towards funerals the pendulum is swinging back our way. Like Croci in the spring, the signs are poking through the frost if you will just look and this week’s post is one excellent example. 30 […]
New Book on Reinventing Your Business Features Funeral Home
I read a lot and sometimes I preorder new books. This Winter I preordered “THE REINVENTORS, How Extraordinary Companies Pursue Radical Continuous Change“ By Jason Jennings. I started reading it last week and when I turned to page 60 lo and behold what did I see? My friend Bill McQueen as one of the case […]
How to Create a 60 Second Elevator Speech
Marketing experts tell us that we should be able to express our unique selling proposition (USP) in such a compelling way in less than 60 seconds that the hearer will ask to know more. Here is great two step way to do that. Purpose: Create interest and dialogue about what you do and the value […]
Liking What You Do Is Not The Issue
I was visiting with a friend last week and the conversation went, briefly, to some mutual acquaintances. We noted how angry they had become as their careers had progressed and concluded they were really frustrated with the career they had inherited from their parents. Disappointment is a normal part of life. Some respond with increasing […]
Why Burning Platforms Are Necessary for Change
Most DeathCare Practitioners are aware of their need to change to accomodate a changing consumer. What many lack, unfortunately, is the motivation to change. According to a November 2011 article in The Harvard Business Review by Peter Fuda and Richard Badham the motivation for change requires us to view our circumstances as if we were […]
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 […]
Expert Opinion: The Need to Be Nimble
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 […]
The Real Victims of Our Cowardice
In the past few weeks I have used strong negative language: Cowardice…Fight… Neglect Please understand: this is not an emotional reaction on my part. Instead, it is an intentional effort to call you out. And it is this “intentionality” that I encourage you to undertake as well. It is time we, as a profession, […]
Expert Opinion: Game Changers
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 […]
The Secret Sauce: How We Might Resurrect DeathCare
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 […]
Don’t Confuse Me With Your Facts
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 […]
Disenthrall Yourself of Your Dogma
“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.” […]
Funeral Apologetics 101A: Eight Principles of Successful Optimism
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 […]
Funeral Apologetics 101: Stop Clinging To Your Despair
[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. […]
The Problem is Not Cremation…
…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 […]
Book Review: When Growth Stalls
When Growth Stalls, How it happens, why you’re stuck and what to do about it. By Steve McKee, Jossey-Bass 2009 “when growth stalls, everything begins to break down. Confidence wanes, and it can be difficult to tell which problems are cause and which are effect.” This simple statement hits too close to home in an industry […]
EXPERT OPINION: How Are Funeral Directors Like Bankers?
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 […]
EXPERT OPINION: HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR SHARE-OF-WALLET
A few years ago we came to the realization that there was a real necessity to review our system. Not all calls are equal in service type, in merchandise and in revenue. The old system indicated that direct cremation had the same market share value as a traditional burial. In a sense that is true. […]
Social Media: Why Discussion Groups Annoy Me
I recently joined several industry discussion groups. I had heard that Selected Independent had a great one and, since I am not a member and can’t join it, I joined several others. I guess I am naive because I was hoping to really engage in some meaningful discussion forum about industry issues with people expressing […]
Why Your Business Will Be Worth As Much As 8.8% less in 2013
Remember that bill congress needed to pass to see what was in it? Well, surprise!! The Medicare Tax has been expanded to include almost ALL income (active and passive) over $200k for singles and $250k for couples. This even includes the gain on the sale of a personal residence over the exclusion amount. If the […]
EXPERT OPINION: How to Be Exceptional in the “New Normal”
When asked what it was that made him so exceptional a hockey player, Wayne Gretzky is said to have responded, “I see my job a little different from most other hockey players.” Pressed for details, he said, “my job is to skate to where the puck is going to be.” The question that all of […]
Are Funeral Directors “wired” to Lose in The “New Normal” Part 3
Last week in part 2 of this series we learned that “Challengers” don’t educate, they teach. They are not afraid of pushing their customers to think in new ways. We also learned that while people may like those who are nice to them, they like those who help them gain new insights even more. But […]
Are Funeral Directors “Wired” to Lose in The “New Normal” Part 2
Last week, in Part 1 of this series, we explored the idea that funeral Directors, as consummate relationship builders, may be wired to lose in an environment that has changed radically over the past 30 years. Based on non-industry research we posited that the “Challenger” style was 13 times more likely to succeed in the […]
Are Funeral Directors “Wired” To Lose In the “New Normal”? Part 1
DeathCare has been losing ground relative to consumers for almost 30 years. Now comes research that may explain why and what to do about it. To many observers (myself among them) what we sell seems well on the road to becoming a commodity. As a means of moving market share, differentiation based on price seems […]
Happy New Year! Here Are a Few of This Year’s Favorite Posts
Here are the year’s top favorites: a tv ad that will move market share To Guarantee or Not Guarantee Preneed Trust Vs. Insurance Video Interview with Steve Mckee: “When Growth Stalls” free sites that let you spy on your competitor’s website 10 Reasons to Be Optimistic About DeathCare The Emperor Has No Clothes Sometimes A Sharp […]
False Alarm: Amazon.com Stops Selling Preneed Cremation
Don’t know what happened but it seems Amazon pulled the promotion before it really got started. My thanks to Tom Parmalee for alerting me. click here to read more. I do like the Obama urn idea. (just kidding)
Amazon.com Starts Selling Preneed Cremation
Well it had to happen. You have a new competitor. Merry Christmas!! As of Monday December 12 Amazon is offering preneed cremation services through Smart Cremation a Redmond, Washington based provider of cremation services. Click Here to learn more.
Free Sites That Let You Spy on Your Competitors Website
Google adplanner is a site analyzing any site for those thinking about buying advertising. I doubt you will find either your or your competitor’s stats as the traffic would be too small. Here two screenshots showing the results for dignitymemorial.com. Click to enlarge. […]
Apparently some people aren’t too proud to use humor…hats off to Schmidt and Bartelt
A week ago I published a post that suggested humor would work in funeral service but expressed doubt anyone would do it. Well, I am grateful to say I was wrong. Congratulations to Schmidt and Bartelt. These ads will work but I do have one suggestion. The “call-to-action” should be stronger. A close something like: […]
A TV ad that will move Market Share…but are you too proud?
I do my best to keep these posts short. I know your time is important. But, on your behalf, I am a little shook up. One of the benefits of age is wisdom. I have seen so many things come and go that i don’t shake up easily. Yesterday, I was introduced to one […]
This Is Your Wake Up Call: Litigators Focus on DeathCare
The article linked below appeared in the August 2010 issue of “Plaintiff Magazine”and was brought to my attention by my friend Ernie Heffner. It is a MUST read for all DeathCare Practitioners. My Recommendation: print it out and require all your funeral staff to read it. Just some highlights from this attorney author to his […]
Funeral Service: The Race To The Bottom… is that a “Blue Ocean” I see?
Race To The Bottom is more than just a phrase, it is a political theory and Funeral Service seems to have embraced it with vigor. Before I get into the theory it is good to be reminded that “whenever everyone is doing it, a blue ocean appears where no one is.” “Blue Oceans”, as opposed […]
IRS Cracks Down On Independent Contractor Status Abuse
In this article in the Wall Street Journal we learn that the IRS is getting serious about the misuse of Independent Contractor relationships to avoid classifying certain workers as employees subject to all the rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act. This is important for many funeral homes because most still treat preneed sales people […]
Things Not To Do Or Say When You Fire Someone
There is a difference between a disciplinary interview and a termination meeting. Disciplinary meetings are about second chances and action plans. Termination meetings are about neither. 1. Never reconsider in a termination meeting. Firing is always a last resort. Hopefully, you have already given warnings and second chances. Some employees will try to negotiate […]
DIY Funerals: Another Innovation That Goes Backwards To Go Forward
One of my techie friends told me recently that the term “Home Funerals” is the second most searched term relating to funerals on the internet. AHEAD OF CREMATION, which is third. As many of you know it has been my observation that almost all of the innovation in our profession for the past 15 years […]
How Insurance Companies Make Money: Wisdom From Warren Buffett
When I first began negotiating with insurance companies some 25 years ago I made the same mistake now common in the funeral profession: I assumed they made their money the way all “normal” businesses do. In other words we generate revenue through sales we pay for our merchandise at wholesale prices generating a cost-of-sales and […]
Preneed 402b: How to Compare Apples With Apples: Insurance Products
Having addressed, last week, assumptive fallacies let’s look at the actual mechanics of comparing products. Here is an apples to apples comparison of 4 products from 3 of the 4 companies I would be willing to work with. CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE IT IN FULL SCALE. Notice that for each product the Prearrangement […]
Preneed 402a: How to Compare Apples With Apples: Insurance Products
To keep this as brief as possible I am breaking it into two segments. One this week and another next. I am sure, dear reader, you have already experienced how difficult it is to compare insurance products on an “Apples to Apples” basis. I am briefly going to share with you what I have learned over the […]
Preneed Math 301: Commissions
The theory of commissions is that it motivates producers to produce more. This is not necessarily true. What is true is that if you overpay two things happen: Your program becomes economically unsustainable and your producer becomes demotivated. Here is why: First, It is my absolute belief that preneed selling should never…repeat…never… be a burden […]
Preneed Math 201: How Many Counselors Do You Really Need?
Last week I shared with you that the general rule of thumb is one counselor per 200 calls. I also pointed out that this is more a political question than a mathematical one. Here is why: All counselors believe in their hearts that there is not enough business to go around. If you serve 150 […]
Preneed Math 101: How To Tell If Your Counselor Is Working
There is a lot of misunderstanding and just plain myth about how much preneed a preneed counselor would sell if a preneed counselor would sell preneed. In my 25 year experience operating one of the largest third party marketers I have found ways to discern between performers and underperformers Annual Contracts This math is […]
Greatest Hits: How To Get Customers to Stop Fixating On Price
Well, it’s summer time and I am on vacation. So, I thought I would resurrect some of my most popular articles The first is a series I wrote last summer entitled: “How To Get Customers To Stop Fixating On Price” Part 1: “Equalize Price Points to Crystallize Personal Relevance” Part 2: “Using Price to Clarify Your […]
Is Wall Street Interested in DeathCare Again?
One of the ways I spot trends is to look for frequency of mentions in publications. This last week The Motley Fool seems to be spending a lot of space on DeathCare. Specifically, SCI, Stonemor, Stewart and Hillenbrand. As an analyst I find some of their insights and methods to be interesting Is Service Corp […]
How to avoid the 7 Deadly Mistakes Websites Miss
These are good tips. I know many of my readers have autoplay music or “walk-ons” so you need to know I agree with point number 4! How to avoid the 7 Deadly Mistakes Websites Miss
Preneed 401: Trust Vs. Insurance
This may seem like a “Yawner” topic but it’s important and I am going to make it short. Let’s pretend that you walk into a bank or trust company with, say, 15 contracts totaling a $100,000 in prearrangement value. You say to your banker that you want him to track each contract separately, invest in […]
What’s It Like To Watch Someone You Love Die?
It has been the vision of many DeathCare firms to become the death resource for their community. All too often this leads to a focus on post death issues as well as funeral planning. But for Boomers there is also a need for learning to cope with predeath issues…especially what it is like to watch […]
How To Access Local Caregiver Influencers
We know a few things: There are 48,000,000 people who are active adult caregivers in the U.S. Many Boomers are currently active caregivers or anticipate soon becoming one. If the surviving spouse is still living at the time of the funeral someone you are talking to is already a caregiver or soon will be. If […]
Pixie Dust Strategy: Why It Never Works
Wow! I really have it on for social networking…or maybe some experts are starting to agree with me. Either way it feels good. The link below is a lengthy blog but worth reading for all you DeathCare practitioners who are continually looking for the “Next Best Things” and the “Pied Pipers” who prey on them. […]
10 Reasons I Am Optimistic About DeathCare
As you may have gleaned from other writings I believe DeathCare is at The Threshold of The Single Greatest Opportunity in 150 Years! Here are ten reasons I believe this: Reason 10: From this point forward 10,000 “Baby Boomers” will turn 65 EVERY DAY for at least the next 20 years Reason 9: We are […]
Confessions Of An Anxiety Addict
It began when I read this on the wall of a doctor’s office: “When you expect things to happen, Strangely enough, they will happen. Your expectations energize your goals And give them momentum. Your life will always respond to your Outlook. So, set your goals high. You must first expect to succeed if You want […]
Bless The Ku Klux Klan
I couldn’t bring myself to say God Bless but, still, in a piece of irony that deserves comment The Klan may have a chance to do something our government wouldn’t. Classic Story of “Thug Meets Thug!” see this link. Klan faces Off Against Westboro Church
Bad Math Leads To Poor Decisions
I am sure that those of you who practice the art of embalming are annoyed when you see other practitioners making the same mistake over and over again. I have a similar reaction when I see other DeathCare advisors in trade journals making the same errors over and over again. A particular pet peeve is […]
Why I Would Display a Trappist Casket
I am now at an age where friends are calling me to help with their prearrangements. Yesterday was my 4th this year. As I accompanied him into the selection room I was once again met with a flat line pricing strategy (see How To Get Customers to Stop Fixating on Price) and I really like […]
Are You A Leader Or A Manager?
A few years ago I attended a breakfast honoring Alabama University football coach Nick Saban. In his remarks he shared with us that he begins every season with the statement: “I didn’t come here to be irrelevant!” Those 8 words profoundly illustrate a simple principle: the difference between leadership thinking and management thinking. Leaders ask […]
Happiness is Positive Cash Flow- A Quick and Easy Way to Model Cash Flow
What business owner wouldn’t agree that Cash is King. Here is a quick and easy way to find your break even point and model out various changes you might make to revenue or expenses at no cost to you. Answer a few simple questions and this free DIY Calculator tells you: How your stats compare […]
Why Funeral Directors Need Two Eyes
In his controversial series challenging the belief that Funeral Service is in the “Grief Business” Dale Clock provocatively pushes us to examine what business we are really in. It is a conversation long overdue and, regardless of which side you are on, absolutely necessary to our future. This is more than an “academic” conversation. For it […]
Facebook Revenge: Social Media Rules of Engagement
I have found that “unfriending” people (in particular vendors using this mechanism to solicit) is an emotionally rewarding pastime…and I don’t think I am alone. As you know I have been trying to get my head around this social media thing. (See “You Annoy Me”) You probably also know that I like Epiphanies. And I […]
How 1% = 20% Profit Increase
I recently read about a research project conducted by McKinsey & Company, a world renowned consulting company. They found that among a select group of 1200 global companies, a 1% increase in average prices would translate into an 11% increase in profits. Assuming demand remains constant, an additional study revealed that the same 1% […]
Sometimes A Sharp Stick In The Eye Can Be A Good Thing
Recently my friend, Dale Clock, wrote an article entitled “Should Funeral Homes Be In The Grief Business?” His position is that they should not for several reasons including: The formal involvement in “Grief” has failed to move the needle Not everyone needs it It is an indication we are failing to listen to the public […]
1st Installment of Industry Commentary Now Available
Download Free For Subscribers This year’s Biannual Commentary has been broken down into 3 installments. Get the first one today by clicking on the photo below Log in Now and Get Your FREE Copy We Stand At The Threshold of our Greatest Opportunity…It is ours to lose! Yet lose it we will if we don’t […]
This I Understand: The Good Side of Social Media
Several weeks ago I received an email from a friend sharing why he had chosen to be so active in social media. He gave me permission to reproduce it here. I like reading his posts for the reasons he outlines below. They are winsome, occasionally challenging, often amusing and they accomplish very well exactly what […]
You Annoy Me: The Dark Side of Social Media
I “unfriended” my second person today. They got under my skin. And I am thinking about my third “unfriend” with growing anticipation. I see a pattern emerging that I think might be helpful for all you other folks trying to make sense of this social media stuff. Before I go further let me clarify I am […]
We Need To Stop Hiding
Two weeks ago in my article, “A Horrifying Revelation About Price”, I adressed two issues: Opportunity Cost and our inadequacy in handling price shoppers. Last week I drilled down a little deeper on the issue of Opportunity Cost in “If Lee Iacocca Owned a Funeral Home”. This week I will do the same for the […]
If Lee Iacocca Owned a Funeral Home
There is an apocryphal story in accountant circles about Lee Iacocca’s first day as CEO of Chrysler. As the story goes, Mr. Iacocca’s very first act was to call in the Chief Financial Officer and ask how many day’s cash was on hand. The CFO responded that the company had 3 day’s cash available. Mr. […]
A Horrifying Revelation About Price
I have long believed that most price shoppers in DeathCare begin with the price question solely because they don’t know what else to ask. That belief supports another which holds that what most shoppers are really looking for is someone they can trust. Thus I understood why it was important that we engage shoppers over […]
FaceBook Rolls Out New Brand Page Design
I have to admit I don’t know why I find myself commenting on Social Media as much as I do. I guess, like you, I am still trying to figure it out. I have noticed that I am getting messages telling me about FaceBook changes fairly frequently and I have even had to go in […]
What Do Social Media Users and Cavemen Have In Common?
Olson / Zaltman is an internationally recognized market research firm spawned out of Harvard and Penn State Universities. They developed and patented the groundbreaking research methodology (ZMET) that opens the subconscious metaphors consumers use to make buying decisions. Now widely used by the world’s largest institutions and businesses to develop marketing strategies, they are turning […]
5 Emotional Stages of Selling Your Business
Selling a business is a highly practical exercise wrapped in a thick emotional blanket. Much like the grief cycle we know so well in DeathCare there are stages that are common and, if you know about them, you can prepare. The more prepared you are the better you will be able to negotiate what you […]
Managers Vs. Leaders: Which Are You?
As a student of leadership and as a “Benchmark” Assessor for the Center for Creative Leadership, I am well aware of the impact poor leadership has on results. The problem, in my mind, is the historical emphasis on styles more appropriate to factory settings than businesses that actually interface with the public. The difference between a manager […]
Great Advice on Turning Your Business Around
I started my career in business turnarounds in the 1970’s when I worked for a company whose business it was to buy and “refurbish” distressed businesses and resell them. DeathCare is in need of a turn around. There are different types of turnaround strategies and turnaround strategists. Many are simply liquidators who cut costs so drastically […]
The Emperor Has No Clothes
What employee turnover reveals about your leadership. Employee turnover can reveal a lot of things. Surely turnover is normal but both too much and too little are signs of serious management issues. The pressures of the last ten years have led many in DeathCare to be frustrated with their employees. An attitude has sprung up […]
Social Media Run Amok: Invasion of Privacy
Wow!! Big Brother is watching. I really don’t pay much attention to the issue of privacy. But I learned something today that really spooked me. Go to www.spokeo.com and enter your name. This site aggregates publicly available information and makes it as easy as a couple of clicks to find out a whole lot more […]
What Are Your Views on Funeral Home Brokers? Is There a Possible Conflict of Interest?
A few weeks ago, in response to a series of commentaries on business valuation, a reader asked this very good question: “What are your views on funeral home brokers? I know Johnson Consulting will perform a valuation and then broker the sale, but how is it possible to ensure that the company doing the valuation […]
Christ and Liberty: An Old Message for Modern Times
In 1949 noted journalist Vermont Royster wrote an unusual editorial about St. Paul and his mission. In an extraordinary editorial phenomenon The Wall Street Journal has been republishing it annually since. As we celebrate our Savior’s birth and consider the political state of today’s world we do well to take 5 minutes and reread Mr. […]
If Christ Had Not Come
“A number of years ago a remarkable Christian Christmas card was published by the title ‘If Christ had not come‘. It was based on the Savior’s own words, ‘If I had not come,’ in John 15:22. The card pictured a minister falling asleep in his study on Christmas morning and then dreaming of a world […]
Do Boomers Find Your Website Annoying?
Funeral Home Websites have come a long way in the last 5 years. Yet, most sites still remain fairly primitive. One mistake many websites make (funeral and nonfuneral) is not understanding how their specific target market relates to websites in general. Because many web developers and programmers are still relatively young and our audience is […]
Are You Too Proud to Succeed?
A problem, certainly not unique to DeathCare but just as certainly profoundly prevalent, is an artificial sense of professionalism. Born out of defining success by what people might think of us, it blocks our ability to succeed by making us unwilling to “Stoop To Greatness”. I just received this two page post from Patrick Lencioni’s […]
Is Your Company Coherent?
Booz & Company, one of the foremost consulting leaders in innovation, has discovered a link between performance and strategy called “Coherence.” For a company to be described as coherent, it must be resolutely focused on the interrelationship among three critical elements: its market position (its chosen “way to play” against competitors); its most distinctive capabilities, […]
Social Media Is Kinda Like Wearing Your Underpants on the Outside of Your Pants
First, it is important to say that ignoring the current social media trend is akin to ignoring the increasingly vital need to have a viable website. Second, one of my concerns (but not the subject of this article) is that being active in social media like Facebook and Twitter has the potential to mislead many […]
Social Media: How To Get The Phone To Ring
I consider Frank Dawson of Dawson Funeral Homes in E. Liverpool, Oh. to be the “Grand Master” of social media. With it he has not only built his business but created a veritable competitive “fortress.” He has done this by applying a simple axiomatic human principle. Watch this video to learn more about that principle […]
Want More Calls? Get Up Off Your…
Two key social media levers that have nothing to do with technology With all the recent buzz about social media, I think it is important to remember that social media is not new. In fact, there are a few practitioners who mastered social media decades ago and built veritable “competitive fortresses” on the concept. There […]
Funeral Home Valuation Part 4: The Final Chapter
We have now learned about 3 key variables in arriving at a value for your funeral home: What a multiple is and where it comes from What is EBITDA and why do we use it How to “normalize” your financial statement presentation Now we will pull all this together so you can begin to play […]
Here Is a Video that Deserves To Be Viral
Get your crying towel out. This is a great video and I hope you will help make it viral. click below to see someone making a difference one life at a time.
Send Out Cards: Creating Customer Loyalty in a Powerful Old Way
My friend Frank Dawson in E. Liverpool, OH has created a veritable competitive fortress by leveraging a simple principle: It was Mary Kay Ash who, when asked the key to her success, said, “I reminded myself every day that EVERYONE wants to feel important.” Frank sends personal notes, often with a photograph enclosed, on average […]
Alan Creedy: Sensory Rich Mission Statements Work
It is accepted wisdom that companies should have a mission statement. In most cases this exercise produces a plain vanilla restatement of something that sounded good. Effective mission statements connect with personal values…for both the members of the organization and those they serve. Some are bold others are just simple statements of commitment. But the […]
Basil Forsberg: Revenue that Replaces the Casket Sale
Cremation has been growing at the rate of 1% a year for more than 30 years. Many areas are now at greater than 50% cremation. Without the sale of a casket this imposes very strong economic pressure to continue operations. Basil Forsberg of Nipawin, Saskatchewan, Canada shared with me a way he has found to […]
Brad Speaks: First Viewing: an opportunity for deeper bonding
Brad Speaks of Speaks Chapels in Independence, MO. creates intimate bonds with families Personalization is a big issue today in funeral service. But most of the stuff we see is caskets and vignettes and takes both time and money. Here is an idea that creates deep healing, bonds the funeral director with the family and […]
Funeral Home Valuation Part 3: How To Present Your Operating Results
In order to properly determine EBITDA you first have to present your financial statements correctly. If you are not using an accounting service that specializes in the funeral or cemetery industry then it is highly likely that your financial statements are not presented in a manner that makes ratio analysis meaningful. For instance: the way […]
Interrupting This Blog For an Urgent Message
Once in a while something comes along that deserves to be viral. Something that speaks to the common good and addresses issues deep enough to be shared by everyone. Intelligence indicates knowledge not wisdom. A wise man knows how to use his knowledge to make a good decision. A person may have a lot […]
Funeral Home Valuation Part 2: Why EBITDA?
Funeral home valuation, Funeral home appraisal, Cemetery Valuation, Cemetery Appraisal EBITDA became popular in the 70s and 80s when buyers were trying to locate companies that had strong cash flow outside of financing and capital Expenditure concerns. Since buyers were going to change the capital structure anyway, it was convenient to have a quick apples to apples […]
Funeral Home Valuation: Part 1
Funeral home appraisal, funeral home valuation, cemetery appraisal, cemetery valuation Multiples and how they are chosen For the past 20 years Funeral Home Values have been expressed most often as a multiple of EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization). It was not always so. Prior to the 90’s values were often expressed as […]
The Tyranny of the Ten Call Man
A Management lesson from the bible One of the most common and pervasive staffing problems in funeral service is the man or woman who undermines almost every current and future issue management tries to address. They are the “Mayor of the Prep Room”. No matter what initiative you attempt, they quietly work behind the scenes to […]
A Different Way To Think About Packaging
for the past 4 weeks I have been attempting to spark a conversation about Pricing Strategy against the backdrop of a recent Harvard Business Review article: “How to Stop Customers From Fixating on Price.” Candace Franco responded with great insight: “Very thought provoking … but here is one I’d like to talk over with someone […]
How To Stop Customers From Fixating on Price Part 4
Partition Prices to Highlight Overlooked Benefits This is the 4th and last in a series on pricing strategy based on an article from Harvard Business Review of the same title. The purpose of this series is to stimulate thought and conversation among practitioners about pricing as a strategy rather than simply as a way of […]
How To Stop Customers From Fixating on Price Part 3
Part 3 Willfully Overpricing to Stimulate Curiosity Last week we discussed the commoditized customer and the second of 4 pricing strategies: “Using Price Structure to Clarify Your Advantage.” If you didn’t think I was certifiable last week there is a good chance you will be thinking about sending me for treatment this week. Please remember: […]
How To Stop Customers From Fixating on Price: Part 2
Part 2: “Using Price to Clarify Your Advantage” Increasingly, funeral markets are being commoditized. This series is adapted from an article in Harvard Business Review entitled “How to Stop Customers from Fixating on Price.” You can purchase a pdf copy directly by clicking on the link. In the article the authors point out that: “Most […]
The “Retailization” of Funeral Service
How “The Hawthorne Effect” got us off focus The formal casket and vault merchandising systems so common today in funeral homes are a relatively new innovation. But their impact is disproportionate to their value. The industry began experimenting with formal merchandising systems sometime in the late 1960’s. I don’t know whether it was Buddy Hunter […]
How Do You Handle Price Shoppers?
As I was preparing this week’s article my friend, Dale Clock, posted this question and a followup on his blog Dale Time. (please click on the highlighted words and read his full comments) This is a phenomenon that has become all too familiar and one that deserves discussion and feedback. How do you handle price shoppers? […]
The Perils of Group Think
Why it is so important that you practice Critical Thinking I am concerned that we, as a profession, are making vital decisions about our future largely on the basis of opinion and conjecture. Worse, we are allowing ourselves to be influenced by strong personalities or companies who have a need to fit their product into our solution. […]
How I Learned To Stop Pushing Strings Uphill
Breaking The Cycle DeathCare is in its 13th year of declining profitability. Last year is reported as our worst year ever and it’s beginning to tell. Answer these questions: ___Do you sometimes feel trapped? ___Do you sometimes dread going to work? ___Is it easier to do it yourself than tell someone how to do it? […]
How “Best Purpose” Trumps “Best Practice”
How a part time hostess taught me the most valuable lesson. It was late 1989. Rachel was then in her mid 70’s. A retired school teacher, she had worked for us for about 6 or 7 years. She was a quiet, unassuming and gracious woman who had that gift of always making you feel welcome. […]
Why Are We Here?
An Easy, Practical Way to Engage Staff In an aprocryphal story a “burned out” Russian Priest takes a sabbatical in a wilderness retreat hoping for renewal and reenergizing. Depressed and discouraged, he takes a walk in the nearby woods and stumbles on a military encampment. Immediately, he is challenged by the sentry: “Halt, who are […]
The Warning Signs of Becoming Irrelevant
Wise words from Coach Nick Saban, Football Coach, University of Alabama Are you in danger of becoming irrelevant? It’s easy, you know? Countless organizations have achieved this dubious distinction. Here are the warning signs: Facilities are outdated and tired looking Staff are disengaged, marking time and unmotivated More time is spent whining than doing Customers […]
Should Packages Be Discounted?
5 insights to packaging funerals Numerous funeral homes are implementing and experimenting with package pricing with excellent success. But little is known about the principles of packaging (elsewhere known as bundling) outside of the fact that fast food and car dealerships have been doing it for years. Those that have adopted package plans find it has helped them […]
To Guarantee or Not Guarantee
To Guarantee or Not Guarantee That is the question Pardon my poetic license with Shakespeare. It is morning and I am feeling a little perkier than usual. And, no, I am not going to address the nobility of preneed. The question of guaranteeing or “freezing” the price has always been a concern among DeathCare professionals. […]
The One Question You Need To Ask
Is it too much to ask for a simple, easy to understand customer survey that is accurate and corresponds directly with repeat business and profitability? Something you can understand and follow through on at a glance? Turns out it is not. A few years ago a Bain and Company Executive published a book entitled “The […]
View My Video Blogs
Inside the Mind of Funeral Consumers
Several years ago the Funeral Service Foundation commissioned an unorthodox market research project. They retained one of the foremost market research firms – Olson Zaltman – to study the funeral consumer’s unconscious thoughts about funerals. They broke the research into two segments: What consumers actually thought about funerals at the unconscious level What consumers actually want […]
5 Ways To Breathe Life Into Your Business
This week I was privileged to be interviewed by Sebastian Thalhammer of Austria. You may or may not have heard of Sebastian but he is a pretty interesting media guru who somehow decided I had something to say. So, Here is my “15 minutes of fame.” Actually, it’s 45 minutes but it does have some […]
Best Veterans Ad Ever
I found this ad on youtube. Produced by Boeing it is, in my mind, the best tribute to veterans I have seen. To all you veterans out there: Thank you.
Customer Service: What Does It Look Like
Here is a great video that you should watch with your staff and talk about. QUESTION: How do you mentally prepare yourself to wholeheartedly serve people each day?
Empathy / Sympathy A Very Important Difference
Unlike most other professions funeral practitioners must operate within an often sensitive emotional environment. Let’s call it emotionally charged. We know too well that sympathy can often backfire but empathy is never lost. Sympathy can often take someone lower but empathy often lifts up. God was angry with Job’s friends but I have always been […]
Our Industry’s Self Talk: The Bad and the Great.
Alternative Title: It’s Time To Get Over Yourself! Not long ago I was part of a group studying the challenges of recruitment in the funeral profession. I was stunned to hear the “table talk” of practicing funeral directors. Our conversations centered around why people wouldn’t want to be funeral directors…the long and unpredictable work hours, […]
On Motivation – Money Is Not The Answer
Did you know that money is not a motivator. It is only a hygiene factor. Paying too little creates dissatisfaction…paying fairly only takes away the bone of contention…paying too much does not create enthusiasm and can often lead to dissatisfaction. So what really motivates people. It’s simpler than you think and if you are as […]
Roadmap To A Great Legacy
I started out too many weeks ago addressing the virtues of a senior leader making themselves unnecessary and I ran straight into a wall! My apologies but this is too important to take lightly so I took my time to untangle the issues and turns out it’s really pretty simple. There are three roles each […]
He Is Risen
Here is a short video for Good Friday to remind us that Jesus lives. Watch it, you might be surprised where He lives. Have a wonderful Easter
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