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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]