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 families a year they believe there is not enough business.  If you serve 2,500 they believe there is not enough business.  It’s how they are wired.  So, if you serve 500 families and have 2 counselors they believe one of them is unnecessary.  Sorry,  just saying.

Consider this: It is widely believed that funeral homes generate about 20-25% of their at need annual calls in walk-in call-in business. My experience is that it is about double that amount.  But you and or your staff have become adept at turning people away. After all they come in or call at the most inconvenient times.  Less than half of those who are told they need to come back actually do.  Especially if no one thinks to get their name and phone number and followup.

If everything were balanced then, about 40% of the contracts a counselor sells would be walk-in or call-in the rest (if they ever hope to increase your call base) should come from referrals, direct response leads and the like.   So, if you are serving 500 families a year then your true walk-ins are about 200.  If you only have one counselor and they are selling 200 contracts a year, then you can pretty much guess they are waiting for the phone to ring.  If you have two counselors selling 150 contracts a year each then you have 100 “activity-generated” contracts and at least a few of them are going to be new calls.

But the real reason you don’t have enough counselors is that you, Mr. Owner, don’t really want the political hassle.  Your firm is underperforming but your counselor is happy, your staff (who have bonded with the counselor and have become very empathetic to their fears and concerns) are happy.  No one is complaining so you don’t have to think about it.  So “Happy Mediocrity” rules the day. After all your calls are your calls and your competitors calls are his.  Who are you to think you might persuade someone to switch sides?

But wait, there is another issue:  What does the size of your firm have to do with how many counselors you need?  With the exception of very small communities the answer is: very little.

It turns out the size of your firm has more to do with economy and efficiency than it does with potential.   The larger your firm the more walk-in business.  You pay nothing in marketing to get these contracts so they effectively underwrite the marketing cost of “activity-generated” business.  The size of your market is the factor that impacts potential, not the size of your firm.  Assuming you are up to the cost of the inefficiencies you generate when you try to overreach your current market position you can have more counselors than the arbitrary 1:200 ratio I mentioned last week.  But be prepared for the following turbulence:

  • A temporarily truculent counselor or two (they may even quit)
  • A temporarily upset staff because you have a truculent counselor or two.
  • A few customer complaints from increased activity.
  • An increase in lead acquisition cost partially offset by an improved sales mix
  • New calls

This may help.  My experience is that any change that impacts the counselor (commissions, lead generation, adding a counselor) results in emotional trauma.  This “Grieving Period” lasts about 18 days.  Don’t ask me why.  Once everyone recognizes you are resolute in your decision, things pretty much settle back to normal…or they leave.