Tag: funeral home consulting

REINVENTION: THE ARRANGEMENTS CONFERENCE–ENTERING THE “HOLY OF HOLIES”

Written by Alan Creedy on November 19, 2012. Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 16 Comments on 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 enter it and then only once a year. After an elaborate month-long cleansing ritual the high priest entered to offer sacrifice atoning for the people’s sins.

It was customary to tie a bell around his neck and a rope around his ankle in the event he was not fully clean or his sacrifice was not acceptable and god chose to smite him dead. If the bell stopped ringing the other priests knew he was dead and could pull him out by the rope.

ENTER WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING

And so it is with appropriate fear and trembling that I enter that Holy of Holies of Funeral Service: The Arrangements Conference.

I think I have always been aware that the arrangements room is sacred. In 33 years I have been invited more than a few times to converse with clients in the prep room while they worked (and even helped out once or twice). In that same time I have only been invited to observe 1 arrangement conference and that was BY THE STAFF at Flanner & Buchanan. But I had assumed that once one had 5 years experience as a funeral director that a level of competence had been attained.

NOT SO!

I am now aware that the overwhelming majority (I am guessing well in excess of 90%) of funeral directors have never been formally trained, observed, critiqued or otherwise supervised in this most important of all functions. At first, I couldn’t believe what I was discovering. But I have spent the better part of a year now confirming this DARK SECRET. At first I did feel foolish for falling prey to the bluff and bluster of some of our more vocal defenders but then I began to feel sad and, finally, I began to understand.

THIS FAILURE EXPLAINS A LOT:

It explains why we are so feeble when it comes to defending ourselves against our attackers
It explains why we are so defenseless when it comes to standing up for what we believe
It explains why we don’t know what we believe
It explains why we spend so much more time fighting among ourselves than fighting for ourselves
It explains the “hyper-provincialism” among trade groups
It explains the bizarre co-dependency relationship between funeral-directors and their casket vendors
It explains so much

FINALLY, IT EXPLAINS THE COGNITIVE DISSONANCE I HAVE FELT SO MANY YEARS BETWEEN WHAT I BELIEVE TO BE SOCIETY’S NEED AND THE PROFESSION’S MISINTERPRETATION OF THAT NEED (i.e. selling boxes)

BUT NOW WE CAN FIX THIS

The lack of a cohesive narrative has hurt us in ways that we can only imagine. But let us not resort to our typical coping mechanisms: Denial, Blaming, Labeling and Avoiding. Because there is a way to fix this quickly.

It is said that funeral director’s make terrible sales people. If a requirement of selling is accountability then this is absolutely true! But another part of selling is teaching and in a serendipitous occurrence the right solution is appearing at the same time as the right trend. Funeral Directors (when they believe in something) actually make pretty good teachers. Boomers master products and services through acquiring learning…but not in the standard tell / memorize way. Boomer learning is a process of self discovery…not “you-tell-me / I-believe-everything-you-say”

It turns out a couple of humble funeral directors have been tinkering with this for more than 10 years and have finally honed the method enough to begin training other funeral directors how to do it. But before I tell you who they are two warnings are in order. This method will require:

Courage
Discipline

For which you will enjoy:

Significantly improved family rapport
Significantly increased repeat business
Significantly increased market share
Significantly more robust quality of service
Significantly increased Revenue / Profit; and best of all
Significantly increased Job Satisfaction

Introducing The Arrangers Academy

Karl Jennings and Todd Borek have developed a method and hope to create a movement to reinvent the arrangement conference. The promises I cite above are the ones they have experienced in their own firm. I have seen it with my own eyes and I believe in it.

They have created the first cohesive narrative for the profession. Their method is not a sales script (although it is initially a script). It is a process and a method by which they challenge the customer to think in a different way. The client then “Self-Discovers” their own need and how the services of the funeral home can help them meet that need. It is a perfect fit for the “Boomer” learning style.

NEXT STEPS

The Arranger’s Academy is the third leg of our reinvention stool. I will be introducing the THREE LEGS OF REINVENTION in the first quarter of 2013.

If you would like to know more about Profit Clinics, Culture Change or The Arranger’s Academy email me at alan@alancreedy.org

REINVENTION: PROFIT CLINICS

Written by Alan Creedy on November 12, 2012. Posted in The Creedy Commentary, Money: Getting it and Keeping it. No Comments on 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. But, collectively, and ultimately dangerous at the industry level as an outmoded pricing strategy and misunderstood value proposition drive consumers to lower and lower price points.

The need for awareness

Metaphorically, let’s say you are driving your car on the interstate. At both the conscious and unconscious levels you are AWARE. Aware of your speed and lane, distance to the next car and where you are relative to your destination (your goal). But you are also aware of other environmental factors. Road conditions, for instance. Or subtle noises in your car. I know that when I hear “thump-thump-thump” I have a bad tire. If I feel the vibration in my seat it is a rear tire, if in the steering wheel a front tire. If the thermometer gauge goes above the red line I know my engine is overheating or if the “check engine” light goes on I know to pull over and see what’s going on. I don’t exactly know how to fix my car but I know when it needs to be fixed, I know when I have taken a wrong turn, I know when I am about to run out of gas and I know how long it will be before I reach my destination. BUT I AM NOT A MECHANIC I AM ONLY A DRIVER. I can’t build a car or design a car but I would be poor driver, indeed, if i were not AWARE of a myriad of things while I am driving.

But my consistent experience, even among some of the more prestigious firms, is that most business owners operate without the slightest awareness of what is happening with them and to them financially. During the past several years I would guess that 8 out of 10 of the firms I have helped have been experiencing a decline in average sale. Some of these were significant! In every case the owner was unaware. At best they had a vague feeling something wasn’t right.

The need to be better stewards

Over the course of 30 + years experience I have seen a number of times where firms have made critically poor financial decisions because of fads. I did this myself in the ’80’s when my partner and I bought a flower shop. We were lucky to get out 7 years later with our shirts on but would have done much, much better using those resources elsewhere.

Today, we are seeing firms over investing in facilities and rolling stock and getting involved in the latest fad: Pet Services. I know, I make myself unpopular by making this point but it serves as an excellent illustration.

In and of itself the pet service business is not bad. But in light of the fact that it normally requires in excess of $200,000 in capital investments (ignoring the reallocation of human resources) it deserves serious consideration. Especially when it requires most firms to take on debt. There was an old advertising slogan that went “never borrow needlessly but when you MUST…”. In light of our profession’s current economic environment (let alone our national one) this slogan should now be axiomatic. Borrowing money to fund a venture with margins that are a fraction of the margins generated even in a cremation business has the potential to put many firms in a very untenable position in the future.

In the ’90’s the investment firm of Duff and Phelps approached me to start another funeral home acquisition firm. I admit I was less than enthusiastic (it was in 1998 as I recall) but it’s hard to turn down such a heady opportunity so I sought the counsel of a very wise friend. He asked me if I thought I could generate an 18% annual return. I said “no” to which he responded that I should just buy SCI stock because at the time they were generating that return. In 1999 the whole acquisition trend collapsed. He was right.

My point?

When using precious limited assets (financial, physical or human) you need to know how to make decisions with your head as well as with your heart. Otherwise, you can find yourself working for the bank instead of yourself.

The process of doing this is simpler than you might think.

You don’t need to be an accountant

When I passed the CPA exam I went to work for a man who I still consider the best accountant I have ever known. He could look at a set of financial statements and within one or two minutes spot either a mistake or an issue that needed closer attention. I was trained to do extensive analysis so this talent truly intrigued me. I asked him to teach me and he did.

That is what I want to teach you.

You don’t need to be an accountant.

But you do need to be AWARE just as you are aware as you are driving a car…both at the conscious and subconscious level. You need to know what key numbers you need to be aware of and where the “check engine” light and fuel gauge are. You need to be able to distinguish whether that “thump-thump-thump” you hear is cracks in the pavement or a tire going bad.

What my boss taught me enabled me to do just that. Complicated? A little. But no more so than learning to drive… and probably less complicated than learning to embalm. Less smelly too.

PROFIT CLINICS

Goal:

Using your firm’s own financial reports enable you to quickly identify your key numbers and use those key numbers to know where to focus your energy
Recognize the “early warning signs” before they get out of hand.
Develop a long term strategy to move from “Cost-Led Pricing” to “Price-Led Costing”
Learn how to determine whether an investment is right for you without adding so much debt you sink your ship

NEXT WEEK: THE THIRD LEG IN THE REINVENTION STOOL FIXING THE ARRANGEMENT CONFERENCE

REINVENTION: The “Valley Of Death”–Your Cycle Of Grief

Written by Alan Creedy on October 22, 2012. Posted in The Creedy Commentary, Leadership. 5 Comments 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 business strategy. Nothing less is sufficient.

… you really go through the stages of grieving. Going from denial, which is the most prominent of all the stages, to various behaviors, to finally acceptance. And once you reach acceptance, action, whether it’s sufficient or effective or not, is about to follow.

And it is the very key in all of this to strive toward making these changes as fast as possible because time is your ally. …you’re going to become a late mover by being stuck in the denial stage too long.

As you go through the change, the business goes through major transformation that I can best describe as a Valley of Death. It is not fun to go through those changes. We all say changes are wonderful, we all welcome change. We love change when it happens to somebody else and change is very rarely wonderful when you have to do away with the established practice and established people to adapt –– to tear apart before you can put together the new. So I look at the Valley of Death as an appropriate way to do that.

After you have struggled in the Valley of Death long enough, you have a clear picture of the strategic dissonance and how to close in on it. You are ready for chaos and you’re ready to deploy your resources. It’s one of those things like empowerment.*

The Grief Cycle Among DeathCare Professionals

If you are to accelerate your own journey through this cycle in order to begin the healthy process of acclimating to our “New Normal” it is important that you recognize when you are stuck. Here is what each stage looks like:

Denial: In this stage there is a preoccupation with fighting yesterday’s battles. Things like licensing laws: Should we allow dual licensing? Should we require a bachelors degree? Who should be allowed to sell preneed? Who should be allowed to sell caskets? Should funeral homes be allowed to serve food and drink? These laws, once barriers to entry, are quickly becoming barriers to survival.

Other examples include the decade-long battle and now rumored appeal in Pennsylvania regarding the State Funeral Law and the Louisiana fight against the sale of Trappist Coffins. Given the urgency of the real issues facing our profession this behavior reminds me of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Anger: Anger, for people who are typically very restrained in emotional expression, is subtle. I think their staff sees it as increased frustration and maybe some confusion. They are aware that things are no longer going to be as they once were but they are not yet aware there is a solution.

I imagine them going home at night, kicking the family cat and raging about the family they just served: “I just don’t know what these people want anymore.” Then fixing a stiff drink and collapsing in their easy chair.

I do think I see a growing number stuck here because of the bitter-tinged conversation about other practitioners and vendors in the convention conversations. There is a disdain among those stuck here as if they had answers (which they may think they have but I haven’t seen) that others aren’t smart enough to see. At any rate, for my own emotional health I have found it is best to let them rant until they run out of steam. Eventually one of two things happens. They move on to the next stage or they get so bitter no one wants to be around them.

Bargaining: This is where most of the profession is stuck for now. The implicit assumption on which most DeathCare marketing is based is:

If we are likable enough you will choose us.

So, as consumers have increasingly moved to less and less service and even sought non conventional vendors we have turned to adding more and more value. This “add-on” value has added cost but no corresponding revenue. In essence we are saying: “If we do more for you, we hope you will appreciate us more and maybe next time you will come back and buy more.” Unfortunately, time has shown that, while customers may appreciate you more, there is no corresponding impact on loyalty or revenue. In fact, quite the opposite is too often true.

What is this added value? Things like dove and balloon releases, free DVD’s and multicolored paper goods. These things are good in their own right and I am not suggesting we should not do them. But too many have fallen into the trap of believing they are innovations when, in reality, they are only novelties.

Peter Drucker correctly defines innovation and, therefore, reinvention as follows:

“The test of an innovation is that it creates value. A novelty only creates amusement. The test of innovation is not: ‘Do we like it?’ It is: ‘Do customers want it and will they pay for it?'”

Despair: Those in despair are almost inconsolable. They are convinced that we have become a commodity. It is a “race to the bottom.” It is all about the dollar.

This is a delicate stage. The most effective technique I have found is to almost mockingly agree with them or to aggressively abandon them. Sometimes if you use a form of hyperbole they are shocked out of their malaise and willing to listen.

I once told a client that I had heard you have to wait for a drowning man to go down for the third time before trying to save him and to call me when he felt he was going down for the third time. He did and followed my advice and doubled his business in a year.

But it is easy to get trapped in this phase and sympathy is not what works.

Acceptance: Having been through the grief cycle and reinvention with clients myself more than once, I can only say: “I love this stage!” And the reason is:

“There is nothing so dangerous as someone who has nothing to lose”

Those who have reached this stage have resolved the “burning platform” issue and have made peace with the question: “it is better to choose probable death than certain death” (view video below)

It is really fun to work with and coach someone at this stage because they are willing to challenge their own paradigms and they are free or becoming freed of the Persona they have so carefully protected for so long. They recognize they don’t have all the answers and that no one else does either and they love going with me on the search. They become learners. and, for me that’s the best part of all because now they can grow as persons.

I think that’s why Andrew Grove says

After you have struggled in the Valley of Death long enough, you have a clear picture of the strategic dissonance and how to close in on it. You are ready for chaos and you’re ready to deploy your resources. It’s one of those things like empowerment.*

This Video will give you an insight into why a “Burning Platform” is sometimes necessary:

Next Week: What It Will Take For True Reinvention. “Islands Of Excellence in A Sea of Mediocrity”

*Excerpted from an address to The American Academy of Management by Andrew Grove CEO Intel Corp.

What You Should Know About Reinventing Yourself Before You Start

Written by Alan Creedy on October 15, 2012. Posted in The Creedy Commentary, Leadership. 6 Comments on 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 for today hasn’t been experienced by us in well over a century. It would help to know that this is not the first time we have reinvented ourselves…not by a long shot. But it will be the first time in any of our lifetimes that will require a complete overhaul. Cosmetic touch-ups to existing paradigms won’t do it. As Andrew Grove Chairman and CEO of Intel Puts it:

“Strategic Inflection Points…[are] what happens to a business when a major change takes place in its competitive environment…it causes you to make a fundamental change in business strategy. Nothing less is sufficient.”

This chart shows but a few of the inflection points funeral service has experienced over the past 100 + years.

The reinvention that parallels today’s in order of magnitude is the advent of embalming after America’s Civil War…or as those in the South refer to it: The War of Northern Agression.

Until that time furniture and cabinet makers offered “undertaking” as an ancillary service to their regular trade. It was a “sideline” business related to their coffin making. When traveling embalming “surgeons” appeared after the civil war some of the more entrepreneurial minded craftsmen saw an opportunity for market advantage by becoming embalmers and offering the service themselves. Eventually the modern funeral model was born. Those cabinet and furniture makers who failed to adopt the new science simply let it go and pursued their normal trade while the funeral director profession grew and flourished as a specialist industry. The advent of embalming introduced an inflection that sent the practice of undertaking into a completely new direction…ultimately creating a stand-alone profession.

Subsequent and less dramatic inflection points occurred over the years until 30 years ago cremation, specifically cremation without the sale of a casket, caused the first downward trending inflection. Until then, small adjustments or adaptations enabled effective “course corrections” that created market advantages for those who took advantage of them.

The advent of cremation was different and for a variety of reasons we dropped the ball. This trend continued in a steady 1% annual progression until 2008 when the rate spiked to more than 2% annually, an increase of more than 200% in a single year.

Because this trend has been relatively slow and progressive we have forgotten the impact. To many it remains an abstract. 2012 witnessed the first year in which cremations exceeded 1,000,000. Most of these did not include a casket sale. Since the MARGINS on cremation are more than $2,000 lower than burial this factoid represents more than $2 BILLION loss of MARGIN at the retail level. What does that mean to you individually? I concede that individual circumstances vary. But for a quick thumbnail estimate you can simply multiply the number of cremations you served last year by $2,000. So, if you served 50 cremation families then AT A MINIMUM you lost $100,000 in MARGIN. OUCH!!!

FUNERAL SERVICE FOUNDATION RESEARCH

The research revealed at this year’s NFDA convention conducted by the Funeral Service Foundation was both frightening and encouraging.

Frightening because it showed us how our demeanor, facilities and advertising are actually reinforcing negative stereotypes.

Encouraging because it showed us how we can begin the process of reinventing ourselves to reengage consumers and recover lost ground.

Make no mistake. The day of the casket is over. And we can no longer sustain ourselves by overcharging our burial customers. We, indeed, must reinvent ourselves. But we now have clarity relative to what we must do and how we must do it. To download the slides go to funeralservicefoundation.org and click on the button on the home page “Breaking The Consumer Code”

WARNING DANGER AHEAD

Much of what was learned was not so much new as it was clearer. Funeral directors have been gleaning hints for years. And the danger is greater than ever. But not a danger that most would imagine. For example: It is now as clear as it can be that people want and will probably insist on celebrating their uniqueness. This will most likely be interpreted as “personalization”. And in a limited way it is. But it is also much more. I suspect many in the audience at NFDA were comforting themselves saying: “we already do personalization.”

I don’t think the personalization we have done thus far is really hitting the mark. In many ways the funeral home is still center stage and the effort is almost always cosmetic instead of substantial. We mistake form for substance. We think gimmicks and “do-dads” suffice for deep meaning when they don’t.

Reinvention is Hard, Dirty Work

As I write this ICCFA is holding its fall management conference with reinvention as its theme. I suspect the combination of the Foundation research and the ICCFA meeting will make “reinvention” the new buzzword. I hope they will. Because reinvention…transformation…is what it will take to deflect the downward trend of the past 30 years and turn it upward again.

But, again, make no mistake. Reinvention is hard, dirty challenging work. It means substantive change to a business paradigm that is broken beyond repair. Notice I said paradigm. I am not as confident the model is broken. It may need repair but the model may be relatively sound. Time will tell. That kind of reinvention is painful. That is why I compare it to the magnitude of the inflection point embalming created. Like the cabinet and furniture makers during the advent of embalming, not everyone will be suited for it.

This transformation will require that we examine every part of what we do and what we believe. Some of what we do is like the “Baby In The Bathwater” and should be kept. Other parts should be separated out. It is that process that will be so difficult. And process is the right word. It is not, nor will it be, instant. Nor will it likely be an “either / or” answer. In this multivariate world we now live in it is more likely to be a “both / and” answer.

Andrew Grove, Chairman Of Intel Gives Us Some Insight

Andrew Grove, Chairman of Intel, spoke before the American Academy of Management regarding the reinvention of Intel many years ago. His insights help us learn what we will face. He referred to the experience as “The Valley of Death” forcing us all to go through a grief cycle of our own as we let go of the old and embrace the new.

This is an important metaphor if you will be undertaking this process. For you will indeed experience grief and so will your staff and family. In fact, the profession has been in the throes of the grief cycle for better than 10 years. Understanding where you are in that cycle will help those of you who may be stuck get unstuck.

Next Week: I will discuss how to recognize which stage of the grief cycle you are in.

Two Weeks From Now: What It Will Take For True Reinvention. “Islands Of Excellence in A Sea of Mediocrity”

The Non Question: Why Are Funerals So Expensive?

Written by Alan Creedy on September 24, 2012. Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 9 Comments on 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 to take their call.

S0, how do we respond to these questions when they are posed? I use the word respond instead of answer because respond is what we should do. But first a little background.

During the last 30 years funerals have morphed from being a simple product (where the only real decision was selecting a casket) to a complex product. That is complex as opposed to complicated. (another one of those Creedyesque nuances). Complex as applied to products and services is actually a well-defined concept among sales and marketing experts. I don’t know who has missed this, the advertising agencies specializing in our industry or the funeral professional. Probably both. Our continued belief that we are a simple product / service is a large part of why we have so much trouble engaging the public. But I digress…

Among the attributes of complex products and services are that they are expensive and buyers have an inadequate frame of reference from which to assess value. Complex services also involve buyer resistance and, often, multiple decision makers. But most important among the attributes of complex products is this one which is entirely new to our paradigm:

In addition to the age old “why buy from you?” it includes “why buy at all?”

What people, then, are really asking is not about cost. It is:

“Why have a funeral at all?”

How to respond

Again, we should respond instead of react or defend. And the first thing to do is offer a challenge. Something the inquirer has to react or respond to.

As products and / or services become more complex the natural tendency of people is to look for ways to reduce that complexity and its attendant risk. Opting out altogether is one way of doing that. But in the majority of cases that is not what people really want.

It turns out that what people want is for someone to offer them a new and unique perspective and then teach them how that perspective best fits their real need.

When I am asked this question I redirect the conversation by challenging my inquirer. In this case I might say: “Actually, when you think about it, it’s surprising funerals aren’t more expensive than they are.”

Typically, people give me that “tell me more” look. So, I will continue with something like:

“Well, honoring a loved one is a pretty important thing in most peoples lives and you only get to do it once, right? It takes a special skill to be able to pull that off without notice in 3 or 4 days time and be effective at it.”

Generally, that will get me into a conversation. Sometimes it’s a “tell me more” conversation and sometimes it’s something else like: “I’d just as soon skip the whole thing”. Either way I am prepared because my response to either is pretty much the same:

“What I find when people really get a chance to talk about it…I mean after they get over the whole ‘creepy’ thing…is that they really do want to be remembered and they have something to say. If you go back over 4,000 years of human history we have always had this need and always had designated people who helped us with it.

My observation is when people take the easy way out and do nothing they aren’t giving people a chance to do what’s normal like gathering and comforting. When we are under any kind of stress we need other people around and we need physical touch and reassurance. Otherwise we could get stuck in our sadness and despair.

So, It may sound creepy but it really isn’t. It’s hard work helping people with their sorrow come to a better place…to find release. Wouldn’t that be what you would want for those you leave behind…release and transformation and not being forgotten I mean?”

And then, of course, I shut up because 99 times out of 100 I have opened the gates and they want to talk and all I have to do is listen and explore options.

Ain’t so hard really. You just have to make certain assumptions that I think a lot of practitioners aren’t making any more.

The need to gather and comfort and offer physical reassurance is a normal and natural human need
The need to designate someone in society to coordinate that activity is time honored
If people opt out their needs aren’t met and…MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL
PEOPLE REALLY REALLY DO WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT…WHEN THEY FEEL SAFE.

Video: If You Want A High Performing Organization Are You Measuring The Right Things?

Written by Alan Creedy on September 3, 2012. Posted in Video Gallery, The Creedy Commentary, The Video Blog, Video. 1 Comment on 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. This belief makes it, in my mind, a noble profession and it is the specific reason I have chosen to plant my career flag in it. I am not persuaded otherwise by the frequent attacks made on it by outsiders. Nor am I discouraged by the knowledge that it hosts any number of ignoble characters.

For the last several weeks I have been discussing leadership. There is a disturbing absence of positive leadership in our profession. It concerns me that the current emphasis on metrics, albeit necessary for the management of the business, threatens to turn us into shop foremen instead of leaders by rewarding the mundane over the essential. after all:

“you manage a business, you lead people”

You can prove this to yourself. Who are the heroes in your firm?

The arrangers with the highest average sale?
Those who create repeat customers?
Those who win over new customers among the guests attending services?

Perhaps they are the same. If so you are lucky.

When I was President of Brown-Wynne Funeral Homes some of our heroes, or should I say Heroines, didn’t have a license. Our focus was different then. We weren’t as concerned about profit-per-customer. We had a longer and bigger horizon in mind. A vision that is, in my opinion more sustainable than the direction our current metric obsession has the potential to take us. Maybe that’s why we enjoyed a 70+% market share.

A couple of comments in this video jumped out at me:

“…are we spending our lives mired in measuring the mundane.”
“We don’t have to choose between inspired employees and sizable profits, we can have both. In fact, inspired employees quite often help make sizable profits.”

One last point before you view this video: the point is made that “When the only tool you have is a hammer everything begins to look like a nail.” I will paraphrase his use of this as follows:

“If the Casket has been our Hammer…then our nail has been the early 20th century model of success.”

What I would do:

First, I would advise you to take an introspective step. If you are truly a “command and control” person, ignore this post. Stay the way you are. Keep your nose in your Excel worksheets. This is not for you.

If you really want your business on the right track I would share this with my key people first. We know from research that consumers see us as dark, lonely mysterious places. What would it be like if we could overcome that?

Then I would view the video together and ask the questions he has asked. How, why, who.

Finally, I would commit to weekly meetings to pursue this agenda.

Final Thought:

DeathCare is on the cusp, like so many other industries and professions, of transformational reinvention. Many practitioners will mistake dressing up what we have to sell as reinvention. It is not. For us to succeed means we must leave the place we are and become something that may surprise even us. We must transform the image consumers have of us so that they see us as the place they can go for solutions to their problem.

A Model For Change Within Your Organization

Written by Alan Creedy on August 27, 2012. Posted in Video Gallery, The Creedy Commentary, The Video Blog, Video. 2 Comments on 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 Funeral Service For Your Community?

The Simpler The Strategy The More Likely The Success

Written by Alan Creedy on August 20, 2012. Posted in Video Gallery, The Creedy Commentary, The Video Blog, Video. 3 Comments on 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 and seminars you can’t help but be aware we have too many options and not enough clarity.

Whenever confusion and indecisiveness set in a good coach will tell you to go back to basics and start over. And that is what most practitioners need to do. After all doing nothing in a rapidly changing business environment is the same as doing something except it’s riskier. Kind of like forgetting to get out of the way when a car is about to run you down.

The truth is: Developing a simple but doable strategy for your future isn’t as complicated as you might think.

See below for a short video on how really simple strategy can be

You don’t always need a complicated SWOT analysis or offsite retreat. Often by focusing on key essentials you can figure out where you need to go and get there a lot faster.

As I watched this video I couldn’t help think of Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. These were leaders who took daunting challenges and reduced them to simple goals that everyone understood and could get behind. Here is how I would phrase it if I were to address a funeral home staff:

“I don’t have to tell you that today’s family isn’t like the families we USED to serve. (gain consensus)

We either need to adapt or get left behind. And if we get left behind we get left out. And I didn’t sign up for that and I don’t think you did either. I am not going to tell you I have all the answers but I believe we can find the answers if we are willing to make the effort and suffer the inevitable mistake along the way. I am choosing to adapt. (take a leadership stand)

If you’re with me let’s start focusing on our key drivers. (start doing something)

If you’re not we need your support in the day-to-day operations until you can find another job…and that means you too dad. (clarify the culture)”

Oh, and I would probably fire the “Ten Call Tyrant” on the spot…just to save time. He’ll leave anyway.

To Buy a reprint of Donald Sull’s Article “Simple Rules For A Complex World” Click Here

Lessons On Leadership: Peak Performance From Adequate People

Written by Alan Creedy on August 14, 2012. Posted in The Creedy Commentary, The Video Blog, Video, Video Gallery. 4 Comments on 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 skills that make the difference.”

What makes this particularly applicable to DeathCare is that our workers are not factory line workers as current trends in funeral home supervision and management are beginning to treat them. They are knowledge workers and in this same essay Drucker went on to say:

“The critical feature of a knowledge workforce is that its workers are not labor, they are capital.”

The success of any business is in how it invests its capital and if our workforce is our capital and we manage them like machines in a knowledge environment we are likely to lose. If, instead like the great conductors in this video, we begin to create the environment, the structure and the mechanisms that enable adequate people to continuously operate at their peak then we will realize a 100-fold return on our investment.
But, I fear this video may be too subtle for many in the profession to fully grasp what Mr. Talgam is trying to convey. In essence, his point about enabling the players to tell their own story and thereby become partners is really about building a team of collaborators around a central purpose and the conductor being a team leader.

Some Things To Note As You Watch:

Itay Talgam takes us through the entire progression of management as it develops from the “micro-manager” as represented by Riccardo Muti to what Jim Collins (author of the book: “Good To Great”) refers to as a LEVEL V leader as represented by Leonard Bernstein.

Note the fate of Riccardo Muti

This video is 20 minutes and you may be tempted to stop but HERE IS WHAT I REALLY WANT YOU TO DO:

As you watch the video and as Talgam describes the leadership style of each conductor try and decide where you fit. If you are an employee, what is your bosses style?

“[A conductor’s] happiness does not come from only his own story and his joy of the music. The joy is about enabling other people’s stories to be heard at the same time.” (Itay Talgam)

How Leonard Bernstein managed to get adequate people to perform at their peak:

My bet is that he did not overpay people. In fact, compensation probably didn’t have much to do with it. But I do believe the following components were key factors:

He set clear expectations
He set personal goals for each player and enabled them to develop
He gave regular and speedy feedback
He worked one-on-one and in teams
He did not accept mediocrity and would not let individuals accept it either
Everyone knew how they contributed and they were important to the team
Everyone knew they were cared about
He took obvious pleasure in THEIR success

Final thought: Can you imagine the sublime ecstasy Mr. Bernstein experiences in enabling ADEQUATE PEOPLE to accomplish a SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE.

THAT IS A LEVEL V LEADER.

If you want to know what a LEVEL V leader is then take another 2 1/2 minutes and watch this last video

You Must Be Present To Win

Written by Alan Creedy on August 13, 2012. Posted in The Creedy Commentary, Leadership. No Comments on 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 progress in their business. Yes the staff can often a barrier to progress. But, frankly it is really not their fault. It is the fault of the passive aggressive cultures that prevail in this profession…including and probably most especially the owners.

A Dysfunctional Culture is something YOU allow because of your cowardice or laziness not because you can’t change it.

What is a passive aggressive culture? In a classic article titled The Passive Aggressive Organization it is defined as:

“… a place where more energy is put into thwarting things than starting them, but in the nicest way.”

What does this mean?

Where does the blame lie? The list is long…and in light of the urgency of our problems mostly meaningless. For now let’s just say that there are few, if any, good leadership models in the profession. Most owners and managers confuse supervision with leadership. And the recent trend toward installing staff performance systems underscores this in spades. Yes, these systems are necessary in any business. After all would a ship leave port without a compass? But the lack of true leadership skills ends up turning owners and general managers into shop foremen and the model begins to look too much like a manufacturing plant than a service profession.

What is the difference between supervision and leadership?

Think of it this way:

You Manage A Business…

You Lead People.

Supervision is a management function and much easier to grasp because you measure, track and compare. How was Joe’s average sale vs. Bill’s? How much time does Jill take to make arrangements vs. Doug? What is the Bob’s family satisfaction score compared to John’s? Then, of course, you can hold it over people’s heads. Supervision is very useful when working with people who don’t have to think (or shouldn’t) and when you need them to focus on components of a task rather than the bigger picture. But supervision doesn’t motivate. Supervision doesn’t engage and it certainly doesn’t build loyalty

Leadership, on the other hand, is much harder work…and riskier too. It means you have to be aware of where you are going as much or more as where you are. It means that you have to be conscious of and teach and defend slippery things like core values and brand integrity. You have to build character and give latitude for autonomous decision making because people know what is expected no matter what the odd circumstance. It means YOU must be responsible for:

Making the Main Thing The Main Thing

Which means you have to know what the MAIN THING is AND you HAVE TO BE THERE. Not just in your office but with the people…Observing, Coaching, Fixing, Guiding, Changing, Planning…AND OCCASIONALLY CONFRONTING.

Not many years ago a senior executive with one of the major casket companies asked me what I thought most funeral home owners wanted. Without thinking I heard myself say,

“They want not to be there.”

Where did that come from?

I was totally surprised and, at first, he was confused. But as I thought about it I realized that I had observed such consistent behavior among owners across so many firms that I naturally drew the conclusion that their preference would be to be someplace else.

Unfortunately,

GOOD LEADERSHIP IN SMALL BUSINESS

REQUIRES YOU TO BE PRESENT TO WIN

The Good News

Leadership…true leadership…is something you learn through experience and mentoring. In fact, it is the part of my funeral home consulting practice I enjoy the most. Leaders grow into the position. They are not born.

Leading a healthy culture is not only much more fun FOR EVERYONE, but it creates a significant competitive advantage in the market place as well.

TUNE IN TOMORROW. I HAVE A VERY SPECIAL TREAT: A VIVID ILLUSTRATION THAT WILL DEMONSTRATE THE DIFFER-ENCE BETWEEN BEING A SUPERVISOR AND A LEADER.

Licensing Laws: Barrier To Survival

Written by Alan Creedy on August 6, 2012. Posted in The Creedy Commentary, Leadership. 13 Comments on 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 switch in a brief blog may be impossible but at least I can get you thinking. After all that’s what I want you to do: Think

Peter Drucker believed, and so do I, that every three years every activity, every product, every service, every policy, every vendor, every strategy of your business should be screened against a simple question:

If we weren’t already doing this would we be going into it now?

He believed that without systematic and purposeful abandonment, an organization will be overtaken by events. AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IS HAPPENING TO DEATHCARE!

Price-Led-Costing is actually about more than pricing. It is truly a strategy, combining pricing and marketing with what has become known as “Blue Ocean” Strategy. In other words:

Focus Only On Those Things Customers Value Most and Set a Fair Price For It.

This week’s Creedy Roundup Features a great video entitled “When To Disappoint Your Customers” that speaks to this point. So go there by clicking the icon at the left and come right back.

Last week I used NewComer Funeral Homes as an illustration which confused several readers. Yes, they look like a discounter and they use price advertising to get the public’s attention but study their price list and it’s a different story. Now think SouthWest Airlines another great Price-Led-Costing example. Set a fair price and control your margins to drive a profit. There are, in fact, a few lone wolves in funeral service who do that. I used one example last week. I bet you know of a few more. The fancy dancy high price firms look down on them but I bet if you looked at their financials you wouldn’t be so quick to judge.

My challenge right now is to convey this to you in a one-way written format when it is only effectively communicated in a dialogue because, for you to successfully make this transition will require you to let go of some deeply entrenched paradigms that many of you have never even thought about. SO LET’S TRY THIS:

I will tip some of your sacred cows if you will take the time in the comments section to engage in a dialogue with me. There are a whole lot more sacred cows than this. Many are situational relating only to a specific firm. This is just a sampling to give you an uneasy feeling of the challenge facing us. Challenge me and I will challenge you back. Everyone will benefit, including me.

Sacred Cows and other Barriers to Success

What is your ratio of licensees to calls? Last I looked the industry standard was well below 100. Why? I know your answers because you have told me. I am not satisfied. You tell me it’s what families want. What I hear is that you confuse a license with competence. And / or you have licensees doing non-licensee work. Progressive hospitals have solved the nursing shortage by assigning non-nurse work to well trained non-nurses. The result: fewer nurses who are paid more but lower overall payroll, happier nurses and happier patients. Funeral homes would find the same.

Why do you need a license to make funeral arrangements? There is no consistent formal training for it anywhere? Despite their protestations to the contrary, most licensees aren’t that good at it. More than a few respected funeral homes have acknowledged that their preneed staff does a better job. Besides smaller funeral homes are often forced to break the law when they get busy by having mom (who doesn’t have a license and who is better at it anyway) make arrangements.

Why do you need to send 3 licensees to the cemetery?

My state requires that each licensed establishment have a prep room even if you centralize the service and never use it. Why does a branch facility have to be a licensed establishment?

Why do you need a fixed pew chapel? Why do you need a selection room? Why do you need to trade cars every 3 years?

Are you overserving your customers? Are all those extras you are cramming into every service paying off with increased volume or are you working harder for the same profit? As our profession goes through this transformative stage in its history we are doing what Drucker refers to as “patching”. We are trying to dress up what we are used to selling hoping people will see value. This leaves us vulnerable to the SouthWest Airline strategy that focuses on what people value ignores the frills and prices accordingly. See video by Steve McKee on Narrowing Your Focus.

If a Price-Led-Cost player like NewComer entered your market would you be vulnerable? If your answer is yes to this question and you were strongly convicted that the earlier sacred cows were important to your success then you are not as convicted as you think you are.

Why are you spending so much time and money on your selection room and none on staff training?

Why do we have to pay cousin Chris the same wage we pay the company President when she doesn’t even come to work?

As I said these are just a few of the questions that need to be asked. There are more. In the process I have probably made a few of you a little frustrated with me. That’s how it works. If you aren’t willing to experience a little frustration…if you just hope by dressing up what you already have you can survive…then I can’t help you. I am not pointing fingers or judging. I am only asking questions that need asking.

Disclaimer

I have learned I am easily misunderstood so in an effort to be as clear as possible I am including the following chart.

P.S. I deliberately made that last point. It’s actually in this article but it’s deeply buried. This is a topic tied directly to the issue of our addiction to cost-led-pricing. Current trends in management practices place greater emphasis on supervision than leadership. The void of leadership skill in this profession is a critical factor. So, I will leave it to later.

Now, it’s your turn. Challenge me! Double-dog dare-ya. The future winners in funeral service will be price-led-costers. So, let’s start talking about it now.

P.P.S. Those of you who think you can protect yourself in the legislature, be careful. For instance, Why does a branch have to be a licensed establishment? It doesn’t. Some practitioners reading this will want to try and require funeral homes to always have their facilities licensed. I can already think of organizations who have their sites on us that have the facilities, are already performing services, are not licensed and that you cannot legislate out of the business. That game has never saved you in the past it won’t save you now.

Building A Competitive Fortress Through Your Pricing Strategy

Written by Alan Creedy on July 31, 2012. Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 9 Comments on 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 reintroduce Burial Associations.

Before I introduce the alternative to cost-led-pricing some discussion is warranted. This will not be an easy transition for most of you. In fact, it will take sacrifice for many. But it is the right thing to do if you want to preserve your business and not only remain relevant but increase your relevance and dominance in your community.

Where Cost-Led Pricing is a relatively easy approach to pricing ignoring the consumer and the need to seek improved efficiencies and continually contain costs this alternative strategy is complicated and will require discipline. The payoff is simple...especially in an industry so dominated by the old outmoded strategy: Firms that successfully make this transition will survive and ultimately dominate their market for the long term.

To underscore this a story is in order

Recently, I was working as a funeral home consultant with a firm serving in excess of 540 calls. Over some 40+ years the second generation owner had built the firm from something in the neighborhood of 50 calls.

The only remarkable features of this firm were the genuine caring and sincerity of the owner. The adjectives I would use to describe him are humble, quiet, gentle and kind. The facility was nice but only adequate. You would not be embarrassed to use it but it was not the “Taj Mahal” type that has become popular of late. The fleet was also adequate. The staff was well trained and, like the owner, kind and caring. Although actively thinking about it, they were not yet into receptions, dove releases and the like.

OK, you say, so what. Well, the rest of the story is that recently this gentleman’s market had been invaded by one of this country’s most aggressive funeral homes. I know this company well and they never fail. They bought a local facility with the express purpose of putting my client out of business. Several years later my client had quietly handed this firm their hat and run them out of town.

What Happened?

Like you I had to know. So, I started asking. My client didn’t sit on his heels but he didn’t really do anything dramatic either. No big ad campaigns. No aggressive preneed. Just “steady as you go.”

Then one day as I was reviewing his customer contracts I realized how he had become the dominant factor in his community by a factor of 2.5:1 and run this other firm out of town. I had seen his strategy a few times before but not very often and whenever I have seen it I also see a veritable competitive fortress and a financially brick-solid company.

My client and a handful of other firms in the country, without being sophisticated or going to MBA school, practiced the alternative to Cost-Led-Pricing…

Price-Led-Costing.

He set fair prices (note, and this is very important, I said fair not low) and controlled costs to drive a profit. He does not price advertise.

This strategy puts the consumer at the head of the table and somehow they know it intuitively.

While he did not invent it Sam Walton of Walmart popularized this strategy and over the last 40 years most consumer facing industries have successfully deployed it in one form or another.

Price-Led-Costing determines a price first. A price is selected at which the consumer feels the value and the product / service are roughly equivalent. Then costs are controlled in order to drive a profit at that price. The NewComer Funeral Homes are an example of Price-Led-Costing as a formal Strategy. This is not the same as a Discount strategy like a Cremation Society

DANGER

If you are thinking at all you can see that transitioning to this strategy is going to take some pretty dramatic steps. For today simply let me make a few points:

Decide to make the transition a process over time
Begin by focusing on cutting costs
Decide if you have the stomach for it (there will be pain and reward)
DO NOT CONFUSE Price-Led-Costing with discount pricing it is as different as night and day

Next Week:

I will play the heretic in challenging some of your paradigms as you begin thinking about cost containment in an article entitled: Licensing Laws–Barrier To Survival