Preneed Pro Tips: 5 Pillars of Preneed (original) (raw)

Preneed Pro Tips is an ongoing column where Tyler Anderson, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Precoa, answers questions about preneed from funeral professionals.

BY Tyler Anderson

Over the years, a lot of funeral home owners I’ve talked to have asked: “Where’s the best place for me to focus if I want to improve my preneed program?” They’re interested in knowing whether to devote more attention to marketing, inspire higher sales performance, or start working on their follow-up processes.

My answer usually comes as no surprise: all of the above. The preneed pipeline is complex, with several key components that all need to connect. You might even think of preneed as its own division of your business, with all the people and resources that entails. It’s only when everyone and everything is working together seamlessly and in sync that true improvement is possible.

So, while there is no single area of focus I recommend over any other, there are five key pillars that every successful program is built on. To help shed light on each of these, I’ve asked several people from across Precoa to share their expert insights so you can improve your program and prearrange more families.

Performance Marketing

A conversation about generating the highest-quality leads with Chris Weaver, Strategic Marketing Director at Precoa.

TA: Most people think of being proactive with preneed primarily as a function of marketing. But not all marketing is the same. What separates standard marketing and a dedicated lead generation program?

Chris Weaver: Many of our partners do a great job marketing their funeral homes through local advertising, being an active member of their community, and taking good care of their families. But a lot of advertising – billboards, church bulletins, bus bench advertisements – falls in the realm of brand awareness. Lead generation takes your marketing to the next level, efficiently targeting the families that are most likely to preplan and reaching out to them more directly.

And the best part is that your brand awareness will improve through lead generation. By preplanning more families, you’re creating lifelong brand advocates who will suggest your funeral home when someone they know experiences a loss. It’s a cyclical approach to getting in front of more families. More and more families will become familiar with your funeral home, and the ones who prearrange will become even bigger brand advocates. They're more likely to be lifelong fans who are ready to suggest your funeral home whenever someone they know experiences a loss.

TA: Your team has decades of experience with marketing both in and out of the funeral profession. What are some of the best channels for generating leads?

CW: There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to lead generation. Every market is different. But the approaches we’ve seen succeed most often across the United States are:

Some of the people who receive our advertisements are very familiar with preneed. While for others, this may be the first time they are ever hearing about such a program. So one of our goals is not only to show interested families how they can get started with the preplanning process, but to educate them along the way so they are ready for the preneed appointment experience.

Smart Pipeline Management

A conversation about making sure leads don’t fall through the cracks with Taylor Surby, Associate Director of Account Operations at Precoa

TA: Generating leads is only the first step in the preneed journey. The next is to make sure those leads actually lead somewhere. How do we make sure that our funeral home partners aren’t spinning their wheels?

Taylor Surby: Lead management is important to make sure that every family is followed up with in a timely manner. Harvard Business Review research shows that you are 60 times more likely to qualify a lead if you follow up within an hour than if you respond a day later. If you’re not keeping an eye on your leads, then more and more families are going to fall through the cracks or end up preplanning with your competitors.

TA: What systems work best to track leads?

TS: Like Chris mentioned above, no one solution works for every funeral home. Each community has its own nuances and each lead is unique. In any case, it’s important to have a system that is flexible enough to handle these nuances and comprehensive enough to effectively track each lead all the way through the pipeline.

From lead intake to assigning the optimal nurture paths to ensuring the smoothest possible appointment-setting experience, there should always be a next step for every lead. An effective system cuts down the amount of time your Advance Funeral Planner spends playing phone tag and increases the time they can spend meeting with families.

The personal experience of the Advance Funeral Planner sitting down with a family is where the true connections are made. Anyone who works in a funeral home knows that the families we serve come first. Whenever we sit down with funeral home partners, the questions we ask start with “How can we better serve families?”

Quality Lead Nurturing

A conversation about quality follow-ups and appointment setting with Jesy Guerrero, a Funeral Planning Center Manager

TA: It’s no secret that consumer preferences in our industry are and have been changing. More than a quarter of Americans are religiously unaffiliated, divorces among people aged 50 and older have more than doubled since 1990 and fewer people than ever have a connection to their local funeral home. How can funeral homes use high-quality follow-ups to address those changing trends?

Jesy Guerrero: Following up with families provides an opportunity for them to explore their options and sheds light on the importance of pre-planning. This helps families prioritize this important task and helps them understand why it's crucial to plan.

Each family has their own timeline when it comes to preplanning, so it’s important to be cognizant of removing any pressure in the process. Some may feel ready to make arrangements within a week, while others may prefer to wait a couple of years. We need to respect their pace and provide support whenever they're ready to take that step.

TA: It's hard to overstate how important it is to be aware of every family's journey to preplanning. How does your team make follow-up easy for funeral homes?

JG: We emphasize the importance of preplanning, establishing connections, and building rapport with each person our team speaks to. This allows our funeral home partners to focus on families in immediate need and adds value for funeral homes and families throughout the preneed pipeline.

TA: You mentioned that sometimes, families aren’t ready to preplan in the moment. How do you keep present in their minds?

JG: We aim to remove the fear surrounding a sensitive topic and illuminate what can often feel like a daunting subject. Follow-up needs to be empathetic but also well-informed. When you understand that taking proactive steps can provide peace of mind and alleviate burdens for your loved ones, it's a relief. By discussing preplanning gently and sensitively, you can emphasize the positive outcomes it can bring.

I should also say that it's a big relief to have the technology that keeps track of every customer touchpoint. The platform we use at the Funeral Planning Center is sophisticated and allows us to call the right leads at the right times, and it helps us manage and keep track of every lead.

One-of-a-Kind Preneed Experiences

A conversation about creating consistently great sales experiences with Spencer Roylance, Director of Sales at Precoa

TA: A great preneed experience makes a lasting impact. A look comes across someone’s face when they realize just how meaningful this decision is, and that moment is pretty powerful. How can you make sure these moments happen consistently?

Spencer Roylance: All the work and effort we put into generating high-quality leads is lost if we don’t have an impactful sales experience once we’re meeting with families. Many people think about their funeral from their own perspectives, neglecting to consider the impact that their decisions will have on anyone who has ever loved them or shared life with them. The best advance funeral planners shift that perspective. To do this consistently takes practice, experience, and training.

As an Advance Funeral Planner, it’s easy to get into a groove with your process or, on the flip side, to get stuck in a rut. No two families are exactly alike and an approach that worked with one family might not work for another. Knowing what adjustments need to be made without a second set of eyes is hard.

TA: It seems true of any skillset that when you have support, you improve. Even if you already have a high degree of innate talent, coaching and feedback causes your performance to accelerate.

SR: Prearranging families is not a skill that can be acquired after one training session. The ability to effectively guide families to make the best decisions possible for their loved ones takes continual coaching and refining, with tweaks and adjustments along the way.

The difference it makes in people’s lives is immeasurable, though. My parents recently prearranged, and they bring it up now in their social circles. They simply can’t help but share their experience with others.

People put off preplanning for a long time, but if they discover how much simpler and less painful it is—along with how deeply meaningful—they are compelled to share their experiences. The experience a family has with an advance funeral planner is often the first in-person interaction they are having with a funeral home. The more we can create amazing preneed experiences for families, the more they will put their trust in that funeral home to care for their loved ones.

In-Depth Analytics

A conversation about the behind the scenes data that makes improvement possible with Shang Ma, Strategic Analytics Manager at Precoa

TA: The last preneed pillar is the one that most often gets overlooked. I’ve mentioned it before in previous columns, but after everything is said and done, the only way to truly improve a preneed program is to proactively measure it. Can you explain in more detail why it’s so important to do this?

Shang Ma: Ultimately, you want to know if your marketing is having a measurable impact on the number of families you’re prearranging. It’s a matter of measuring the whole pipeline, looking at what has happened before, and then diving into opportunities for efficiency gains as you cycle back into the process.

A lead will move through multiple stages and is managed by multiple people. Data and analytics serve as powerful tools that offer both macro and micro perspectives on this journey. On the one hand, they give you a comprehensive overview from lead generation to final sales. This empowers leadership to make informed decisions, pose pertinent questions, and steer strategic direction with confidence.

TA: What about at the micro level? Can you explain what you should be focusing on if you want to dig a little deeper into your data?

SM: Data analytics also allows you to unravel the detailed narrative behind each lead as it moves through the pipeline. This granular insight is invaluable for identifying distinctive cases, understanding individual stories, and recognizing the nuanced needs and behaviors of prospective customers. Often, it is these unique scenarios that spotlight opportunities for innovation and refinement.

TA: How important is it to be able to easily shift between these perspectives?

SM: It significantly contributes to your level of improvement and success. You can 'zoom in' to address specific challenges and 'zoom out' to capture overarching trends. For example, when you delve into the characteristics, preferences, and behaviors of the 55+-year-old demographic, you can craft personalized and resonant messages that will be seen and felt by the right people at the right time.

Maybe even more important, you can identify regional nuances and shape your marketing strategies to be as effective and empathetic as possible. You not only attract more leads but also foster meaningful connections with new families, inviting them to experience the support and care that your funeral home provides.

Have a preneed question? Please reach out to me at preneedprotips@precoa.com and I’d be happy to answer.

Tyler Anderson is senior vice president of business development at Precoa, a preneed company that helps hundreds of funeral homes prearrange more families and grow their markets. Born and raised in the funeral profession, Tyler appreciated the importance of ceremony, ritual, and gathering from an early age. He is passionate about sharing a new vision for preneed that helps more families across the country experience a meaningful funeral service.