March 2018

Page A25 MARCH 2018 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A SEE IT IN ACTION: watch the video at www.waukboard.com IDEAL FOR HOME REMOVALS WHEELS MAKE IT EASIER ON YOUR BACK! Model contracts. Legal consultations. Sample forms. Discounts on multiple products and services such as performance surveys. ICCFA membership has its benefits. Reacquaint yourself with your association and see what benefits you can take advantage of by visiting www.iccfa.com/membership/become-a-member iccfa.com Membership That Matters. used to say that the salesperson was an “assistant buy- er,”  that we are on the same side of the table as the cus- tomer. This is why funeral directors should never be em- barrassed about selling and advertising. We fill a need and we must fill that need in order to serve people. The second thing we can do to build our businesses is to create unexpected value. I am a big fan of giving gifts to customers and prospects. Why? Because it is nice and it sells. If you want to build your business then you have to give gifts. I know a chiropractor that gives a gift of a free body scan. The patient gets to understand what is causing their discomfort and the chiropractor gets in- sight on how to treat them. Over the years, as an author I have given many books away. It not only creates value for someone, it also works as a calling card — or the ul- timate business card if you will. I have also given away free seminars. For example, I gave a free, short seminar to a company and they ended up purchasing eight paid speaking days. At Bright, we recently formed a partner- ship with Celebration Covers . Through this partnership, we have arguably the best blanket in the industry. Sure, we can show the funeral director how to sell a custom designed blanket, but more importantly we show them how to use it as a gift to create value for their customer and to build their business. We call it serendipity mar- keting. Does it work? It only works if you want to build your business — and I love helping people build their business. So, I encourage you to give gifting a try. The third thing we need to do is be positively differ- ent. Being different for the sake of being different is not what we are talking about. Being different in or- der to distinguish your funeral home from the other fu- Continued from Page A4 Should Your Funeral Home Be Better at Selling? neral homes in your area is what we are talking about. My friend and mentor Scott McKain is the person who helped me understand this concept. Today, we see a lot of sameness. The car you drive is probably very similar to the car I drive. The big department store you shop at is probably very similar to the one I shop at. Scott says, “Please remember — customers always have to find a point of differentiation in order to make a decision. If there’s no discernible advantage one way or another, then customers apply the ultimate differentiator: price.” And that is a game we don’t want to play. No one wins in the commodity business, particularly the customer because quality and value aren’t found there. In order to succeed today, the proactive funeral director looks for ways to differentiate their funeral home from the com- petition across town. Well, there you have it. Three ways you can build your funeral home business: Don’t be embarrassed about sell- ing and advertising; create unexpected value; and be posi- tively different. Now, it is your turn. Go out there and make it happen. Mark Bowser is the vice president of sales at the Bright Corporation. He is also known as one of the top sales and business speakers in the United States. He has pre- sented seminars for many organizations including South- west Airlines, Ford Motor Company, FedEx Logistics, Kings Daughters Medical Center, and the United States Marine Corp just to name a few. Bowser has written sev- eral books including Sales Success with the late Zig Zi- glar. He can be reached at 1-800-428-6424 or email mark@BrightCorporation.com . ADVERTISING WORKS FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS THE 2018 EDITIONS Order Today! Call 1-800-321-7479 or visit www.nomispublications.com FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY DIRECTORY BUYER’S GUIDE