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OCTOBER 2013
FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS
S ec t i on A
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It's Not Just About Having Funerals
By Christopher Kuhnen
There’s More
To It...
Advance
Funeral
Planning
For those of you who are regular readers of my monthly col-
umn, you know I always seek out the very best educators and
progressive thought-leaders to share their wisdom in my column.
This month is no different. I recently read the column below in
the
Monument Builders of North America MB News Mag-
azine
and knew immediately I had to obtain permission from
the author to share it with you.
LarryMersereau
is a profession-
al speaker and the author of four books on small business sales
and marketing. For more information on Larry’s keynote and
workshop programs visit his web site: http://promopower.com
His books are available at Amazon.com, or at better bookstores.
In my opinion, Larry is spot on with his advice. Please do me
a favor and e-mail Larry to let him know your thoughts!
Stand Out!
By Larry Mersereau
Everyone in your market is a total stranger until they
discover you.
They can discover you either of two ways: Either they
somehow stumble across you…maybe by driving past
your facility or seeing your vehicles on the street, or you
go out and find them and make your presence known.
Which do you think is preferable?
In the former, they are left to
formulate their own impression of
your business. If your lot is over-
grown with weeds or your vehicle
cut them off in traffic, the impres-
sion isn’t going to be a good one.
In the latter, you get to help them
formulate the impression that you
want them to have. Through busi-
ness development activity, you can
educate your public about what
you do, why it’s important to
them, and why you are the only
would be operating it, what it will accomplish for them…
and much more. You know about their budget and spend-
ing habits. Now all future contacts can be tuned in to them
specifically. You’ll mail personally-addressed offers that talk
about things that are important to them. In short, you’ll be
communicating one-on-one with someone you know well
and who knows you. Your competition will still be talking
in broad terms to the general public.
If you do it right, you move them to the top of the ladder:
Insistence. They don’t even want to consider the other pos-
sible options, including just spreading ashes somewhere.
Why should they? You know their needs and desires, and
you’ve built your business and written your promotional
copy just for them.
If you aren’t using the customer intelligence you gathered
during that first sale to keep moving them up your brand
ladder, you’re never going to get the kind of return on in-
vestment you deserve from your advertising and promo-
tion. Take notes, put them into a well-designed database,
and communicate with them by direct mail, email, and
through Facebook. Engage them with programs like Bil-
lion Graves to keep in touch with future generations and
to go for the next sale and the next.
Christopher Kuhnen of Edgewood, Kentucky is a 26 year veteran of
funeral service. He is perhaps best known as a charismatic, progressive
and highly innovative funeral industry specialist. As an insider into ex-
cellence, Chris is a trusted advisor to many in the death care industry.
Mr. Kuhnen is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer and President
of Funeral Profit Protectors, LLC. Funeral Profit Protectors is a fu-
neral business profit counseling business serving independently
owned and operated funeral homes. The company specializes in
teaching, providing and engaging our clients in successful strate-
gies, products and services to secure and/or increase their business
profits. Chris has considerable first-hand experience in this area,
as well as funeral home marketing and public relations; Individual
funeral home employee training, coaching and mentoring; pre-
need sales training, lead generation and marketing support; con-
sumer and business to business direct sales and management.
Over the course of his distinguished career, Chris has provided
comprehensive consultation, education and positive, meaningful
support to funeral directors nationwide to help them coordinate,
develop and implement their distinctive business strategies.
Christopher is a Kentucky License Funeral Director, Life
Insurance Agent, Certified Preplanning Consultant (CPC),
Insight Institute Certified Celebrant and Certified Marketing
Specialist. He can be reached most anytime at (859) 307-7223
or funeralprofitprotectors@gmail.com. Visit his company web-
site anytime a
business they should consider getting it from.
Just getting them to recognize your name is the first rung on
your “brand ladder.” Marketing experts say it takes seven ex-
posures just to get people to recognize your name. (They call
it “the rule of seven.”) The next step is awareness. That means
they can recall your name from memory if asked to list every-
one they can think of that sells what you sell.
That brings up the other rule of seven: People can only re-
call up to seven items in any one catego-
ry. Try this: Write down the names of all
of the brands of washing machines
you can think of. If you came up
with seven, you’re exceptional.
Most people come up with two,
three, maybe four. That means that if
you’re not one of the first two or three
names that come to mind when your
prospect is ready to buy, you’re not
even in the game. They will call one
of those first names first. If they do
their job, they’ll get the sale.
So, you spend a lot of money,
time and/or energy to get to the
“recognition” rung on the brand
ladder. You spend still more to
get to the “awareness” step. If
you were the one the pros-
pect called when they were
ready to start looking, you
got them to the “acceptance”
step. They’ve accepted you as
a supplier worthy of consideration.
If you get them up to the “preference” step, they have de-
cided you are the one they are going to buy from. Look back
at all of the steps, all of the money and work it took to get the
prospect to that first sale. You’ve made a huge investment to
get that first sale.
It’s important to keep moving them up the brand ladder af-
ter that first sale. Having spent the money to get the first sale,
you would be foolish to just say “thank you” and drop the ball.
Then next step up the ladder is “loyalty.” Loyalty means that
you will be the first choice for them and for family members
who buy in the future. Do you think it happens automatical-
ly because they had a good experience with you the first time
they bought? Don’t count on it. Remember that all of your
competitors are still trying to get your customer’s business.
But you have an unfair advantage: They’ve bought from you.
They’ve had a good experience with you. And if you played
your cards right, you learned a lot about them and their needs.
In that first actual sales conversation, you asked lots of ques-
tions about how they would be using your product, who
Larry Mersereau
Jacob A. Holle Funeral
Home Purchases New
Coach
By Christie K. Redmon, MS, BS
Christie K. Redmon
CEDAR HILL,TX—
The
basic framework of a fu-
neral service practitioner’s
job is to: respond to first
call, meet with the fam-
ily, plan the farewell, con-
duct farewell and complete
disposition. The question
is: What are you doing in
between those steps to set
you apart from others...
what makes you unique?
There have been several
conversations this year re-
garding what is considered
“doing too much” when it
comes to celebrating a life once lived but for a moment
let’s focus on your business and the state of your affairs.
Are you providing a service so stellar that consumers have
no choice but to call you when the inevitable occurs? Are
you providing your families with the latest personalization
products? When families request a direct cremation, do
you at least offer a traditional funeral service with crema-
tion as the final disposition? These additional steps, along
with countless others, can be considered more time con-
suming but will help to increase the longevity of your firm.
As funeral service practitioners, you not only have a re-
sponsibility to provide compassionate care to those who
are bereaved but to educate consumers about their op-
tions. If you fail to take this responsibility seriously, other
firms around you may become a more attractive option
the next time the inevitable occurs.
Christie conducts seminars around the country regarding
implementing strategic business practices, the importance
of succession planning and the value of fostering productive
work environments in the funeral service industry. Christie
owns both C.K. Redmon Funeral Service Consulting and
Sunset Concepts Casket Inserts
and
) Christie can be contacted di-
rectly at christiekredmon@gmail.com.
MAPLEWOOD,NJ—
Clark Holle
of the
Jacob A. Holle
Funeral Home
is shown taking delivery of their new
2013 Federal Cadillac XTS Hearse. The Holle Family
has been independently serving the Maplewood, South
Orange and neighboring New Jersey communities since
1851. The new Cadillac hearse was purchased from
John
O’Donnell
of
Parks Superior Sales
in Somers, CT.
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