All-Around Accountability

What can I do to make sure my preneed program gets consistent results? A lot of my staff, myself included, try to support our program. It seems like everyone has a chance at bat and takes a swing, but so much of the burden is still on me to make my program successful. As an owner, I get pulled in so many different directions with everything else it takes to run my business. I just want a way forward that doesn’t always require my oversight. - Preneed Starts and Stops

Dear Preneed Starts and Stops: That has to be so frustrating. To see your program starting to take off one minute and then have it stall out the next—I can’t tell you how many times I’ve met with funeral home owners who were once in the same boat.

It’s clear you’re committed to the success of your program. Like many funeral home owners, you probably recognize the competitive advantages of a thriving, proactive preneed program. Not only in terms of growing market share but also by building your brand and reaching new families you may not have reached otherwise.

But then there’s the matter of focus. As an owner, your primary focus is serving families and running your business. Whether that’s managing multiple locations, cemeteries, your staff, accounting, or operations—the point is, it’s a lot. Preneed will naturally take a back seat to serving families, and you know better than anyone how often your day can change at the drop of a hat when you receive a call.

It’s common for funeral home staff to be on call 24/7, receiving calls and texts even outside of work hours. Adding extra tasks and responsibilities to an already long list means preneed leads get ignored, appointments get rescheduled, and the needs of your program get lost in the shuffle.

The real issue here is preneed accountability. It sounds like preneed responsibilities are being delegated across your organization, which is not uncommon. But if everyone is trading off answering phones and trying to stay on top of marketing, it’s hard to stay consistent, much less sustain performance, especially if they don’t have time to dedicate to that task.

As Verne Harnish writes in his book Scaling Up: “If more than one person is accountable, then no one is accountable, and that’s when things fall through the cracks.” This is a challenge for every business. One study on workplace accountability found that 82% of participants had “limited to no” ability to successfully hold others accountable, while 33% felt their priorities changed too frequently, which caused confusion.

So the million-dollar question that separates a stellar preneed program from one that constantly struggles is this: At the end of the day, who do you hold accountable?

Establishing a system for accountability is vital to achieving sustained preneed results you’ll be proud of. This means assigning preneed to a group who can make it their first priority and won’t require your constant oversight. You might think of them as a preneed department, one that can operate even when you inevitably get pulled into other areas of your business. They should be able to make ambitious goals and achieve them, and they should always have your performance numbers at their fingertips.

Here’s what I recommend: Start by creating accountabilities for each stage of the preneed pipeline.

1. Performance Marketing
   
   You may already be familiar with the study showing that 70% of people agree that prearranging is a good idea while only 33% actually do it.
   
   Why? Because preneed isn’t top of mind for most families. A catalyst is needed to drive interest, and that catalyst is proactive marketing. But great results don’t come from a spray-and-pray approach. Effective marketing starts when someone thinks of it as both art and science. Holding someone accountable means they should be able to create marketing campaigns with the right message and design—and they should understand your market down to the finest detail, including statistical and demographic data.
   
   It should also be said that accountability does not just stop at the number of clicks, returns, and leads they generate. It should be measured all the way through the preneed pipeline so you can continue to improve and increase sales.
   
   
2. Quality Follow-ups
   
   Transforming your preneed program may start with marketing, but it continues with follow-ups. By tracking the appointment set rate, you can monitor marketing effectiveness, lead quality and follow-up activity, and make adjustments accordingly. But just as important is measuring the percentage of appointments that hold. That’s the measure of the quality of a follow-up call.
   
   Without quality follow-ups, even a record number of leads could have little effect on the amount of funerals you prearrange. You need a person or a team that will keep pursuing leads past the low-hanging fruit, and putting your Advance Funeral Planner in front of new families that are ready to prearrange.
   
   As we discussed last month, if you’re selling to families who would have chosen your funeral home anyway, you’re not growing. But by following up with those families who are a little bit harder to reach, you’re expanding your market and helping your Advance Funeral Planner do what they do best.
   
   
3. ProActive Sales
   
   The real magic with Advance Funeral Planners happens when they’re sitting face-to-face with families. In that moment, they become advocates, educators, and friends. They are helping a family on their journey and crafting a plan for healing when it’s needed most.
   
   The very best Advance Funeral Planners thrive in these moments. This is where they provide the most value to both families and your funeral home, and accountability should be measured by their close rate. How many families are they getting in front of, and what percentage of these families are they prearranging?
   
   A quick word of caution: You can’t expect Advance Funeral Planners to be successful if they’re shouldering the rest of your program. Marketing and follow-ups are big jobs in and of themselves, and they take away from the most valuable thing Advance Funeral Planners do, which is connecting with families. If possible, make that their primary responsibility.

Giving someone full accountability for your program is a lot for one person to handle. On the other hand, spreading it out between a few people has major drawbacks too as leads are sure to slip through the cracks. Again, if more than one person is accountable, no one is accountable. If you don’t know the numbers or don’t know who to ask, you’re likely missing a key piece of accountability.

It takes time to build a system of accountability within your funeral home so you feel like you have support even when your focus is drawn elsewhere. Many funeral homes find it easier to work with a trusted partner who they can hold completely accountable for their programs. Either way, the results speak for themselves. Improved accountability is a necessary step to transform a mediocre program into a world-class success.

In my next installment, I’ll be addressing the question of increasing the effectiveness of your community events. Until then, here is a quick quiz to see where you stand with your preneed program. Just write the names in the blanks below (Hopefully it’s more than one person):

Now that you know who’s accountable, do you have an accounting of their performance? Here are a few of the most important metrics to track:

• Lead volume
• Return rates
• Contact rates
• Appointment set rate
• Appointment hold rate
• Appointment close rates

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

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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.