Preneed Pro Tips
A Look Ahead
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
It's that time of year again. If you haven't already started, you'll soon be reviewing your progress in 2024 and mapping out goals to make sure 2025 starts off strong. This is the perfect opportunity to evaluate your preneed program and position it as an important piece of your growth strategy.
Whether that strategy includes increasing market share, surpassing your competitors, or building relationships with more new families in your community, a proactive preneed program can help. As you look ahead, here are five ways you can start leveraging preneed into significant growth and sustained success.
The end of the year is always an opportunity to look back as well as look forward, and that is even more true when you're celebrating a milestone anniversary. This year, Precoa turned 20, and I'm reminded of the moment I became a part of the Precoa story.
I was leading Outlook Group, and the advantages of our proactive approach to preneed had become crystal clear. Not only did it result in increased preneed volume for our funeral home partners, but it increased their at-need volume as well. Being proactive was like a second engine that accelerated core business growth.
When you think about it, the correlation between preneed and at-need growth makes sense. Preneed is one of the few opportunities to actively share your story and build the value of funeral service. When you combine active marketing with a quality preneed experience, you're not just spreading awareness but making a tangible impact that results in brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth.
So imagine my excitement when I discovered another company with a similar vision for reimagining preneed. Precoa and Outlook Group had been competitors, but we realized that by working together we could set a new standard for quality and prearrange even more families across America.
Even before we merged, one of the first things I noticed about Precoa was their completely dialed-in system. Outlook Group increased preneed volume for funeral homes, but Precoa took it to the next level, largely by being laser-focused on maximizing every piece of the preneed pipeline.
The secret behind this is data and measurement. That's the only way to continuously improve the quality of your leads, the quality of your appointment setting, and the quality of the preneed experience.
Take preneed marketing. It's not enough to launch a campaign and wait for returns to roll in. Results-focused data gives you the power to reach the people in your community most likely to preplan with a message that really resonates. It's kind of like finding a familiar face in a crowd. By focusing on the right people at the right times, you cut through the noise and pave the way for meaningful connection.
One of my favorite things about Precoa is that from the beginning, the vision to prearrange all families was intended to help more people experience the impact of ritual, ceremony, and gathering after a loss. But the only way to successfully achieve this is through consistency.
Without consistent attention and care, it can be incredibly difficult to keep your preneed engine running. Many funeral home owners I've met tell me they struggle to sustain momentum because they need to prioritize serving families and the demands of their core business. They'll occasionally step in and provide oversight for their preneed program, but it's a lot to juggle on top of everything else.
We also hear about the challenges of stopping and starting at the operational level. Too often, Advance Funeral Planners spend more than half their working hours making follow-up phone calls and trying to set appointments. It's possible to run a preneed program this way, but you lose efficiency and miss the opportunity for your AFP – and your funeral home – to truly thrive.
Think about it: If your AFP spends one week prearranging families and adding to your book of future business but then needs to spend the entire next week making follow-ups, you're missing out on half of your preneed potential. And that's assuming that your AFP is at their most efficient.
Relieving the burden of follow-ups is actually why Precoa created the Funeral Planning Center. By having people dedicated to consistently setting quality appointments, you create space for AFPs to do what they do best.
Follow-up support is a great first step, but you'll see even better results if you can support every stage of the preneed pipeline. We've found that you can be even more effective when you have ongoing training and coaching, when you start to track and analyze leads from the first touchpoint to a pre-planned funeral, and when you can provide meaningful support to everyone involved.
In the end, we all want the same thing: to provide the highest quality experiences to families. The best way we've found to do that is to provide exceptional support to the people who serve those families on a daily basis.
It takes consistent effort and considerable time out of your day to retool your program to address the entire preneed pipeline. More importantly, it takes a lot of knowledge. Without a detailed roadmap, you can drive down a lot of streets that don't serve your funeral home or your program well. And without a dedicated partner, it can take months—even years—to manifest.
If Outlook's merger with Precoa taught me anything, it's that working with a new partner should feel like expanding your team, not your to-do list. You should know more and spend less effort and time on keeping your system running. That's what we hope to provide for our partners, allowing them to focus on what truly matters: providing exceptional service to families.
When you build out your support system and no longer have to spend as much time, money, and effort on your preneed program, that's when the fun really begins. You can focus on improving the daily aspects of your core business, but you also create an opportunity to take a step back and focus on long-term goals.
You know as well as anyone how dedicated the leaders in our profession are. And when you get the chance to focus on the future of your business instead of being consistently pulled into the day-to-day tasks involved in running a preneed program, the possibilities are endless.
Some use the time, money, and effort they've saved to update facilities, and some pair that effort with technological advances to expand what they offer in their community. But none sit back and kick up their feet, because they know the power of funeral service and want to give families the best opportunity to grieve the loved ones they've lost.
I can't count how many times our partners talk about the relief they feel when they can step away from the day-to-day management of their preneed program. We have the great privilege of working alongside some of the most forward-thinking funeral homes in the nation, and it's abundantly clear that they care not only about improving funeral service today but also defining what funeral service will look like for the next 5, 10 or 20 years and beyond. It's an honor and privilege to help them in their goals, and we're thrilled to be part of defining the future of preneed.
Have a preneed question? Please reach out and I'd be happy to answer it. preneedprotips@precoa.com
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.