Funeral Homes And Politicians Are Just Alike

Article originally appeared on PreneedBuilders

Before you start throwing rocks…….

The amount of money the candidates will spend in 2016 will be record breaking. They will use every medium out there to evangelize their point of view or beat up their opponent.

But who are they really going after? Most of us already know who we’re going to vote for ( I’ve seen your Facebook posts) so we’ve tuned out and will just go vote when it is time.

So, if they already have a base and their opponent has a base, who are they trying to convince with 11th hour mud slinging?

The undecided

Elections are a simple lesson in math. The candidates only have to calculate the number of undecided voters they need to win the election and then execute a plan to take their message to them.

Sound familiar?

It should because the same math applies in funeral service.

Your funeral home has your base, your competitor has their base and you both are going after (or should be) the undecided families in your area.

This was never a problem, or not such an obvious one, it seems until recently.  You knew your base and expected a certain number of calls.  Your competitor did as well and the number of undecided families you fought over was insignificant.

Today that number is very SIGNIFICANT.

The number of undecided families is growing every day for reasons that are beyond your control.

• There are more competitors in the field giving consumers more choice.
• More transients moving to your area that have no allegiance to funeral home A, funeral home B…or a third party candidate (i.e. – discounter).
• Loyalty in general is going down as families seek alternative services and lower prices.

So, what is in your control?

You have to do the math.  You can’t rely on bad data or mistaken assumptions that your base will always come to you. We’ve all seen the family that you thought was yours go to a competitor. A safer bet, for the purpose of fortune telling, would be to assume that every family in your area is undecided.  With that data, you only have one choice.

You have to campaign!

You have to go out and tell the undecided families before the election (er…death) that you are worthy of their vote.

You have to do the same thing the candidates are doing: Marketing – on purpose – on many mediums.  You need to have a multi-channel campaign strategy to reach at-need and preneed families and then you must execute on it.  It’s requires planning, team buy-in, and yes, money.  It can’t be just a toe in the water and it can’t be put on the back burner anymore.

This tweet popped up a few days ago and I immediately thought how applicable it was to funeral service in the context of trying to grow at-need call volume or preneed contracts.

The byproduct of an active preneed program is an increase in at-need calls.  The byproduct of a high number of at-need calls is an increase in families wanting to prearrange.  Actively campaigning for each props up both and builds your brand.

If this tweet was rewritten for funeral service, it might look like this.

Running a campaign and running a funeral home (for the purpose of illustrating the undecided voter) is striking similar with one HUGE difference.  Their campaigns have an end date.  Either when they win or lose the election or when they gracefully bow out.

I’ve not met a funeral home owner yet who wants to lose the election or gracefully bow out.

I hope to see more funeral home owners on the campaign trail in 2016!