Worthy Purpose

     You didn’t wake-up one morning and “be” a funeral director or pre-need counselor...we were all trained to be those. That training came from someone providing us information on the “how to” portion of the vocation and we took that and cultured it into the value of our profession. That profession is based on relationships that put us in the role of an educator - we provide our families with solutions to their problems with the knowledge and information we have been trained. Too many times a family is shorted, unintentionally, by the pre-need sales process because they are only told how much it will cost or what the family will pay in monthly premium.

     I realize that most families make decisions based on their finances, but I also firmly believe that families don’t (or won’t) pre-arrange their funeral until they are shown or reminded what will be faced with the loss of a loved one or friend. Why would they consider waiting until this difficult time in life? I believe it is Lack of Information. We are charged with the challenge of showing a family the true value of a pre-arrangement – why it’s important, what the benefits are and ultimately how it will take care of their family. We have to help them help their family. Just because we know the advantages of our product and how it helps families, please don’t ever assume your families do. Many of them have a loose working knowledge of what a pre-arrangement is but might not realize that it can be insured to where the family could have little or NO balance to pay if death should occur and that insurance is avail- able even if they are not in perfect health. Most of all, a pre-arrangement will prevent their surviving family members from making difficult decisions on one of the worst days of their lives.

     These days, a lot of families have unusual family structures; children from a previous marriage, raising grand-children, small or grown children in other areas or states, disabled family members or no other family members. Some will have a lot of insurance, some will not have anything or think their military benefits will pay for their funeral – some are going to nursing homes and need to pre-arrange with an irrevocable agreement. No matter their circumstance, they can benefit from a pre-arrangement and you need to be prepared to help them. Talk with your SNL Field Manager each time you see them about different situations that have or might happen. I firmly believe the more information you have to help your families, the less you have to “sell” your families and more often than not you will recognize that you have earned a friend during the process because they realize how much you care. I had a friend that once said – “My families know I care because they can see my heart in my eyes when I talk to them” about helping them help their family.

     When you really help someone there is a feeling of accomplishment that you won’t get just by making a sale. I won’t say work smarter or harder...just always be that friendly, helpful person from the funeral home...it is truly a “worthy purpose.”

To find a way to help others help their family go to www.securitynational.com/PNrecruit

Wow, how things have changed!

     Wow, how things have changed!  I started my funeral career in the old days when graves were dug with a shovel.  I was 15 and, if memory serves, the fee for opening and closing a grave was $125. Now at 15 years old, I was a good soldier and I marched and did as I was told.  My fellow gravedigger was a gentleman named Sidney and he was all of 65 years old.  So as I worked through that long, hot, humid South Mississippi summer I was paid $50 for each grave using my pointed shovel to dig the grave and Sidney kept $75 and used his square shovel to fill it up after the committal service.  Well, by the end of the summer I had a my first grave digging epiphany – “I only get $50 and have to do the hard work of digging the grave and Sidney gets $75 for the easy part of filling it up!” – the scales of fair and just had long since tipped in Sidney’s favor.  So I confronted Sidney and without a moment’s thought he told me that the reason I was paid $50 and he was paid $75 was that he was “Management.”  And that has been my quest ever since.

     Unfortunately for me that is a true story – but what’s also amazing to me is how much the industry has changed.  You sure can’t open and close a grave for $125 anymore, and for the most part no one’s digging graves by shovels either.  I remember when I made the transition to Pre-need sales – I used to calculate premiums with a rate sheet, then technology stepped in and the industry moved to the Palm.  Then Palm quit making Palm Pilots to focus on smart phones.  Well, I am proud to say that the industry continues to upgrade and change and Security National Life has just introduced the industry’s first iPhone® rate calculator called iFuneral.

     This application is designed to work with the iPhone® and iTouch® Apple products and will simplify the process of helping the families you serve.  Simply select the state where the prepaid funeral is being sold...

Enter the funeral price, the proposed insured's age and select the funding plan...IT'S THAT SIMPLE!

     Security National Life’s iFuneral Rate Calculator is an innovative way for our funeral home and agent base to take advantage of calculating our very competitive rates while utilizing current technologies. Please ask your Security National Life Pre-Need Representative about our iFuneral Rate Calculator or any of the other Pre-Need Products and services available from SNL.

www.securitynational.com/iFuneral

Let's start with some ground rules...

The Ten Commandments of Pre-Need Sales

(and good, clean living too…)

1. Speak to People. There is nothing so nice as a cheerful word of greeting.

2. Smile at People. It takes 72 muscles to frown, only 14 to smile.

3. Call People by Name. The sweetest music to anyone’s ears is the sound of their own name. Growing up in the funeral business, my grandfather used to remind me how important a simple philosophy like this is. He’d always remind me, “How you expect to bury someone if you don’t know their name.”

4. Be Friendly and Helpful. If you would have friends, be a friend.

5. Be Cordial. Speak and act as if everything you do is a genuine pleasure.

6. Be Genuinely Interested in People. You can like almost everybody if you try.

7. Be Generous with Praise. Be cautious with criticism.

8. Be Considerate with the feelings of others. There are usually three sides to a controversy: Your side, their side and the right side.

9. Be Alert to Give Service. What counts most in life is what we do for others.

10. Add to this a Good Sense of Humor and a BIG Dose of Patience.

Some years ago I sent a list similar to this to my customer base and got back a not-so-friendly letter that I keep with me to this day. This letter reminded me that some times what we intend to do doesn’t always mirror what we actually do. We get caught in the process and don’t pay attention to the details – we forget the human side. I am ashamed to say that the customer was right – I had fallen into a trap of treating that client as a number instead of a person. I had fallen into the trap of trying to call on more customers rather than making sure that one was taken care of and satisfied. Dave Ramsay calls this life lesson “Stupid Tax.” Please learn from mine so you don’t have to pay your own. Read the Commandments. Learn them. Live them. “Helping you help your family…” it’s what we do best.

I Need Your Help and Want to Hear from You!

My goal through these series of blogs is to give you some subtle suggestions to help yourself both personally and professionally. In addition, we would like some feedback from you to give us some direction as this process evolves and takes shape. Please email me with suggestions of what you would like to read. Guy.Winstead@SecurityNational.com

You can also contact me on the web at 

www.securitynational.com/preneed

www.securitynational.com/PNRecruit

www.securitynational.com/iFuneral

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT GOALS IS HAVING ONE.