ConnectingDirectors.com - Funeral Industry Articles By: Ryan Thogmartin

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Many times, in the funeral homes I deal with, the pre-need sales person is totally unprepared. They themselves sometimes don?t even know it. They go into a clients home and they think they are making arrangements and showing the family everything the firm has to offer. When in all truth the material they have is from years ago.

Is it important that your pre-need sales person have all the latest marketing material? Is it going to make a difference with the family they are meeting with? I mean, the family doesn?t know what other products the funeral home offers or if the sales person is using marketing material that is horrendously out dated. If you have that kind of attitude then you need to re-think the importance of your pre-need position.

What is it that your pre-need sales person was hired to do? They were hired to pre-arrange funeral services for people who are still living. Those pre-need sales, in most cases, give your firm guaranteed business for the coming years. So why would you not want them to have the best material possible to take into the field with them?

Read more: Funeral Industry - Is Your Pre-Need Person Well Prepared?

I was recently at an open house for a local funeral home client of mine. The funeral home has been in business for over 75 years, but the building recently fell victim to the process of old age and needed redone. The funeral home was completely gutted and remodeled. The process took over 15 months to complete, so to celebrate their new building they had an open house for the community. What I found to be a priority when the building was remodeled may be surprising to you.

The open house was on a Saturday afternoon. My wife was working and I could not get anyone to watch my two girls so I got them all dressed up and explained to my two year how important it was for her to behave. I am sure she fully understood!! When I arrived to the funeral home I was greeted at the door by the funeral director. We have a very good business relationship, but he has never met my girls. I explained to him why I had to bring the girls and that I would leave before they got to restless. His reply caught me off guard. He said, ?I am glad you brought them, they are going to have a great time.? My first thought was the only way they are going to be having a good time is if you don?t mind them running wild, screaming at the top of there lungs, and jumping on all of the furniture. I didn?t say it but man I sure was thinking it. Seeing the fear of disaster in my eyes he said, ?Bring them back here, they are going to like this?. Again, not sure what to expect, I was just thinking disaster.

Read more: Bring on The Kids!

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As many of you may know, I write a monthly commentary column for Mortuary Management. My articles are to be based off of the most popular articles posted on ConnectingDirectors.com each month.

I submitted the below article to the publisher last Friday. Early Friday evening I received a call from the publisher informing me that my article was not going to be published because it was not relevant to today's funeral directors.

My article focused on the "Finally, an Obituary Worth Reading!" article that I posted last week. The article received over 1300 views and generated tremendous feedback. I assumed this must mean this article was relevant to today's funeral director.

I was told by the publisher that my article was off base - wasn't relevant to the industry as a whole and didn't follow in the direction the magazine thinks the industry is headed.

The reasons given as to why this article was not relevant to today's funeral director were:

Read more: Obituaries Are Dead, Article Rejected By Industry Print Pub?

When I used to tell people that I worked in the deathcare industry, they would all say the same thing: ?I guess you will always have plenty of business.? And I assumed they were right. I?m sure many people in this trade have thought the same thing. Who would have believed that the economy could affect the one thing in life that is guaranteed?

In just the past few months we have read about a handful of cases where families have failed to pay the funeral home for services, and the funeral home has held the body for an extended period of time. We have read about families never coming back to pick up the remains of a loved one because they didn?t have the money to pay the funeral home for the cremation. Even in the ?Bible Belt? of North Carolina they are seeing higher cremation rates than ever before. Is this really all because of the economy, or has our society become so careless about death and dignity that they don?t care about the remains of their loved ones?

Read more: Is the Economy Really Putting the Deathcare Industry In a Recession?