One of my most successful ways of finding people who might be interested in hearing about funeral pre-planning are those you spontaneous “come across” while circulating in the community.
No kidding!
It is truly amazing how often, being out among “the folks,” will connect you with someone. The next thing you know you end up getting into a conversation with them about what you do for a living.
These chance meetings turn into sold pre-need contracts more often than not. You can meet people at local eateries, the post office, pharmacy, church, senior center, supermarket, gym, convenience store - just about anywhere people congregate on a daily basis. Human nature is funny. If you talk to someone long enough and ask them great questions and inquire about their life and what is going on for them, invariably they will ask you similar questions. That is just the law of reciprocity working in conversations. When that happens, you need to be able to talk about what you do and how you do it.
Do you have a prominent on-line presence? Over the last 15 years, consumer research studies show that at least 85 percent of Americans report doing research online before purchasing a product or service? People are searching for you (or at least someone like you!) who can assist them. They’re searching on the Internet. How easy do you make it for people to locate you on-line?
Think about this for a moment. Given the above statistics, most people you meet at an at-need or pre-need situation already think they know plenty about you, the funeral home you represent and what you have to offer them. They learned about it off the funeral home website. Since this is the situation. Do you know where your web visitors come from? Each visitor arrives at your website as a result of typing in your web address, clicking on a search engine result (organic or paid) or being directed to your site by another webpage (such as social media sites, Google Maps, blogs or industry sites).
Identifying what types of content are interesting to your web audience is essential. Wouldn’t it be easier to decide what content to put on your website (or blog or social-media page) if you knew how visitors had found you? Discovering the source of your web traffic will help you evaluate areas where you’re succeeding and areas where you need improvement.
Get your funeral home listed on Google Places. You'll be found when folks search online. There's no cost for the listing. Be certain to spend the time to provide comprehensive information and use keywords focused on the products you offer. That information is more important than your name.
Make sure to include a strong call-to-action on all relevant web pages. (Obvious suggestion is your pre-planning page) What good is your website if there is nowhere to capture the visitor’s information? The best calls-to-action stand out and are very easy to locate on the page. They’re short, sweet and right to the point.
Don’t ask for referrals…Prompt Them! Feed names to anyone you feel may be a good source of pre-need sales referrals. As an example, most every community has those “sweet little old ladies” who are very active in their church. They make it their business to know everyone that attends the church and/or visits. Rather than ask them who they know that might want to learn about pre-planning; obtain a copy of the latest church directory and ask which church members they know really well.
She will begin to look over the directory and point out the pictures and names of those she is closest too. These are productive leads. This is much more effective than just asking who she knows, which often results in, “Let me give that some thought and I’ll get back to you.” You and I both know they rarely, if ever, get back to you. Help them identify specific faces and names and you will get a lot farther.
Spend a significant amount of time prospecting, in order to get a sufficient number of sales leads. For most pre-need representatives I know that equates into roughly three to four hours per day. Wondering where you’ll find the time? It’s right there waiting for you.
Stop wasting your valuable time on unqualified prospects you’ll never convert. You know who these people are; you’ve been calling them for weeks, months, maybe even years. Get rid of them immediately, or give them one final call and tell them this is the last time you will contact them. It’s now or never.
Stop over-contacting and irritating qualified leads. The reason salespeople keep unqualified prospects in their sales prospect funnel, and harass and over-contact the qualified leads, are because they have no one else to call. Spending a lot of time prospecting will give you an abundance of prospects and solve both these issues.
Stop looking like you’re busy in order to avoid prospecting. Most of us are very creative at coming up with ways to avoid prospecting from straightening up our desks and doing paperwork in the middle of the day, to scheduling doctor appointments and other personal items during prime calling times. Stop it right now! If you are not actively and passionately engaged in meaningful, hands on activity, that places you in front of a sales prospect, each and every day, you will not be successful in your career as a funeral pre-planner. It’s just that simple!
Schedule your prospecting time and stick to the schedule. For example, block off 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. for prospecting and don’t allow anything to infringe on that time. Don’t forget about making sales prospecting calls on Saturday from 9:00am to 12:00pm.
Finally, help yourself to better stay on track. Apps can be a technology time-saver. Whether you’re on your smart phone or tablet, productivity enhancing apps can help even the most disorganized individuals run a tight ship when it comes to staying on top of their daily tasks. To avoid being counterproductive, steer clear of your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter apps temporarily, but feel free to gravitate toward task management apps such as OmniFocus and Asana which are available for free for personal use or light product management on both iOS and Android devices. Most calendars just show you upcoming appointments, but Mynd gives you a complete picture of your day, alerts you when you should leave for an appointment, shows you who'll be there and how to get in touch with them, and can even pull in Evernote notes for the meeting and dial into conference calls for you.