How many times have you encountered a telephone funeral price shopper?

  You can oftentimes spot them a mile away. All they seem to want is the “bottom line price.”

  They open their telephone conversation with what appears to be a very simple and straightforward question, “How much does a funeral cost?” They believe it shouldn’t take you more than 10 seconds to provide the answer and they’ll have all they need. The lower the price, the better the deal – that’s what they believe. After all, just how complicated can a funeral service really be?

  What they don’t want to hear from you is a bunch of “questions” to get them to elaborate on their initial question. Why?

  It’s because questions might get them talking with you longer than they would ideally like.

  They are afraid of this “perceived sales tactic” because they know once they commence engaging in an open dialogue, you will try to “talk them into something they don’t want.” Here is my personal favorite. A price shopper once accused me of trying to “confuse the issue” with a lot of questions they didn’t need to answer. I thought I was trying to be helpful to better understand exactly what they wanted, so I could provide them the best possible price available. They thought otherwise. It all boils down to a matter of perception.

  Allow me to share this personal thought about genuine “price shoppers.” In my experience, anyone who calls you on the telephone looking for your lowest price is not your ideal customer. They base their decision solely on price. Nothing else, like deep-seated value, really matters. They believe they know and understand your business as well as you do. Therefore, nothing you have to say will likely sway them. Low, low price wins the day. Everything else is secondary.

  Good News! The vast majority of people are not solely “price shoppers.” They only start their conversation with a pricing question because they don’t know what else to ask to begin involving you in a conversation that will educate and inform them—but definitely not sell them!

  Remember these ideas when pressed to give pricing information over the telephone.

1.      First and foremost follow the Federal Trade Commission – Funeral Rule guidelines regarding how to properly respond to and handle all consumers pricing inquires. Do not break the law! The Funeral Rule gives consumers the right to:

•     Buy only the funeral arrangements they want. They have the right to buy separate goods (such as caskets) and services (such as embalming or a memorial service). They do not have to accept a package that may include items they do not want.

•     Get price information on the telephone. Funeral directors must give price information on the telephone, if asked for it. The caller does not have to give you their name, address, or telephone number first. Although you are not specifically required to do so, many funeral homes will mail their price lists, and some post them on their website. Neither of these is a bad idea.

•     Get a written, itemized price list when they visit your funeral home. The funeral home must give them a General Price List (GPL) that is theirs to keep. Give it to them before you engage in any type of price discussion. It’s not enough to have it readily available in the room, for them to pick up, if they so choose. The consumer needs to retain it on their person. If you ever get audited in an FTC Funeral Home Sting Operation, you will want to make 100% sure the consumer physically has in their possession your GPL before you start any conversation about price.

2.      Whenever possible, take the opportunity to establish the value of what your funeral home offers to families. People don’t know what they don’t know about your services. They need factual information so they can make sound decisions for themselves and their family. If they will permit you the time and leeway to engage in a conversation with you, get them to do it.

3.      Unless asked specifically for a price on certain good or service, some telephone callers are more comfortable when provided with price ranges for your goods and services. For example: “Our caskets range in price from $400 to $2,800. We have something to meet everyone’s price point and budget. Is there a specific type of casket, make or model number I may provide you the price of?”

4.      When offering a price range, your low end should be your lowest possible price. No exceptions! If you say it, you had better be able to provide it today.

5.      Attempt to supportively guide the conversation by saying something like this:

  Q. “How much is your lowest priced funeral?”

  A. “Great question and thank you for asking! I always appreciate the opportunity to provide families with the very best price possible on all our funeral goods and services. To ensure I quote you the lowest possible price we have listed on our General Price List, I need to know if you are referring to a standard funeral service, a funeral celebrant service, a graveside service, a cremation service, or some other type of final remembrance service.”

  They will need to respond to one of your options to get the price they seek. Their response is what you want to pay close attention to. It will be very telling regarding if they are a genuine low price shopper or someone looking to get a conversation started with you and they don’t know any other way to go about it.

  If their reply is graveside service…nine times out of ten, it’s all about the low price. When people say graveside service, they know exactly what they are asking for and it’s not all the bells and whistles you can provide. Low price wins the day with these folks. Either you have it or you don’t.

  Anything else that comes out of their mouth is not necessarily low price related. It’s about getting the highest perceived value for the best price they can negotiate. Lots of room to work with here.

  A funeral professional from Nebraska recently shared this piece of advice with me. He stated that it works well at his funeral home, when they are presented with a telephone price shopper.

   “When we have someone who appears to be a genuine telephone price shopper, we have tried simply giving them a price – but then quickly explain the difference between us and someone that may be lower cost.

   “For instance, I learned from a hospice nurse, who was talking with a patient of hers, that they thought our funeral home was way too high on our direct cremation price. After some research on their pricing, it turns out they had a base price, plus extra for overweight people; plus extra if they are removing any artificial medical equipment; plus extra if they have to file for compensation with an insurance company; plus, plus, plus, plus. We were significantly lower on price when all was said and done. So now we will provide a price, and then quickly add, ‘If you are shopping around you may find or may have already talked with someone that quoted a lower price. Let us give you some helpful advice so you get the exact service you are expecting. When you talk to others, make sure to ask these specific questions.’

  “We then provide them a few specific questions to ask the other party(s) they are speaking with to ensure they are comparing apples to apples and not apples to oranges. By using this approach, we will let them get off the phone quickly, but we will try to appear the helpful people, even if you go someplace else, we will be the firm that helped them get what they want.”

  What ideas do you have to share with our readers about the most effective way to handle telephone price shoppers? E-mail them to me at ckuhnen@uflife.com and I will share them in a future column.