As so often happens in my world I’ve had some real life and/or businesses experiences or discussions in the last week or ten days that has made me think about Death Care.  And, specifically to today’s article, about how the acquisition solicitation of client families to choose your specific Death Care operation for their services has both changed . . . and in some cases stayed the same.

Here’s three items that I experienced in this short period of time that has caused me to make these reflections:

1. Heard a sermon at church titled “The Price of your Device“.  The sermon dealt with how often and for how long we use our mobile devices in today’s world.  As you might expect, the sermon encouraged us to use our devices less and enjoy the world around us more.  In a nutshell, however, the sermon also told me that if you are looking for clients — they are spending a lot of time online so that is a good place to prospect for future families.
2. I visited, as I do from time to time, with two CEO’s of technology companies working to help funeral homes and other Death Care providers in many aspects of the work they do.  These discussions really drove home the point to me that as we move into the future technology companies may become retail Death Care providers best friends and alllies.  I learned of lots of places where they are hoping to help your business in ways that you probably have not even thought of yet.
3. I received a text from a mentor of mine, Danny Jefferson, about the value of a handshake.  It reminded me that the “old-style” of acquiring customers is still alive and well and that personal interaction is still one of the best and well-received customer acquisition tools.

My experience has taught me that all one does at his business, whether it is how the facility or funeral coach looks or staff friendliness, or how the company conducts a service has some bearing on future client acquisition.  And, I believe that customer acquisition should be top of mind at all times and conducted not only with an all hands on board policy but a philosophy that customer acquisition should be welcomed as is the name of the old Clint Eastwood movie in an “Any which way you Can” strategy.

However, I think I am correct when I say that teaching the value of preneed and letting future Death Care consumers know and learn about those values might be the the most efficient way to build one’s future business thereby increasing its value.  A retail Death Care business needs to pursue any, and all, avenues of lead generation to find those with preneed interest.

Technology is here to help in that realm.  To that end I’ve recently learned of streaming company OneRoom and their preneed pathways through the live streaming of your existing services.  OneRoom has the ability to prompt those who may be watching a livestream of one of the services your funeral homes is conducting about their interest in preneed.

Here’s what Deacon Marc Nestorick, with the Catholic Funeral & Cemetery Services of the Archdiocese of Denver says about OneRoom’s program according to a quote on the OneRoom website:

“When individuals watch a service and experience the reality of loss, they often realize the importance of pre-planning their own arrangements.  OneRoom allows guests to say, ‘hey, I’m interested in pre-planning’, that provides us with the avenue to follow up with them and help them.”

According to statistics on the OneRoom website, the average livestream is watched by 30 guests of which about 1/3 of them are in the local market and possible potential preneed clients.  OneRoom further notes that about 2% of this number click on the preneed options during the livestream.

 

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

2% doesn’t seem like a large number until you do the math and realize what it could do for building the case volume at your funeral home.  Here’s the math for a 150-call firm that streams all of its services.  That 2% totals 30 inquries from local consumers and my experience as a preneed agent for over 15 years tells me that the overwhelming majority of preneed appointments deal with the preneed plans of two lives (husband and wife).  That brings the number to 60 potential lives.

 

And, if you can follow through and write those 60 lives into preneeds that is not only 60 commissions that come to your funeral home annually but an additional 60 services in the future.  Continuing to do that year in and year out will add 60 annual services to a 150 call funeral home and turn that 2% rate into an annual increase of 40% over the 150 calls you were doing.

 

Now, not every inquiry will be a 2-policy client (husband and wife) and not all inquiries will purchase a preneed policy.  But, in a world where you are looking to increase business “Any which way you Can“, can you afford not to pursue these leads?

 

I’m “Old-School” and understand that service, friendship, being kind, and a warm handshake all add up to building the volume of one’s Death Care business over time.  But, I’m also “New-School” enough to understand that bringing my information to where people are at, such as on mobile phones, will reach people with whom I don’t have the opportunity to give that “handshake” and help in building my business “Any which way I Can”

 

To learn more about OneRoom and their streaming services click here.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

It’s s question that I have a hard time answering or getting an answer to.  The question being, “What is the number of preneed policies a funeral home needs to write to move market share forward?”  Or even more basic, “What is the average ratio between going-concern funeral homes as it comes to annual preneed contracts sold in relation to at-need services held?”

There is a lot written about Preneed and how to increase your numbers but I don’t know if I ever have seen a percentage listed that would indicate a funeral home is doing well or doing poor in relation to other funeral homes.

What caught my interest on this subject is information that Funeral Director Daily wrote about in this article on British preneed sales.  The first half of 2025 produced record sales for the companies that report to Great Britain’s National Association of Funeral Plan Providers (NAFPP).  And, in the numbers provided one could calculate that the number of preneed policies sold in Great Britain in a year, on the current rolling rate, would equal approximately 39% of all deaths in Great Britain for the year. . . . .So, I would call the ratio of preneed sales to at need deaths in Great Britain a 39% rate.

Just for comparison sake, I know that Service Corporation International, in their quarterly reports lists Preneed Contracts sold as well as a term they use called “Funeral Services performed”.  I then took the liberty to go back four years and look under their “Comparable Funeral Revenue” report.  Here’s the data that I found:

At first look at this data, you would have to say that Service Corporation International Preneed/AtNeed ratio would be about 60%. . . . 20% higher than Great Britain is reporting.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

At our funeral home we became what I call “subtly aggressive” with preneed sales early on.  My brother was in charge of Preneed and did a great job at it.. . . . There were years when our ratio was at 100% and that was always our goal —  One preneed for every At Need.  At that rate we felt very secure that we were increasing market share.

We did that number with seminars, mailings, walk-ins, Medical Assistance, partnerships with fraternal agents, and simply always talking about the benefits of PreNeed.

Over the years one of the facts that occured to me is that when there is an at-need death it involved one individual. Preneed, in most instances, involved the sale of policies to two individuals (married couples) at once. . . .. . . which is one reason the 100% ratio was attainable.

About the SCI Numbers:  In the table above you will notice that in general Preneed policies sold went up every year and Total Funeral Services went down every year.  The exception to this was the Preneed sales in 4Q2024 where Preneed contracts sold also went down.  I believe that the simple explanation for Preneed sales going down is that SCI has changed their Preneed modus operandi and they now have an agreement with Global Atlantic as their provider.  They have made no secret that some of the training is taking longer than expected which is probably why Preneed sales have lagged.

As for the Total Funeral Services performed number going down for SCI I’m a little perplexed.  This number comes from their “Comparable Funeral Revenue” and you would think that they have more facilities today than they had in 2021.

However, there is no explanation for this line item on the report and without all the data and explanations we can only theorize.  It could be that 2021 deaths included increased deaths from the pandemic.  Deaths from later years could explain what has been called a “pull-forward” effect of the pandemic where older people died earlier because of the pandemic (2020 and 2021) and they would have been deaths in later years like 2022, 2023, and 2024, had they not died during the pandemic. . . . leaving lower death numbers in these succeeding years.

Other possible explanations are that SCI is losing market share or that they have less funeral homes today than they had in 2021.  The reduced numbers could even be caused by the calendar  —  maybe there was more “reporting” weeks via the way the calendar fell for the 4th Quarter in certain years.  In any regard, it is my assumption that the data is too limited to really tell what might be at play with these reduced “Funeral Services Performed” number.

Final Thought — If you do want a comparison for Preneed sales over the past couple of years.  After reading the above linked article that appeared on August 27 in Funeral Director Daily one of my friends, and FDD subscriber, who operates a preneed agency for several funeral businesses reported to me that 2024 was “a record year” and 2025 year-to-date is up 15.7% over that 2024 number.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

While we cannot guarantee success with every idea, one of the reasons for reading Funeral Director Daily is that we endeavor to give ideas to Death Care professionals that can have a positive impact on the financial results of your funeral home, crematory, or cemetery.

And, with the continuing choice of cremation as a disposition option we all know that many families choose to permanently memorialize their loved one, if they do it at all, in a way other than a monument in a cemetery. . . . which has lead to less monument sales and less profits for funeral homes and cemeteries via those sales channels.

So, seemingly any way in which one can get someone’s remains, whole casketed body or cremated, to be buried in a cemetery would provide an opportunity for ancillary income through the sale of a monument.

That’s where our story comes in today where in this article from the Minnesota Tribune Two Rivers Monuments owner Julia Gusafson states, ““I tell people, ‘This is your story. We’re not all going to be written about in history books, but we can write your story in stone.’”

Gustafson goes on to tell potential customers that inscribing words like “Beloved”, “Devoted”, and the like are “only a small part of a person’s contributions to society, their interests, or the way they held a family together.”   Today, with improved engraving technology, much more can be put on a memorial marker. . . . . and Gustafson, and others inquire about potential clients life interests.  That’s led, believe it or not, to a small but growing movement that “a life story will inevitably reveal a favorite food.”

“Recipes” happen to be one of the growing individual choices that are being engraved on the monuments.  Candi L. Cann, a professor of Religion at Texas’ Baylor University has actually published a book on the subject titled “Dying to Eat“.  Cann states in the article, “It’s the best recipes, the signature dish that everyone brings to the community potluck or always to the family’s feasting. The ones everyone’s been waiting their whole lifetime to make.”

The article also says this of Cann and what she has witnessed,  “Cann has noticed gravestone recipes at cemeteries near her in Texas — and she’s not surprised. The tradition of honoring the deceased through food is ancient, from Roman times to Dia de los Muertos celebrations in Mexico to the Protestant communal repast.”

The article also points out that another book is in the works. . . by Rosie Grant and titled, “To Die For“.   According to the article Grant has “found 45 of them (Recipe monuments) worldwide, mostly in North America. Grant is writing a cookbook featuring headstone recipes which will be released in the fall of 2025.”

Here is the website for Two Rivers Monuments

And, here is the website for a national provider of monuments, Memorial Monuments

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:   This is seemingly unusual and certainly a small niche market for monuments.  However, I think that there is more to this story than meets the eye.

I think this type of story points out that most people do want to be remembered. . . . and funeral homes have not always spent the time to figure out what the deceased person wants to be remembered for.   That remembrance thought can probably be drawn out most easily during a pre-arrangement conference.  However, if there is no pre-arrangement conference it may be something that can be drawn out and made sense of by the family at the time of arrangements.

And, in the world of online pre-arrangements and arrangements, the growing technology of artificial intelligence (AI) may be able to help.  As a matter of fact, I saw a demonstration of a currently in use product from Prelude that is starting to use AI in pre-arrangements to allow for suggested ideas to the consumer. . . . and, I was impressed.

In a world that continues to move to simpler (and less revenue producing) human dispositions of the body such as direct cremation, I think the ability to be able to offer more products through a memorialization thought process can only be good for traditional funeral homes.

It may be a recipe for some while for others it may be college logo or Rotary Club membership logo.  Whatever it is, if you can get one to believe in permanent memorialization, the chance is there for a bevy of products to be sold.

Finally, I think that this illustration of what could happen points out that the “skill set” of your pre-arrangement counselors may make an incredible difference on sales going forward.  Visionary thinking and creativity may be much more important in the future than “sales closing” skills in raising revenue in this service that is of growing importance for death care providers.

That “skill set” of vision and creativity may make the difference between pre-arranged cremations with no services and pre-arranged cremation dispositions followed by an ever increasing spend on celebrations and memorializations.

And I think that is one area where Artificial Intelligence in pre-arrangement conferences, especially online, may make a big difference in the revenues and profits of funeral homes as we move into the next generation of death care sales culture.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”