If you’re new to Pre-Need selling let me tell you what you’ll be taught almost immediately. You’ll be taught to cold-call or door-knock with the idea of getting an appointment or getting into the home on the first try. This is called one-step- prospecting .
Essentially you’re interrupting your Prospect and you expect to make an appointment. If you’re door-knocking, the goal is to get into the home immediately or set an appointment. Most cemeteries/funeral homes training will involve this one-step approach. In fact, they’ll tell you if you spend 2 hours a day you’ll meet more prospects than you can keep up with.
First, I’ll address this form of prospecting of which I refer to as “the last century” method. It is much like the out-house. Remember the out-house? Most of us prefer in-door plumbing and we like our privacy in the bathroom. Not the outhouse which was normally located 30 yards back of the house. Though an out-house will still do the job it is pretty non-functional today.
In the pre-need arena one-step- prospecting is so common it is unlikely anyone has heard of a different way. For the Renegade Pre-Need Seller, a better approach is to make all your Prospecting & advertising two-step.
A Renegade Pre-Need Seller is someone who works outside the box and goes against industry norms. For example, it is an industry norm to one-step-prospect and cold-call/door-knock. The Renegade Seller of Pre-Arrangements does just the opposite; a two-step- prospecting approach getting the prospect to call for additional information and an appointment.
Here’s how it works. Anytime you advertise you are looking to get your Prospect to raise a hand in interest. So, you might advertise a special report using a classified style advertisement with the call to action your Prospect contacting you for the FREE report on How to Avoid the Most Common Mistakes Pre-Planning.
Classified ads are nothing more than a headline with a phone number to call to get more information of the report with the same headline. Classified ads are like personal ads. A personal ad usually will say who they are not looking for or who they are looking for. Either way, the short headline says it all; ATTENTION Dallas/Fort Worth Retirees, FREE report explains how to Pre-Plan final arrangements with no hassle and affordable NOW.
When pre-need prospecting through an ad utilize a special report as the offer. A headline with contact information is step one. Your headline is similar to a personal ad. You eliminate people you aren’t interested in your product/services while attract the folks who are interested.
Step two is your prospect responding to your ad for more information…the special report. A few weeks after sending the special report follow-up with additional information through a sequence of sales letters. Sequence your information, link the letters/post cards, and send multiple mailings using testimonials & articles.
You are effectively developing a relationship with your Prospect. When your Prospect responds you send the appropriate information and then continue to follow-up with additional information. If a prospect raises a hand in interest it is for a reason. I’d rather have one hundred warm leads than one thousand people I’m cold-calling based on a little bit of criteria such as age, home owner, length of time in town.
Of course, you can do other things besides advertising. There’s mining your natural market, your spheres of influence, your backyard of referrals (see my book on the same subject). You can also compile a list to mail based on criteria of likely pre-need purchasers. You can acquire a Champion Endorser and multiply your referrals by the truckload. No matter what you do be sure you are utilizing a two-step-method of prospecting .
Give up the one-step-tired-approach. Begin, today, to funnel all of your Prospecting into a 2-Step. You can do it if you’ll change your mind-set about how you approach Prospecting. One final thought. If all else fails study how a Doctor’s office operates. Doctors do not call you and hound you into an appointment to see them. NO, you call a Doctor’s office to schedule an appointment. And I’m betting you adjust your schedule to meet the Doctor’s schedule. Two-Step Pre-Need Prospecting is much the same.
