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Letter from the President
6 Drive Preneed Growth...The Right Way 8 Educate Families on the Value of the Funeral 10 Start Marketing Like a Pro 12 Get Technology to Work for You 14 Develop a Strategy for Online Sales 16 Enhance Your At-Need Service 18 Conclusion 19 Company Overview 22 Contact Us
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Letter From the President So, here’s our plan for helping you continue to grow your business, both now and in the future: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Drive preneed growth…the right way Educate families on the value of the funeral Start marketing like a pro Get technology to work for you Develop a strategy for online sales Enhance your at-need service
I know it may be a while before we get back to “normal,” but we can still get back to the business of helping families plan ahead.
Helping you connect with the rapidly changing funeral consumer. I don’t know about you, but for us, this has been a crazy busy year! We’ve had to adjust to quickly changing circumstances due to the pandemic. We’ve had to find new solutions to problems we’ve never faced before. In fact, I don’t think our team has ever worked harder, and I’m sure it’s the same for you. We understand that being a funeral director today is harder than ever, especially with what is going on in the nation right now. Consumer needs and preferences are changing faster than ever before. With so many recent changes in the funeral service market, we’d like to share a few strategies, ideas, and resources to help you connect with the new funeral consumer.
Case in point: Funeral home clients who have implemented all of the above steps have seen their preneed businesses grow and have been able to streamline their processes so that they can spend more time bringing value to the families they serve. As a whole, our clients have produced record or near record sales in 2020 in spite of the pandemic, and we are anticipating an even better year in 2021! The fact is, we in the funeral profession can no longer rest on our laurels and expect that what worked yesterday will work tomorrow. The time to “wait and see” is past. Now is the time to move forward with proven solutions that get results. The great news is, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel for marketing, accounting, at-need case management and collaboration software, or preneed sales. Instead, all you need to do is tap into the experience, resources, and solutions already available to you through Funeral Directors Life and start getting the results you’ve dreamed of.
Blessings,
Kris Seale President and Chief Executive Officer FUNERAL DIRECTORS LIFE
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ENHANCE YOUR AT-NEED SERVICE
DEVELOP A STRATEGY FOR ONLINE SALES
GET TECHNOLOGY TO WORK FOR YOU
START MARKETING LIKE A PRO
EDUCATE FAMILIES ON THE VALUE OF THE FUNERAL
DRIVE PRENEED GROWTH… THE RIGHT WAY
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Drive Preneed Growth…The Right Way
Your preneed program is the future of your business. If you are selling only walk-in and call-in business, you are missing out on potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in future business every year. However, we believe there is a right way and a wrong way to sell preneed funerals. Let’s face it. There are a lot of things that can go wrong with a preneed program. Untrained salespeople can often do more harm than good to your reputation. Luckily, Funeral Directors Life has perfected the process of setting up a highly successful preneed program that reduces the risks and ultimately enhances your reputation in the community.
Here’s how it works:
1. Hire the right people. First, our turnkey preneed sales programs start with finding the right cultural fit for your unique funeral home. When you work with Funeral Directors Life, you will have access to our national recruiters who have years of experience locating top talent in the funeral and preneed professions.
2. Give them the best training. Next, your new hire will receive the best training in the funeral profession, hands down. Our sales professionals are trained in the WeCareTM sales system, which takes a consultative approach to sales. Our sales professionals first ask questions, get to know the family, uncover needs, and then offer solutions that meet those needs.
3. Offer ongoing support. Finally, sales professionals receive ongoing support from our sales management team. Sales professionals receive field training, coaching, weekly webinars, incentive contests, and all the tools they need to succeed, including the most advanced digital contract software in the profession: DIGicon®.
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At Funeral Directors Life, we believe your preneed sales program should be a service to your community. How we sell preneed is just as important as what we sell. That is why we work with funeral homes across the country to build preneed programs that really make a difference in the lives of the families we serve and become a competitive advantage to your funeral home. Ready to start growing your preneed program? Don’t leave the future of your business up to chance. Go to www.funeraldirectorslife.com/preneed to request more information, get answers to your questions, and find out how you can start growing your preneed business… the right way.
With our previous company, they made all these promises, but they never followed through. Funeral Directors Life is completely different. They believe that if you don’t evolve, if you don’t progress, then you’re going to get left behind. That’s not what we want for our firm, and with Funeral Directors Life, we have the resources we need to be even more successful. As I look back at historic moments in my career, the day we went with Funeral Directors Life was one of those historic moments in the life of our business. From day one, I felt that this was one of the best moves that we’ve ever made. BARRY HENDERSON Owner & Funeral Director Henderson & Sons Funeral Homes Rome, GA
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Educate Families on the Value of the Funeral
Educating families on the value of a funeral ceremony begins by educating yourself. If you want to share with families how transformative a well-planned funeral can be, then you need to have the language and tools to communicate that value. That is why Funeral Directors Life has partnered with Dr. Alan Wolfelt to develop the industry’s best training on the healing value of a funeral ceremony.
Want to help families understand the value of a ceremony? All you need is the right training. Contact your Funeral Directors Life sales manager or reach out directly to DJ Jons, Director of Learning and Development Programs, at dj.jons@funeraldirectorslife.com to learn more about upcoming Wolfelt Experience training opportunities near you.
Funeral Directors Life offers training programs for preneed and at-need staff, both online and in person. The Wolfelt Experience™ training workshop offers insight into why we have had funerals since the beginning of time and how the elements of the funeral work together to meet the unique needs of mourners. The Wolfelt Experience training will give you the education, language, tools, and resources you need to share the value of a meaningful funeral experience with the families you serve.
EDUCATION
Funeral professionals who have gone through the Wolfelt training start to see an amazing transformation in the families they serve. They see direct cremation families changing their minds and fully embracing a meaningful ceremony. They see lives changed. They find a renewed sense of fulfillment in the work they do.
LANGUAGE
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T H E
W O L F E LT
TOOLS
E X P E R I E N C E
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The Wolfelt Experience added a whole new dimension to how my entire staff serves families now. I felt that, by far, it was the best training that I’ve ever received in my 33 years in this profession‌.This training is career changing. MIKE KOSLOSKI Funeral Director/Owner Hamlin-Hansen-Kosloski Funeral Home Moose Lake, MN
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Start Marketing Like a Pro
So, once you have the right people in place with the right training and ongoing support, what’s next?
With Funeral Directors Life, you have access to experts in the areas of:
The simple answer? Marketing!
• Content development • Social media management • Social media lead generation • Google ads • Direct mail • Audio/visual services • Website optimization • Aftercare emails & texting • And custom solutions for your business!
The right marketing can have a huge impact on your sales. In fact, a single marketing campaign with a talented sales professional in place can increase your preneed block of business significantly! The problem is, most funeral home owners don’t have the time or the expertise to put together a full marketing plan. You know a key ingredient to your success is missing, but you just don’t know how or when you will be able to pull it all together. If this sounds like you, we have great news. When you partner with Funeral Directors Life, we will work with you to create a marketing plan that works for your unique situation and integrates a variety of tools.
Our team will first learn about your needs and what your market is like. Next, we will develop a custom marketing plan that covers all the needs you’ve expressed. Finally, you will be able to say the word, and let Funeral Directors Life’s sales and marketing teams put your plan into action! Want to Start Marketing Like a Pro? To learn more about how an active marketing program can make an impact to your business, contact our team at marketing@funeraldirectorslife.com or reach out to your Funeral Directors Life sales manager to get started!
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT SOCIAL MEDIA LEAD GENERATION 10
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GOOGLE ADS
To get started, click the logos below.
WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION
AUDIO/VISUAL SERVICES
AFTERCARE EMAILS & TEXTING
DIRECT MAIL
The hardest part about being a funeral director and a business owner is figuring out how to manage all these aspects of the business that aren’t in your area of expertise. As a funeral director, your talents are, well, being a funeral director. When it comes to graphic design, marketing ideas, and social media, you’re always kind of wondering, “Where do I go for that?” I think about all the time I spent worrying about those things in the past, and now, I’m able to quickly say, “This looks great! The ad, post, event flyer is clean, professional, and done in a way that represents our funeral home well.” It’s been so nice to know I have access to a team of experts in all these different areas. JEFF HARTQUIST Funeral Director and Owner Hartquist Funeral Home & Cremation Services Luverne, Pipestone, Tyler, Lake Benton, and Jasper, MN
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Get Technology to Work for You
So, you have a great preneed sales professional in place, and you have leads coming in from your marketing program. What’s next? Now, it’s time to set appointments and close sales. At this point, many preneed companies let their sales professionals down. They provide only paper contracts or software that is too hard to use. Well, Funeral Directors Life is on a mission to change that. Our in-house development team works hard to make sure our sales professionals and funeral directors are taken care of from the moment a lead comes in. Here’s how it works:
2. Make the sales process easy. All the data from your CRM is set up to sync to DIGicon®, the industry’s most advanced preneed sales software. DIGicon makes writing the contract much faster and easier, enhancing the professionalism of your preneed sales staff.
1. Track your leads—automatically. Funeral Directors Life has partnered with a leading CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software to automatically filter leads into your sales pipeline. Leads flow in from direct mail campaigns, Facebook ads, aftercare, and much more, all ready for follow-up. Automatic lead tracking also gives you greater visibility into opportunities and activities that your sales team has in the pipeline.
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3. Get paid lightning fast. We understand that making sure that sales professionals are paid quickly and efficiently is essential to keeping your preneed program running smoothly. That is why we are proud to offer faster than average processing times for DIGicon contracts, plus direct deposit and daily commission payments.
To get started, click the logos below.
Our motto? Work smarter, not harder. Every sales professional knows that sinking feeling when you realize you have to go back to a family to re-write a contract because of a mistake found during processing. At Funeral Directors Life, we never want you to have that feeling again! Just let our software do all the math and check for accuracy and errors so you can submit your preneed contracts with complete confidence. Now, that’s working smarter, not harder. To learn more, head over to www.funeraldirectorslife.com/digicon.
“Before I came on with Service Group of Oklahoma, they wrote a little under $800k in that full year. Since March 15, 2020, when we officially started with Funeral Directors Life, to August of 2020, we’re sitting right at $1.1 million in preneed production in 5 months and have already exceeded what we did last year! The secret sauce is, we have a great partner in FD. We interviewed 12 companies, and I know we went with the best in the business that will work for us. We wanted somebody to partner with that could do everything, from marketing, to having the product, to then having the resources from the digital aspect. I wanted a digital platform like DIGicon because I don’t have time to deal with the paper, to be honest. It was important to me also that we had a great personal connection with the team at FD, and I loved that we got to meet everyone there in Abilene. There’s a great family feel, and I want to carry that over to my team as well.” JOHN DAVENPORT Preneed Sales Manager Service Group of Oklahoma Norman, OK
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Develop a Strategy for Online Sales
Digital Buyers in the United States from 2016 to 2021 Source: Emarketer.com
NUMBER OF ONLINE SHOPPERS IN MILLIONS
230.5 227.5 224.1 220.6 215.4 209.6
2016
2017
2018
Statistics show that 227.5 million Americans, or 69% of the population, are shopping online. Consumers today are looking for ways to do everything online, from buying a car to planning ahead for funeral wishes. It’s inevitable. The question is whether or not they will plan ahead with you. In order to connect with consumers in your market who prefer to shop online, you need a simple and convenient online planning and funding tool. The problem is, most of the options for online planning today cater to low-cost direct cremation shoppers, which means that families who would typically prefer full-service funeral options end up purchasing a direct cremation. You and your families shouldn’t have to settle for less than the best when it comes to your online preneed planning tool.
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2019
2020
2021
That is why we are proud to introduce the Arrangement Guide™, available only from Funeral Directors Life and created in partnership with Passare®. The Arrangement Guide is the funeral profession’s most advanced online preneed planning and funding tool! Unlike any other option on the market today, the Arrangement Guide educates families on how the elements of a funeral can bring loved ones comfort and healing during a time of loss. The Arrangement Guide is easy for families to use and allows them to plan and pay for a preneed funeral online in about 20 minutes. And if families start to plan online and want to finish their plans in person, it’s easy for you or your preneed staff to pick up right where they left off with a seamless integration through Funeral Directors Life’s digital contract sales ® software, DIGicon .
Getting set up with the Arrangement Guide is easy. Here’s how it works:
1. Set up your package options.
Next, it’s time to share the news about your new online planning tool with a digital marketing campaign to drive traffic to your site. Funeral Directors Life will provide you with a starter marketing toolkit, or you can work with our Social Media Management team, who can promote your online planning tool for you.
The new online planning tool at Funeral Directors Life is very user-friendly. People are able to go online and click the preplanning link and really have had very few questions navigating it on their own. It’s been very beneficial for a lot of families, especially during COVID, because they’ve been able to do everything online without having to come into the funeral home in person. If you are an FD or Passare client, it works together seamlessly with all the other services they offer. It’s simple and streamlined for funeral homes and families, and there is not really another company out there that is offering an e-commerce solution that is so well-integrated into an all-in-one system.
Best of all, the Arrangement Guide is available to you at no monthly charge. Just a simple, one-time setup fee, and you are ready to launch your online planning solution.
KASI WELCH BAKER Funeral Director/Owner
We recommend offering full-service funeral packages along with cremation memorial packages to offer families a full range of service options.
2. Get your custom Arrangement Guide link. Once your packages are set up, you will receive a custom link to your online planning and funding tool with your logo and contact information.
3. Start marketing!
Ready to see how it works? With the Arrangement Guide, you can start connecting with preneed families online and have a steady source of FREE qualified leads coming in. In fact, our research shows that 50% of individuals who reach the site create an account! Plus, you will be reaching up to half of your market that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach. To learn more, request a demo today at www.funeraldirectorslife.com/arrangement-guide.
Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home & Crematory Big Spring, Stanton, and Midland, TX
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Enhance Your At-Need Service
So, now your preneed program is humming along…but what about your at-need business? The families you are serving at-need are also looking for better options, a better online experience, increased flexibility, and unique, personalized services. First of all, we understand that you can’t do it all. The fact is, you have a lot on your plate as a funeral director. There are so many little tasks behind the scenes to take care of. On top of that, you might have 5 or 6 systems that require the same information to be typed in multiple times. You might have a stack of insurance assignments you are trying to get around to. Or you may have accounting and payroll weighing on you. All of these tasks leave you with less time to spend helping families plan unique and healing services. So, something’s got to give. You need to free up some of your time and mental energy currently being spent on low-ROI tasks so that you can spend more of your time on high-ROI tasks, like meeting with families to plan personalized services.
Here’s your 3-step process for kissing your busy work goodbye:
1. Get paid faster on life insurance assignments. CLAIMCHECK , a division of Funeral Directors Life, offers 100% risk-free, no recourse, fast funding on assigned life insurance policies. Try our service today at www.claimchecknow.com. ®
At Funeral Directors Life, we believe that running your business shouldn’t take you away from doing the most important aspect of your job: serving families in their time of need. The reality is, no one else can do what you do. No one else can sit in that room and serve the family who has just experienced a loss. Only you can. That is why we have invested so much time and energy into at-need support services. We want to take as much of the busy work off of your shoulders so that you can focus on the single-most important thing that you need to do. Why? Because the better you become, the better we become. When you win, we win! It’s that simple.
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2. Streamline your processes and collaborate with families. Funeral Directors Life is proud to partner with Passare to integrate your preneed policies into your at-need funeral home management software. Passare offers dozens of integrations with partners to reduce data entry and help you enhance your service to families. ®
To get started, click the logos below.
3. Make accounting and payroll a breeze. You didn’t go to school to be an accountant. So why is so much of your time spent on trying to balance the books? Directors Business Solutions, a division of Funeral Directors Life, offers business services for your funeral home, from accounting to payroll, valuations, and funeral home lending to help you grow your business. The best part? All of these services work together seamlessly to make your job even easier. Funeral Directors Life has partnered with Passare to bring you integrations for processing your life insurance assignments with CLAIMCHECK, getting your accounting in order with Directors Business Solutions, and accessing your preneed files quickly and easily with Funeral Directors Life. That means you can spend more time serving families because you can get more done in less time using one system that does it all.
I wanted a software that was cloud-based and that would grow and adapt with me through the years. Passare has been a big asset to us. It’s easy to use and saves us so much time because we don’t have to re-enter the same data in multiple places. The integration capability has also been an enormous asset, especially since we can connect directly with other partner companies like Funeral Directors Life and CLAIMCHECK. With these integrations, we don’t have to go to multiple software systems to get things done; it’s all through Passare. MILES WILSON Funeral Director/Owner Sheets & Childs Funeral Home Churubusco, IN
Want to spend less time on paperwork and more time actually serving families? If you are tired of wasting time putting the same data into multiple systems, it’s time to take a look at what you can accomplish when you put Passare and your Funeral Directors Life integrations to work for you.
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Conclusion
The right people. The right training. Outstanding marketing support. Technology that makes your life easier. It’s not magic or rocket science. It’s just a systematic plan that works, and combined with at-need solutions, you now have more time to spend doing what you love: helping the families you serve. With these solutions in place, our funeral home clients start to see the kind of results they’ve only dreamed of. On average, our programs lead to an increase in preneed year over year of 68%*, with some seeing results up to 100%, 200%, or even 300%.
If you are ready to start putting some or all of this plan into action, contact us today at sales@funeraldirectorslife.com or www.funeraldirectorslife.com and request a consultation!
*Results based on a study of funeral homes using Funeral Directors Life’s employed sales professionals.
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68%
*
Average increase in preneed sales year over year with Funeral Directors Life
Company Overview
Over $1.5 billion* in assets
Over $134 million* in capital & surplus
Founded by funeral directors for funeral directors
Dedicated to helping funeral homes grow and succeed in a rapidly changing marketplace
Rated A(Excellent) by A.M. Best
FD has won numerous awards from FORTUNE magazine and Texas Monthly for being a great place to work
Phones answered live by real people who really care
Established in 1981
Privately-held
Over $1.76 billion* in life insurance in force
Board of Directors comprised of funeral service professionals
*Results as of end of year 2019.
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2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2020 capital & surplus to total assets ratio
2007
90
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
60
9%
30
0
capital & surplus
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
750
500
250
0
total assets
1250
1991
1500
1990
2021*
2020*
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
200
150
100
50
0
sales growth
300
1989
1988
350
1989
1988
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Company Overview 400
IN MILLIONS
250 *PROJECTED
$361 MILLION*
1750
IN MILLIONS PROJECTED
$1.59 bILLION
1000
150
120 IN MIL L IONS
$144 mILLION
PROJECTED
S TAT E M E N T O F P U R P O S E To Be the Best, Most-Respected Provider of Service to the Funeral Industry
L I C E N S E D I N 4 5 S TAT E S
OUR STORY Funeral Directors Life (FD) began as the vision of four independent West Texas funeral directors who owned their own funeral homes. They were especially concerned about the fair and proper representation of prepaid funerals in their communities, as well as the long-term effects that prepaid funerals would have on the value of their businesses. FD has now grown far beyond the original founders’ expectations. We are currently licensed in 45 states and are dedicated to being the best and the most-respected provider of service to the funeral industry.
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Contact Us Receptionist 800-692-9515
www.funeraldirectorslife.com
Customer Service
800-234-8031
customer.service@funeraldirectorslife.com
New Business Help Center DIGicon DIGiclaim Online Access Policy Generation
800-692-8411
new.business@funeraldirectorslife.com
800-692-5125
help@funeraldirectorslife.com
Claims 800-692-2808
claims@funeraldirectorslife.com
Online Access
www.fdliconline.com
CLAIMCHECK 800-692-3688 info@claimchecknow.com www.claimchecknow.com Passare Sales 800-692-6162 sales@passare.com Passare Support 800-692-5111 support@passare.com www.passare.com Custom Marketing Solutions 800-692-9515 x6459 jeff.stewart@funeraldirectorslife.com Lead Generation
800-692-9515 x6386
drew.seale@funeraldirectorslife.com
Digital Marketing
800-692-9515 x6391
mitchell.mclean@funeraldirectorslife.com
Audio/Visual Solutions
800-692-9515 x6398
rob.davidson@funeraldirectorslife.com
Digital Services 800-692-9515 x6386 Arrangement Guide Social Media Management PipelineDeals AfterCare Google Ads My Tribute Planner
drew.seale@funeraldirectorslife.com
Learning & Development
800-692-9515 x6499
training@funeraldirectorslife.com
Fulfillment Recruiting
800-692-9515 x6640 800-692-9515 x6387
humanresources@funeraldirectorslife.com
Directors Business Solutions
800-692-9515 x6402
jason.gazaille@funeraldirectorslife.com
TM
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WWW.FUNERALDIRECTORSLIFE.COM
6550 DIRECTORS PARKWAY ABILENE, TX 79606 800-692-9515 ITEM #202 © 2020 FUNERAL DIRECTORS LIFE
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