How we engage in plan sales

words: Wendy Wilde, Ian Wilde Independent Funeral Directors

Since starting our funeral directing business together in November 2013, both Ian and I have worked meticulously to create a service that we are proud to provide, a service in which we aim to embody sensitivity and compassion in every aspect.

Ian is a fully qualified fourth-generation funeral director and therefore we focus on providing families with the service levels they have come to associate with the Wilde family. We believe that every reputable business should take pride in ensuring high standards throughout every aspect of their service provision, which, of course, includes for us our funeral plan sales.

With this in mind, we put much focus on having a team working for us that we trust to deliver the same attention to detail principles that we expect of ourselves and believe that this is widely recognised in the local community. Undoubtedly, however, in the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world that we find ourselves living in we can no longer rely solely on word of mouth and therefore invest heavily in our online presence, community engagement and sponsorship to drive funeral plan sales.

Online presence

It is evident that the world of business and the way people do business is changing. It is not news that the world is in the midst of a digital transformation and the pace of change will never be as slow as it is right now. Therefore, recognising that this need for change does not exclude the funeral directing industry, we are extremely invested in making sure we have established a strong digital presence.

However, due to the nature of the profession we operate in, we are limited in the way we can do so in comparison to other industries as we are unable to utilise the phenomenon of staying connected through social platforms and thus instead focus our attention on our company website.

The content of our website not only clearly details what can be expected when using our services but also provides an informative platform on which to advertise our funeral plans. The website plays host to a quotation form for pre-paid funeral plans as we believe that, despite this online channel only maybe being relevant to a small portion of our potential consumer base, it is still a majorly important focus for us to ensure we are not left behind in the current fast paced technological climate.

Community engagement

We also recognise the importance of establishing a strong presence within the local community and therefore invest our time heavily in supporting events within the community. We are regular attendees of St Catherine’s (a local hospice) fundraising events including charity balls, and regularly attend a plethora of local fairs and fetes.

We were recently invited to support and attend an event run by our local hospice working to tackle the ‘elephant in the room’ and used this event to put the minds of the local community at ease surrounding the taboo topic of death, but also to communicate the funeral plan services we have to offer.

Alongside this, in a number of weeks we are facilitating a promotion event at a local summer fete to provide insights into our funeral plan services and will use this opportunity as a showcase event.

Sponsorship

There are numerous initiatives we support financially through sponsorship within the local community in order to create awareness of our brand and give something back to the local area. We do this through various channels in order to broaden our communicative reach – actively supporting numerous church magazines in the area, sponsoring our local St Catherine’s hospice and funding our local junior football club’s team kit. Not only does this sponsorship method allow us to expand the reach of our branding but it also provides a platform to facilitate informative conversations within the local community.

Summary

Our success in engaging in funeral plan sales is therefore dependant on combining our three-pronged approach with our dedicated members of the team who take the time to perfect every element of funeral plans with our consumers. Our main focus will always be ensuring the best quality service for our customers and we believe funeral plan sales will follow.

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