The Guerrilla Leader

"One who commands an army but does not know the techniques...will not be able to control men." - Sun Tzu THE ART OF WAR

"We have met the enemy and it is us."-From some comic strip whose name I can't recall.

Whether you are a location manager for one of the corporate chains or the owner of a small family firm you can and should heed the advice of our dear friend Mr. Tzu up there.

You see, we can be our own worst enemy.

Many managers or owners fail to live up to or acknowledge one shampoo simple strategy for major business success.

Treat your employees BETTER than your clients.

I see the dumbfounded looks of disbelief already!

Client families come and go, but your employees are there forever...at least you hope the good ones are, anyway.

"But Dan," you protest, "clients pay our bills."

"No" say I. "Your employees that serve them, make them happy and wow them so that they tell all of their friends. THEY pay your bills."

Without good employees, chances are, you're nothing.

I've seen the absolute destruction of one of the most talented staffs a funeral home could possibly want (by the owner's own words!) by incompetence and indifference to their employees.

Case in point - the firm in question used to have two employee appreciation parties a year. One in the summer and one around Christmastime. As of this writing, they've had none since 2003.
This is something the staff is keenly aware of, and has been brought to management's attention, and yet absolutely nothing has been done. No company appreciation for 4 years, despite record-breaking business growth.

Does that seem like wise or competent management to you?

I'll add something else...this same group thinks nothing of letting a few years go by without raises and then making small token raise amounts when they do get around to it.

How do you think those employees feel? Loved? Appreciated? Or taken advantage of?

As I watch this destruction as an observer from the sidelines, I cannot help but think of something that one of the employees told me. One of those rare quiet days, the funeral directors were sitting around enjoying the respite and shooting the breeze when the owner sashayed in the door. With exaggerated finger-pointing he called out gaily "overhead, overhead, overhead" as he motioned to each director.

I was told that the response to this "joke" was stunned silence from the staff. He might as well have slapped each of them in the face. For only a day or two before, when the staff was backed up against the wall handling more services and arrangements than they should have been able to, he didn't walk in and say "thank you, thank you, thank you" or "profit, profit, profit!"

He is his own worst enemy. Don't be yours.

Thanks for staying tuned...I've got lots of ideas for low cost and easy ways to reward your staff and help keep them motivated. Just send me an email with "employee rewards" in the subject line and I'll send you a copy!

Best,

Dan Heaman, CFSP
The Guerrilla Director
www.guerrilladirector.com

Bling bling has no place in funeral business!

Here's one of my least favorite attributes of some of our esteemed colleagues... Bling, bling. Overdressing. No matter how successful you are (or want to appear to be) you should give serious consideration to the amount/style/visibility of the jewelry you choose to wear. The same goes for designer clothes and luxury cars. It's very hard to argue that funeral costs are not out of whack when the funeral home owner drives a Rolls-Royce, wears giant flashy rings/necklaces/earrings and brags about what was paid for his/her suit, etc.

Plain and simple-it's UNPROFESSIONAL.

Before too many of you get fired up, let me state that I have no argument with anyone enjoying the fruits of their successful business. You work hard, and you deserve it. However, the families you serve should not have their noses rubbed in the obvious fact that you are wealthy and they may not be.

Lest any of you think I'm exaggerating-come on, we all know of one (and probably more) funeral associate or colleague that fits this mold.

If you think that this sort of thing is acceptable, just try and place yourself in the families position. Your mom has just died, you're worried about whether or not the small life insurance policy is going to cover her funeral costs, and all of the sudden a swaggering character dripping in jewelry and wearing clothes that cost more than your last mortgage payment is trying to feed you a line about "just being here to help you."

And you're thinking, "Bull crap. This guy's going to try and take me to the cleaners."

An immediate sense of distrust is forming in your mind, and will color your opinion of the firm
that will simply be reinforced each time you see this person over the next few days. Even if the funeral director is the most honest and trustworthy person, their lack of judgement on professional attire torpedoes that image every time.

So the next time you're dressing for work, think about what message you want to send to your clients. Are you here to help them? Or is your manner of dress telling them that you really here to help yourself to their money?

Thanks for stopping by. You stay classy, funeral service!

Best,

Dan Heaman, CFSP
The Guerrilla Director
www.guerrilladirector.com

How I turned $500 into $75,000+ (and you can, too!)

One of the delightful marketing reps I've dealt with (for more than ten years now) once had gotten on my nerves so bad...I just didn't know how to tell her to take a hike.

You see, she was trying to rope me into signing up for a booth at "Bavarianfest," which was a local event sponsored by the Business Association (of which I was a member). The event would feature German food (and beer!), rides, polka bands, games and lots of booths from local businesses trying to huckster a few bucks from the locals.

Not exactly the funeral marketing sweet spot...or so I thought.

So I pondered this rotten dilemma, and came up with a half-hearted PR plan that I really didn't put much stock in. I would rent a booth ($50) and man it myself (in khakis and a polo shirt with the company logo on it-I always believe funeral folks are much more approachable in garments outside the realm of the suit). I would hand out left over giveaways items from previous events (pens, matches, scratch pads, calendars, etc.) and chocolate chip cookies (about $70 worth from the local bakery). I also requested the purchase of a 20" color TV ($200) to raffle off. To justify this expense to my superior, I showed him a raffle ticket I had designed for each entrant to complete, with one single but very important line at the bottom..."Are you interested in funeral prearranging? YES/NO." Those that circled YES would be contacted by our preneed counselor du jour and those that circled NO wouldn't be contacted. With a skeptical gleam in his eye, he agreed.

That evening, as I stood there sweating and mentally composing my resignation letter (which would surely be warranted after this dismal flop), I sipped a cold one and waited for the crowds to fly past me and crowd like vultures amongst the Avon and Shaklee Vitamin offerings to my left.

I never got to finish that resignation letter.

When people saw that I had nothing to sell, only freebies to snag and cookies to snarf, they came, they saw, they stayed. I got to hear all about how we buried Aunt Mabel back in '58 and everything was SOOOO beautiful. I got to hear about the late owner's generosity and college hijinks (I'm sure they had him confused with someone else...) and most were more than happy to enter in the drawing for the TV. At the end of the evening, I got up on stage to announce the winner of the drawing and was carrying the TV to the lady's car when she curtly informed me that she had her arrangements already made (at our competitor)...

ME-(forced phony smile)-"All that matters is that you've had the foresight to help you family like that."

I tried not to drop the TV too hard into her trunk.

The end result of that night was about 20 people indicating that they were interested in prearranging, and the preneed books swelled by more than $75000 from those interested folks.

An investment of less than $500, with advertising included and valuable PR opportunities to connect with people and a tidy sum in the old preneed bank. Hmmm, I think we could all use some "dismal flops" like that, eh?

I'd like to here of some brave things you all have tried...long shots that may or may not have worked. You never know when a little tweak might send that idea right to the bank!

Thank goodness fall is coming soon!

Best,

Dan Heaman, CFSP
The Guerrilla Director
www.guerrilladirector.com