Preneed veteran, Roger Sharp, uses Precoa’s proactive program to expand preneed as well as at-need market share
Roger Sharp is no stranger to preneed. As the owner of four successful, family-run funeral homes in Michigan, Roger has always sought to expand his market to serve more families.
After being an early adopter of preneed trust in the mid-1980s, Roger continued over the next two decades to develop a preneed program that would help secure families for the future while still focusing on the at-need families he was in front of every day.
He worked hard with various companies to achieve his vision for preneed, but ultimately the efforts did not produce the results he was hoping for.
“I woke up one morning and realized that I had lost my way in preneed,” he said. “That’s when I made the decision to work with Precoa.”
What Roger found in Precoa was a proven proactive model that was already developed, and would put him back on track to growing market share year after year.
“I appreciate that Precoa has the systems in place,” he said. “If you follow those systems with your heart and soul and with proper training of your staff, you cannot fail,” he said.
His dedication to the Precoa model, and the work of his preneed staff has led not only to preneed results, but measurable growth of at-need market share.
My preneed sales have tripled over the last several years,” Sharp said. “Additionally, my at-need volume has grown by half, going from 600 to 900 families served per year.”
According to Roger, the rise in the number of families he’s served at-need is directly connected to the unique preneed approach his firm has adopted through Precoa.
“When you proactively help that many families to preneed in the community, it's going to translate into additional volume.”
The proactive program is Precoa’s hallmark approach to working with leading funeral homes. It’s based in Precoa’s drive for quality, results and innovation and offers a number of features that help preneed sales staff do their job more efficiently.
“My preneed counselors appreciate the fact that Precoa is continually improving their level of service through its Web Portal and counselor training,” he said.
Roger hasn’t been shy in sharing his success with Precoa with other funeral home owners. When asked why they should make the change to Precoa, Roger give it to them straight.
“I've responded to them with the truthful answer: nothing's perfect, but the system works.”