To be honest I can’t remember where I heard it. Perhaps it was one of the podcasts I was listening to and they were talking about Dave Logan’s book Tribal Leadership. In one section Dave is talking about competition. He was talking to a medical company that worked on cancer solutions and asked them who their competitors were and they said they had no direct competitors. That doesn’t make sense at first since we all have competitors. When I used to do brand strategy for clients I’d ask them who their competitors were and many times said they had none too. Yet, that’s not true. So where’s the discrepancy?
Competitors? What Competitors?
They had thought that the uniqueness of their business gave them the ability to have no competitors. As a result, they’d have no problem getting people to beat down their doors to buy what they’re selling. It doesn’t work that way. If your potential families can go somewhere else to get what you’re selling or an equivalent then you have a competitor.
Like all businesses you have three types of competitors. You have your direct competitors which would be other firms in your community. Then you have indirect competitors which would be places like direct cremation businesses, online casket vendors, etc. Lastly, you have future competitors. Those are the most dangerous because they’re watching you looking for your holes and weaknesses and will come into your market area establish their business and position themselves different from you and steal your marketshare. I’ll get into how to combat that in a future post.
If competitors exist how is that this cancer treatment company could honestly say they have no competitors? More importantly, what can we learn from it and apply to our funeral brands? Well, let me stop beating around the bush and tell you their answer and dissect it from there. The company said they their real competitor was cancer. They’re trying to beat cancer. That answer is SOO amazing because it taps into something few business owners have, broad vision.
The power of leadership vision
The founder of this company has a vision that is so powerful it’s almost magnetic. He envisions a world that’s free of cancer, period. That means he’s going to do whatever it takes to cure cancer. That’s the ultimate goal. Not to position himself as the better company that you should give funding to. He’s not worried about what the competition is doing because he’s driving himself and his company to do something bigger than all of them combined. It also means he’s open and flexible. If he hears of new developments regardless of who’s creating it, he’s going to see how he can incorporate it, collaborate with them or more in order to reach the ultimate goal. He also knows to reach the big goal he has to have the best talent and is going to invest in them. He’ll groom future innovators and scientists who can help realize his vision. He’s going to pay the best rates to get the best work from everyone. Most importantly he’s going to ensure that each and every person on his team no matter what position they hold shares his vision so they can collectively achieve this goal. That is leadership.
As firm owners you have to ask yourself a few questions. What is my big vision? What is the bigger thing I’m trying to beat? Stop looking at local firms as competition and look at the bigger goal you want to achieve for your community. That’s your real competition. At Cherished Keepsakes (link to firm home page) our goal is to honor legacies for those who can’t do it on their own. We also want to be an integral brand in the deathcare process. Here at Seize the Brand (link to IG) our vision is to raise the veil of secrecy in this industry. By doing that all businesses in the deathcare industry can get better and collectively transform our businesses into sustainable brands. None of these things have anything to do with the latest offering from my “competitor” because I want to achieve something bigger. In reality, I’m my own competition and you should be your own too.
Now, do we have competitors? Of course, but I don’t view them that way. The reason why is because I can’t serve every funeral home and family in America. Nor do I want to. But I DO want to make sure every funeral home is giving their best to their families. I DO want every independently owned firm to be sustainable and continue to be generational because everyone wins when that happens. Because of that I share what I know. I highlight others in this sphere and congratulate them on their accomplishments. Even better, I dissect their models to see how I can be better and keep paying it forward.
What’s the bigger goal?
In the same way all of us in the funeral industry need to look at the bigger vision we’re trying to accomplish, honor the legacies in our care. We want to make sure our families feel taken care of and comforted when they come to us at their worst times. If you have that mentality then it won’t matter who comes into your sphere because you’re driving your own innovation and will automatically be ahead of everyone else. In short, you’ll be the leader everyone else follows. While everyone else is thinking of what tactic they’re going to adopt to grow service calls you’re thinking, “what can I do to level up the experience families have coming to me?”
To do that may call for collaboration with others who share your vision. That may mean merging with another firm for the greater good. It may even mean turning away business you can legitimately do because it doesn’t mesh with your vision. Those are decisions leaders and visionaries make. Just because we’re in an insulated industry doesn’t mean we can’t drive change in our respective communities. What are some other things to consider that will help you remove competition in your community?
Does everyone on my team sharing my vision?
You don’t want anyone on your team that doesn’t share the vision. They need to believe in it and believe in the way you’re doing it because it drives them to give their best and more. It will keep them open-minded and they’ll share suggestions for improvement. It’s your job as firm owner to make sure that everyone you bring in isn’t just looking for a job, but something bigger to belong to.
Am I compensating people enough to bring out their best work?
This is a balancing act for sure, but if you want to have the best funeral brand then you have to pay to be the best. Compensation doesn’t always have to be in the form of salary. It could be in the form of perks, benefits, and most importantly recognition. Highlight those doing a good job. Be generous with commendation. A friend of mine saw the amazing job one of his staff members was doing and more importantly had the vision to see where it could take that person. Specifically, he saw that it would eventually lead to him striking out on his own. He saw that it was more valuable to fast track his growth in his company and gave him a leadership level position. This way he retained the best and made sure they had future growth and opportunities in his company. On top of that he’s done all expense paid vacations for top performers and has an internal leadership team that focuses on business growth, staff growth and brand culture. He’s a leader in his local community as a result. You can do the same in your firm.
Is my vision shared and can be easily found on my website and marketing materials?
This will make you instantly stand out over others. Families will always look at your funeral home and try to make apples-to-apples comparisons. However, if you do things differently than the rest. If you do things that others can’t, won’t or aren’t doing then shout it from the rooftops. Potential families will instantly view you different and say to themselves, “that’s the experience I want that I don’t see anyone else in the area providing.” They’ll use your funeral home over everyone else.
Is my team trained on how to discuss my vision and the value it provides the families we serve?
Your team are your advocates and really your first clients. How they feel about your culture, working in your firm is how they’ll talk about you to families that come in the door. Don’t just tell them what to say, train them completely. Provide the tools they need to sell you. We all know death is a taboo subject so provide training and tools to make it easier and they will. At Cherished Keepsakes we do two things to make it easier. First is a small credit line at the bottom of our keepsakes. Attendees seeing it will call us directly to help them when they’ve lost a loved one. Second, we provide a thank you and condolence cards to families we serve directly. In that card we include three referral cards and simply tell them to pass it onto someone else you feel could benefit from the experience we’ve provided you or take a picture and text it to them. Guess what? They do! Families come back or refer us an average of three times after we’ve served them because we gave them an experience they want to repeat and made it easy to tell others about it.
As firm owners your job is not to do the embalming, sweep the floors or any of that. Your job is to provide jobs for others and serve your community. All of you do it with pride and the greater your vision is then the better your firm be positioned not only to achieve it, but to create a long lasting funeral brand that everyone wants to be a part of. I wish you the best transforming your funeral home into an amazing brand.
