I hope this last week has been as good for you as it has for me. I have had a blast in Ft. Myers, Florida with Trevor Winn. It took me all day Tuesday to fly down to Florida (literally). I got off the plane, walked out of the airport and BAM! my glasses fogged up. The humidity down here is unreal. I love warm weather, palm trees and the ocean. Although when you are in a suit and tie all day... it isn't as glamorous as it sounds. But hey, good thing I love the funeral industry and have loved going out on these appointments with our awesome Precoa counselors. So here comes the travel log... enjoy!
Tuesday 11/15
- Woke up at 4:30 to catch my flights (Jealous?)
- Flew to Atlanta airport
- Filled up on some Burger King hamburger that I totally regretted immediately after it was consumed.
- Flew to Ft. Myers. Read Steve Jobs Biography on the plane (fascinating book by the way).
- Landed in Ft. Myers. Got my rental car. Drove to my hotel and by that time it was 6 pm.
- Ran 5 miles.
- Went to bed.
- Dreamed of closing deals and preplanning families.
Wednesday 11/16
Wednesday Trevor and I met in the hotel lobby for a quick bite and then we were off! Our first stop for the day was at Fuller Funeral Homes in North Naples. The Fuller family has been in the business for years and has a great reputiaton in in the community. They have 2 locations in Naples, and 4 dedicated funeral directors. They do 1,200 calls (funerals) a year. I would say that the average home nationwide does 2-500 calls annually. They actually did 968 calls less ship outs. I mention this because the demographic is interesting here. They have a lot of MEGA MILLIONAIRES that live here and these homes are their second, third... tenth home. Seriously.
Here is a shot of the Funeral Home.
I walked in the door and met what I like to call "THE FACE OF PRECOA"... I say that jokingly, although it may become true because you have all seen her if you look at the Precoa Website. Her name is Jan Smith and she is the Managing Partner here.
Does that face look familiar? If not... you need to check out the new site! www.precoa.com :) I am sure you have all looked at it. It is awesome.
I talked to Jan for a bit over lunch and talked about their business model and what she is doing with her company. Jan is sharp. She is great at what she does and you can tell she runs a great home. They currently had 17 bodies there being prepped (4 of which had done their pre planning arrangements with Dan!)
Their home does about 50% cremation. What I loved is that they actually have an entire building dedicated to cremation services. They seperate the two completely and it is done very well. I think she is an innovator in this respect. The industry is moving in this direction (at least here in Florida, but definitely seeing the trend nation wide).
I also met our Precoa Counselor, Dan Rowe. Dan was incredibly excited because he just qualified for the incentive trip to Hawaii! Check out these photos...
Congrats Dan! We are excited for you and your great accomplishments!
I had to see this man in action. So Dan and I headed off to his first appointment for the day. It was a post service lead. Her husband had died in January. They had done a cremation with a memorial service. This was their second home in the Port Royal area... You guys. This area is seriously where the "rich and famous" must live. The minimum size house (I am told) is 8,000 sf! It was seriously incredible to look at all the homes. Check out this one below... 23,000 SF!
The home we went to was no different. Had landscapers doing maitenance on the yard. We walked in the home to a HUGE grand entry. After going through several rooms to get to the kitchen table we had a beautiful view of their 85 ft yacht! Here is a photo for a reference :)
Their yacht is for sale by the way... they are looking to get 2-3 million for it :)
Anyway. Back to the appointment. It went... ok. Basically what it came down to was that she doesn't really control her own assets. I don't even think she writes checks. Her accountant takes care of all that, and her 4 boys take care of all the family financial matters. So even though it was something she could do, there are many more gate keepers (decision makers) to get through. Tough challenge for Dan to overcome. He told her we would follow up in two weeks and she said she wanted to talk to her son Walter, who lives here locally, about it.
Later that afternoon Dan and I had another appointment. It was a direct mail appointment that went really well. This gentlemen had responded to direct mail and was in his mid 60's. He has had several family members and friends go through Fuller and he is already sold on the company. Since he is in his 60's he has started thinking about it for himself. Dan ran the numbers and it was about a $4,000 cremation policy. He is very interested but, this was a one leg appointment. Most agents don't like these (as you know). He did tell us (as I am sure he told you when you set the appointment) that his wife absolutely does not want to talk about this. I believe him, but I believe that he and his wife will both have policies written up on the next appointment. I appreciated Dan's positive attitude with this lead. He was positive and optomistic and it was worth the appointment being set. Sometimes you (at the planning center) have to make the judement call and in this case it was the right choice.
By the time the appointment was done. Trevor and I headed back to the hotel and that was that.
Thursday 11/17
Woke up bright and early and headed to the Fuller-Metz funeral home in Cape Coral, FL.
I went and met Tim and Renee, the funeral directors here. Had a quick tour of the funeral home and then Rebecaa (the Precoa counselor) and I had to jet off to a 9 am appointment.
Rebecaa Roberts is a new agent with Precoa (2 months) and she is AWESOME (in my opinion). The second I got in the car with her I was fascinated by her energy and enthusiasm. She is a riot. She LOVES her job. She is on track to go to Hawaii and is so excited because her whole life she has only been to Chicago, Indiana, and Florida. She is recently married. Has 3 kids and needs a honeymoon!!!!
We arrived at the house, walked in the door and immediately captivated the attention of the couple. We sat down at the kitchen table and she began her presentation. She did a great job at using all of the tools Precoa has given her and making the presenation her own as well (pretty incredible for being here only 2 months).
The couple (Rose and Richard Brunner) have been married for 7 years. Richard spent time in Vietnam and was in the Marine Corps. Rose is from the Phillipines. They have no children together, no family, and No friends (from what they told us).
They both wrote up direct cremation policies for about $3,000 a pieace with 10 year pays.
We went back to the funeral home. Picked up Trevor and went and grabbed lunch. After lunch we were off to our next appointment.
This appointment was a man that had already prepared his final arrangements but he wanted to add a viewing and some other items. In short... he was a TALKER and it was hard to get him focused on the matter at hand. Rebecca is great at this though and kept realing him in. We eventually were able to get him to finish the paperwork and she was about to get another $2,000+ policy done.
After that appointment we immediately headed over to the next appointment. The husband had already bought a policy but the wife wanted to purchase one for herself. She wanted a traditional funeral/burial and was really just shopping for a quote it appeared. She is going to check with one other funeral home and get back to Rebecca. This was a bit frustrating for Rebecca but these folks were pretty set in their ways and would not write up.
All in all it was a fabulous day. I was inspired by Rebeccas energy, enthusiasm and professionalism when dealing with the clients. I think she has a bright future ahead of her at Precoa!
Friday 11/18
Friday morning Trevor and I headed back to the Naples location where he planned on sitting in on Dans appointment and I was able to meet the last counselor on my trip. Her name is Debra. She also works out of the Naples office with Dan.
She had an appointment set for 10 a.m. She went through their VERY detailed file that they already had at the funeral home to see where there were holes. This couple had outlined absolutley everything that they wanted for the final wishes they were just chipping away at the payment of it all. They had an estimate through Fuller back in 2005... this was perfect because the prices had already gone up $3,000 since then so Debra knew it would be easy to help them understand why they needed to set up a policy today.
The couple came a little bit early and were just awesome. One of my favorite parts about this industry (as I am sure each of you can relate to) is hearing the stories. Sometimes the motive for people to preplan with us is strictly financial but I don't believe we are effective if we just crunch the numbers. Those clients that are creating a plan for their loved ones are the stories that I love most.
The husband was 81 and the wife was 77. Between their kids, grand kids and great grand kids they had 60 people. 60!!! Can you believe it? The wife when she was four lost both of her parents in a horrible accident and her husband's mother was told by the doctor that she would never be able to have children... look what these two have accomplished together. They spoke so highly of their family and wanted to make sure everything was taken care of. Debra did awesome. She makes it seem so effortless and natural when she is presenting. It doesn't feel like a presentation at all.
They both wrote up policies for approx $8,000 a piece and one did a 10 year pay and the other did a 20 year pay.
It was a great end to my trip in Florida. Many thanks to Fuller funeral homes and Trevor Winn for allowing me to come and be their shadow for a couple days. I learned a lot and absolutely enjoyed every minute.
I am seriouosly in awe of how awesome our company is. We have incredible people in the home office AND the field.
Have a fantastic week and a GREAT Thanksgiving!
Best,
Jon
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