Tips for a profitable Memorial Day

Jason Murphy,
Director of Family Services,
Sunset Funeral Home
and Memorial Park

Memorial Day is quickly approaching. Is your cemetery or memorial park ready? Here are some things that consistently work for us during the biggest weekend of the year.

Special Memorial Day visitor discounts. Every year, we offer exceptional savings to anyone who visits our memorial park during the holiday weekend. We include them in a newsletter that is distributed at our gates. Don’t forget to include an expiration date on your coupons to create a sense of urgency and drive sales during the summer months.

Walk the grounds. Send your sales staff out to walk your grounds to identify markers that need to be refinished, could be upgraded with a medallion or should be placed on granite. That list can be an incredible source for leads. Send letters to next of kin about the applicable offers you’re offering during Memorial Day. These aren’t huge sales, but they add up and can potentially lead to larger sales and pre-planning contracts once you get them in your office.

Get your gear ready. It seems obvious, but make sure you have all of your tools and equipment ready in advance. We make sure we have golf carts ready to transport our staff or help a visitor explore the cemetery. In the carts, we have gentle cleaning supplies to help people make their loved one’s markers shine. We also have plenty of cemetery maps. Even if a counselor is helping someone identify a grave space, any face to face interaction increases your chance for future sales.

This year, make Memorial Day extra special. You have the opportunity to show off your beautiful grounds and to impress the families that visit. Make it count!
 
This article originally appeared in Modern Memorialization, Trigard Memorials' weekly electronic newsletter featuring information for the funeral industry. Sign up for your free subscription at http://www.trigard.com/thursdays.