Being a sales manager means developing your sales skills to a new level, as well as becoming a leader and developer of people.

Going some online research recently for an upcoming speech, I discovered this amazing statistic: When you run a search through Google, it scans over 4 billion pages of information on the Internet in about 0.2 seconds. If a human looked at the same number of pages and only spent one minute per page, it would take 5,707 years to accomplish the same task.

That is incredible. It is any wonder people's expectations are going up every day? Companies and consumers are raising the bar every day. Companies expect more from their staff because their customers are expecting more from them. And everyone wants everything quickly.

But how can a sales manager operate more quickly? Is there technology that can scan faces and tell the sales manager whether those people will succeed or fail in sales? How can a sales manager meet the challenge of keeping people motivated, focused, positive and productive?

Sales never get better—people do!
Many managers focus on trying to improve their sales. That is not possible. Sales are created. How does something that doesn't exist until it is created get better before it even exists?

Sound confusing? The premise is simple: Sales never get better—people do. When we improve our salespeople's attitudes, skills, habits and competencies, then, and only then, will their sales improve.

The obvious next question is, ''How do our people get better?" The answer: Our people never get better until we, their managers, do. It's managers' ability to lead, direct, coach, teach and motivate that allows their staffs to improve.

Organizations never grow faster than their leaders. Therefore, as a sales manager, you must continue to discover new concepts and skill sets which you can in turn transfer to your staff, helping them improve on an ongoing basis.

One way a manager can get better faster is by understanding certain basic principles, the fundamentals of how something works. Once you discover a principle, understand how it can serve you and internalize it into your own thinking, you then can act—perhaps faster than ever before.

It is only when we get better and have a clearer understanding of what we do and how we do it that we can make our people better. And it's only when our people get better in attitude and skills that our sales improve.

Principles don't change; only technique and application do
For thousands of years, people wanted to fly, but one attempt after another failed. Then on a cool December day in 1903, at 10:35 in the morning, the principle of manned night was discovered. With their historic 12-second flight of only 36.6 meters, the Wright brothers knew they had broken the code, discovered the principles.

Over time, those principles became better understood; the people designing aircraft internalized the concepts and continued to act on what had been discovered. Here is an amazing example of how internalizing a principal works: It took man 6,000 years to discover the principle of a controlled flight. It then took us only 68 years to learn to fly 238,857 miles to the moon.

Principles don't change, only technique and application do. To accomplish more in a shorter period of time requires us to discover, understand, internalize and act on the fundamental principles of sales management success.

What are the principles that can help a sales manager be more effective every day? Many readers will find that they are already familiar with these principles, or at least some of them, but most of us forget, and we can't internalize what we forget.

As a professional, you must dedicate yourself to discovering principles that will allow you to do your job better, help make your people better and, as a result, increase your sales.

There are three basic premises on which the career of a successful sales manager is founded:
• Having the ability to hire, develop and keep the right people.
• Acknowledging that being a sales manager can be one's life work—a true profession.
• Understanding that a sales manager is rewarded on the basis of performance.

People
The sales manager's role revolves around people—finding them, training them, developing them and creating an environment where they are willing to give their all and want to stay.

Successful sales managers are always looking for the principles that will allow them to attract, hire, train, develop and keep the right people in their sales organization. Following are three principles and the power they possess to help you get better at focusing on the people aspects of sales management success.

Principle: Only hire people with the proper ID.
Power: In his book "Good to Great," Jim Collins dispels the myth that "people" are our greatest business assets. The right people are, he says. Finding the right people is essential to any organization's growth and well-being.

Saying you should look for people with the "proper ID" is shorthand to help you remember to look for the right personal elements as well as the required professional acumen.

The "I" reminds us to look for people who have integrity, intelligence and initiative. The "D" reminds us to look for people with desire, determination and discipline.

The ID concept reminds us that integrity and discipline are required for sales success.

Remember: "Without the first quality, a person can cause great damage to your organization; without the last quality, a person will never do much of anything for your organization."

Principle: Confused people don't act
Power: People need a clear vision of what to do, how to do it and when it needs to be done. If the sales manager doesn't make the requirements of the task clear, as well as how they are to be executed, people won't act. Having a clear objective of what needs to be done, how it should be done and the timeframe for getting it accomplished is essential for both the salesperson and the sales manager.

Give your salespeople a clear and specific track to run on:

• Make sure they know what to do: "It is your role as a salesperson to find new prospects."

• Make sure they know how to do it: "Here are five possible ways of locating new prospects."

• Make sure they know when to do it: "Every day you need to spend a minimum of two hours focusing on getting new prospects."

Establishing expectations clearly also gives the sales manager the standards by which to manage.

Remember: Where there is no vision, the salespeople fail to thrive.

Principle: You train people initially; you develop people perpetually.
Power: When people come into a sales organization, they are initially trained on the products and services the company offers. They are trained on the pricing, financing options, the delivery systems and all the information needed to sell for this particular organization and/or in a certain profession.

They are also trained in the basics of the sales process, though if they have previous sales experience, they may receive less in the way of actual sales skills training.

In any case, eventually that type of training ends, with the exception of minor updates, such as training on new pricing or administrative procedures. And, it is unfortunate but true that in many cases, once trained, salespeople are never developed. You need to remind salespeople of fundamental sales skills to reinforce those skills, and you need to teach and coach them in advanced sales skills.

Effective managers know that once people are trained on the basics of the business, they should forever be developing their skills. Continuous improvement is critical for the future development of a sales staff. You must not only remind salespeople about the fundamentals of the sales process because it's easy to get off track, but also make sure they are learning new skills at higher levels that will help them grow as sales professionals.

Remember: Initial training has an end, but the ongoing development of a person never does.

Professionalism
When sales managers commit to selling as their life's work, they start looking at things differently. They come to realize the more professional they become, the better quality people they can attract and keep.

Once the commitment is made to become the consummate professional, the sales manager finds the power to achieve the discipline necessary to reach new levels of success.

Following are three principles and the power they possess to help you get better at focusing on the professional aspects of sales management success.

Principle: Demonstrate the behavior you expect.
Power: Leaders of the organization set the tone for everything. They are, like it or not, the model. It is so important for sales managers to realize that every behavior they demonstrate sends a message, a message of what is acceptable and what is not.

Sales managers who follow this principle are always early for any meeting. They always address things that are not in alignment with the company's values at the appropriate time and in the correct manner. They walk with a sense of mission and talk with strength of purpose. They understand that their every behavior, action and word is creating the model of "how things should be done around here."

Remember: Your organization will be a reflection of your behavior.

Principle: Do what you say and only say what you can do.
Power: One of the most important things sales managers need from the members of their sales team is trust. Trust must be earned through the things you say and do. When people trust their leaders they will follow them, and when they don't, they will instead always question them.

Professional sales managers understand that the greatest quality they can possess is that of integrity. You establish your integrity over time by being a person who does what you say you will.

Too often, sales managers will answer a question or grant a request without taking enough time to think the situation through. When it later turns out they gave the wrong answer or they can't follow through, their integrity is damaged. When building a career, it is important to do the things you say, but to also be careful what you say.

Remember: We are judged by others by what we say and what we do.

Principle: Use your influence, not your authority, to get things done.
Power: Sales managers who use their authority or position to get things done have a difficult road to travel. Managing this way never brings out the best your people have to give. It's a management style that doesn't breed loyalty, only contempt.

Sales managers who use the ability to influence others in a positive way get more done—and get it done better. When people are doing things because they want to, they put more of themselves into the task and take pride in owning the job.

Influencing others requires building relationships. It requires effective communication and trust from those who follow you. The sales manager who masters the art of influence establishes a committed group of people willing to do whatever it takes to reach the department's goals and objectives.

Remember: The ability to influence far outweighs the authority to demand.

Performance
A sales manager is in a paid-for-performance profession. However, the sales manager can't produce all the sales volume an organization requires. After all, if one person can produce all the sales needed, there's no need for a sales manager.

Sales managers must produce results through the efforts of other people. Their ability to manage and lead their organization successfully not by doing themselves but by getting things done through other people is critical.

Following are three principles and the power they possess to help you get better at focusing on the performance aspects of sales management success.

Principle: You can't be a manager and not lead.
Power: Managers must not only be effective sales managers, they also must be inspiring leaders. Leaders think strategically; managers implement tactically. Leaders set the goals; managers reach the goals. Leaders foster teamwork; managers mobilize the team.

Understanding this principle allows managers to have a clear understanding that there are times when they are managing—getting things done—but they are also always leading.
 
Being clear on the leadership role of being a sales manager is critical to the long term success of the organization. Inspiring leaders are masters at creating and communicating a clear vision of where the organization is going and how they intend to get there.

An effective leader is good at driving change, at getting people to commit to the overall goals and vision of the company while getting everyone in the organization working together.

Remember: You may not be managing at any giving moment, but you are leading every second.

Principle: Sales managers are always selling.

Power: When people move from the role of salesperson to sales manager, regardless of whether or not they are selling managers, they never stop selling. As a matter of fact, they start selling at a new level, and selling new things.

For example, ask any salesperson the biggest sale they've ever made, and they can tell you off the top of their head. If you ask a sales manager that question, his or her answer should be a name: Susan, George, Barbara or Bill. It should be the name of someone they have sold on entering the profession, or joining their company, who subsequently became a star performer, selling hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of dollars in products and services.

Selling people on themselves, on reaching higher goals, on the importance of making that second effort—these are just few of the sales a sales manager has to make. Successful sales managers realize they are selling some idea, concept or attitude to someone every day.

Remember: The day a sales manager stops selling is the day he or she stops succeeding.

Principle: You may not always be hiring, but you should always be recruiting.
Power: Most sales managers hire during a time of crisis. They hire when they need someone now. Too often, they therefore make hasty decisions that are not in the best interest of either their company or the person they hire.

Often sales managers recruit when sales are not going well, which may mean morale is down, as well. A new person coming into such a negative situation may soon leave, believing the opportunity is not what they were led to believe it would be.

This is why sales managers should always be recruiting, whether or not they are hiring at that particular moment. They should always be talking about the opportunity their profession offers. They should always be educating their marketplace about the fact that they are always looking for top sales talent.

Since you never know when a top-producing person may leave your organization, and because you never know when the best sales talent in your market may be looking for a change, you should always be recruiting.

Remember: Every week you don't recruit, the next month you may settle for a lesser degree of performance.

People, professionalism, performance
Building an effective, professional, ethical and productive sales organization is the result of years of commitment, effort and determination.

A successful sales organization is made up of people who see selling as their profession of choice and understand that performance is an everyday responsibility.

A successful sales manager is one who can attract the right people, help them become professionals and achieve consistent performance. To do this, sales managers must operate on a set of principles that provides them with a clear vision of what is possible.

Sales management success requires a lifelong search to discover the principles that will transform them and in turn allow them to transform their people, who will then transform our business.

This requires discovering the right people and then helping them understand that selling can be a true profession, helping them internalize your organization's purpose and influencing them to act.

Remember: If you practice the principles, you will possess the power.

Adapted from a presentation at the 2005 ICFA Annual Convention

There are many misconceptions about sales performance that color how we go about selecting candidates. According to the Gallup Organization, believing in the following myths about sales performance causes sales managers to make bad hires:

• Education myth: There is a direct relationship between education and sales performance; top producers are more educated than average.
Reality: There is no relationship here at all.  Most top performers were only average or even below-average students.

• Experience myth: Salespeople with experience will be easier to train and manage because they already know what to do and how to do it.
Reality: If they were average producers elsewhere, all their experience is going to do for them is get them up to speed more quickly so they can become average producers again. Sales is not brain surgery.

• A-good-salesperson-can-sell-anything myth: If s/he was successful selling in the XYZ industry, just think what s/he can do for us!
Reality: There are very few "naturals" who can sell anything. It's all about finding the right fit.

• The-right-sales-approach myth: If we hire salespeople and teach them all to sell identically using this regimented and highly successful sales approach, we can't go wrong.
Reality: This may work for average or below average performers, but it will stifle budding superstars. Highly successful salespeople have a unique style built around their unique talents.

• Training myth: If we just offer more training to the poor performers, they will turn into budding superstars.
Reality: More golf lessons won't turn me into Annika Sorenstam.

• Relationship myth: Relationships are everything in our business, so I need to hire people with strong people skills.
Reality: You need someone who can use their people skills to influence others, not befriend them, someone who is not afraid to ask for commitments.

• Money myth: Salespeople are only motivated by money, so as long as this recruit wants to make lots of money, s/he's a good hire.
Reality: Few sales reps are purely "coin operated." Money alone will not sustain excellent performance; the job needs to meet the sales reps' other psychological motivators or sales will drop.

• Desire myth: Anyone who wants to work hard at becoming a salesperson will become a salesperson.
Reality: It takes more than drive, motivation and persistence to succeed at sales. People need to possess the appropriate talents and strengths to succeed in any endeavor.

To hire qualified women, do small roundtable seminars with no more than a dozen women. Have the person running the seminar—who really needs to be a woman to be effective—share who she is, how she got here, why she loves it, how this job has worked for her, etc.

Adapted from a presentation at the 2005 ICFA Convention

If you are going to run a sales program, you have to have a cost model that you're going to maintain. In any sound cemetery operation, I suggest that 70 percent of your sales ought to come from prearrangements; 30 percent of your revenue should come from at-need services.

Your cost of sales should be managed somewhere around 23 percent or less, providing a gross margin of 77 percent.

Your marketing should be 25 percent or less. Maintenance expense, 21 percent; administrative expense, 12 percent; operating expense, 58 percent; and net operating margin, 19 percent.

You need a weekly report for your sales program. Financial statements are always behind or done late, so it's hard to monitor your sales program without a weekly sales report.

I meet weekly with my sales managers, my administrative managers, accounting managers and operations managers to review our sales results and to determine what we can do to support the sales program.

We also analyze our sales reports every week so we know on an annual basis how we're doing, what pace we're keeping.

The weekly sales reports monitor:
• your at-need and preneed sales compared to budget;
• your staffing goals, average contract, unit sold;
• individual performance of sales managers, unit managers and memorial counselors; and
• family service ratios of preneed families to at-need families.

An effective preneed program takes work.
You need to generate leads in a variety of ways and give your salespeople the incentive to succeed.

In part one we focused on the first two components of a successful preneed program: program planning, monitoring and alignment and counselor recruiting, hiring and training. These components must be established prior to implementing the last two components: lead-generation and lead-management programs and incentive and recognition programs.

Component #3:
Lead generation and management
One hallmark of a successful preneed system is a diverse lead-generation program. If one or two lead-generation sources are successful, by all means continue to implement those tactics, but consider broadening your marketing mix. If your firm is successful now, imagine the potential for added success if you implement additional lead-generation tactics.

A successful preneed program should include the following four lead-generation sources to increase leads, build brand in the community and increase market share:
1.    direct mail
2.    seminars
3.    referrals
4.    family follow-up

Direct Mail. Direct mail is an effective way to promote your preneed program and funeral home and/or cemetery brand to target audiences in your market. While the industry standard response rate for direct mail is 1 percent, a well-researched and executed campaign can garner response rates up to 10 percent.

When selecting a direct mail campaign from your preneed provider or another source, consider the following to increase the response rate:
• Does the mailing include a business reply card?
• Is the call to action clear in the direct mail piece?
• Is there an incentive for consumers to respond?
• Is the funeral home and/or cemetery contact information easy to locate?
• Is the font large enough for seniors to read?
• Does the piece appeal to the diverse age group in your target market?
• Do the photos include pictures of active seniors?
• Is the piece—both the design and marketing copy-appealing?

Seminars. Seminars are planned community presentations designed to communicate the value and benefit of advanced planning. Seminar topics may include social security, estate taxes, veterans' benefits and legal issues in addition to preplanning and prefunding.

Although presenting the benefits of preneed at your local church or Kiwanis meeting can be successful, your firm can achieve more qualified leads by hosting a seminar because your audience has essentially prequalified itself as viable leads.

Seminars are an effective way to:
• increase the number of leads by sharing the preneed story with a large audience;
• promote your company's brand in a professional and caring manner;
• provide a valuable community service by educating the public on preneed and possibly other important life planning issues; and
• increase your firm's market share cost effectively.

Referrals. Referrals from satisfied customers are often your best leads because they are free and provide immediate contact opportunities. Successful firms use referrals as an ongoing means of generating highly qualified prospects.

When requesting referrals, counselors should simply ask a satisfied customer if any friends, family or business associates could also benefit from this service. This will provide a constant inventory of warm leads. As an incentive, you may also choose to reward referrals with discounts and/or promotional gifts.

Family follow-up. Contacting the family of the deceased within a week of the funeral or burial is one of the most effective ways to secure future business and create additional preneed business. Your company will benefit from family follow-up for a couple of reasons.

First, it ensures that the family was satisfied with the services. If the service did not meet the needs of the family, then it provides you with an opportunity to correct the situation.

Second, you create goodwill for your firm by expanding the family's care beyond the initial service.

Third, you establish the opportunity to secure future at-need business with the family and possibly referrals. The family's positive experience will ensure they consider your funeral home or cemetery when the need arises, and might provide referrals to their family, friends and business associates.

It is essential that the funeral home director or whoever is handling arrangements at the cemetery set the stage for preneed at the conclusion of the at-need arrangement. He or she can introduce the preneed counselor who will be conducting the follow-up, or explain to the family the counselor will be calling them shortly and provide the family with the counselor's business card.

Managing your leads is just as important—if not more important—as generating them. Software programs and training should be available through your preneed provider to help counselors manage and track sales, collect marketing information and follow up with prospects.

Component #4:
Counselor incentive and recognition
Recognition is an important part of any preneed program. Rewarding counselors and managers with incentive trips and programs can boost confidence, morale and loyalty to the funeral home or cemetery. An employee who is recognized and appreciated is more inclined to continue to be successful.

Your preneed provider should be able to help you design incentive and recognition programs for your firm as well as sponsor its own program, whether it's an incentive trip to an attractive, high value destination or a newsletter that acknowledges top performers and provides insight for superior results.

In conclusion, it is important to remember that implementing and developing a successful preneed program is challenging, but every funeral home can achieve success. It requires the consistent application of the basics: program planning, monitoring and alignment; counselor recruiting, hiring and training; lead generation and management programs; and incentive and recognition programs.

Are your salespeople who are paid commissions covered by or exempt from overtime under the new federal regulations? It depends.

As most of you are aware, last year the United States Department of Labor issued final regulations that modified the rules for determining whether employees are exempt from the mandatory overtime payment requirement of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Under the general rule, employers must pay all employees overtime in the amount of one and one-half times the employees' regular rate for all time they work in excess of 40 hours per week, unless the employees qualify under one of the exemptions from the act.

A number of ICFA members have asked us about whether the new DOL regulations change the exemption from overtime for certain commission-paid salespeople under Section 7(i) of the FLSA.

Although the new final regulations do not make any changes to Section 7(i) of the FLSA, we would like to take this opportunity to review the Section 7(i) exemption and its application to commission-paid salespeople.

Two conditions must be met
Section 7(i) of the FLSA exempts retail salespersons paid on a commission basis from the mandatory overtime provisions if the following two conditions are met:

1)    the employee's regular rate of pay exceeds one and one half times the federal minimum wage; and
2)    more than half of the employee's compensation for a representative period (not less than one month) represents commissions on goods or services.

For new employees, the Section 7(i) exemption applies if:

1)    it can reasonably be expected, based on the performance of other workers in their group, that the new employee will meet the test; or
2)    it can reasonably be expected that the new employee will meet the test based on the track record of the prior occupant of the employee's position.

The Section 7(i) exemption applies to overtime, but not to the minimum wage law.  Employees who are paid on a straight commission basis must still receive at least the minimum wage for each hour worked, no matter how little commission the employee earns.
Be careful—both of the conditions must be met for the exemption to apply. If either condition is not met, then the employee is not exempt. Exemptions are determined on a workweek basis.

The following example serves to illustrate the application of the Section 7(i) exemption. Peggy Plots is employed by the ABC Cemetery as a salesperson paid on a straight commission basis. Plots works nine hours a day, five days a week. The commissions earned by Plots during a recent four-week period are reflected in the table above (Peggy Plots' Pay).

Condition One: Was Peggy Plots' regular rate of pay greater that 1.5 times the federal minimum wage?

The applicable federal minimum wage is currently $5.15 per hour. One and a half times the federal minimum wage is $7.72. Therefore, ABC Cemetery must pay Plots at least $7.73 per hour during the representative period for Plots to be exempt under Section 7(i).

As shown in the rate/hour column of the table, Plots' hourly rate of pay ranged from a low of $8.44 to a high of $12.89. Since ABC Cemetery paid Plots at a regular rate which exceeded the required regular rate of $7.73 in all four weeks, the first condition for exemption under Section 7(i) was satisfied.

Condition Two: Was more than half of Peggy Plots' compensation for the representative period commissions on goods or services?

Plots also satisfies the second condition for application of the Section 7(i) exemption because all of her compensation for the representative four-week period came from sales commissions.

When a condition is not met
Obviously, the example above is very simplistic and does not address what happens when one of the conditions is not met. When either of the conditions is not met, the exemption is destroyed and the employee must be paid overtime according to the general rule.

One strategy employers can use to effectively limit destruction of the exemption is to guarantee a base-level hourly wage for commissioned sales people that exceeds $7.72 per hour.

Also, employers sometimes set a minimum guaranteed level of commissions to ensure that commissions comprise at least 50 percent of employees' total compensation.

The application of the Section 7(i) exemption to various scenarios can be complex. If you have questions concerning the Section 7(i) exemption or require assistance in determining whether one of your salespeople is exempt based on his or her particular circumstances, you should seek the advice of an attorney experienced in wage and hour issues.

Recordkeeping requirements
To rely on the section 7(i) exemption, employers also must abide by a number of recordkeeping requirements.

To prove application of the Section 7(i) exemption, employers must maintain and preserve the following payroll and related information for all employees paid on a commission basis for at least three years:
1)    full name and Social Security number;
2)    home address, including zip code;
3)    date of birth, if under 19;
4)    sex and occupation in which employed;
5)    time of day and day of week on which the employee's work week begins;
6)    hours worked each work day and total hours worked each work week;
7)    total additions to or deductions from wages paid each pay period, including employee purchase orders or wage assignments (also, in individual employee records, the dates, amounts and nature of the items which make up the total additions and deductions);
8)    date of payment and the pay period covered by payment;
9)    a symbol, letter or other notation placed on the payroll records identifying each employee who is paid pursuant to Section 7(i);
10)    a copy of the agreement or understanding under which Section 7(i) is used or, if such agreement or understanding is not in writing, a memorandum summarizing its terms including the basis of compensation, the applicable representative period and the date the agreement was entered into and how long it remains in effect; and
11)     total compensation paid to each employee each pay period, showing separately the amount of commissions and the amount of non-commission, straight-time earnings.

Proper application of the Section 7(i) exemption and recordkeeping can save employers money. On the other hand, the improper application of the 7(i) exemption can prove quite costly.

Therefore, seek legal counsel if you have any questions regarding the application of the Section 7(i) exemption or related recordkeeping requirements.

Creating a successful preneed program-or improving an existing one-involves planning. In this two-part column, Samantha Franck will tell you what your plan must cover.
 
Preneed secures future at-need business and is a critical aspect of a funeral home or cemetery's future profitability. Besides being a proactive tool against competitors, an active preneed program is proven to increase call volume, reduce bad debt, increase cash flow and increase the number of funded funerals or interments.

However, the benefits of preneed cannot be realized by simply hiring a preneed counselor and advertising in your local paper. Similar to at-need business, an active preneed program requires strategic planning and ongoing support.

The consistent application of the basics ensures a successful preneed program. The basics include:

1.    program planning, monitoring and alignment;
2.    counselor recruiting, hiring and training;
3.    lead generation and management programs; and
4.    incentive and recognition programs.

Whether your firm is considering developing a preneed program or has an established program in place, take time to evaluate the basics. After all, preneed is a long-term investment and ensures your firm will have the potential for solid business in the future.

Component #1:
Program planning, monitoring and alignment
To establish a successful preneed program, begin by developing a preneed business plan that will chart your course. Your plan should include:
•    a detailed review of the firm's current situation, including strengths and weaknesses;
•    a prioritized listing of objectives, including financial goals;
•    target audiences;
•    strategies and tactics; and
•    an implementation timeline.

After your firm begins implementing the tactics, it is important to measure the growth of your current program against the goals your firm has established. Ideally, this evaluation is conducted on a routine basis-bi-monthly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually—with new goals
being set for the next period.
With the assistance of your preneed provider, your firm should examine the following:
•    volume and projected profitability of future funerals secured;
•    counselor productivity and close rate; and
•    lead generation results.

It is also important to evaluate each preneed marketing initiative, whether it includes publicity, direct mail, seminars, family follow-up or advertising. Marketing initiatives should include the following evaluations:
•    audience reach;
•    total investment;
•    response rate;
•    close rate; and
•    average funeral amount.

This data will help your firm identify the most effective marketing initiatives and help determine which initiatives should be the focus in the future.

After reviewing each period, your firm, along with your preneed provider, should create a plan of action for the next period. This is your opportunity to ask critical questions:
•    What successful activities should you continue to expand?
•    What areas need improvement?
•    Which tactics should be implemented in order to achieve the objectives, and what is the timeline?
•    How will the objectives be measured?

It is important to evaluate the results of the last period in order to develop challenging yet realistic goals for the future.

And finally, in order for a preneed program to be successful, the entire staff has to support the program, including the at-need staff. Talk with your entire staff and share the goals and objective of the preneed program.

Component #2:
Counselor recruiting, selecting and training
You can develop the best preneed business plan, but without the right staff, you will accomplish nothing. This is why recruiting, selecting and training of personnel is the second component of an active preneed system. It is important to hire employees with a vested interest in preneed and in your firm, employees who will not jump at the first offer from a competitor.

The first step to hiring high-caliber candidates is developing a job posting that produces a high rate of response from qualified candidates. When creating job postings, consider the following:
•    Define the job criteria that are essential for someone to perform effectively.
•    Focus on a typical day, on the responsibilities and the exciting aspects of the position.
•    Do not just tell the reader about the position—sell the position. Discuss your company's environment, culture and staff.
•    Provide a potential salary range.
•    Include as much specific information as possible. This will increase your chances of attracting more qualified people.

The next step is effectively screening applicants. It is essential to develop a process for screening applicants prior to reviewing resumes. Consider developing a chart listing each candidate's job qualifications and then ranking each candidate.

Once you have screened the candidates, the next step is conducting the interviews. Behavioral interviews will enable you to clearly determine whether the candidate possesses the competencies to perform the job.

A behavioral interview involves asking candidates to demonstrate their knowledge, skills and abilities by describing situations they have experienced. For example, ask questions similar to ''Tell me about a time when you made a successful presentation to a prospect and experienced a favorable response."

Training the preneed counselors you hire is just as important as hiring the right people. Your firm should plan to provide initial training for all newly hired counselors, as well as regular refresher courses or programs designed to sharpen and expand the sales skills of experienced counselors.

Preneed providers often have managers in the field who can provide preneed counselors with ongoing education and support to help maintain consistent sales and increase productivity. They may also offer training workshops, one-on-one coaching and tools to develop and enhance a preneed counselor or manager's marketing skills.

Because the recruiting, selection and training process is time-consuming, preneed providers and other industry sources often provide these services to funeral homes. Do not hesitate to request referrals from the provider you are considering.

In conclusion, the first two components—program planning, monitoring and alignment and counselor recruiting, hiring and training-are imperative to a successful preneed program. These components should be established prior to implementing the next two components, which are lead generation and management programs and incentive and recognition programs.

Many speeches, talks, and sessions such as this one are started with a definition from Webster's dictionary. When asked to serve on the faculty of this Counselor's Training Course, I became nervous when I was referred to as an expert. I looked up the word. In the dictionary "ex" comes directly from Latin and means "from" and "spurt" is defined as a "drip under pressure" so that now I feel right at home.

Aids in developing good habits for assured success. The key words in the title of this session are "Success" and Assured". Success cannot be defined by Webster's dictionary or Encyclopedia Britannia or any other book. The reason is simple.  You have your own definition of success because you have your own goals. Success is the "degree or measure of attaining one's desired end", according to Webster. Yet this is not enough - because even before a goal is attained others are set and life becomes a continual flow rather than starting and stopping at one successive goal after another.

The other key word is “assured”.  No one on this green earth can "assure" you of success. If I had this ability, I would rent the largest office in Philadelphia and have three floors reserved just for the waiting room. People would come from all over the world - if I could assure success, or could just pick out the individuals who would succeed. Yet there is one individual who can do this for you. You shave him every morning and brush his teeth every night. That hint should be enough.  You are your own assurance of success.

To make people well, the medical student studies people who are sick, injured or diseased.  To understand mentally sound individuals the psychologist studies the mentally abnormal and mentally deficient, to develop into a successful cemetery counselor we should study the ones who have failed - find out why they failed -and do the opposite. We should make a habit of doing right what the failure has done wrong. We must assume that his failure had the ability and aptitude.

The prime cause of an individual not succeeding in this business is his failure to get leads. The habit of prospecting is of the utmost importance in developing into a successful counselor. Without prospects, a salesman is unemployed. Without enough prospects, the best presentation is of no value. Having more than enough prospects is impossible. Simply possessing prospects generates excitement - it makes us anxious to get into the field. It gives us confidence. The hope that radiates from an unsold prospects card is enough to drive us into making that "one more call". Getting prospects has been covered this morning, covered well, yet I am so convinced that getting and having prospects is so important that it cannot be emphasized too much. Prospecting is the one phase of selling that appeal least to most salesmen. Getting prospect should be such a habit, such an integral part of our lives that we should feel like sinners if we fail to prospect every working day. The necessity of having prospects in quantity is the most widely known secret in the sales field. It is the key to selling success. It installs confidence, generates enthusiasm, breeds courage, and causes determination and persistence. The salesman should prospect every day - the successful one does.

Another quality that causes failure is the lack of confidence.

A new salesman overcomes this lack of confidence in his ability with his enthusiasm to learn.  Knowledge as it is stored up, strengthens confidence. A new salesman must remember during his first calls that although he has much to learn and is far from being an expert, compared to the prospect that he is talking to, he is authority and knows much more about the cemetery business than the prospect does. I will bet there is not a salesman here that has not driven past a prospect's door without stopping or walked up to it without knocking.  I have.  Until the thought struck me that I was going into their home for their benefit, not mine.  The few dollars I make on any sale are spent in a short time, but their benefits are forever.  Form the habit of service.  This idea alone, serving others, will change your concept of the door – it will become a portal, to enter to serve, and not a barrier with a lock.

Another characteristic of the failure is his inability to generate his own energy – his lack of inner drive.  There is only one thing worse than seeing a man with ability and no drive and that is the pitiful individual with drive and no ability.  Form the habit of making goals – ultimate goals that require years are important – but make short term goals also.  Form the habit of reminding yourself of them.  Write them down.  Tape them to the mirror where you shave.  Carry them with you.  Look at them often.  Make your specific goals a part of your routine thought and not only will the energy to attain them be yours but also the joy of attaining them will be yours.

Many individuals who fail as salesmen lack conviction and dedication of purpose.  Others are so mild mannered that they cannot communicate their beliefs forcefully.  They seem to lack “spine” or “guts”.  They lack what I have heard called the “tiger instinct”.  It does have the qualities of instinct in that they are facets that are basic to some personalities and cannot be changed easily.

Some failures cannot bear up to the “no” answers that every salesman must get.  Form the habit of listening to them without becoming discouraged.  It takes one hundred and seventy-eight “no’s” to make a sale.  Let me illustrate.  It takes one hundred sixty canvass calls to produce sixteen suspects.  That means 144 “no” suspects doors.  If you start with sixteen prospects in the evening, 8 will not be home, 4 more will not have the entire buying unit present, 2 will own elsewhere and two stories will result.  In most presentations we must listen to at least ten rejections before we close so that is 20 or a total of 178 rejections.  It takes an individual with ability to stand rejection and still remain pleasantly persistent.  It takes a man with “tiger instinct”.

All successful men have three characteristics: 1) Ability, 2) Confidence, 3) Determination and 4) persistence. A fifth quality usually is present, a genuine love of what they are doing. A love that has developed because of an inner satisfaction that seems to go beyond financial satisfaction. Do not be afraid to fall in love with your chosen profession.

Another habit that should be continually cultivated is the habit of finding an easier better way. Always strive to become more efficient.

Form the habit of making calls every evening of the week and on Saturday. The golden hours are few - from 6 to 9, five nights a week, is only fifteen effective evening selling hours. It is obvious that Friday is becoming more a part of the weekend - people shop or seek amusement or just jam the streets with their cars, so it seems.

It is equally as obvious that many people are home - just as many sales can be made Friday evening as any other night. Do not try to be successful on only four nights a week.

Not only form the habit of working Friday evening but also search for the daytime presentations. There are countless opportunities to sell during the day. One month we closed a third of our sales before 5 o'clock in the evening - this releases that much more time to call on other people during the Golden Hours.

Another way to increase your efficiency is after calling on a prospect, spend two more minutes to quality the neighbors. It takes only a brief time, yet will bring you many, sales during a year – try it, what can you lose?

The responsibility is really yours.  Others can point the way but you must do the travelling.  You are your own best friend or your own worst enemy.  The decision is always yours.

The key words in the title of this session are SUCCESS and ASSURED. SUCCESS cannot be defined in a dictionary or encyclopedia or any other book. The reason is simple.... you have your own definition of SUCCESS you have your own goals. SUCCESS is the "degree or measure of attaining one's desired end", yet this is not enough.... because even before a goal is attained, others are set and life becomes a continual flow rather than starting and stopping at one successive goal after another.

The other key word is ASSURED.... No one can "ASSURE" you of SUCCESS – the reason being no one can do it for you. If you are willing to pay the price to learn all there is about the job and work toward that goal, you are your own assurance of SUCCESS.

I am going to give you my opinion of what I think are some good habits that are successful in the cemetery business as a Memorial Counselor. Let's just start with the beginning of our day:

1. A salesman has to get in the habit of rising early in the morning, getting himself organized to report to the office and turn in his sales and do anything he has to do so he will be ready to go prospecting.... not stay in bed until the mood moves him to get up and not have time to get organized and say it's too late to go now, will go tomorrow.

2. Planning your day's work when you get to the office, just what you are going to do that day will help you get more out of the hours you work... you will make every minute count as you have set up all things you want to accomplish that day, even personal things that are to be done for the family which in my book have to be done before 5PM, not afterwards unless it is after 10 o' clock that night.

3. The habit of prospecting is of utmost importance in being a successful counselor. By this I mean out in the field, going door to door at least for 2 hours each morning depending on the time of year....during the summer 9 to 11 AM ... during the winter months 10 AM to 12 noon. Without enough prospects, the best presentation is of little value. You have to continue prospecting every day to assure yourself of successful selling. Somehow I suppose it is the anticipation of returning to present our program to a family that gets a salesman out in the field in the evening.

4. To make daytime presentations to make that extra sale or bonus sales it will have to begin when you are prospecting. It is necessary to know if they are retired people or a man who works shift work and what his day off is. Anytime you wait to see these families during the Golden Hours from 5 to 9 PM instead of some other part of the day, your time is not being used wisely.

5. Working 5 nights a week and making Saturday calls is a habit that will lead to only one thing.... more presentations being given and naturally resulting in more sales being made. If you just work 5 days a week and 4 hours a night, this would be only 20 selling hours a week, which totals up to a very few hours for a week's work. Yet, I hear a lot of salesmen say Friday is becoming more a part of the weekend - people are shopping - going out of town - and hundreds of other reasons they are not at home.  You know and I know that everybody doesn't leave home at the same time any day of the week. Just because a salesman made a few calls one Friday evening and did not find his particular prospects home, it was a poor night to make calls. All this man is doing is looking for an excuse not to work Fridays. My recommendation is that Friday is as good as any night of the week.

6. Calling into the office during the day when you are out working is a good idea, as someone that you previously presented may want to meet you at the park, or an owner would like to come to see his lot or has a lead for you.

7. Starting out early in making your evening calls can oftentimes get you that extra sale by making 2 presentations instead of one. I feel a man should start making his calls as soon after 5 PM as possible and make his last call 8:45 to 9:00 PM to get in at least 2 presentations an evening. When a man makes excuses this is too early or it is too late to make calls, pretty soon he reaches a point where there is no time that is right time for making calls. It all depends on you, how successful you want to be.

8. Write down prospects names you are going to call on in the evening in the rotation that you plan to see them. This can be a big time saver ... knowing whom you are going to call on first, second, etc. These prospects should be as close to one another as possible. A man should have at least 20 prospects to see to assure himself of finding at least 2 families to present, or no less than one presentation before giving up making calls that night.

9. Delivering your contracts promptly lets the family know we have a most efficient operation.... the new owner may have a question to ask as there might be something they did not quite understand which will make your sale more secure.... also, they have had time to think of someone else they would like to refer. These are excellent leads to call on.

10. Make presentation so simple and clear that even a 14 year old child can understand what you are saying. When people do not understand what you are trying to explain to them or because you take certain things for granted, skip over something you think is unimportant or do not talk loud enough, they are not going to buy from you.

11. Be enthusiastic about your job, your park, while you are making your presentation, because this will excite your prospects into becoming enthused. Your presentation has to move along accordingly. A slow talking individual who is dragging his presentation will cause loss of interest of the prospect and also the loss of the sale in most cases.

12. Let each presentation teach you a lesson so you will not make the same mistake twice. You can sometime analyze your presentation, what you said or didn't say or forgot to do and many other things... and most of all why you did not close the sale. This kind of education comes high. I do not believe too many of us in this room today would reach down in our pocket and payout cash money for this education, but that's exactly what you are doing when you miss a high percentage of your presentations. It's pretty expensive, so at least get something out of it so it won't be a total loss.

13. Asking for referrals after each sale is a most profitable habit for Success.  It takes such a short time to ask the family for the names of relatives, their friends, neighbors and fellow workers. It will take a little encouraging and suggesting to them to start the ball rolling. Some families will give you from 3 to 10 leads which will keep you busy getting out to see them, but don't take off in all directions of the city wait until you have several prospects in a general area.

14. Always follow through on whatever promise you may have made to the family you sold, whatever it may be... information on someone's burial lot who is related to them, the gift you promised if you sold one of their referrals, or any other important matter. This builds confidence with your families and will get more sales for you in the future.

15. Show each family your appreciation of their becoming a new property owner in your park. Congratulate them for making this wise decision together. This will leave an impression with them of your sincere interest in your job and being of service to them. Be sincere when you say this ... not just go through the motions. This word will be passed along to others and will result in future sales.

16. When driving through your park and you see a family wandering around trying to locate someone's burial place or lot, stop your car, go over and introduce yourself, ask if you may assist them in anyway or help them. It is amazing how many times this little gesture will result in a sale. They may be out of town visitors or some member of the family who lives here locally that does not own. This can always be learned by asking a few questions or becoming a little better acquainted with them. This can become a habit as easily as driving out the front gate.

17. Work historical records on the burials held in your park to supplement your prospect list... the nearest of kin of the deceased, his pallbearers and friends who attended the services. The need for burial property has been brought very close to these people and, if they are non-owners, they make very good families to call on. This should be done in three or four weeks after the burial.

18. Study and learn everything you can about your park, that you might become more proficient in your job as a memorial counselor. The more knowledge you have about your park and services and what is available for sale, the better position you will be in to answer questions and also make sales, because you keep up to date with what is going on.

19. Be sure you make all sales meetings. Something might be brought up of great importance in closing a sale by one of your fellow workers that could close that extra sale for you.... also, by not being there you might miss a lead that is handed out that could result in 5 or 6 sales, besides getting more educated on how to do a better job.

20. Try to attend funeral services of your deceased property owners if possible. Many a family comes direct to the cemetery, and not to the funeral home and by being at the graveside you can visit with these families and ask them in what part of our park they own to get the ball rolling, and by visiting with them until the service arrives, you have all the information you want if they are good prospects or not.  It does not hurt anything to allow your property owners to see you attending the services that you are a permanent man with the cemetery and still around. Later on when everything settles down to normal, they may have the need for additional space or want you to see some friend of theirs that has just seen your cemetery for the first time.

21. Always dress neatly and, weather permitting, in a suit. You will never know whom you will meet. Sport clothes and sport shirts are not suited to this business - you are looked upon as someone in the ministry or other profession. You would feel rather out of place if you came to the office and found out one of your owners was being buried and you were wearing sport clothes. Being a good dresser is a good habit and leaves an impression of success.

22. Having a goal to work toward, which was covered earlier today, is a MUST to attain SUCCESS. A goal should be written down where you can see it every day as a reminder, whether for a short duration, a year or even years, to see if you are on schedule or behind schedule, or what you have to do to meet it. Make goals a part of your every day life, for the joy of attaining them will all be yours. This will give you the drive to carry you over the top in whatever you undertake.

23. Willingness to work long hours or pay the price for success can only come from you the salesman - a man who is a late starter and works only 6 or 7 hours a day will never become a great success. The successful man is one who does not worry about the hours he works or how long he works. If you will check into the lives of most successful business men you will find they put in more hours than anyone else.

24. Duplication of one's self to his profession as a memorial counselor that he truly wants to go out and render a service to the family he calls on, as so few families really don't know how to begin or what to do or even given very much thought to arranging for burial property before need .... Many do not know it can be arranged for before need. I would not say this is a habit, but it will certainly help you toward that goal of assured SUCCESS.

I suppose there are some aids and habits to help a salesman to be successful other than the ones I have covered here, but I will guarantee you one thing.... if you will just take these 24 steps you will be on the stairway leading to the top in your organization. The responsibility is yours only. Someone else can point the way in the right direction, but you must do the walking. You are either your best friend or your own worst enemy. No one can make this decision for you.... it is yours to decide.

From the publication:
“Collected Sales Management Speeches”
NAC
Compiled throughout the 1960s and early 1970s

If the toughest sales managers and most demanding customers in the world ever get together to create the perfect salesman, we submit he'll come out something like this:

(1) He is positive. He is confident because he knows why he is calling on his prospect, the good things his product will do for him and how their relationship will profit both of them. This positive quality is in evidence throughout his presentation, makes asking for the order a natural, logical finale of all that has preceded it.

(2) He knows his prospect's needs. He is ready to present his case in terms of the benefits to be gained and the losses to be avoided by the specific customer in terms of his specific business. He makes himself ready by correctly "casing" his prospect in advance. This includes acquainting himself with the prospect as an individual (age, education, interests) as well as a businessman (his responsibilities, goals, budget, past dealings with the salesman's firm).

(3) He asks for the order. Whatever may be the pleasant, personal aspects of the call, he knows, as a salesman, that he sees his prospects to get an order and he asks for it. Since he knows the benefits his product is built to confer, he is not humble or shy about requesting the order. On the contrary, he is proud to be the intermediary between his firm and his prospect.

(4) He takes a failure in his stride. The perfect salesman knows that he is not going to get an order from every interview and is self-possessed enough to take a defeat without seeing it as a personal rejection or disaster and to go on with his work. He realizes that part of his job is to learn from his failures - and he does.

(5) He does not play doubtful angles. He plans and expects to make his sales on the merits of his product and wastes no time figuring personal angles and pulls or other devious manipulations. He avoids name dropping that is not backed up by facts and dark hints about reciprocity. Why - because he doesn't need crutches and gimmicks.

(6) He is always looking for the extra beyond the ordinary. Nothing is good to him because it is good enough to get by with; he is constantly and relentlessly on the search for the extra he can know, the extra he can do. Toward this commendable end he maintains several lines of communications; to his own company and its assorted experts; to customers and prospects for their suggestions, complaints and ideas; to the competition and its ideas.

(7) He does not overplay good fellowship. The perfect salesman is sincerely friendly, but he thinks of himself as a businessman and acts like one, not wasting his time or his customer's with trivialities. He understands the necessity for a moderate amount of business entertaining, but knows the folly of attempting to buy an order.

(8) He stays away from coercive tactics. He has a reasonable proposal which he believes he can prove will benefit his customer and feels no need either to push him a round or hypnotize him. Certainly, he would never dream of raising his voice, suggesting unethical "deals" or in any way putting his prospect on the spot.

(9) He is not obsessed with his competition. He knows - studies – keeps up-to date on - his competition but he has already so thought through his own work in relation to it that he does not allow it to confuse, dominate or enslave his mind. He is never on the defensive about his product, and of course, he never, never, never knocks his rivals. He doesn't have to.

(10) He makes every call important. He does not make calls when he has no other reason for them than that perhaps they may do some good; he knows why he is calling and makes cans serve their purpose. He never is "just in the neighborhood" or "thought he'd drop in to see how things are going.”  He always has a bona fide reason for calling…. a new product to demonstrate, an idea to pass along, an opinion to get. Whenever he leaves a prospect, that prospect thinks, "I'm glad he came by”.

(11) He gives every call an individual flavor. He has his facts well in mind and tested phrases at his tongue's end, but he so words and presents what he has to say that he applies it to each individual so that it sounds distinctively directed to the man he is calling on. He accomplishes this by preparing himself beforehand. That is, he makes it his business - as indeed it is - to find out what his prospect's special problems are…..his needs…..his wants. Realizing that he is, basically, a problem solver, the perfect salesman habitually “looks for trouble”.  And he keeps an eagle eye out for solutions.

(12) He serves rather than sells. He does not start out to sell something but to serve somebody and this livens the tone of his voice and maintains the enthusiasm of his spirit. And he is smart enough to realize that the service he renders need not always be directly connected with his product.

(13) He is a gentleman. Thoroughly respecting himself and his work, he manifests respect for his customer and his work, thus being naturally courteous, appreciative and self-possessed. Although his business calls are business oriented, he can when necessary hold up his end of a conversation revolving about ideas, current events, the arts. He doesn't stoop to low humor or vulgar language. Nor does he feel the necessity to prove himself “one of the boys”.  The result: he is respected by others and taken seriously.

(14) He manages his time well. Time is the salesman's wallet, worth just as much as he puts into it; the perfect salesman handles time as meticulously as a chemist measures liquids. This means, first of all, that he plans his days, weeks, even months in advance. He knows where he must be at any given time, whom he will be seeing, what he needs for each call in the way of samples and visuals. Secondly, he is prepared to answer all, or at least, most questions and objections. Thirdly, he arranges his days so that his subsidiary duties, correspondence, telephone calls, miscellaneous paper work-conflict minimally with his selling hours. Finally, he has evolved some method of devoting more time to his bigger-and potentially bigger-accounts than to his smaller ones; at the same time, he does not neglect these smaller customers.

(15) He is persistent. Aware of the human tendency to procrastination, he takes it for granted and holds himself relentlessly to pursuing a sale until it is either consummated or he is convinced that there is a good reason for it not being consummated. Even then, he continues to try to eliminate the causes of "no sale."

(16) He is his own severest critic. He needs no sales manager to pursue him. He is his own sales manager, always alert to his own manifestations of weakness and ready to correct them. The only time he really worries is when he finds himself completely satisfied with his own performance. Should he knowingly err, even if he manages to get away with it, he bends his energies toward eliminating a recurrence of his mistake. He knows that the only man with whom he is truly in competition is-himself. And he is always trying to beat the salesman that he was yesterday.

(17) He can laugh at himself. He has a sense of humor, but he directs it at himself, not at others, thus keeping himself in the right perspective and not losing his sense of proportion.

(18) He does not fight figures. The perfect salesman does not expect miracles, but rather paces himself scientifically by facts, stepping up his work when times are slack to produce the extra asset to make up for the deficit.

(19) He creates customers. He is out to make more than sales; he is out to create customers, which he does by being their best-informed purchasing consultant and profit-builder. To keep well-informed, he is a steady, voracious reader of the trade press…..he keeps his eyes and ears open…..he constantly asks himself, when he comes across any item of interest, "Who might profit from this?” Of necessity he is a communicative person-he maintains a steady flow of letters and notes to customers and prospects, he uses his telephone, he speaks up at customers’ homes, offices or stores.

(20) He takes care of complaints at once. When trouble appears, he tackles it immediately, knowing well that complaints only fester if they are left without immediate attention. He has trained himself, accordingly, to be a good listener and to be intimately familiar with the machinery and policies of his firm for settling gripes. He does not promise satisfaction unless he is sure he can follow through.  But once he tells an unhappy customer that he will attend to a matter for him, his word is his bond.

(21) He knows people. He takes time to get acquainted with the best of modern understanding of human psychology, reading constantly to find out what moves people to act and react as they do.

(22) He is accurate, What he knows about his product, he knows and what he does not know, he knows that he does not know; his customers can count as facts what he tells them are such. He is not afraid of admitting a gap in his knowledge but almost always knows how, where or by whom it can be filled. Once learned, facts are his forever.

(23) He is not temperamental. Having no illusions about being a genius, he takes pride in his record only, thus disciplining his faculties to the steady work required to maintain it.

(24) He develops good habits of work. Realizing that routine work can be minimized by good working habits, the perfect salesman develops these, thus releasing both time and energy for creative thinking and selling, He has trained himself, therefore, to be methodical, developing certain tested responses to recurring situations. He has, for example, model letters of tested effectiveness for answering inquiries. He can answer the most common objections to his product in any of several ways. He has learned from experience, what appeals are most effective with prospects for what he is selling.

(25) He studies salesmanship, He knows that salesmanship consists as much, if not more, in techniques as in personality, and holds himself to continuous study of new and improved methods. Realizing that, regardless of what he sells, he deals in idea s, he is on a constant alert for new ones or fresh applications of old ones. Consequently, he maintains an open mind and is willing to experiment.

That, then, is the anatomy of the perfect salesman. A rare specimen indeed.

That's why the demand for him-and the rewards he can look forward to-are so great.

From the publication:
“Collected Sales Management Speeches”
NAC
Compiled throughout the 1960s and early 1970s

The various reasons or influences which tend to effect sales are so numerous; one could hardly estimate what would be the advantage, or what would be an objection to the selection of a burial lot.

However from my experience, which has been gathered in one of Philadelphia's many cemeteries (WEST LAUREL HILL,) suggested the thought from which I prepared this paper.

When dealing with the subject of sales, I divide the question into two parts: first, by careful consideration, all things that might affect the sale (are noted), second, in order to produce the desired effect, suggestions as offered (objections being noted) are used to great advantage during the progress of the sale.

The things that affect a sale are so many, that a brief study of the first part might be of great assistance; therefore, let us start with advertising. In many instances, we print a great deal about ourselves, mentioning the things we know to be of advantage to the purchaser, showing pictures here and there, laying particular stress on our location, citing our guarantee as to permanency, setting forth our security from encroachment and proximity to a growing community, refer to the provisions which we have made to protect them in the future when families are extinct, and sales (our main source of income) have ceased. All of which are excellent as considerations and should be given a great deal of thought, especially where, those provided for might remain undisturbed which should greatly affect the decision.

Again, we are given considerable advertising through discourse, indulged in by those who have attended funerals; visitors, or those of our lot holders who have been bereft of a loved one, and in this instance it would be hard to estimate the effect of such advertising; therefore I am inclined to think that the latter is the most effective.

Hence, a great effort should at all times, be made to please your lot holders, show them attention, treat them with courtesy, display interest whether it is when they are commending or complaining, remembering that they are interested in the cemetery; representing those dear to them whom they have left in your keeping. In showing such an attitude we get them to share our burden, which incidentally is that of maintaining appearance, preserving and adding to the pictures which we publish and above all keep up their interest in these sacred reserves.

Consequently, whatever influence might have brought you the possible business, let me say that I take up the subdivisions of' the topic, considering that I am about to deal with the prospective purchaser.

First of all, the inquiry, then the introduction which should, through observation help you. In this instance, I refer to whether the inquirer is considering the matter from necessity or prudence, which can be easily determined; but the phases of progress, when selling, differ with each case. Hence, it would be futile to set any rule to follow as a course to pursue; it is hard to suggest what to say; by inquiry you can easily as certain through engaging your prospective purchaser in a little preliminary conversation; the requirements, such as the number to be buried, which I might call the provision.

And then the purpose here we discuss the style or mode and from these facts you easily glide on into the formative state of the subject. At times I consider it a help to acquaint your prospector with what might be termed, the advantages; quoting a price in some location, keenly observing the interest of your inquirer and at this moment you proceed to the location of your conception.

Your philosophy will suggest your course of conversation, be considerate in your reasoning, sincere in your arguments and express such thoughtfulness in your suggestions that will establish confidence.

Of times, it is well to proceed by defining the lot, referring to some surrounding, take up some topic which will interest your purchaser to the degree of comment; this will enable you to determine your next course and by comparison you learn the effect of your suggestion; once having gamed the confidence of the person buying you are in a fair way to effect a sale; always using your best endeavors to satisfy. As we all know, a satisfied lot holder is a good advertiser.

When effecting sales bring to your prospector’s notice your rules and regulations, governing the particular location; it is well to acquaint them with such at this time. Human nature is most peculiar and usually hypersensitive during grief, and the impressions made are generally lasting.

In mentioning the subject of rules, I want to say that in most cases they are considered restrictions rather than privileges and it is best to inform the purchasers as to just what they are allowed to do. Usually they have some vague idea of how they propose to improve their lot, so don't overlook the fact when using your best endeavors to satisfy, make such suggestions which might conform to their ideas; the opportunity to develop new ideas and modes presents great possibilities.

There are so many things to satisfy when selling, that I have almost always found that the purse or amount involved was the primary factor and where this element predominates you have little opportunity to practice what is commonly termed "Salesmanship." Therefore when catering to one's pride we have greater leeway, by careful thought and suggestion, much can be accomplished when shaping the mind and at this period we reach the psychological aspect of the sale.

As the thread of the principles common to all selling runs through the sale we find it possible to discern the influences which tend to effect it, the wisdom of your method becomes apparent, consequently the understanding which you have at the beginning is an invaluable guide, because as I have shown, with your knowledge of the cemetery and interest in your assignment you achieve success.

Therefore in conclusion I will take advantage of this opportunity and thank my preceptors for their tolerance, also my associates and our manager who at an early date decided to try and develop me as a salesman and who made it possible for me to become of some value to the company with which I am associated today.

From the publication:
“AACS - Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Convention held at Cincinnati, OH"
September 24, 25 and 26, 1919

Why I am here I do not know. I am only a neophyte in the cemetery sales field, and am in no position to tell many of you anything about the cemetery business. I will, however, tell you our experiences in starting a sales organization in Woodlawn Park Cemetery in Miami.

First of all, I would like to clarify the title of my talk. The word "successfully" can be questioned, but I accepted the title assigned and asked no questions, as speaking at this meeting assured me of attendance at the convention, and I knew the trip would do me good, and I would get much out of the balance of the program. However, the word "successfully" to me means, "Did the cemetery company prosper as a result of the sales organization?" and in answer to this, I can assure you that it did; primarily because the sales were increased and the interments were increased over the previous year.

Later in the assigned title are the words "old cemetery." Woodlawn in Miami would not be considered an old cemetery by many of you, but in the magic city of Miami, we are considered old, although Woodlawn Park Cemetery has only been in operation since 1913 and the City of Miami was only founded seventeen years earlier. Now to tell you something about why we started such a program; in reviewing our records, we found that for the years 1946, 1947, and 1948 a yearly volume of sales of better than two hundred fifty thousand dollars had been obtained. However, in spite of this, the company's officials, Gaines R. and Peyton L. Wilson, whom many of you know, and whose father founded Wood¬lawn, discovered that in spite of this yearly volume of sales, that starting about the middle of 1948 there was a gradual though steady decrease in interments.

It became apparent that even with Miami's ever increasing population we were not getting our fair share of the interments. Then the question was, why?

Woodlawn was still providing the best of cemetery facilities to the people of Miami, but it became evident that was not enough. Other cemeteries in our area were increasing their interments while ours were going down. The Wilsons interpreted this decrease in interments to sales made by other ceme¬teries. They were actively soliciting sales pre-need, while we in too many cases were waiting for families to come to us at time of need, and many times that was too late, because the other cemeteries had stepped into these families' homes months before and sold them cemetery burials rights in advance of need.

As a result of all this, in the summer of 1949 our management called in Mr. Wm. S. Mershon, and asked him to start an advanced sales program for us. As office manager, the first I knew of any new plan was when I was called in the office one day during July, 1949, to meet Mr. Mershon. The cards were laid on the table. Something had to be done. My only question to Bill at this time was, "How will we increase both sales and interments?" Bill answered me, "By walking and talking." This answer didn't thoroughly convince me at that time, but I can appreciate it as a fact today.

You can sell more of anything if you are asking more and more people to buy, and know how to sell them and how to ask them. During the next two months the preliminary steps in the formation of a sales organization were taken. These steps consisted first of reviewing our existing sales materials, and we found that our salesmen had swell facilities to sell at the property, but when we went into a prospect's home, we went in with only section plats, a price list and without an organized sales presentation except as the individual salesman had developed it for himself.

First of all a sales kit was developed on a planned technique, and at this time we leaned heavily on the National Cemetery Association for material we had seen but never used. A photographer took many attractive pictures of our prop¬erty, and after assembling them, we had Catherine Mershon, Bill's daughter, color them so the prospects could see the beauty of our property right in their own homes.

Then in September of last year I attended the National Cemetery Association convention in Washington. During this interim too we rented an inexpensive office for our pre-need sales organization, because we still had some reservations as to how long this sales plan might last, and we didn't want to just throw money down the drain. However, we did not do anything half-hearted. Much thought was given as to how the salesmen were to be paid. I felt we would not get good men on strictly a commission basis, particularly when the commission rate was to be lower than competition was paying, but I was wrong. In addition to the commission we set aside two percent of our sales volume into a bonus account, and have had picnics, fishing trips, dinners and other events for the sales group, as well as cash and merchandise prizes accruing from our contests.

In our preliminary organizing activities we spent money for a short time like a couple of drunken sailors, but we did this to get our sales tools sharp. At this point I want to give Bill Mershon credit for our sales tools. He got us well organized in this regard, and we have cashed in on his years of cemetery sales management experience.

On October 1, 1949, we advertised for our first salesmen. Our office at this time was a pretty barren place. There were blackboards, but they were blank on three sides of the room. Bill initiated us into the sales program and conducted the sales training of the four men, chosen from about twenty applicants. In a few days these men were in the field and a second group of four men were in the process of being trained. The same procedure of personalized training was followed in this second group, and by October 15 we began to chalk up some sales.

We didn't set the world on fire, but at the end of October we had eight salesmen in the field, trained, and selling, and we were beginning to roll. Together, they turned in during this training period about fourteen thousand dollars in sales. At the outset we did not use aptitude tests as we hired our salesmen, but today we are, and we think they are very helpful in estimating our prospective salesman's capabilities, and we believe it helps us in choosing our men wisely.

We consistently use slogans and signs in our sales office to stimulate our men. They watch our sales boards closely and when sales are made, they are posted promptly, as a salesman wants due credit for his efforts, and we try to give him this credit. Our commissions are paid on a percentage of the payments as they are made on each contract. We pay no drawing account, and only in a few cases have we given any advances. At no time have we advanced a total to all our men of over two hundred dollars.

We have had some salesmen turnover. I won't deny that, but we have cooperated closely with the salesmen, and today most of our men would not like to lose their positions with us. Their families are happy that their husbands work for Woodlawn because they have had a good income and know that their futures are secure. We use many of the sales incentive plans you fellows use. We have a big three and a little three. For the top men of each period we pay an additional one percent commissions in the big three and a half percent additional in the little three. We use weekly and bi-monthly periods and give both cash and merchandise prizes. On the walls of our office we place the pictures of the top salesmen of the month. We have had several repeaters, and when they repeat, the wives receive a picture. We have given turkeys, watches and many other prizes from time to time. We hold sales meetings twice a week, usually on Monday and Friday mornings. We try to make these meetings interesting and informative and not too long. We require attendance at these meetings. The only excuse that we will tolerate is that they are out actually with a prospect at the time, or sickness.

We discuss many things at these meetings and try to help these men improve themselves. We have used a suggestion box to obtain new ideas. We want our men to know we are there to help them and to feel a strong bond with our company. Our sales organization is now one year old. During this period of time we have chalked up much better than two hundred thousand dollars in sales from our office alone, and have maintained approximately, our cemetery office sales volume, so we have had a sixty percent overall sales increase. Against the two hundred thousand dollar plus sales in our office, we have had cancella¬tions of less than four thousand five hundred dollars, or less than two percent, which we believe to be a very good record. This has only been accomplished by close cooperation between the general office, the sales office and the salesmen themselves. I, personally, am a collector at heart. I even like to see the money come in better than I do the contracts come in, unless there is a check attached for the full amount.

Gentlemen, businesses do not thrive on sloppy collection methods any more than they do on poor sales methods. Getting a contract is not enough. You have not profited until the money comes in from the sale, so ask for the money when it is due. You don't get a sale without asking for it, and the same applies to the money end. I feel sure there are cemeteries that have large receivables, but when you look at their monthly collections, it would amaze you to see how small the amount of money collected is.

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast, but a wishbone never took the¬ place of a backbone, fellows." In sales work or in collection work this is true. Be a salesman, but also be a collector. We keep a record of each sale made so as to know where our sales originate. We want to know the sources of our sales so we can determine where to spend our advertising dollars and where to put our future effort.
We now have ten men in our sales organization, and expect to maintain about this size group in the future. I won't say we haven't had our headaches. We have had our share, also we have had our moments of great joy when sales looked pretty easy, and other periods when things were pretty rough, but we have tried to keep slugging it out with our prospects, and we have learned that hard work, knowledge of our product and use of proper methods with our prospect will bring results.

It has been a privilege and pleasure to be working at Woodlawn. The future of our sales organization is now known. Of that there is no doubt. We hope to improve our methods of operation as the months and years roll by. Woodlawn of Miami is beautiful. It harbors the beloved of our great families in our area, both rich and poor, and with reverence we thank the Almighty for the privilege of daily convincing many families of the advantages of ownership in Woodlawn before that day when the shadows of death cause so much pain.

From the publication:
“1950-1951 Cemetery Yearbook”
NCA 21st Annual Meeting
Hotel Schroeder, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
October 18, 19, 20 and 21, 1950

The title of this talk, "Sales Incentive from a Management Viewpoint," is so comprehensive that it seemed to me, as I worked on it, that it might have been more fitting to call it "What Management Should Do to Build and Maintain a Successful Sales Organization."

There are two ways to operate a business, whether it's the cemetery business or any other. You can operate it with as low overhead as you can possibly get by with and take what business comes to you easy, or you can carry on an aggressive promotional program-advertising, etc. and in a cemetery that would be a pre-need sales campaign. In our own operation that has been necessary because of our location, and because we do have some very active competition in Dallas. We found out early it was necessary for us to seek our business actively if we were to do any considerable volume, so we have operated on that basis ever since we have been there.

Now it seems to me the first sales incentive that should be provided is adequate and competent sales leadership or sales management. In a small cemetery that perhaps is not in a position to hire or employ a full-time sales director, this leadership must come from management itself, but in many cases many of you represented here do have your own sales managers, and I think it is important that you have as good a sales manager as possible. So many people ask me, "How do you get one?" Frankly, I can't answer that, but it occurs to me that there are few ready made cemetery sales managers available to any of us, and it also occurs to me that we possess no particularly unusual and unfounded ability. The same ability that we have, others have. We have got to seek them out, and if you find any able, competent, aggressive, intelligent young or relatively young man who wants to learn sales work, I see no reason in the world why you can't teach him to be a sales manager in the cemetery business. It is going to take some work on your part. When you find and hire the man you have got to outline some definite policies. You must cut his work out and leave him alone, and not be doing all his work for him. You let him do as much of it as he will. It makes him feel better if he begins to accomplish things, and he probably will begin to accomplish things. You want to back him up by furnishing subscriptions to sales magazines, to sales services, to releases that are put out by insurance companies, to books having to do with selling; in other words, try to help him become a better sales manager through the equipment that is made available to sales managers in general. A great deal of that material is applicable to the cemetery field.

Then you can give him what other additional help you want to give him. We, in our institution, use the services of an outside firm, or cemetery consultants, to come in and consult with us once or twice a year, because we find that helps us to keep on the track. You are apt to get off if you start working by yourself.

The next thing you have is a room, a comfortable place for a sales organization to work. As I visit around over the country, I try to make it my business to visit cemeteries continuously, and I am often amazed that the front office is a roomy, airy place with a lot of desk space and everything, yet when I get back to the part that is supporting the whole institution I find a cramped room with a couple of desks in it, three or four folding chairs and a couple of small blackboards on the wall, and that is the sales room; yet that is the department that is main¬taining the front office. I think it is necessary that they have plenty of room, and feel they are just as important as any other part of that institution.

I think it is necessary to furnish them with adequate blackboards. I like lots of blackboards. We didn't learn it ourselves. Bill Boyd came down to Texas and used lots of boards. We started using them and it helped us a great deal. A man can see what his record is as compared to the others operating that month. He sees how he is standing compared with last year. It is all around the room, so that everybody, including himself, can tell just how well each one is doing. They like that.

The next sales incentive is to provide that man with selling tools, good selling tools. If I go in a garage with my car to have it worked on and the mechanic has only a broken screw driver and a pair of pliers with one handle bad on it and everything is greasy or covered with dust and sand and I don't see any good looking tools there, I think immediately, "This character is not fit to work on this automobile. I've got too many chips invested in this car to turn it over to him," and if a salesman has a beat-up kit with the zipper torn halfway off, and it looks as if he's had it since the cemetery was founded, and you see a bunch of old dirty sheets of paper and pictures that look like the management must have hired a man to come out at a buck a picture and consequently didn't make very good ones, and all contracts and forms are dog-eared, I immediately get the idea that the salesman is selling something cheap or he'd have a better sales kit, he'd have better tools.

You expect others to have adequate tools with which to do a job. It is just as essential that you furnish your sales department with adequate tools. They are available at not much expense from the N.C.A., including leather kits and acetate sheets. Many of the sheets that go inside those acetate covers are available. Surely you have some interesting pictures of your own property. As Dr. Eaton said the other night, "There are few cemeteries that cannot find things of interest if they will look around; things to talk about, things of which to make pictures in their own property." Of course, if you can't do that, you can do what all of us have been doing for the last twenty years. You can take some pictures of Forest Lawn at Glendale, California, and start using them. I am sure Dr. Eaton doesn't mind, because almost everybody has done it.

Now the man is in business; he has his kit, his blackboards, and he wants to put something on it. I think, perhaps, if you would name the one thing that management can do that creates as great a sales incentive as any other, it would be the fulfillment of management's promises to their salesmen on time. If you promise to build a section and have it completed within eighteen months from the date of opening said section for sale, or whatever the date is, have the section ready by that time. You do two or three of them that way and then you start telling the salesmen that "whatever we tell you we are going to do, we are going to do it better, and we are going to do it on time." He sees that happen a few times and then he believes it, and he's able to get that message over to the people with whom he's talking. I think that is one of the most convincing things that you can do to make a salesman believe in you and believe in your institution.

The next thing is build those things that you promise to build better than you actually promised. If you are going to build a chapel, it's not too difficult to do it a little bit better than you picture it in the minds of the men and one of the most gratifying things that can happen is for a lot owner to tell your men who are in the field, "Oh yes, we bought a lot out there in 1937; they were getting ready to build a chapel and we bought a lot in Chapel Section. We had no idea they were going to erect such a lovely building as they did, and we are sure proud of it." He hears that a few times and hears, "Yes, we own in the Masonic Section" or whatever the section is, "We are right there close to the monument; we had no idea it would be as lovely as it is; we are so proud of it." You see how it snowballs on the man and gives him confidence? He knows pretty quickly from that time on whatever he promises, whatever we promise through him, we are going to deliver.

Deal fairly with your salesmen and sales manager. When you employ a man, either salesman or sales manager, enter into an employment contract with him; then he knows the terms and conditions under which he is employed. He knows what his commission rate is supposed to be. You never get into any argument with him, and if you don't chisel him, if you don't get the feeling that he is making more money than he should be making, if you don't get the feeling that on his big deal you ought to cut him down with "After all, I helped him, close it, you know," the salesman gets the feeling that here's an outfit that deals fairly with him and who is going to deal fairly with others too.

We have had examples of this. We have lost in the last few years six of our men to other organizations within our city.

Salesmen change around, you know. Today I believe three or four of those men are back with our organization. Now, one of the reasons they came back was, after they left, they continued to get their earned commissions. We did not chisel. I believe three or four of them are now back because we treated them fairly while they were here and we treated them fairly after they left. Men like that. They tell one another about it. It helps to keep a sales organization.

The next point is, have clear-cut policies and procedures. Reduce your pro¬cedures to writing. I refer to policy such as your charges for removal from another cemetery to yours. Sales people often come in contact with someone who owns a lot in the country; they have a burial or two on it or it is within our own cemetery, they have too small a lot and want it moved to a larger lot; what are our charges for removals? If they buy a certain size lot would we give a discount on removal? It does not require too much time to reduce all of those to writing, actually cover the charges and then a salesman, instead of having to go in to you and take up your time and maybe you make one price on this one and another price on another one, he just looks at his sheet and it's all mimeographed, and the customer feels good, as he knows everybody is getting the same treat¬ment. It makes it simpler. Have all your prices mimeographed, and don't vary your, prices; don’t vary your charges. When you do, you are destroying the confidence of your sales people in your institution.

Do enough advertising to let the people know where your property is located. That is a sales incentive. When your salesmen are out working, they shouldn't have to spend the first five minutes of their time when they call in the evening making sure the people know where the property is located. Management should have done that job through newspapers, television, Easter Sunday services, Memorial Day services, radio, or other media to let the people of the com¬munity know the name of the property. Get it fixed in their minds, get its location fixed. That helps the salesman in his calling on the people.

I think it is necessary to provide contests and bonuses. In fact, if our commission rate were a little lower, I would like it so that we could payout more money for contests, bonuses, etc. Contests and bonuses create enthusiasm; they gain recognition for the men, for the winners. You know if you got a good salesman, he wants recognition inside his own organization; he wants recognition outside the organization. He and his wife can’t tell their neighbors, "Joe is making $250 a week now”; he would be bragging if he tells them how much money he is making, but if they say, "Joe won this nice radio here" or "Joe won this $75 watch when he was top man over at Restland last month." They say "Oh, is that so," and he gets some recognition. He can tell folks about that but he can't show his money.

In addition to that, he likes to be recognized in his own organization, that he's the top drawer boy there. Maybe you have his picture on the front counter and the girls of the accounting department speak a little more friendly to him; they recognize him. That is why you need bonus deals and contests. It isn't the money he wins, but it's the lift that it gives him in winning.

Now, I think that the quality of funeral services at your institution and my institution affects sales.

A funeral service brings more people to your cemetery than any other one activity. It is the ultimate point for which that lot was sold. When the salesman sold it he pictured in the people's minds the value that that lot would reach on the day of need, and I think on that day of need we should go as far as possible to make that service as nearly perfect as is within our means and is within the price that we are getting for the service. You can't lose money on it, but do use good equipment and have your men in uniform.

I have been in some cemeteries and watched services where it seemed to me that they felt when the lot was sold and paid for, they had the purchaser hooked after that, and they didn't have to take care of him too well even at the time they had the funeral on that lot. I think that hurts sales about as much as any¬thing an institution can do, because at that time, when many people are there, it us urgent that they go away feeling, "There's an understanding operation; people there understand the business they are in; they are cemetery people," and then when a salesman accidentally calls on one of those families in a can¬vass, or whatever it is, they say, "Oh yes, I was out there; we attended the funeral of Mrs. Jones there; it's a lovely place." You see, he's halfway in; he's halfway there; he's got a receptive audience.

It is management's obligation to take a place in the community. Throughout the years, one of the things that has always provoked me ... doesn't provoke me, it's more chagrin, I guess ... I'll meet someone on an airplane or a stranger at a luncheon, and we are right friendly. Apparently he thinks I am a pretty swell fellow and I ask him what he does and perhaps he is a lawyer or a doctor or working for the Schlitz Brewing Company or something like that, and he asks what I do and I say, "I'm in the cemetery business." Well, you would think I had hit him with a wet towel; I've chilled him. He's cool. Now, I don't know why it is. I think this is about as good looking a bunch of men and women as I ever see around, and I know dang well it takes just as much intelligence to carryon one of our operations as it does to operate most of the other businesses with which I am familiar, but unfortunately not too many of us take an active part in our community, in our civic clubs; we have just been the cemetery operator. They think of us as digging the graves and locking up the gates and taking advantage of the people at the time of death.

We should be active in our communities, working on the Community Chest, taking an active part in the Kiwanis, the Lions Club, the Rotary and your other civic clubs. I don't mean be present, but be somebody in it. By taking an interest in the various civic activities of the community, it is so easy to be recognized, and then when your salesmen happen to call on somebody and he finds out he is with the Atlas Metal Works and he happens to have heard me mention it or he knows that Mr. Story is a member of the club that I happen to belong to, and maybe Mr. Story says, "I know George Young or so and so," and the salesman says, "Oh, you do?" The salesman says, "Here's a man who knows my boss, and he's a pretty good guy," and he thinks the other one is a pretty good guy too, and the salesman has something to talk about.

You owe it to your sales organization, to yourself, and your property to take a place in the community in which you live.

This is the last point. Management's obligation to be sales-minded. You must develop your sections; you must plat your sections with sales in mind. When Nash recently came out with its little Rambler, they call it, I am sure the president of Nash didn't begin riding around in one of these, but he built it because he felt there was a market for it. His analysts had been throughout the country finding out what the people wanted, and they wanted a cheaper car; they wanted a smaller car, a more economical car; a car that is a convertible. Anyhow, he thought that is what they wanted and they built it.

Our important corporations throughout America don't build what the man¬agement wants they build what they think the people want. We used to plat all our lots in six-grave lots. It's easier to plat them like that, but during the years we now have developed to a point where we keep a record in every section of what we sell. In platting the next section we plat according to what we think the demand was, and now instead of platting all 6's, we plat about twenty-eight percent 6's, fifty percent 4's, and of those 4's about thirty percent are deluxe 4's…that is, all the graves are side by side. Maybe you are doing it already. It was kind of new for us. We used to plat them two by two; now thirty percent of them are side by side.

In the past we never platted companion lots, two-grave lots. Now in every section thirteen or fourteen percent of them are two-grave lots. About six percent of them are deluxe companions- those are three-grave lots. We are trying to build, and I think all of us must build what we think the people want, arid when I say "what the people want" I mean what the people will buy. Don't build what you like.

In your sales organization you must show interest. The greatest incentive that management can offer is to come in occasionally and look at the boards and talk with the fellows, kid them about their position, let them know that you know what they are doing. Let the sales manager know that you are interested in what he is doing.

If you've got a construction job going on, if you are building a section or if you are buying a feature and installing it, if you are the management, I'll bet you are looking at the section and wondering if the guy is putting in the feature like he's supposed to; if you are enlarging the office, you are looking at it all, the time, but the sales department is just as important, if not more so, than anyone of those, so don't you hire a sales manager and say, "Well, Bub, it's yours, I'm going to leave it with you." Let him know and let the sales depart¬ment know that you are interested continuously in what they are doing.

Keep abreast of their problems in the field. As an example of what I mean, we used to sell corner markers 6 x 6 inches square, bronze corner markers, for $30 a pair-rather profitable item. We just did fairly well. Then I attended a sales conference and heard a man talking and he said, "We install bur corner markers when only $50 has been paid in on the lot." In our case we were requiring that the entire lot be paid for before we permitted installation.

We came back and put that into effect, and today instead of selling just a few corner posts we sell seventy-five to eighty sets a month. That is what I mean by keeping abreast of the problems that are confronting your men in the field. Keep abreast of what your competition is doing. If you don't, you'll wake up some day and they'll be so far ahead of you you'll never catch up. It's hard enough to stay up in my town watching them all the time. A bunch of my competitors are sitting in the front row here.

Read, study, attend conventions, and attend sales conferences, plan your opera¬tions well in advance; stay on the job. If you are in the cemetery business be in the cemetery business. I don't see how a man can operate a cemetery business by proxy and do it successfully. I have to work at it all the time, practically day and night.

Be accessible to your men; let the salesmen be able to come in and talk over their problems with you. Don't go over your sales manager's head, but there are times when the sales manager would like them to bring some problem to you. Be accessible to them.

I don't say we do all these things-these are the things we would like to do; if you would do a reasonable number of them, you would create a great deal of confidence in you on the part of your sales organization. To me that is the greatest sales incentive that you can bring about and it gives him a feeling of pride when he is talking about the property and a feeling of pride when he talks about his management. And he will do a fairly successful job of selling then. Thank you!

From the publication:
“1950-1951 Cemetery Yearbook”
NCA 21st Annual Meeting
Hotel Schroeder, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
October 18, 19, 20 and 21, 1950

Please don't let the title of my talk confuse you. I have nothing new to offer, nor have I discovered a way to influence the people of my community to walk into our cemetery and plead with our sales organization to allow them to pur¬chase a burial estate. Neither have I found a way to transform the average person with sales ability into a cemetery salesman simply by handing him a sales kit.

For several years I have been attending National Cemetery Association con¬ventions and sales conferences, and like many other cemetery operators in com¬munities the size of mine, I have listened to the successful cemetery owners and sales managers tell how they managed their cemeteries, trained and hired their sales force, how their salesmen secured leads and closed sales. Like many other operators I would applaud the speakers and say to the fellow sitting next to me, "That kind of stuff is all right in his town, but you can't do that in Daven¬port." So I would go home and wait in my office for someone to come and ask me to sell them a burial estate.

The truth is not too many years ago I discovered the secret of successful ceme¬tery men and the funny part of it was I had known it; all the time, but was too lazy to use it. Gentlemen, the cemetery operator in a large city is the same kind of a human being as a cemetery operator in a small city. The cemetery salesmen in a large city were the same kind of guys as the cemetery salesmen small city, the buyer of burial estate property in a large city is the same kind of a person as one who buys burial estate property in a small city. They all eat the same kind of food, wear the same kind of clothes, they all marry, raise families, work for a living, like to make money and spend money, so if the buyer of burial estate property is the same kind of person as in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, he must be the same kind of person in Davenport, Iowa.

Therefore, if a salesman in New York can sell $12,000 worth of burial property in one month, a salesman in Davenport, Iowa, should be able to sell $12,000 worth of burial property in one month because a salesman in Davenport can call on as many prospects and make the same number of interviews in one day as man in New York.

It is not the size of the town that makes the salesman, it is how well he is trained by management; it is the cooperation and assistance given him by management and the quality of the product management has to sell that makes him the successful salesman in any business. Before management can train a salesman in a small city he must follow the same steps used by his brethren in the large city, that is, know the "know how" himself. He must be capable of hiring and training salesmen, inspiring salesmen to sell his products, he must assist and work with his salesmen and remember that they are the life blood of his business and should be respected and paid accordingly. If management capable of doing this job it should employ someone trained and capable the job for him.

Now, how does Mr. Little Guy like myself go about hiring and training a sales force? First of all go out and ring a few door bells and make a few interviews. You will soon find out that it takes more than a sales kit to sell burial estates. I secured my information for doing this job by attending these conventions and don't forget the sales conferences; they are the universities of our business. We are the professors and the students. We come here to give and receive our information.

With the information received from this organization I operate a six-man sales organization, build and manage my cemetery in a community of 80,000 people. Half of the sales force has been hired and trained by management the other half was hired by a cemetery service organization. Every man in my organization was carefully screened and properly trained before they were allowed to enter the field as one of our service representatives.

It would be foolish for me to stand here and tell you how to operate your sales department for two reasons: First, there are a great many cemetery operators attending this convention from communities no larger than mine and are doing a better job than I am, the only difference being they have been at it a longer time due to the fact that they have been more alert than your speaker and saw the importance of pre-need sales. Second, what I would tell you and have you believe were my ideas, you have heard many times by the leaders of our industry, so I am going to tell you how and why we operate our sales force.

The first year in the cemetery business I thought all that was necessary was to have a lawn mower to cut grass, a shovel to dig graves, a cemetery to sell and an office for the citizens to come to and buy a burial estate. After I had worn out the seat of my pants I began to get hungry, and by the way, you would be surprised how hunger can make you ambitious. You see, my city was no different than any other community in our great nation. We had competition from cemeteries who had built their reputations by servicing our city for nearly a century.

From hunger I became Davenport Memorial Park's first pre-need sales organi¬zation, both sales manager and salesman. Every morning I would hold a sales meeting with myself and review the cash balance and the accounts payable, then give me "Hell" and go out and try to sell another burial estate.

At first the results were discouraging, but I continued to read and study the "How and Why" of the successful salesman of this association, and gradually the efforts began to show results. With such results there was a possibility of a profit. From this encouragement, an effort was made to hire a salesman. Another sales kit was prepared; an ad was placed in the local newspaper from which a salesman was hired. His training consisted of telling him how much money he could make. Everyone wanted to buy a cemetery lot. He was then presented with a sales kit and told to go to work. In one week I had the sales kit, but no salesman.

The second attempt was made and Mr. Jones was hired. He was shown how to canvass, make interviews and overcome objections. Mr. Jones was fairly successful; made money for himself and the cemetery. After operating for eighteen months with one salesman, Mr. Brown was hired and trained to the best of my ability. During the first six months in the business, Mr. Brown sold more than Mr. Jones sold his entire first year. Was Mr. Brown a better salesman than Mr. Jones? No! Through competition, Mr. Jones doubled his sales in the next six months.

This firmly convinced me that you do need more than one salesman in your organization. Your salesmen, to be successful, must have competition. Even in a small town you cannot afford to put all your eggs in one basket. If you have but one salesman, and he should quit, your sales organization is lost. Fortunately, our two salesmen had what it takes. Personality, ambition and willingness to work, which made them very successful in our business! Unfortunately, because of their success I became satisfied and made the statement that a town the size of ours could not stand more than two salesmen. We were afraid of running out of prospects. I ate these words after I found that we had sold three different families in the same house in a period of two years and three months and when people were coming to the cemetery to buy burial estates for immediate use after they had told our salesmen they owned in other cemeteries.

We were now operating in the black. With this success we became more ambitious and proceeded to increase our sales force to six men. This was done with the help of one of the cemetery consultant organizations and over the objections of our two-men sales organization, who feared an increased sales organization, would decrease their income and endanger the permanency of their positions. The new men were hired by placing a blind ad in our local newspapers. These replies were carefully screened and only those of good character and background that we felt would make them a success in our business and a credit to the industry were considered. If interested, they were invited to sit in on a two-day session with our regular salesmen which we called a school of instruction. In our case the school was conducted by a cemetery consultant organization who did an excellent job.

With a six-man sales organization, sales meetings became a "must." We now hold sales meetings every morning, Monday through Saturday, at 8:00. At these meetings we go over our interviews, exchange ideas on handling objections, always allowing the salesmen to take an active part in these discussions. They come up with some darn good ideas. Be sure you give them credit. They like to see their names in the limelight as well as you do. Handling this size organization, how was I going to keep them producing? I realized if they did not produce, they would become dissatisfied and leave. We checked to see what the cemetery operators were doing in the large cities, because we were convinced that if they could do it in New York or Houston we could do it in Davenport.

Our investigation showed that they were holding contests in their own group and with salesmen in other cities. Our first endeavor in the contest field was cash prizes. We gave cash bonuses for such things as salesman having the largest volume for a week, two sales in one day, increasing his volume over the previous week and many others. This created a competitive spirit among our own organization ¬and produced results. The only trouble was the prizes were paid in cash bonuses as earned, and the salesman put the money in his pocket. His wife never saw it. All she knew was that her husband was working more evenings and coming home later each evening, which she did not like.

This taught us that we needed the cooperation of the salesmen's wives, so we again went to the large cemeteries and found that they were using the services of companies like Belnap Thompson, who specialize in premium catalogs for sales contests. With the aid of this company we conducted a three-month sales contest. Our first step was to invite the wives to participate. We gave them the premium catalogs and told them how their husbands could win prizes. The salesmen were given points on the same basis as they received cash prizes in our previous contests.

The point system was set up so that the low producer had an opportunity of winning. We kept in mind that we wanted to encourage the low producer to increase his volume. Before this contest, our highest volume for one month was $23,400. We set our goal at $30,000 per month. The first month we did over $31,000, the second month over $37,000 and the third month over $42,000 a total volume for the three months over $112,000. It would be quite foolish to tell you that this is an outstanding record, for I feel sure that there are two cemeteries in my state that have equaled or bettered this record, but I was quite proud of it because we are now doing in one month what we used to do with ten in ten months.

Our next step was a contest with our neighboring city, Cedar Rapids, a town of about the same size and with a sales force of equal number. This contest proved to be very beneficial to both cities. An excellent gift was presented to the high man, plus the losers entertained the winners at a dinner. I might say we disliked acting as hosts to Cedar Rapids, but we are looking forward to enjoying their hospitality November 1.

These contests create real spirit. For this month's contest one of the Cedar Rapids boys has prepared two large barometers which show the daily standings of both cities. One of our men has teamed a Davenport man against a Cedar Rap¬ids man and drew six barometers-one for each group, on which he shows the volume of our man against his Cedar Rapids opponent. Each day we exchange total volume and individual sales volume. These figures are posted on the barometer and create a real interest among our salesmen. Every morning they want to know how they stand against their Cedar Rapids opponents.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the spirit and enthusiasm that makes salesmen topnotch producers. Remember, it is the salesman who sticks that makes you money. The ones you spend time and money to train, and then quit, cost you money. In our small organization we figure it costs us $300 for the first two weeks training given a new man. Therefore, we are very careful to select men we feel will succeed in our profession.

I used to feel it was impossible to hire good men in a small community. This is not true if management is capable and willing to train men. Since management in our cemetery has taken an interest in its sales organization, our men earn more than the average executive in our area. Three weeks before attending this meeting, a cashier of a bank in our community resigned his position and now wants to join our sales organization; remember, he is asking us for a chance. Why?-because the opportunity of earning money is far greater with us than it was in the bank. Investigate in your own community. See what men in responsible positions are earning and you will be surprised at the golden opportunity we have to offer prospective salesmen. Don't be a chiseler! When you trained and hired your salesman, you offered him a certain percentage. You have made this figure a part of the cost of merchandise you have to sell, and becomes part of your selling price. Just because his income increases rapidly, don't try to find a way to take it away from him. Encourage him to make more because every time he sells a burial estate, you make a profit. You have set the amount of this profit when you establish the price of your lots. If you find it is not enough, raise the prices of your merchandise.

Remember, no one can stay in business if they operate at a loss. Make your sales organization feel that you are supporting them 100%. Give them credit where credit is due. You know, in preparing this paper I recalled a statement I made several years ago and I imagine a good many other small-town operators have said the same thing and that is this: I am in no hurry to sell my property; what will I have to sell tomorrow?" Truthfully, I believe I made this statement in self-defense.

Gentlemen, when we design and build a section in our cemetery, it becomes an expense. We must maintain that section. Every time we cut the grass it increases the cost. The only way to eliminate the cost is to sell the section now and place in your "care fund" sufficient money to take care of this expense. If you wait ten years to sell this section, your cost will be far greater. Like all businesses we must sell our merchandise, turn over our money so that we can continue to grow and expand; therefore, we must have sales in volume. To do this we must have a sales organization no matter where our cemetery is located and regardless of size.

We must have a good product to sell if we are to continue to be successful in our business. Your grocer is successful because he gives you value received. You go back again and again to the same clothing store because you get the best suit for the money and they stand back of their merchandise. Are we standing in back of our merchandise? Are we making satisfied customers, and are we building for the future? Oh yes, it's easy to go into a territory and sell on promises. The people will buy but if these promises are not fulfilled you will have dissatisfied customers which mean less repeat business, or as we sometimes call it "radiation."

We like other businesses, need capital to build and expand. We sometimes get this capital by selling our prospects burial estates in a semi-developed section, promising the prospect that certain features will be built, trees will be planted, and roads constructed. The buyer is told that his money will be used to build and develop the section. Well, gentlemen, if we want repeat business, yes, and want to stay in business, let's build these adult chat features, construct the webcam sex roads and plant the adult cam trees. Let's not promise live cam girls something we cannot do. Let's build better than we promise; in that way you will build respect for your cemetery in your community.

I am very happy with the results of our sales efforts and accomplishments, but not satisfied. When we hear about the achievements of cemetery salesmen in other cities, it makes us feel like "pikers," but I can assure you that both management and salesmen at Davenport Memorial Park now have the spirit and flight to become bigger and better. The aim of the salesmen of our cemetery is to sell more burial estates in one month, as an individual, than has ever been sold by any salesman in the business.

Management is backing them all the way with better service, better construction, ¬better sales contests and better public relations. Because I have confidence in my salesmen, I know that if I take care of them, they will take care of me. Like all of you, I am proud of my development. I have dreamed and made plans for the future. I only hope that I live long enough to accomplish them, but without salesmen, my dreams and plans would be lost. God help them and make them love me always!

From the publication:
“1950-1951 Cemetery Yearbook”
NCA 21st Annual Meeting
Hotel Schroeder, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
October 18, 19, 20 and 21, 1950

I would like to clarify the title of my speech this morning. It is misstated. Several years ago the Chairman asked me to give a title for a speech at the convention. It's always difficult for me to do this, but in the current language of several years ago, I said, make it, "It's Later Than You Think." When the program was printed it read, "It may be too late."

Some time last spring our Charlotte Sales Executives Club put on what we call the Piedmont Sales Conference, a meeting of sales executives from all over the North Carolina Piedmont area. They offered a prize for a slogan for that meeting. I won a quart of whiskey with the slogan, "Mid Century Sales, Markets and Methods," not memorials. "Markets and Methods," this is the real title of my speech today. I don't know anything about memorials, if you are thinking about tombstones, at least.

My good friend Parks said to me outside, "I am staying over to listen to your talk; I want to hear you speak on 'memorials'." I said, "Somebody has put up a job on you; that ain't it." You know, I think Howard Ott let me down very badly, getting up here and telling us that his wife had gallstones. Why couldn't she have had gall-bronze instead of gallstones? Imagine a Memorial Park pioneer like Ott permitting an old-fashioned thing like that!

Now this title - "Mid Century Sales." The very first word of it brings to mind we are mid-point of a century that's been very interesting to live in, and some of our lives span back that far.

At the turn of the century I was a fourteen-year-old boy. Now a little mental arithmetic will give you the answer. I will be sixty-five next April. Fourteen years old and I was reading what the kids read at that time, surreptitiously, "literature" that corresponds, I suppose, with the "comic books" that the kids use today. They called them Dime Novels. I don't know why; they only cost a nickel. I am sure Dr. Eaton read them at Liberty, Missouri, because that is Jesse James old stamping grounds, you know, and some of these were about Jesse. Dime Novels. Our parents were scandalized. Stuffing our heads with all the foolish stuff that was in those books! My mother was so opposed to them, I kept them in the barn, didn't dare bring them in the house. Toted them from there to school where I traded for others. There was one series of those Dime Novels that had to do with a fellow named Frank Read, Jr. Some of you oldsters will remember. He was an inventor. He made horseless car¬riages and submarines and airplanes and things like that, and my parents thought that was terrible stuff to stuff my mind with, fantastic crazy contraptions that were out of this world. That was fifty years ago.

One afternoon last summer I got on a plane at New York and the next morning about 6 AM New York time, dropped down at Orley Field in Paris. Just a few hours crossing the Atlantic in one of those "crazy contraptions" that were considered so fantastic fifty years ago that our parents didn't even want us to read about them. That's the kind of world we are living in.
So it is proper, I suppose, at the mid-century mark, to review what is taking place. We are so close to it that we can't appreciate the vastness of the change. Did you ever think about the fact that prior to a little over one hundred years ago nobody ever traveled any faster than a horse could take him? For ten thousand years mankind never improved on the speed of travel. They were plenty smart back in those days too. Then in the early part of the 19th century came the steam engine, the locomotive and the trains and we stepped up our speed many fold, from the speed of a horse to the speed of a train. And then, later, in my own day, in my own home town, the first automobile was made down at Kokomo, Indiana.

With the internal combustion engine applied to the making of automobiles, we stepped up our speed tremendously. The marvelous automotive industry that we are so close to and so familiar with that it doesn't induce any wonder has all come about in your day and mine. Then the airplane. We eat our dinner in New York and our breakfast in Los Angeles, and if we have an early enough dinner, we can even get to Los Angeles and be in bed by midnight. You and I are living in the midst of changes like this. That's the century of which we are in the mid-point now.

I might further point out that prior to one hundred years ago nobody ever sent a message faster than a horse could take it. Some time ago in the Readers' Digest I saw a review story of the old pony express days when back in our grandfather's day by relay of fast horses they carried a message from the Missouri River to California in nine days, and bragged about it. It made the front pages of the newspapers. For thousands of years nobody had ever done it any faster than that. And then came the telegraph and the telephone, and now the magic of radio. You go home tonight and tune in and hear somebody say, "Come in, Tokyo," and a fellow around on the other side of the world is bringing you up to date on the war.

That's the century of which we are at the midpoint. I could go on indefinitely with similar illustrations. I am just speaking of these to remind you that an active minded generation that produced airplanes and automobiles and submarines and radio and phonographs and all of the magic that we are used to today, also made it inevitable that we should eventually do something about the cemetery, because it too had made no progress for thousands of years.

I have visited old cemeteries in Europe, Asia and Africa some that are a thousand, two thousand years old; no one knows how old they are. Our idea of old things in America is quite inadequate. We are, as a nation, so new. This summer after a day's trip down the Rhine, we stopped at the old cultured city of Cologne. They had flags and bunting out getting ready apparently for a celebration that night. I asked what it was all about, and was told that they were celebrating their nineteen hundredth anniversary as a city.

Up in Oslo, Norway, a week or two later, they had flags out; they were celebrating the seven hundredth anniversary of the city. They have a historical background into which to fit the things that are going on in the world today that we do not have in this country. That is the reason they don't get quite so excited about some things as we do here.

No, it is a wonderful century in which we are living, and in this business of ours, the cemetery business, we have witnessed more progress in only a portion of that half-century than has come about in hundreds of years before. You and I have had a part in this, a very enjoyable part for most of us, with some profit, with some reward for the hard work that we have put into it. But I think for the conscientious cemetery man, the greatest compensation is not in the dollars ... We are not discounting that, of course. The workman is worthy of his hire and anyone who develops some better way of doing things, something or some method that contributes to the greater enjoyment and the comforts and the conveniences of life, is entitled to make some money out of it, and apparently the public does not begrudge it.

The greatest compensation to the conscientious cemetery man is the knowl¬edge that he's doing something for the city in which he lives and the people among whom he lives, that he's taking an institution that was traditionally gloomy and depressing, dressing it up in new clothes and making it bright and cheerful, colorful and inviting, taking the "graveyard" that was associated in the public's mind with its grief, its sorrow; that old place out at the edge of town that most of us were so afraid of when we were kids that we went around the other way at night to get home; making it over into a place delightful to visit, not just for those who came to bury their dead but for all the people who love the brightness and color and cheerfulness of landscape gardening and artistic architecture.

"All the world loves a lover," they say. All the world loves a garden too. The garden plan of cemetery design represents a great step forward in the treatment of an old problem, the memorialization of our beloved dead. You and I have a part in that, and we are happy in our work. If incidentally, we make some money out of it, who is to complain? Again I say that the workman is worthy of his hire and the American public always feels that way about it.
There is the danger, of course, that a too-great materialism may creep in; that we may get to depend upon the material too much in the way of reward. That is a danger always present as the new and better things of our day have come about. Aboard that plane, flying across the Atlantic last summer, I had time to do a lot of thinking.

I remembered that during the war Madame Chiang Kai Shek in an address, I think it was at one of our colleges, presented her message under three captions¬- “learning from the past," "living in the present," and "dreaming of the future." As we winged our way across the ocean on that great French Constellation plane, I looked back over nearly thirty years in the cemetery business and tried to assess the lessons learned, tried to apply those lessons to today s problems and make use of them as we "plan the future."

In Paris this summer I again visited the Louvre Museum. There is one particular picture there that I always like to see. Some of the things in the Louvre you are supposed to admire leave me a little flat. I am not educated up to them, I guess. The Mona Lisa is one, and the Venus de Milo, just isn’t my style. Some of those things remind me of what Mark Twain said about classical music. He said, "It's the kind of music you keep listening to in the hope that it will turn into a tune." Some of the world's art treasures don't "turn into tunes" for me. But there's this particular picture that I always go to see. It is by an artist named David. He painted with a lot of color, and I like that. This picture that I am talking about is a very large one, a picture of an historical event-¬"The Crowning of Napoleon." It is a picture of that time when the Little Corporal had come to the zenith of his power. All Europe lay at his feet, and he had assembled here the high brass of Europe, military, ecclesiastical and civil. He wanted to found a dynasty, to perpetuate his power. Right at the last minute of the crowning ceremony the vain Napoleon reached over and, took the crown out of the Pope's hand and put it on his own head. He wasn’t willing to admit that even the head of his church "ranked" him enough to do that thing for him.

The next day over on the other side of the city we visited his tomb, and I could not but remember how few short years intervened between his crowning and his defeat in the field of battle, his fleeing from his enemies, his capture, his imprisonment his death in prison. In this picture I was impressed with the fact that those whose hope of the future rests upon mastery of material things, those who forget that the intangible, the “unseen" forces are those that will continue and endure are in for a rude awakening.

In 1938 we were in Italy and Mussolini was strutting his stuff in a big way about that time, jutting out his chin, making his flamboyant speeches. All of Italy was organized, even the little kids were marching, boys no older than our Boy Scouts in full military apparel, everybody shouting Mussolini’s name and praises. "Viva Mussolini," "Viva il Duce" was written everywhere, on the barns, bridges, warehouses and even on the rocks of the hills. It was, at the high point of the Duce's career. He talked in terms of rebuilding the empire of the Caesars, reviving the glories of Rome in the modern world. The Italians believed it and wildly acclaimed him as only the Latin people can enthuse.

Ten years later - that was two years ago - I visited a filling station at Milan, Italy, the place where they had hanged him, ignominiously hanged him to¬gether with his girl friend, after he was dead, head down. I couldn’t help but remember something St. Paul said once, for we look not at the things that are seen" he said "but at the things that are not seen, for the things that are seen, are temporal, 'but the things that are not seen are eternal." The world has been slow to learn.

The idealism of the memorial park movement will last and last through centuries. The material aspects are subject to change and a too-great "materialism" in our attitude and behavior may react to our disappointment. Last summer we got a car in Munich for an all day trip down into the Bavarian Alps to a little village called Berchtesgarten. That was where the late Mr. Hitler made his "hide-out" to entertain his satellite stooges. This was the place where the "top brass" of Nazism assembled. On reaching the little town we got into a military car-the ordinary car wouldn't pull it-and wound our way up the side of that mountain, clear up to the snow line, and then went through a long tunnel hewn out of solid rock. At the end of the tunnel we got into a spacious elevator and ascended four hundred feet through solid rock and came out at the top the "Eagle's Nest," remember? That was the Holy of Holies of the Hitler cult. As we looked down from there, about half-way down, a group of buildings lay in ruins. This was Ober-Salzburg and here was Hitler's house, and Goring's, Martin Borman's and others of the high brass of Nazism.

This wreckage symbolized the tragic end of this man Hitler, who talked about "a thousand year of German rule" that he was going to impose on the world with his strong right arm, with his preponderance of arms. Now the place where he lived and plotted is just a pile of twisted steel. And that fellow Goring, who promised his people that no foreign airplane would ever cross the German bor¬ders, his house is there too and wrecked even worse than Hitler's.

Later we visited in Southern Bavaria a little town called Oberammergau and sat one day in a great audience of sixty-two hundred people to view the world famous "Passion Play." Two, three, sometimes four times a week such an audi¬ence assembled.

Who were they? Well, they were people of every color, race and creed. People from all over the world and from the islands of the sea, coming there in almost countless thousands and sitting in an all-clay session . . . you go at 8: 30 in the morning, you get out at noon, you come back at 2 o'clock and get out at 6 ... what is it you are looking at? The dramatization of the last week of the earthly life of a man who failed, a man who was defeated, executed, two thousand years ago. His enemies overcame Him and His friends deserted Him and it looked like His whole program had crashed.

But here to this obscure village, two thousand years later, they were coming from the far parts of the world to pay honor to His memory, to a man who talked about brotherhood, about "getting along" together, about sitting down and adjusting their differences on the basis of "brotherhood," loving each other. Love doesn't commit murder. Love doesn't steal. Love is not dominated by greed and avarice. Love doesn't do any of these things that rack and harass the world today. He said that in love people ought to get along together. But the Hitlers and Mussolinis and Stalins have scoffed at this as a "slave religion." With sword in hand they have sought dominion over others despite His warning that "They that take the sword shall perish with it."

Another thing that happened on that trip! We visited a church in Rome, called San Pietro de Vinculi, "St. Peter of the Chains." Wandering through it I saw a great heroic size, magnificent sculpture of a great character whose name was Moses. And I thought, "Where have I seen that before," and then I remembered at a Memorial Park builder named Eaton had been over there was so impressed with Michelangelo's Moses that he had made an official authoritative copy and brought it back and put it in his Memorial Park in Los Angeles. To do what? To make money out of it? No. The influence of that great masterpiece of Michelangelo erected in Forest Lawn will through all the years contribute to the culture of his city, inspire the millions who visit his park.

Then later in the old city of Florence, in Tuscany, a city that was well and beneficially ruled by the Medici Family for seven hundred years, we stood on a hill overlooking the city, and here I saw another great white statue, the original" "David" of Michelangelo, and I remembered that man Eaton had been here too had a copy made of this world-famed masterpiece and brought back to Forest Lawn. A gravestone? No. Monument? Tombstone? No. "David" was to have a place in Eaton's outdoor museum of art that he was assembling here in his world-renowned "God's Acre." And again later on the trip we were up in the industrial city of Milan. Here we visited an old monastery, on whose restored walls we viewed the great painted masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci. Not very interesting because it was so faded now. Again I remembered where I had seen that too. That same man Eaton had been here too and had this marvelous "Last Supper" reproduced authentically in a fadeless medium of art glass, brought it back, and installed it in his cemetery, his modern Memorial Park, Forest Lawn in Los Angeles.

We heard that man Eaton speak the other night, in this room, and I am a little afraid some of the hearers might misinterpret some of the things that he said. He discussed and expanded, you know the subject of how to "comb" out a few more dollars here and there in the operation of our cemeteries. Now I happen to know, and you too know that Mr. Eaton hasn't been so darn interested in dollars back in the past, as his address might imply. Do you know what I con¬cluded about it? That he was mainly trying to encourage some of those cemetery operators present who in recent times and due to higher operating costs have not been getting enough dollars to get along with, trying to say to you, "Here's some unexplored sources of legitimate revenue where you can render additional services that the public needs and thus make an extra buck or two to get you out of the red and keep you alive and in business."

I think it was to Mr. Eaton a matter of encouraging those who were a little discouraged because of the balance sheet they had last seen on their own operations. Whether Mr. Eaton makes dollars or not, we know he has built on the West Coast an institution internationally known, a place of cultural, dynamic influence, a wholesome civic enterprise which will endure for generations after his name is forgotten. Generations yet unborn will pass through the portals of the Forest Lawn Cemetery and be thrilled and inspired, their lives made brighter and their sorrow made easier because this man embodied such ideals and idealism about this new way of memorializing the dead.

I am mentioning Mr. Eaton because he is the most conspicuous among us. He has done it in a bigger way. I think he's had some advantage in the "Holly¬wood" setting out there, but he's done something that in a lesser way you and I can do anywhere in America. Some of us have been doing it. I have had a part in the organization, development and sale of a great many cemeteries.

I would like to interpolate here that if you have found you have made mis¬takes, don't get discouraged. I made them all ahead of you all the mistakes in the book.

So, if we are not perfect, let's not get too concerned about our mistakes, and remember this-that back through the years I have often heard Mr. Eaton speak about the mistakes that he too made. He didn't make as many as I did, or else he's covered them up better. Through those years we were experimenting. We were operating under very different conditions in times.

Now, that’s what’s the matter with some men who are in the cemetery business. The years have brought changes in our problems, our opportunities and in our obligations.

Turning our thoughts for a moment to the specific subject of this speech, let us consider our Market. The market for cemetery property is of course coextensive with the population. Someone asked me yesterday how big my city of Charlotte is, One hundred thirty thousand, according to the last census. Then they asked how many Negroes live there? Forty thousand, and here I can see the questioner was doing mental arithmetic so I beat him to the point and said, "I also own the Negro cemetery," so if you are a little worried about losing part of your market, that is one of the things you can do get over into servicing that market too.

Yes, the market for cemetery property is co-extensive with the population and it is always surprising to find out in any kind of a survey how large a percentage of the population is currently unsupplied. While we were operating West View in Atlanta a leading minister of the South, Dr. Louis Newton, lived right across the street from me. I asked him down to speak to our salesmen one time. We have the kind of sales meeting, by the way, that a preacher can listen in on. Which reminds me that one time in Washington one of our sales ladies brought a very cultured woman; a prospect in to see me. The lady wanted to talk to the head man for some reason. Sitting at my desk, I was discussing the business with her, and along about the middle of my talk this prospect broke in and said, "Why did you quit preaching?" Before I could answer, the sales lady spoke up and said, "He didn't; you ought to come to the sales meetings sometimes." I know I sound like a preacher sometimes. The Book I quote so much (the Bible) is the greatest sales manual in the world. Back twenty-five years ago and more (in preacher days) I interpreted that Book in terms of getting to Heaven, wear¬ing a crown, growing some wings, and walking on the golden streets. But I have discovered through the years that the Bible has to do with everything that concerns us, every day of our life. The greatest sales literature in the world is there at your service. I recommend it to you.

Well, as I started to say, we had Dr. Newton over and he said to my sales force that morning, "You know I probably go out to West View Cemetery more than you do. I have had as many as five funerals in your cemetery in one day. I know it is a beautiful place; I know all of these physical facts you use in interesting buyers, but I know something else that you tell people and I know it to be true, terribly true, and that is that it is a terrible thing for a family to wait until the hour of need to make a decision about cemetery property. I, as the pastor of such people, go through their experience with them so frequently and I know how embarrassing it is financially and otherwise. I had a case like that," he said, "about a month ago. A family in my church who has little money had a death and I had to come in and counsel with them, even had to assist them financially, and it impressed itself so much on me that at my Board of Deacons meeting that night I got up and I said to these men, 'I want to ask you a question; it has nothing to do with the church's business.' (I told them about that family that did not have any cemetery property in their desperate need.) 'I want to ask you men tonight, forty-four of you, how many of you men, if that thing happened in your family next week, how many of you have a place for burial in Atlanta that you would be willing to use?' I said, 'I don't want to hear about a churchyard down in rural Georgia.' I said, 'You would want to bury where you live; how many of you have it all settled?' And you know, out of forty-four men present there were four hands went up. My church is a rich church. These 44 men were bankers, professional and business men, yet only four out of 44 were prepared in this vital matter."

Markets - why we haven't touched the market yet. I have been selling in Charlotte ten years and I have done right well. And yet there are more people living in Charlotte today without a cemetery lot than there were when I started ten years ago. The population increase in terms of families has exceeded all the sales that I and my competitors have made. Most of the towns that you represent would show the same record. This market not only grows by people coming in from the outside, but by growth from within. Every time there is a wedding there is a nucleus of a new home, a new family unit, a user of your product.

So much, and a great deal more, can be said about our market. A great deal already has been said this morning about methods, so well said in fact that I will not try to add anything. The market we face is a challenge. The methods by which we meet that challenge are many and varied. The men who have developed these successful marketing methods have no secrets. They gladly share with you their every successful idea.
One more thought before, I close, about the market. I think I told here of a visit I once made to Palestine, One afternoon while driving from Jerusalem to Jericho, along an ancient road this thing happened. About half-way to Jericho the professional guide (the Dragoman, they call them), pointed out the foun¬dation ruins of an old building and said, "That is the traditional location of the inn to which the Good Samaritan took the injured man he found along here." You will recall the story in the parable. Jesus was talking as he frequently did about "loving our neighbor." One of the hearers spoke up that day and said, "Lord, who is my neighbor?" He didn't answer him directly; but told this story about the man journeying on this highway who fell among thieves who robbed him and beat him and left him for dead. A priest came along (it wasn't a Cath¬olic priest; they didn't have Catholics in those days) and beheld the plight of the injured man but he couldn't be bothered.

Then the Levite passed along the road and he couldn't be bothered either. Then this Samaritan came long, a man from whom the injured Jew couldn’t expect any help, but unexpectedly the Samaritan came over and gathered him up, ministered to him and took him to this inn. He even paid the injured man's bill at the inn and told the innkeeper if it wasn't enough, when he came along again he would pay the rest of it, He must have been a "traveling man." With that story Jesus answered the question, "Who is my neighbor?" "Your neigh¬bor," says the story "is anybody in need of a service that you have the power and the opportunity to render. All of this leads up to an answer for that eternal and everlasting question of salesmen.

Who is my prospect? He is any and every family in your community in need of that "protection" which before need ownership of cemetery property renders. That usually averages seventy, eighty percent of the people in your community who have not settled this matter yet. They are prospects; they are a challenge to you. In them a job is cut out for you. You could do them no greater kindness than to lead them into a pre-need purchase of cemetery property against the day of need. There is your prospect field. There is your potential market. How are you going to get to it?

My watch says I haven't got time to talk about it now. Somebody said recently that no speech was altogether bad if it was brief enough" and I am afraid this one wasn’t brief enough. I remember, too, the, salesman's prayer: "Lord, fill my mouth with useful stuff and close it when I’ve said enough." We of the top brass of sales management frequently set a very bad example.

I congratulate you on the fact that you are in the business that you are. I have, done other things besides cemetery work. I was once president of a woman’s college; can you imagine that? I taught women logic. If that won't put you m the cemetery business, I don t know what will. Outsiders often think that ours is a depressing sort of business. There is nothing of gloom, nothing of somberness in the prosecution of our work. We have the happy satisfaction every time we sell a lot; every time we sell some mausoleum space that we have rendered that family a service that endures through the whole existence of that family. It may be five years, ten years or twenty years before they ever use the lot, and they will forget our name and our face, but when the time comes when they first use that lot and every time thereafter, they are going to be profoundly grateful to the fellow who sold them. I like that kind of a business the kind of business that always renders a service immeasurably greater than the amount of dollars involved.

Whether you are on the West Coast or here in the great Middle West where I grew up or whether you are in the East, or up in New England or down South, it is the same story. Twenty-five or thirty years ago the Memorial Park was an untried experiment, a cemetery without tombstones. People had been putting tombstones in cemeteries for ten thousand years. "You can't change a custom as old as that," so they said to us. We did.

It is a long way we have traveled since the experimental days of thirty years ago. We have made mistakes along the way, and for many of them we are sincerely sorry. None of us is as smart as all of us, and we come to these meet¬ings to learn from each other. One thing about cemetery folks, they are always ready to give out, to share any experiences, any success, any new gadget or gimmick - Forest Lawn with all its international fame is here in the person of its founder, telling us how they do it and inviting you to take and profit by their long and successful experience.

In Chicago a number of years ago I was operating a couple of cemeteries for the late Jacob Rothschild, and it used to break his heart that others who were new in this work visited us, sat in our meetings, copied our plans. "Doc, you run a university; why don't you charge tuition; why don't you make these fellows pay for this information?" I always replied, "Jake, it doesn't impoverish me at all for them to carry ideas away." Through all the years we have shared our literature, our ideas, our plans and even our building plans. Anything that I have you are welcome to if you can use it. God bless you in your work.

From the publication:
“1950-1951 Cemetery Yearbook”
NCA 21st Annual Meeting
Hotel Schroeder, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
October 18, 19, 20 and 21, 1950

In the past, I have given a lot of talks all over the country to sales groups, trade associations, and many other organizations, but this is the first time that I have ever had the pleasure of addressing a cemetery group. It reminds me of the story about the young lad who requested a military funeral. Permit me to tell you about it. This happened not so long ago, but as President Truman was taking one of his famous dips along the coast of the West Indies, he ventured out just a little too far and almost drowned. As he experienced this "too close for comfort" catastrophe, the three young men who were watching him along the shoreline jumped in to save him. They quickly brought him to shore and then revived him. The President, feeling obligated, turned to the first chap and said, "What can I do for you, young man? You've saved my life and I feel indebted to you. The lad replied, Well, I have tried for a long time to get into Annapolis, but somehow or other I just don't have the right connections." "Consider it handled; I will see that you get in," said the President. Then he turned to the next boy, "Now, what can I do for you?" "Well, just like my buddy who's trying to get in Annapolis, I would like to get in West Point." The President again said, "Oh, I think that can be handled. Let me try and see what I can do for you." So then he turned to the third chap and said, "What can I do for you, young man?" "Mr. President, you can arrange a military funeral for me." "A military funeral – that’s a very odd request; why do you want a military funeral?" "When my old man finds out that I saved you, he's going to kill me." (Laughter) Thank you, Republicans!

Now that we've had a little fun, let's get down to business. In this maze of uncertainty that confronts most of us! In this feeling of restlessness, not knowing which road to follow in order to achieve success! In this terrific turmoil of nations! In the tremendous effect it has had upon the minds of all of us - the don't care attitude - the warped thinking of so many, "Well, I can't do anything about it anyway, so why try?" The one question that is still in the mind of many of us, and thank God it is, is "How can I become more productive? How can I do a better job than I'm doing at the present time? How can I become a better employee or a better employer, whichever the case may be? How can I help my family enjoy a higher standard of living? Or how can I contribute more to the trade or civic association that I belong to? There are a lot of answers to those questions and no doubt you have often asked those same questions of yourselves and then tried to solve them with little progress. One of the best answers I have to that question is to become a little more enthusiastic about everything that is worth while doing. Become excited! You have nothing to fear! Just let yourself go and literally burn with enthusiasm! I don't know why, but a lot of us have grown lackadaisical. We've lost our spirit, our zip, our pep and our steam and unfortunately too many of us have taken things for granted. Nothing ever accomplished in this nation was ever accomplished without en¬thusiasm. If we want to get ahead in our own business, if we want to become a better employee, if we want to become a better head of the family or if we want to win this war at a faster rate than we're winning it at the present time, let's begin to do something about it. Let's become all wrapped up in the issue! Let's find out why! Let's inject a little enthusiasm into our efforts and note the difference in the results.
I know of a minister-you probably say a minister doesn't sell. This gentleman's name is Dr. Bill Alexander. Maybe some of you know him. He is pastor of the First Christian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is one of the most enthusiastic speakers and enthusiastic men that I know of. Let me tell you about him. I had the occasion to meet the man in Tulsa some time ago and didn't realize why he got such large crowds in his church, so I asked him. These people literally stood outside to hear him, so I asked him why. He said, "I don't know, Jim, but I think it is this: I set myself afire and I think people come to see me burn." More of us right here in this room and all around the entire country can do that same thing and do a better job. It's easy to set yourself afire to burn with enthusiasm. Before the morning session is over with, I hope to show you how to do it. Dr. Alexander has a story and with the kind permission of Mr. Donaldson, I would like to tell it to you. There is a little naughty word; it isn't too bad, so-o-o. May I have your permission, Mr. Donaldson? Thank you.

This story goes back to the time of the war where this young aviator was granted a few days furlough; he was dog tired and I mean dog tired. He boarded a crowded train and tried to get a seat, but to no avail. He wearily walked through the train, car by car, and couldn't find a seat, but he spied an old lady in the last coach who apparently had her pet poodle dog on the seat next to her. Well, he thought he could persuade her to have the dog get off the seat and let him sit down and be comfortable, so he approached her and said, "Madam, I wonder if you would mind taking that dog off the seat and putting it in the aisle and letting me sit down?" She said, "No, I won't." She said, "I bought a first-class ticket for that dog and that dog is going to remain on that seat." So the boy went back through the train a little dejected and thought he could per¬suade the porter to let him lie down in the aisle, but the porter said, "It's against the rules, I can't do that, I'm sorry, but probably you can use this pillow so the old lady can set the dog on the pillow and maybe she'll then give you the seat," so the boy went back once more and approached the lady with tears running down his cheeks and said, "Madam, you don't know how tired I am. I flew fifty-nine combat missions and came back in a bucket ship and can hardly stand; if you will put the dog on the pillow and then put the pillow in the aisle, I promise you I will be dead asleep in five minutes and everybody will be happy." "Who do you think you are, young man? Just because you've got an American uniform on, you think you own this train. I've got a first-class ticket and I am going to keep it for this dog," so the little boy very dejectedly once more turned away thinking maybe he could find another seat somewhere on the train, but he wound up with no seat, so he thought he would take one more desperate crack at it. With the tears rolling down his cheeks, he got down on bended knees and said to the woman, "You don't know how tired I am and what I've done for my country, for you, and all I ask is that you give me the seat; I just want to get a little sleep; I haven't slept in four days and four nights, so please give up that seat." "No, I won't give it up; I've paid for the seat and the dog stays there." With that, the young chap took the dog by the back of the neck and swish, right through the window; he didn't even bother to open the window. A little old Englishman, sitting in the seat in front, turned around and said, "You Americans are funny people; you mispronounce the English language by placing the inflection upon the wrong syllable; you drive along on the wrong side of the street; and now, by George, you've thrown the wrong bitch out of the window." (Laughter)

Dr. Alexander is an enthusiastic speaker and has done an excellent job in furthering the cause of religion, but let me give you an example of what has happened in my own business through enthusiasm. As you know, I am in the oil business. Some time ago one of our truck drivers who was employed by our company over a period of ten years decided to quit. He told his boss, who incidentally is my boss too, "I'm through." Then he came down to my office and said, "Jim, I want to work for you." I said, "Joe, I understand you just quit." He said, "That's right, but I think I can solve some of your problems; I've been watching and studying service station operations for some time and I'm sure from the experience I've had that I can do a job for you; I know how to meet people, and I know your problems. All I want is an opportunity; just give me a chance," and while he was saying that, his eyes sparkled; his face was burning with enthusiasm. All he wanted was an opportunity and because of the spirit in which he told me that, I said, "Joe, come with me." I grabbed him by the hand and we again saw the boss and rehired Joe, who by now was more enthusiastic than ever.

In the last three years he has proven to be the best salesman I have ever had, and he's only done it through enthusiasm, through letting himself go. The man hasn't had a single bit of education other than the eighth grade; he murders the English language, but I defy anybody to listen to him for just a few minutes and not be sold on our company's product or our company. His success can only be attributed to the amount of enthusiasm he expresses in his message. That is why I am a firm believer in the power of enthusiasm.

You know, the longer I live, the more I believe that that little recognized feature of success is enthusiasm. The difference in actual skill, intelligence and ability on the part of those who fail and the part of those who succeed is neither wide nor striking. If you ever have a choice of selecting a salesman or any person in your organization, select the man with first rate enthusiasm, instead of the man with first rate ability and second rate enthusiasm. He will always tip the scales in your favor. Every time that has proven to be a fact, and I know it will continue to do so.

While waiting for a bus to take you home at 5 P.M. have you ever noticed the monotonous blur of dull defeated faces coming at you as you are waiting for this bus? Now, as you look at these people, there doesn't seem to be a sparkle in a whole block load. Why? These people don't appear to be poverty stricken, they don't appear to be hungry; they appear to have fairly good jobs. What makes them that way?

Too many of them, including you and me, take too many things for granted. Automatically we take things for granted. We no longer have curiosity in ourselves. We no longer expect great accomplishments from ourselves. We have even lost interest in ourselves. Go back several years, ladies and gentlemen, to the time that you were nineteen. It's probably a long time in some cases, but let's go back to the age of nineteen when you got your first job, when you were endlessly excited about yourself and your opportunity, when you were just full of wondrous dreams, a burning fire of ambition, and you had an implicit faith in your power, when every experience was a new adventure, when every day was a new challenge, when no job was too big for you and miracles literally seemed to be a push over. You didn't take things for granted then.

But what happened? Here's what happened to most of us. We have grown satisfied with ourselves. Maybe the work we have been doing has been a little too hard, maybe a little too easy, maybe some of us have become lazy, maybe we have grown complacent. We do not know, but generally speaking, we have grown satisfied with ourselves and have taken too many things for granted: We have lost our edge. We have ceased to rebel, to crusade, to continue to promote. We do not let ourselves go.

Many of us feel that life has failed us. Don't kid yourselves, ladies and gentlemen life hasn't failed us; we have failed life. Life is only what you make it, and if you act enthusiastically about everything that you do, you will find out that your job will be a lot easier and more productive than it has ever been in the past. You know, some of us have grown so satisfied and taken so many things for granted, that we get into a rut. Now, they tell me there is a difference between a rut and a grave and that is the dimensions. I can't even believe there is a difference between a rut and a grave. In fact, a grave is a rut with the ends knocked out.

Let's get out of the rut. Don't be like the old solemn-faced lady of the Salvation Army who was the drummer in this particular band, and when the band leader asked who would get up and tell about being converted, one fine evening after they got through with one of their religious renditions, she got up to give testimony about the Salvation Army. As proud as a peacock she stood upon the platform and faced the audience. She said, "You know, there was a time that I used to smoke one cigarette after another, but I was saved and I don't smoke any more. There was a time I used to drink a pint of whiskey a day, but then I was saved and I don't drink any more. There was a time I used to wallow in sin. I used to carouse around and tear around with men, but now I don't sin any more. In fact, I don't do a darn thing but beat this damn drum all day long." (Laughter)

Let's not get into that rut. According to William James in his address on the "Energies of Men," he makes the statement that the average person habitually doesn’t use anywhere near the capacity of his brainpower. In fact, you might be interested to know that the average person only uses twenty percent of his brainpower, and sometimes I think that is optimistic. Now, imagine what you and I can do if we begin to utilize about fifty percent of that brain power. You know the average person has a tremendous reservoir of unutilized power in his personality, but the trouble is most of us let only a small trickle of that power go from our mind out to the public, and consequently we live on that amount of power.

The secret is to find the key to the sluice gates, open the gates wide, and let that power just pass out from your minds into a large powerful stream. It is bound to make you a more effective person. Let yourself go and note the difference in your results.

You know in your business it isn't like in our business, and I mean this: You have merchandise to sell. A lot of people don't have merchandise to sell. We in the oil business still have some to sell, but we don't know how long it will last. Gasoline might again be rationed. From what I have heard this morning from Mr. Young, I think maybe I would like to be in the cemetery business instead of the oil business, because you people really have an opportunity. There are a lot of people who are faced with the problem of not having the merchandise to sell, and if there is anyone in this room who feels he doesn't have anything to sell, let him keep his wits on edge by selling our country, because the time is coming when he again will have to sell to survive. There, selling our country ladies and gentlemen is a very sad and neglected fact.

It is surprising how many people know what the American system really is. You might have your own definitions, but to me it is liberty, opportunity, in¬centive, inspiration, competition and morale. It is a free speech, free press and free worship. It is all these and a lot more. It is a bona fide written constitution. It's a government of limited authority whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed. It is a freedom to live as one wants to live. It is a freedom of government oppression. It is a freedom from want far greater than any nation or society has ever known. It is a freedom to work as one wants to work without paying tribute for a privilege to serve as a slave. It is a freedom to build, to create and develop. It is a freedom to grow and continue to grow and grow far beyond the imagination of anybody in this room.

You and I should be thankful for that freedom, and we should get down on bended knees and pray to Almighty God that we live in a country that foists that freedom. We are in the midst of plenty, but unfortunately a lot of us can't see the forest because of the trees, so we don't talk. I am not a Communist but I admire the burning passion of a Communist who really lets himself go on a doctrine that he knows nothing about.

I had the occasion of not so long ago being in San Francisco, and I got one of the surprises of my life. They have a park out there known as Spit & Argue Park, and I will defy anybody to sit on the park bench and talk about economic conditions and not have the man next to you get up on his hind feet and tell you about Communism and what it really means. Isn't it funny, ladies and gentlemen, here these people believe they have got something to sell, and they do a good job of selling, and they have an inferior product. You know the day of the better mousetrap is gone. At one time all you had to do was build a better mousetrap and the world would beat a path to your door. That isn't true now, but we know of inferior products that have been coaxed through billboards, newspapers, radio advertisers to a point where they led the parade. Why? Because people talk about it; because people become enthused about their company and their product and consequently they have done a job.

Let's us begin to do a job about a country that we know has a lot to offer. Some of you probably might feel, "Well, that's all well and good, but I've got my problems." You feel that you can't do anything about the Korean situation, so why bother; why get excited. In fact, you become discouraged and disgusted and wonder when it is going to end and start over again. You can, however, come back to one consolation, ladies and gentlemen, and that is this: It could be worse. It can be a lot worse, a lot worse than you and I think right now.

Speaking of it could be worse, I don't know if you have ever heard Carl Taylor. He is president of the Waukesha State Bank, and he has a story about the philosophy of "it could be worse" that I think you would like to hear. This happened with an old little pot-bellied stove philosopher known by the name of Elmer Hutkins who lived in a country village and believed, regardless of how bad or tragic the accident was that it could have been worse. So the natives used to gather at the country store around the pot-bellied stove, and they used to tell him about some of these terrible happenings. For example-one day they told Elmer Hutkins about the terrific rainfall they had; it rained for days and days, flooding the entire area, ruining every bit of vegetation within a radius of miles and farmers in that community lost practically everything they had from the standpoint of crops and income. Elmer got the old cud of tobacco rolling around in his mouth and then hit the old pot-bellied stove ten feet away and said, "Well, it could have been worse; the old dam could have burst up the creek and flooded the entire area, killing people and cattle by the thousands” or they'd probably say, "You remember the severe dust storm we had five years ago, the drought era when the entire county hadn't seen rain for years and then the dust came and the insects and locusts ate every bit of vegetation in existence, stripping the countryside clean as a whistle, and Elmer would say then, "Yes, but it could have been worse; you could have had a wind storm similar to what they had in Nebraska years ago and Arkansas and Kansas and it could have taken the top soil and blown it into huge drifts, removing every possible piece of fertile soil so that nothing could have grown there any more for years; it could have been worse.

Well, one day they carne in and thought they had Elmer Hutkins. "Elmer do you know what happened last night?" and Elmer said no. They said, "Well old horse trader Jones, who used to go on trips for two to three weeks at a time never knowing when he would be back, carne back unexpectedly. Jones would trade cattle; buy and sell. They had a large family, eight children ... and when he came home and went into the house, he found Mrs. Jones kissing another man, so the old horse trader Jones didn't hesitate, but got out his old six-shooter and killed him, every one of his children, himself and his wife and it was just one bloody mess." Old Elmer Hutkins got that cud of tobacco from the side of his mouth and let go at the old pot-bellied stove, then sat back in his chair and said, "It could have been worse; it could have happened the night before and then it would have been me." (Laughter)

Now that you have heard about some of the benefits of enthusiasm let me give you four easy ways to acquire the habit of being, enthusiastic. They are simple and they will help everybody in this room; I don’t care if you are selling a cemetery lot, Motorola, peanuts or what. It will help you.

1. Know your product and know your people, because by gaining knowledge of your product and knowledge of your people, you will gain confidence in yourself and consequently nobody can stop you even though you are probably murdering the English language.

I was in the market for a television set not so long ago, and I made up my mind I wouldn’t buy that television set unless somebody told me enough about the product. You might believe this or not, but it is the truth; I went to twenty-six stores and never bought a television set until I hit the twenty-seventh one, because the clerks told me very little about the product . . . greeted me in a manner that I don't think I should have been greeted in, for I am a believer in salesmanship, and I thought, "Why should I part with $1,000 ... " I wanted to buy a Stromberg-Carlson Chinese classic set, and I finally hit this one store. That man was one of the few salesmen I have met in the last ten years that did a beautiful job of salesmanship, enthusiastic salesmanship.

For example, I went to the store and there they had one of these Chinese classic sets well displayed; I was standing in front of it admiring it. The young man came up to me ... he didn’t say, “May I help you”, because that is as old as Methuselah. He said, “Isn’t that a beautiful piece of furniture?” I said, "Yes, it is." Then he went on to tell me about its construction, about its fine mahogany finish. I am not going to give you all of the conversation, because I am limited for time. He said, in the course of the conversation, “Are you a businessman?" And I said, "Yes, I'm in the oil business." He asked, "Did you ever enjoy the relaxation of good music?" And I said, "No, I've never had time; I've been selling all the time and I haven’t had time to appreciate it. If you have a moment's time" ... mind you, he told me this with all the sparkle and expression in his face, that I just couldn't resist, so I said, "Yes, I have got a few minutes time.” He said, “Come on in this room.” So we went into another room and this room was beautifully draped, just all set for the killing, like leading the calf to slaughter, but brother, did I love it.

Here was a large chair, overstuffed leather chair with an ottoman similar to the one I had at home and beside it was an end table with up-to-date magazines, not magazines from three years ago, but up-to-date magazines just like I had at home on an end table, deep plush carpets on the floor, and here was this beautiful Chinese classic set at the other end of the room. You could sink more than an inch in the carpets. “Now, here’s something I want you to notice” and he pulled aside one of the drawers and there was the phonograph arrangement. "It's an automatic record changer and I am going to put on a record that I know you will enjoy, and then you watch the way this unit changes the record-so smooth", so I sat there and watched. I couldn't help it. I sat down in the chair and listened to this music. It was a selection by Beethoven, and I'm telling you right here that good music isn't as bad as it sounds-good music. (Laughter)

Here's the thing-he left the room, ladies and gentlemen, and that record went on playing in all its beauty, and I sat there with my eyes closed and just loved it. Then the record changed. The thing that he pointed out when he said, "Watch how easily and quickly it will change without you getting up from your favorite chair." It switched over so smoothly and do you know what the next record was? "It's Later Than You Think." (Laughter) I bought the television set and it's the finest investment that I have made. I have enjoyed it. That fellow knew his product and his people. He didn't have to go out of his way, and he made a sale.

You can do likewise.

2. Act it and you will feel it. You have got to act enthusiastic in order to feel it. For example, who are the people you like to be with? Aren’t they enthusiastic people? Why do you like to be with enthusiastic people? Because it's contagious and sets you afire. That’s the reason you like to be with them. When you develop the trick of enthusiasm, you stand out like a bright star against a dark sky and nobody, hell or high water can stop you in getting your point across, but you have got to act it before you feel it. Sales psychologists tell us we are afraid, therefore we run. By the same token we run because we are afraid. If you act enthusiastic, you will feel it the same way. Our inner emotions spring from our outward actions. Try it some time. Become enthusiastic about some idea, some plan, some product, some thing, and express it to somebody else and find out the world of difference that it makes in your presentation.

I don't know how many of you know Frank Bettger. He wrote a book recently and if you didn't read it, get it. It's "How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling." Anybody who starts reading that book at 7 o'clock at night won't let 'go until he's finished.

Frank Bettger was a man like you and me at one time or other. He was a baseball player at $175 a month. He played on the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, team and was fired by his boss, and when he asked why he was fired, he said, "Listen, you are acting like a veteran with twenty years of baseball experience; you have no pep; you have no inspiration. I am going to give you a tip. If you get another job be sure you put life and enthusiasm in your work and you will go places." He took it to heart and went to New Haven, Connecticut; that's the team he joined at about the same salary. He followed that man's advice and within a few weeks he had that whole team and whole city literally electrified. He was so enthusiastic that they began to call him "Pep Bettger" and within one year, he was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals, but then an unfortunate accident happened to him and he was out of baseball for life. Again he went down trying to hold jobs here and there, but failed. Finally a fellow got hold of him and said, "Listen, Frank, you can make yourself some money if you will become enthusiastic and I am going to ask you to do something-become connected with an insurance company, and if you can sell it, you can make yourself some money."

Here's what Frank Bettger did. He studied for nine months straight. Didn't go out to sell, just studied, absorbed his product from every possible angle that you could think of and then went out to sell. The first policy he sold was a $15,000 life policy. Today he is the highest paid life insurance commission salesman in the world. He was a millionaire at the age of forty. He did his job with enthusiasm. Mind you, he had no education, not a single bit of it. Read his book. You will like it.

3. Pep-talk yourself daily. That probably sounds like a "Hooey" to you. Pep-talk myself daily! How can that help me? I don't know how many of you believe in Mary Baker Eddy. She was a Christian Scientist. I am not a Christian Scientist, but Mary Baker Eddy, in my opinion, had a greater influence upon people walking on this earth than any other woman known. Her philosophy was this: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so he go." That is why I say pep-talk yourself daily.

Here is how to do it. Every one of us, for example, gets up in the morning and shaves. I am speaking about the men naturally. Here is something you can do to help yourself. You don't have to do a lot of studying, but this will help you. As you get through with all your contortions to shave and look in your mirror, take both your hands and brace yourself on the edge of the sink, look in the mirror and say this - "Boy am I enthusiastic!" You know what is going to happen? Your wife is going to drop what she has in her hands, the kids are going to scatter in all directions and the dog is going to run like Hell under the sink and you will be a new man. Now, just try it and see how it works. Everybody get up. (Audience arose and chorused.) Now, I want you to shake hands with the man to the right of you and say "Boy am I enthusiastic!" You don't know how silly you looked, but nevertheless it does a job.

Seriously, try it. I have had many people meet me on the street later and tell me, "I laughed like the Devil when you told me about that, but by God the funny thing is, it works."

When you are meeting a tough prospect, and you are going to have them, just get hold of a mirror, get into a bathroom where no one can hear you and look into the mirror and say, "Boy, am I enthusiastic!" It's remarkable how it works.

One more point, the last one. Learn to modulate your voice, Boy, I cannot overemphasize that. I have salesmen come in to me every day, and when you speak about modulation of voice, they don't know anything about it. I had one man trying to sell me some lubrication equipment for my service stations, and mind you, he was only in that office about five minutes and in his introduction he used the word "I" twenty-six times in a monotone. "I have a beautiful piece of equipment; I think you will like this equipment; I know you will like this equipment." He didn't give a damn about me.

Put the spotlight on the other man. Magnify the "you" and minimize the "I". Turn the telescope around the other way, and let him look through his end and then modulate your voice. Let me show how it works. I had a class one time in salesmanship. I was an instructor for two years. In this class, something, happened that I will never forget, so let me tell you about it. I had approximately twenty-six students, and their salaries ranged from $2,400 to $24,000 a year learning to become a better salesman. During one of these sessions which, inci¬dentally, were divided into two parts, where the students got up in front of the class and told the group something of their interests or hobbies, in order to lose the fear that you sometimes get while facing a group of people. One man got up ... we will call him John ... but he got up in front of this class and told how he raised a creeping bent lawn, one of the most beautiful in the neighborhood, without one single seed of creeping bent, without a single plug; all he used was good fertilizer, good topsoil, peat-moss and a system of watering.

When he got finished, I said, "John, do you mean to tell me none of your neighbor's creeping bent crept over in your lawn?" He said, "No sir." "You know and I know it can't be done because I have a creeping bent lawn myself and I put a lot of seed and aches and pains into it." He said, "No sir, I didn't." "Do you mean to tell me no seed probably drifted over from other lawns in the neighborhood?" He said, "No, it didn't." "Well" I said, "If what you say is true, you will be the first man in science to take something inorganic and make it organic; it can't be done." With that, this man got up and told this class the same story of how he did that job, so when he finished, I turned to the class and said, "How many of you believe this man can raise a creeping bent lawn without any seed?" and here's the strange thing-sixteen of the twenty-six raised their hands, all because of the power of enthusiasm. That's all that man had.

Now I will go one step further. I said, "John, I will tell you what I am going to do. I will write to the Department of Agriculture in Madison and if they tell me you can do this I will give you a $10 bill." He said, "OK, it's a deal", so the next day I apologetically wrote to the Department of Agriculture. I knew it couldn't be done. A few days later I got a letter back confirming my statement. "Yes, it can't be done, that's right," but they added another paragraph. The funny thing is they said that four other people wrote about the same thing, wondering if it could be done. (Laughter) Just imagine what the power of enthusiasm can do. Imagine what miracles you can perform if a man like that can do it when we know it can't be done. Imagine what you and I can do, who know that our product has the quality and benefits and everything else that goes with it, to do the things we claim it will do. Do you know that you can say the same thing three different ways just through modulation of voice? One more example and I will close. If I were to say to you, "Do you know that this country has a national debt of two hundred seventy million dollars? I wonder who is going to pay it and when it is going to be paid, etc." You wouldn't be interested because I made an ordinary statement without feeling, but let's assume I told it to you in this manner: "Do you know that this country has accumulated a national debt of over two hundred seventy million dollars? (enthusiastically) That, my friends, is a lot of money. Now what I want to know is, who is going to pay it, how is it going to be paid, and when is it going to be paid?"

You were a little more interested, weren't you? Let me take my coat off and go to work. Mind holding this for me as I roll up my sleeves? If I said to you, “Do you know since the time George Washington was elected President up until the outbreak of the first World War in 1914, during those 126 years, this country had accumulated a national debt of approximately one billion dollars, but during the last ten years we accumulated a national debt ten times as great as we'd accumulated during the first 120 years of our existence? Do you know what that means? That means we owe eighteen hundred dollars for every man, woman and child that has ever lived in the United States." Now, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "Only thirty billion people have ever lived on this earth-not the United States, on the earth; and if that is correct, and it is, that means we owe nine dollars for every man, woman and child that has ever lived on this earth. Do you know that just a little better than a billion minutes have passed since the time Jesus Christ was born up until now? You can take a pencil and figure it out if you want to. If that is true, all of us owe two hundred seventy dollars for every minute that has passed since the time that Jesus Christ has been born up until now. Do you know if we were to pay our national debt tomorrow and it is a terrific mortgage around our necks we would have to cash in every insurance policy in existence in the United States, plus, that we would have to sell every city dwelling in the United States, plus, we would have to sell every farm in the United States, plus, we would have to liquidate all the working capital of every corporation in this country, and we still couldn't pay the debt?" Are you interested?

Boy, you better be, because if you aren't, your children and my children and our great grandchildren will have a much lower standard of living than you and I have ever dreamed of. Now, what did I do? I said the same thing only in a different way. That's all I did. You might not get that enthusiastic about cemetery lots, but you had better begin, because it is going to get tough to sell, and you can build up a story just as well.

You know, there is something about enthusiasm. To me, ladies and gentle¬men, it is one of the greatest inspirations known to man. It is the very spirit in which we do anything worthwhile. It is actually our own soul and just like a proud peacock and singing lark, take what he has and throw it out to the world, so do you when you are enthusiastic.

Enthusiasm is almighty and unfailing. It is one of the most contagious fevers known to man and the moment that fever breaks out within you, it spreads instantly to all those within the range of your voice or your personality. It refuses to acknowledge any restrictions, it disregards past failures, it is totally blind all opposition; in fact, it is the one quality that never fails. When you are full of enthusiasm you are full of magic, you are alive, you feel the full spirit and force of your aspirations, and you let the whole world see your pride, your faith, the very fire in your blood.

Have you ever watched a child at Christmas time? There is nothing listless or indifferent about his emotions. He is all for Christmas. Why? He is excited, he is enthusiastic. It isn't the child, but it is the child's enthusiasm that makes Christmas the greatest time of all. Now, you and I have a job to do, a job that probably at the moment is beyond the realm of your realization, but a job that we can do without one iota of fear if we begin to glow with enthusiasm, a job that is going to require courage, tolerance and fortitude.

Always remember this-that anybody can learn to do a job, but it takes enthusiasm to put it over. You have been a grand audience. Thank you!

From the publication:
“1950-1951 Cemetery Yearbook”
NCA 21st Annual Meeting
Hotel Schroeder, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
October 18, 19, 20 and 21, 1950

It has been said there is no royal road to Geometry. If one begins at the bottom of the ladder in the cemetery business he will soon realize there is no royal road to cemetery management either. There are many problems and pitfalls that line the pathway leading to the title of a cemetery manager.

By overcoming them, one will certainly become much wiser, more capable, and will have a greater understanding of his business. To avoid and ignore our problems and to seek the easy out shows a weakness of will power. I have always tried to form a habit of choosing a form of action that I believe will be the best in the long run, in place of one that seems to be the easiest at the moment.

I have endeavored, in the time allotted, to use the same line of reasoning in presenting my subject, "Important Cemetery Management Considerations."

Let us begin by considering first, one of the most important considerations of management-the manager, the person wherein lies the success or failure of cemetery operation! What are the qualifications of a cemetery manager? What should he possess within himself that fits him to be a cemetery manager?

In my opinion the most important qualification is his personality. I would apply this yardstick in personnel from the laboring man up to the office man. I believe there could be nothing more kindly said of your cemetery than to have it referred as a cemetery with a personality, and that personality will certainly reflect the type of man at the top, and through him infiltrate through the entire organization.

The term "a cemetery with a personality" may not mean too much to you at first thought, but to put this idea into practice, you must have a smile as you serve, you must make people feel welcome and comfortable you must make them feel they are of great importance. The manager sets the pattern for others to observe and follow. He must be a person with vision, constantly thinking ahead, seeking new ideas, never being satisfied with previous accomplishments and above all humble enough to take advice and apply it wisely.

The manager should be capable of understanding human nature, be sympa¬thetic, and his code should be one of honesty, integrity and loyalty. Proper personality is one of our best insurance policies for successful management. Now let us assume that we have found the ideal manager. Let us bring to his attention some of the more important management considerations. There are many, of course, but I want at this time to present some that are vital and require his immediate consideration.

In doing so I would like to have you bear with me as I look in retrospect upon the cemetery business as I remember it a great many years ago. The cemetery business in those days was not as aggressive or involved as it is today. Compe¬tition, if any, was of little consequence, but service rendered was extensive, although rather crude, and funerals were an event. Morticians, or undertakers, as they were called, were friendly and most cooperative. Monument dealers and stone cutters, now known as memorial craftsmen, were reluctant to enter into the cemetery business and did not dream of the bronze marker industry.

In those days the funeral procession consisted of horse drawn vehicles, some of which were owned and operated, believe it or not, by the cemeteries. The servicing of the funeral was a full day's work. The most important thought was to be buried in style and with plenty of show, and most certainly to have a well attended procession to the cemetery.

It necessarily required a large staff of employees to service a funeral. There was a coachman, uniformed pallbearers, and in the absence of electrically operated chimes, you had to have a bell toll as the funeral procession passed by. Yes, funerals were truly an event, but how different today. In many cemeteries in the larger cities, funerals get to be on a production basis, and yet they receive so much better service than in the old days, with greater efficiency and less personnel. The days of the long funeral processions are gradually coming to an end. Year after year, yes, even from day to day, we see the funeral procession becoming shorter, and in a great many cases it is entirely eliminated.

Now it is an accepted fact that all cemeteries build toward sales through the many people who visit their cemetery by way of the funeral procession. It has been a great medium of advertising. If the property was attractive, had appeal, was well managed and well maintained, as well as being well serviced, people were interested, but today there is a definite trend toward eliminating this oppor¬tunity of using the funeral procession to make friends and ultimate sales. We are at this time in a fast moving age, an age in which people cannot conveniently find sufficient time to bury their dead reverently, and they are encouraged in this practice by the introduction of a new idea presented to those confronted with the burial of their loved ones-the idea of eliminating the funeral procession.

Obviously it entails less work for the funeral director; it eliminates his work at the cemetery in inclement weather and provides more hours for his recreation. There is, however, one important fact in his favor of ending the entire service at the funeral parlor, and that is the increasing hazard of traffic conditions, most certainly in the larger cities, where so many accidents occur in funeral processions.

Let us become realistic. Let us wake up to the fact and recognize this increasing trend of having the committal service at the funeral parlor; let us recognize this as causing a definite loss in sales, contrasted with the funeral procession to our property in the past. Just how serious is this situation at the present time? Last year at a great many properties, over fifty percent of the cremation services were funerals without a procession, and much worse, without any of the family attending. Why should an individual who desires his body cremated be denied the full conventional funeral ritual? In a family of husband and wife who have opposite ideas of the method of disposing of their bodies, one can desire either interment or entombment whereby the friends accompany the body to the ceme¬tery; the other might desire cremation where the committal ritual takes place at the funeral parlor. Why, may I ask the full respect for one and the lack of ceremony for the other? I can see no reason for such discrimination.

I can well understand how easy it is to promote the idea in cremation cases, and I can cite many of the arguments being used, but dangerously as the record indicates, the practice is rapidly finding its way into the entombment services, and it is obvious that it is just a matter of time until the funeral procession will be entirely eliminated.

I want to give you a concrete example of an experience we encountered just two weeks ago. A lady came to our property, expressed her desire to look at some columbarium space and intimated to the superintendent that it was for future use, and he, after showing her throughout the mausoleum and pointing out to her the various features, commented about the various chapels and she wanted to know what they were used for, and he told her they were used for the committal service for cremation or mausoleum entombment, or interment. She then revealed there would be a cremation service in her family on Tuesday. This was Sunday that she visited us. She said, “We will not be coming out here to your chapel because the funeral director told us they weren't going to the chapels any more at the cemetery, they were concluding the service at the funeral direc¬tor’s parlor." However, she thought it would be very nice to have the committal service at one of our chapels, so we waited anxiously for the order to come through expecting they would have a committal service in our chapel, but the funeral director was more powerful than our management, and the body came out unattended even by the widow.

How shall we combat this practice, or shall we even try? It is my opinion that the practice is too far advanced to do so and move over, we are not organized properly to cope with it. We might more wisely spend our time and energy filling the sales gap with other activities and methods, perhaps through beautifying grounds and buildings, training courteous personnel, in an active public rela¬tions program, and in a well planned aggressive sales campaign. In short, we must carry our story to the people in their homes, if we expect to merchandise our property.

Another challenge which has been presented to the cemeteries by the people in the memorial craftsmen group who have advertised in our local papers advertising for the public to consult not us, but memorial craftsmen, before purchasing their cemetery lots. This advertising is directed to everyone con¬templating a purchase in the monument or non-monument cemetery. Clearly they seek to govern the choice of purchase, as well as the amount of money to be expended for the memorial estate.

Now all this leads to the subject assigned me, "Important Management Considerations,” for unless we rise up to meet these challenges, eventually we win have nothing to manage and consider. It will all be managed for us. Not long ago I talked with a cemetery operator. He said he was not interested in the internal activities of his property. He did not have the time or energy to promote them. He was interested in the sale of space only, which to me labeled him as being nothing more nor less than a real estate operator. How can a man claim to be a cemetery operator if he does not think beyond the sale of space? It is true that we all cry for the need of sales, but it is my belief that it would be better to cry for the need of families.

It is most important for a successful operator to think in terms of families rather than the monetary value of each individual sale. A volume of families, even though the sales be small is wheat in the bin. They produce an abundance of future operating revenue which is the lifeblood of our existence. Strive as you may to build your fund, you will find it difficult to accomplish if, out of necessity, you are using funds acquired for the sale of land to meet your payroll, but with the ever increasing revenue accumulated from the many services rendered on those productive sales which include interment and marker charges, winter covering, floral services and other miscellaneous items to meet present and future expenses, it is evident you will acquire your "care" fund with greater facility.

To do this we need families, small sales, revenue producing sales. We should not be overly concerned with large sales, for in such cases there will be unused graves that are non-productive. It is very pleasing to us if we, in reviewing our sales report, find a salesman who has produced $4,000 worth of business in one month, but we should be more interested in breaking down this report and analyz¬ing it for the potential operating revenue. If the salesman, in providing this $4,000 in sales, sold eight six-grave lots at $500 each, we have a minimum of potential operating revenue. On the other hand, if he had sold sixteen three-grave lots at $250 each, we have definitely sixteen good revenue producing accounts.

It is reasonable to assume that most of these graves will be used, and if you add to that the profit from the miscellaneous revenue on each interment, you are ahead on the sale of interment space. In addition to this, let us not lose sight of the radiation of two families instead of one. You are doubling your sales force. Surely satisfied owners are good for many additional sales. So my advice to you as cemetery operators is to operate with one more important thought in mind and ask yourselves this question: How many families can we permanently associate with our cemetery this month, for if you get a volume of families, the dollar volume will take care of itself. They will be dollars not just for today, but for many years to come, and then you will always have the needs for proper management.

I am not going to suggest the methods used in making the family ties. That is the business of the salesmen and the sales manager. My problem and your problem as operators is to see to it that there is operating income after the sales department has sold us out of our capital assets. Our own capital assets are the property we have to sell, with interment or entombment or columbarium space. Any additional income must be created, and no outsider is going to create it for you.

A short time ago a funeral director friend was telling me of a recent funeral he serviced. His remarks were something like this: "Brother, did I have a good job the other day; sold a copper and a good vault." I asked him how his¬ service went, were there many people in attendance, and did everything work out smoothly, but it appeared this was incidental to him, as the only part of the service he apparently was concerned with was the sale of the casket and the vault. I attempted to point out that he should be more concerned with his service to the family by having a well conducted funeral which would lead to additional calls through radiation, rather than the sale of merchandise only, but he wasn't interested in that fact, but only that his profit was large on the sale of his merchandise. After all, that paid his rent and allowed him to put some money in the bank. This is nothing more or less than living by a policy of making it today and letting tomorrow take care of itself.
How many in our business work at management as does this funeral director? Are you going to value the opportunity to advertise and merchandise those revenue producing items which come by thinking and operating beyond the initial sale of the property?

I want to touch on one more point that has been much debated in cemetery circles, and I assume that many of you are not in perfect accord with the methods of merchandising cemetery property, most certainly on a pre-construction basis, so let us compare pre-construction sales with other commodities. We will find it is no different than any of them providing you have established yourselves as a going institution, one that has gained the respect and confidence of the people of your community.

Most of us have driven cars we ordered from a reliable manufacturer through a salesman's story or descriptive literature. There wasn't the least doubt in our minds that the car when delivered would be well constructed and all that was claimed for it. Usually we were more pleased when we saw the actual car than with the pictures, yet the pictures induced us to make our selection and sign the order.

All of us buy before need and before the commodity is produced and think little of it, but when it comes to selling burial lots, many operators feel it is unethical and misleading to the purchaser and unsound for the cemetery. All of us who have had experience with sales are convinced in so many of these cases they turn out to be most unhappy and dissatisfied owners. Why? Because, first, the sales person does not have the time to spend with these families to properly sell them on the institution. They do not thoroughly understand the values and the many features of the property. It is logical to assume that at• that particular' time the purchaser would remember but one-tenth of what he was told.

In the pre-construction campaign, all of these advantages are clearly portrayed in the home by visual as well as a descriptive trip through the property by well trained consultants. Prior to and during the construction of the property, you will find their anticipation of seeing completed property prompts them to watch the progress as it is developed, and talk of it to their friends and neighbors. Compare this to the purchase of developed property whereby the purchaser pays the account, places the deed in a strong box, never to think about it again until the property must be used.

Yes, the pre-construction sales are very advantageous to you for radiation purposes, provided you do not overload your families by selling them more than they actually need for protection. However, you must first get yourselves out of the old graveyard category. You must manage your property in a manner worthy of recognition by the people of your community, as being a great asset to them in beauty, friendliness, personality and service.

Join with them in whatever community memorial activities are being promoted. Make them feel proud they have a modern cemetery institution in their community.

These operations can all be classified, then, I believe, under the heading, "Important Cemetery Management Considerations." I would like to point out first the need of important qualifications for a cemetery manager, and second, there are definite changes in funeral practice which have created a sales gap resulting in a loss of potential sales and loss of interest in property. Therefore, the problem resolves itself into this: Cemetery management must create policies to capture public interest, to acquire a volume of friends, to increase miscellaneous operating revenue by such methods as proper advertising, intelligent public relations program, and effective sales campaign. Remember, your only capital assets are the properties that you have to sell, interment, entombment and columbarium space, and I forcibly repeat that all other revenues are created entirely by your own acts.

Make your business live-make it one of action and of result; even as our worth is determined by the good deeds we do rather than by the fine emotions we feel, so the growth and success of our cemetery industry depends upon the accomplishment of well-manned, constructive and progressive activity.

Only action gives to life its strength as only moderation gives to it charm. Action may not always bring success, but I assure you there is no success without action. Thank you!

From the publication:
“1950-1951 Cemetery Yearbook”
NCA 21st Annual Meeting
Hotel Schroeder, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
October 18, 19, 20 and 21, 1950

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen; thank you, Mr. Donaldson. Before starting I would like to extend the warm personal greetings of Lou Minear to all of his many friends in the audience. Lou was unable to attend this meeting, one of the few that he has missed. We have a lot of construction under way at Fort Lincoln that requires his immediate attention and supervision, plus the fact that our sales manager, Gene Lee, and our general manager, Phil Firman, and myself were attending, so it was necessary for somebody to keep the home fires burning.

My appearance on the program this morning following Dr. Halberstadt is almost comparable to the proverbial ham sandwich served after a seven course meal. However, the only consolation I have is that it is one of the penalties of youth. In the convention meetings so far I have received a lot of valuable information. I listened to a speaker yesterday, a very dynamic speaker. One of the first things that popped into my mind this morning as I dragged myself out of bed was that talk on "Enthusiasm," so when I went into the bathroom, I grabbed hold of both sides of the wash basin, looked at my reflection, in the mirror. But the only thing I could think of was, Boy, I wish you hadn’t been so enthusiastic last night. (Laughter)

In the number of years I have attended conventions all over the country at the conclusion of every meeting I have made a firm and solemn resolution that next year things were going to be different. I was going to go to bed early, behave myself, attend all the meetings, and be on time. However, this morning as I reviewed the experiences of the last several days, I adopted an entirely new philosophy. If I live through this one I will do it again! I have enjoyed every minute of it.

The subject assigned, "A Salesman and Why," is very, very interesting to me. After receiving the assignment, I gave considerable reflection over my experience the past several years. If you will pardon my indulgence in personal references, with the assurance that on my part it is not an attempt to inflate my ego, I would like to make a point of "A Salesman and Why."

My entry in the cemetery industry in 1938 was a result of economic necessity. I had to find a way in which I could earn money, money to pay those bills that always seem to come in. That was the initial attraction. However, I feel cer¬tain that is not the thing that has kept me in the cemetery business. Not that I haven't made money, not that I haven't enjoyed the work! I am the product of many, many people. My first introduction to the business was with Bill Dowding, God bless him. I can never think back without thinking in terms of sincere gratitude for the aid and help that he gave me. Through the years I have been associated with many, many people, a number of whom are in the audience here today, Ches Sparks, Bill Boyd, Bill Mershon, and a great many other leaders in the cemetery field. They have taught me many, many things.
They have taught me many fine methods of presenting our product; they have taught me a lot of sales technique. The thing, however, that I think has been responsible for my success as a salesman in the cemetery industry has been something that goes a lot deeper than that. In looking beneath the cynical exterior of some of these gentlemen, I found something else, something that's been a great help to me. I found in them a deep-rooted conviction about the business they were in. I found that they really enjoyed the jobs they were doing. I found that they sincerely believed in the job they were doing. I have come to believe in the job that I am doing. I believe in it just as surely and just as sincerely as I believe in my religion.

When I sell a family a cemetery lot, I know I have rendered a definite and positive service. That to me means a great deal more than the money I receive for having made that sale. I think that through the years the thing that has helped more than anything else is just that, the belief in the business I am in. I think that anyone in this field who has been successful has certainly had that belief, sincerely and honestly.

Now, in the hiring and training of salesmen, I feel we have the responsibility of not only teaching them sales technique, but in teaching them the responsi¬bility that they have to the families they are going to see, the responsibility of serving that particular family. Through the years I imagine all of you have had star salesmen who for no reason at all sort of slacked off. There didn't seem to be any apparent reason for it. They were still using the sales tools you had given them, but yet their production sadly fell off. We have had that experience too, in many, many instances. One of the finest things that we have found to rejuvenate a salesman is to get him back to the basic fundamental principles of his job.

We have had salesmen who have gotten into slumps, and in all sincerity and in all honesty one of the finest things that we found to get them out of that slump was to make them handle an immediate need case, to make them service a family who had experienced a death, was at the cemetery to make arrangements. In practice, every case where we have taken a salesman and had him do that, his production has immediately gone back up to par or above par.

Why? Simply because he regained his faith in the job that he was doing. He was again convinced of the many fine things that he was doing for families in pre-need selling.

I haven't any theories to give you this morning. I haven't any jokes to tell, but I would like to pass on a few concrete things that we have used successfully, things that have helped to keep our sales force active. Through the years all of us have tried to acquire every sales tool that we could get our hands on to help our men do a better job, all the gimmicks that have come down the pike we have latched onto and tried to put them in the hands of our salesmen.

A number of years ago we got sold on the idea of tape recording machines, as a medium for training salesmen. After salesmen had been given the indoc¬trination the background of the business, and had been taught the sales story, we used the tape recorder to allow them to practice. They could play back the recording and we could make corrections. They could hear themselves give the presentation. However, the most difficult task in the world is to give a sales presentation to a machine or to a fellow salesman, a sales director or sales manager. It is far more difficult than giving it to a flesh and blood prospect. You can't seem to whip up the same enthusiasm that you can generate when you know a sale is in the offing.

We have used this machine with considerable success. However, there was still something lacking. It still didn't fill the needs that we felt it should. We stumbled across an idea a little over a year ago. Very few things are original, but borrowed from somebody else. We found a sales organization that was using tape recording machines with the salesmen right in the home and record¬ing sales presentations under actual selling conditions. That seemed like a very excellent idea. It seemed to be the answer we were seeking, a better way of training a salesman, to get him at his best when he was really pitching on the firing line.

Mistakes that came up then could be rectified. However, the machine we had weighed a hundred odd pounds and was too difficult to take in and out of the homes. We experimented and found a portable machine, this Eicor that we have on the platform, a machine that was a little over thirty pounds, a machine that after a little revamping could take a thirty-minute tape and record full two hours on it if necessary, an hour on one track and an hour on the back track, getting two full hours of presentation. The only thing we, lost in cutting it down was the fidelity or reproduction of music, which we weren’t interested in anyhow. Voices came through good.

For the past eight or nine months now, we have been using these machines. We have purchased six of them to date. We send a salesman out with a machine and have him record his presentation in the home. That is not as difficult as you might imagine. It is a simple and easy job to get the recorder in the home and get the family to consent to having that presentation recorded.

We experimented and finally have a plan which is working very effectively. We get into a home and after the small pleasantries are over we have sold ourselves to the family to the point where they are willing to listen to the pres¬entation we merely ask them if we can record the presentation. "Mr. and Mrs. Jones, the plan we would like to explain to you is very new. We would like to record your reaction to it so that the company can better judge whether or not to continue the plan. Would you mind if we recorded the presentation?"

We have never had a family not give their consent to it. We have now a library of sales presentations. What we were particularly interested in was getting the concrete answers to objections recorded under actual selling con¬ditions. The old objections that all of us have difficulty with, "I have no money," "I have a lot back home," "I am too young to think about that," and the various other things that they propose as an objection to purchasing cemetery property pre-need. We have built a library of answers to those objec¬tions. We posted prizes in order to encourage men to take the machines out and bring back the recordings.

When a new salesman comes in now after training, while he is preparing his maps, we can hook up a recording and let him listen to a sale successfully closed in the home, let him listen to an answer to a definite objection. The machine has many, many uses. When a salesman gets in a slump, he takes the machine out, records his presentation, brings it back, we can sit down and analyze the presentation. It is far more effective than having him give you the presentation. You can stop the machine at any point where he made a mistake without fear of having him lose completely the continuity of his presentation. It was difficult to makes notes while he was making the presentation, and it was difficult to remember later after the presentation was through, exactly what mistakes he had made. You often forgot the main points you wanted to correct him on.

However, with this you can stop the machine at any point that you want, correct his mistakes, show him a better way of answering or stating the particular phase of your story, and then continue on.

I brought with me several of these recordings. We have played them around in some of the rooms. 1 have one here this morning that I would like to play for you for a definite and positive reason. It is not an excellent presentation. That is the reason I want to play it for you! It is a presentation full of mistakes. It is a presentation we can tear apart. I checked with the electrician and he hooked up a gadget for me here that perhaps will let you hear this. This is a presentation by one of our salesmen, Leonard D. Kitlinski, who has been with us approximately four years, a salesman who sells from $3,500 to $5,000 a month, a consistent producer, not a top-flight salesman, not a star salesman by any means, but a steady, consistent hard-plugging producer.

I don't know whether this will be clear in the back. If it isn't I will have to forget it. There seems to be some difference in the time element between the microphone and the speaker. Let's see if we can pick up part of it. This is actually in the home. (Plugged in recording machine, but was not understandable.) He's gone through the story, created a desire, and is getting down to closing the sale, and you hear both sides of it-the husband and wife giving the objec¬tions and his attempt to answer those particular objections. Let's see if we can get it.

VOICES: Can't hear it.

MR. JACK ROBESON: I am sorry we can't play it for you. The presentation was actually made in the home. I think you would have found it interesting if you had been able to understand it. The point I wanted to bring out, if you had listened to it, was this-that when this presentation was brought back to the office we sat down with him and listened to it. We were able to point out the mistakes that he was making, mistakes that probably could not have been uncovered in just a presentation to me or Mr. Lee in the blank four walls of an office. After correcting those mistakes, the rate, or percentage of his closing ability raised tremendously.

We have a mandatory Daily Work Report. We have all of our salesmen turn in a report giving the number of homes that he canvasses each day, number of hours he spends in canvassing, the number of prospects that he has gotten that morning, and on the bottom half of it, the number of calls made that evening the actual name of the family and the address and the time he was there and remarks as to what happened, gave the presentation and didn't get the sale, etc.

In analyzing those work reports we found Kitlinski's biggest difficulty was his closing ability. As far as canvassing was concerned, he was doing an excellent job. He was making the desired number of calls and call-backs each day, he was consistently working, he was going back at night, he was getting into homes, and that he was giving a great number of presentations, but he wasn’t closing.
In listening to this presentation, we found out why and we corrected the mistakes he was making. Prior to making this recording, prior to a six-week period, his closing ability was roughly thirty-one percent. In other words, three out of ten presentations were closed; he gave ten presentations and only closed three deals. The last eight weeks of analyzing his work reports have shown that for the number of sales he has made and the presentations he has given, his closing ability has raised from thirty-one to seventy-two percent. He is closing now better than seven out of ten presentations. Certainly that is worth while.

If you can take a salesman who is a worker, who is doing the things that you prescribe, and you can pinpoint the mistakes that he is making and correct those mistakes and increase his earning ability, then certainly you are doing a job.

I sincerely and earnestly recommend to you the use of a recording machine. There are several well-known makes on the market. There are a number of wire recorders. Our experience with the wire recorders has been in that they are more temperamental than the tape recorder. The wire has a tendency to foul up and you ruin a lot of recordings. Second1y, they are expensive for this type of use. I think the average spool for an hour’s recording runs $4.50 to $5.00 in most communities. Buying in quantity reduces that slightly, but it still repre¬sents quite an investment. The tapes cost about $2.25 a piece. If you are buying them in quantity you can get them a little cheaper than that.

The machine, as I remember, cost $144. We got a purchase discount on it which brought it down to a fairly nominal cost. If the machine or the cost of the machine only resulted in correcting one salesman, the expenditure of that amount of money would certainly be worth while, because I know all of us have spent far more money than that on a lot of other things, trying to correct certain things that were happening, without the success that we have been able to get from the use of this recorder.

The recorder has a multitude of other uses. I have merely brought up one or two, but it has a great many advantages. I think that you will find the majority of your large sales organizations today, particularly in the insurance field, are using this medium to train their salesmen.

I think we have gone a step further in the use of the machine by actually taking it in the home and getting those recordings. It would be a definite advantage to have a library of such recordings so you are in a position to answer objections to any salesman, any time he has spare time to listen. Put him in a room, turn it on and leave him. He gets a renewed confidence in his own ability to overcome the specific objections that are given in the field. We found it extremely useful in the training of new men, but the biggest thing is the point I tried to make, in the recording of the presentations in the home for the individual salesman. When he hears the mistakes that he is making, it is a lot easier for him to correct it, particularly if you are there with advice. Those mistakes are not repeated too often.

Let me add a little something else to that. I have mentioned this one case. We have several others in the organization that we have been able to help through the use of this recorder. The increase of Kitlinski's ability to close was accomplished through the use of this machine in showing him his mistakes in mode of presentation, but the biggest help was the fact that prior to sending him out to make the recording, we had him handle an immediate need case. In addition to getting him back on the track of the fundamental sales story, we were able to do something a little more deeply, to strike him more deeply; we were able to renew his belief in the services he was rendering; we were able to get him back on the right track, to get him back to that belief in the job that he was doing.

Any of you can think back to immediate need cases that you have handled, and I don't believe any of you can reflect upon them without realizing that because of handling that immediate need case, it made you a better pre-need salesman because you could see very definitely the advantages of pre-need selling more clearly than at any other time. When you are with a widow, grief stricken, her eyes full of tears and you try to help her solve the financial dilemma she is in, you certainly realize the wisdom of pre-need selling; you certainly realize that somebody, somewhere along the line, should have done a better job of pre¬need selling that particular family.

That tragic occurrence or occurrences that happen each and every day in our own offices are the result of inefficient salesmen, because somewhere along the line some salesman had the opportunity to sell that family a lot pre-need, and he fell down on that particular job. He didn't accomplish the purpose of his mission. Perhaps one of the reasons why he didn't would be the fact that his belief wasn't as strong as it should be. It slipped off. He had gotten too much interested in the returns, his commissions, and he had forgotten his real function and his real job of serving.

Anybody who is completely sold finds it a much easier task to transfer those beliefs to families that he is talking to. I can't urge you too seriously to earnestly think a little bit about it. Think in terms of yourself, the reaction that sets in as you wait on immediate need families. Think in terms of a salesman who is in a slump at the present time. In analyzing his difficulties and get down to the rock bottom of it, I think you will find in most cases that it is the loss of belief in the job that he's doing, because his enthusiasm stems from the firm conviction that the family should have the protection he is striving to give them. He is able to make a more convincing presentation, and when he gets down to the close of it, he certainly is in a much better position to close the family because he believes sincerely and honestly the statements that he is making to them, and that wells from the heart. That is something that isn't easily faked. You can get by with it for a while, but to successfully continue to make presentations and close deals, you must have that belief.

We are running a little late. I could take a little more time and give you a further insight, but I urge you to consider it, because we firmly and sincerely believe it has been a definite aid in helping us to keep our salesmen producing.

In closing I would like to thank you for the help I received in the past from each and every member of the Association. It is a wonderful thing to have these meetings where we can get together, exchange ideas, and go back home with a renewed purpose and the intent of doing a better job in the coming year, a better job of training our salesmen, a better job of convincing the public. Thank you very kindly.

From the publication:
“1950-1951 Cemetery Yearbook”
NCA 21st Annual Meeting
Hotel Schroeder, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
October 18, 19, 20 and 21, 1950

Philadelphians are quite proud of their tradition that it takes three generations to make a true Philadelphian, while one may become a New Yorker over night.

The same principle applies to old line Cemeteries. You cannot transform them into a Modern Cemetery by simply waving a wand and declaring that in the New Addition no upright monuments will be allowed. Edgar Guest, one of my fellow Detroiters, wrote quite a poem, entitled: "It takes a heap of living to make a house a home." In this poem he described the joys, the tribulations and heartaches that make our fireside a sacred, comforting place. It takes a lot of planning, a lot of inspiration, a lot of perspiration, a lot of capitalization to transform a City of the Dead into a Burial Estate designed for the living as well as for the dead.

Forest Hills Cemetery was established in the Northeast corner of Philadelphia 42 years ago. During its span of existence it has passed through the hands of many owners, individuals, corporations, syndicates and selling organizations. Each of the owners and each of the selling organizations had different ideas in the building and selling of cemetery property. Fortunately for the Forest Hills of today none of these ill ¬conceived ideas are irreparable. Fortunate too, are we in the fact that we have not inherited a tombstone thicket, for all during the years care and discretion has been exercised in the type and style of the monuments erected therein. Our greatest heritage is the wonderful, natural beauty of Forest Hills, for you can travel the country over, and nowhere will you find a burial ground with more beautiful rolling hills or wooded areas. That natural beauty, with the possibilities of enhancing it with manmade beauty, is the reason why I am now in Philadelphia. Nowhere have I seen greater possibilities for a sales engineer to work hand in hand with landscaping engineers to create a modern cemetery that will rank with the country's finest, when these improvements are carried out.

The subject assigned to me has been a difficult one to prepare. If I were speaking to you on a matter of sales theory, I could speak freely and earnestly. However, I must speak to you in the light of my actual experience, and relate the work that I performed day after day during the five months I have been engaged in this new endeavor. Naturally in such a short space of time, miracles cannot be wrought, and I am going to handle this talk as if it were addressed to each of you as an individual, and not to an audience of hundreds of cemetery experts gathered from all over the North American Continent. I am going to picture you as if you were individually seated at my desk in Philadelphia and that you and I, are swapping our common experiences in the operation of our sales departments and of our cemeteries. I have done this in the past with many of you here, and you and I have sat across our respective desks in many States in this country. When you and I talked to each other indi¬vidually, it did not sound like braggadocio, but from our conversation we each gathered points of information to help us in our future endeavors.

In the experiences I am to relate to you, you will find no startling innovations, no cure-all solutions to our many problems. During the past 10 years in which I have been engaged in this fascinating work of manu¬facturing and merchandising modern cemetery property, I have, come across many sales ideas. A lot of these ideas were very, very bad - a few of them were good. The only way in which I, have ever been able to separate the wheat from the chaff, was to take all of these ideas apart, piece by piece, to see whether or not they were feasible. This cannot be done by sitting behind a mahogany desk - it must be done in the field, face to face with the prospect or the lot owner, or, if you please, your Board of Directors ... In these 10 years, therefore, I learned which ideas have worked, and which should be discarded. In my present connection I have tried to use these ideas that clicked, not experimenting again with the ideas which had failed to produce results. So draw up your chair a little bit closer to my desk and light a fresh cigarette, while I proceed to go into my story.

Fifteen years ago a new Memorial Park area was opened at Forest Hills, that is to say, it was called the Memorial Park area. The restrictions of the cemetery forbade the erection of upright monuments in that area ¬also forbade the installation of bronze memorials in the same area, allowing only stone or granite memorials, of any size or description, just so they were installed flush with the ground. The first step I took was to have our Board of Directors amend the By-laws of the cemetery, so that bronze memorials, installed flush with the ground, would be permitted in any section of the cemetery - monumental, as well as non-monumental. Our new letter heads describe it as Forest Hills Cemetery and Memorial Park. In other words, we immediately brought to the attention of the public that we have a complete line of Cemetery lots. The Ford dealer is fortunate in the fact that he has a complete line of automobiles, appealing to all pocket-books and all tastes - the Lincoln, the Zephyr, the Mercury, and three models of Fords. So it is with us - if a man wants a $10,000.00 monumental burial estate, we can take care of him. We do not have to spend time in selling him on a new idea and losing the sale if we are unsuccessful in selling that new idea. We have property that appeals to the great middle class, and also to the low income class, although we do not have any single graves for sale. Our plans call for the completion of a separate entrance to the Memorial Park area, so that one may enter there direct from the Main Highway without driving through the Monumental Sections.

We do not have an unlimited amount of money at our disposal with which to make some very necessary rehabilitations and improvements, so my immediate job was to make those improvements, not only where they were most needed, but also where they would show up to the best effect to let our large family of lot owners know that new life had come to their dormant, sleeping cemetery. During the past 10 years there had been no sales force whatsoever at Forest Hills, and although the interment business continued on a good even keel, increasing lack of funds had been felt from year to year, and naturally many jobs had been allowed to remain undone through the need of money with which to carry out those necessary repairs.

The first Sunday after my arrival, which incidentally was Easter Sunday, the visitors to the cemetery were surprised to see a beautiful pair of white swans gliding gracefully over our lake. They not only stopped a long time to admire these swans, but they remarked to themselves and to me that something new was happening here. That one expenditure of $45.00 for this pair of swans brought an amazing touch of life to a place in which no life had existed before. Several stretches of road were repaired at once, and the lot owners, as well as the prospects could get a graphic idea of how all of the roads throughout the cemetery would look when our improvement program is completed. The purchase of a funeral chapel tent drew many immediate favorable comments from funeral parties, and from funeral Directors themselves. Lower cost in Cemetery maintenance was secured immediately through the purchase and use of a 75" Power Mower, for the cutting of the lawns in the Memorial Park area, instead of by the 30-inch mowers which had been used previously. Another innovation which appealed to our lot owners and prospects alike was the free flower bed, with a beautiful enamel sign containing the inscription "These flowers are free for use on graves."

The first time I set out by myself to drive to the cemetery I had one deuce of a job finding it. I did not want to have to stop to ask for directions, but I was forced to do so. At the cemetery I had difficulty in distinguishing where certain sections were located, even though I had the map of the grounds before me. It was not long before a beautiful gold leaf raised letter entrance sign was erected at Forest Hills. Small metal signs were placed on each side of our burial sections, these signs bearing the name of that particular section. Small arrow directional signs were placed at all important road intersections leading to our cemetery.

The cemetery administration building looked worse than a Country Store at Simkins Corner. It was dingy and shabby, inside and out. I had often heard of the miracle a few coats of paint could create, and I saw this happen before my very eyes. The interior of the office with this light paint, with its bright linoleum on the floors and the Venetian blinds on the windows, has become a place of which we are all proud instead of apologetic as heretofore. The shining whiteness of the exterior has brought our cemetery forcibly to the attention of the motorist who use the highway, and the railroad passengers of the New York line of the Reading Railway, which passes before our Administration Building door.

For a great many years, the only City office of the Cemetery was a small bookkeeping office in the center of town. I immediately moved our Executive office to a modern daylight, office building located 4 miles north of the City Hall, but 4, miles nearer to our cemetery. We are now located at a main transfer point of many trolley and bus lines, as well as the Broad Street Subway line. This makes it much easier for our lot owners to drop into the office personally to make their monthly payments. It makes it more accessible for our salesmen also, as m this location they have unlimited parking facilities on wide streets, and the office is closer to their fields of operations.

I have just mentioned here about our salesmen. That is one big job I had to do, and still have to do for that matter. Not having had a sales force here for ten years I had to start from scratch, building up sales material and getting sales pictures for our kits, which in itself was no easy thing to do, as the winter continued late in Philadelphia this year, and I had to wait until the trees began to have at least a sign of foliage upon them.

I did not wait until this sales material had been completed to start hiring salesmen. In fact, I ran an Ad for salesmen even before my new office had been redecorated completely. This first Ad brought in so many applicants, that I was forced to buy and install the salesroom furniture within 24 hours, as I had to start conducting a sales school immediately. Twenty men answered that advertisement in a City which I had been told by several that the cemetery business had been exploited to death, and that salesmen would run from the sight of a cemetery Ad. I had been told moreover, that it would be impossible to hire any new men if they were not given an advance or drawing account. That these two statements were fallacies is proven by the fact that out of the 20 men who answered this Cemetery Ad, 15 became salesmen for us. Not a one of these men has ever been given a cent in advances or, drawing accounts. Some of you may be interested in knowing just how this Ad read. In our City, the Philadelphia Inquirer insists that the nature of employment and manner of remuneration therefore must be specifically mentioned in the Ad. I quote for you this advertisement:

SALESMEN OVER 35:
GRAY HAIRS ARE AN ASSET HERE.

Analyze these advantages enjoyed exclusively by our new Sales Force!

(1) We furnish BONA-FIDE LEADS. No canvassing necessary.
(2) Prestige of 42 years continuous service to Philadelphians, thousands of owners.
(3) Superior quality and beauty.
(4) Prices today but a fraction of value. You will sell on rising market.
(5) Extensive improvement program just starting.
(6) Over one million Philadelphians do not own. They should buy NOW, before need arises.
(7) Experience not required. You will be given intelligent training and cooperation in 1940 cemetery merchandising.
(8) Unlimited earnings thru generous commissions and advancement possibilities for lifetime career.
(9) No dull seasons. No samples to carry. No credit turn-downs.
(10) Sales force just starting. Get in on ground floor.

Your appearance, personality, and character must be in keeping with the dignity of our proposition. Apply Monday only to:

FOREST HILLS CEMETERY
Beury Building
3701 N. Broad Street

I think the reason that it has been an easy matter for us to hire good men on a straight commission basis, is the fact that our proposition creates enthusiasm in their minds and in their efforts. It has always been said that “Anticipation is greater than realization” and we are fortunate that we are just at the start of our improvement program instead of having to sell a cemetery that is completely finished. Enthusiasm is always a vital factor in selling any commodity, and it is especially true of Cemetery Property, where you can draw such a splendid word picture of the beauty that is there and the beauty that is to come, the romance and sentiment of a cemetery that is designed for the living.

Here is a true story of what happened to one of our salesmen, in the first week of our sales force's existence: An 89 year old Aunt of his died and he was at a local funeral establishment waiting for the funeral serv¬ices to start. In his conversation with the funeral director he told him, in great detail, of his new connection at Forest Hills, and just what Forest Hills was going to do in the way of improvements. He evidently did a good job in selling this funeral director on Forest Hills. There were only ¬two cars besides the hearse and as the funeral procession got under way, our salesman noted the fact that it passed by the highway where it should have turned off, to go to the cemetery where the interment services were to be held. Instead, the procession continued right out to Forest Hills, and pulled up beside an open grave there which had been made ready for another interment service. It was then, and only .then, that the funeral director realized that his mind had been filled so full of Forest Hills, that he had driven there instead of to the other cemetery. It was fortunate for his reputation that the funeral party consisted only of the immediate family of the Forest Hills salesman.

On the books of the company are the names of over 5000 lot owners, representing over 4000 burials. During the period of years which had elapsed since these owners had purchased, many had moved away; in many cases the complete families had died out. During all those years I do not think they ever received a general mailing from the company on any subject whatsoever. Naturally, I wanted to acquaint them with the detailed plans which we were to carry out for their benefit, as well as to let them know about the new management. With this idea in mind, I engaged Homer Rodeheaver to come to Philadelphia to conduct a Lot Owners Meeting on May 25, in one of our large down town auditoriums. I sent a general mailing out to these 5000 names announcing the Homer Rodeheaver Meeting, and over half of these letters were returned to us as undeliverable. This mailing, however, was the means of our securing many new addresses for our records. I used the Post office plan, Form No. 3547, which applies to multi-mailing of 3rd class mail matter. The envelope which was mailed on 1½¢ postage bore this inscription: "Return postage guaranteed: Postmaster: If addressee has moved and new ad¬dress is known, notify sender on Form 3547, postage for which is guaranteed." By this method the Postmaster returned to us a post card containing the new address. On the 2500 or so letters which were re¬turned as undeliverable, we continued our checking further thru the funeral directors, asking them to advise the present address of survivors if it were known to them. In this way we received the correct address of many of these families. Unfortunately, we still have many names on our books which we cannot locate, and I am praying and hoping that some day. In the future, a new City Directory will be issued in Philadel¬phia. None has been issued in the last 5 years, and so far, no one has any definite idea if one will ever be issued again. We of course have used the telephone directory to trace the phone subscribers.

The Homer Rodeheaver Meeting attracted over 600 lot owners on a rainy Saturday evening which was the only date on which I could book Homer. It created genuine enthusiasm. Quite a few Funeral Directors were also present that evening, as they too had been sent an invitation for this meeting. The lot owners were told that night of our plans for improvements and rehabilitation, and they were also told that they were expected to help in the sale of lots, as the more lots that were sold would mean more improvements would be made. It was pointed out to them that three - parties would benefit from every lot that was sold to their friends and relatives:

First: The lot owners themselves would greatly benefit, as the value of their lots would increase according to the additional money spent in the cemetery with the additional beauty and desirability thus created.

Second: The cemetery would benefit as their own unsold property would greatly increase in value, due to these improvements.

Third: Their friends or relatives would benefit by an immediate purchase as they would be in position to buy at ground floor prices, as these prices would continue to advance, as the improvements proceeded from time to time.

Our salesmen are following up the families representing the 4000 burials at the Park by means of the Historical Record, with which most of you are familiar. On every one of these calls the salesman is supposed to conduct a miniature Homer Rodeheaver Meeting, pointing out the many improvements from which they will benefit as lot owners, and also calling to their attention the other parties who will benefit from additional sales to their friends and relatives. Such a method is followed in our contacts with visitors to the cemetery, and also to those who attend interment services. It is quite interesting to note the results obtained by the various types of salesmen in following up these Historical Records. Some of them become ideal census takers. They turn in a complete Historical Record of the deceased in flawless handwriting, with every question fully answered thereon. Some of them in listing the surviving relatives of the deceased are too timid or negligent to ask as to whether or not those surviving relatives own cemetery property themselves. Other salesmen by their sympathetic listening, by their enthusiastic presentation of our plans for beautification, are very successful in securing the wholehearted cooperation of our owners and their actual physical aid in helping them to sell property to the Uncle Johns and Brother Harrys listed by them on these records.

I will not go into great detail about the beautiful Memorial Day program we had at Forest Hills. It is interesting to state, however, that in spite of great difficulties, this program turned out to be a great success. It was the first of May before I had an opportunity to even think or make plans for such a service here. No such service had ever been held at Forest Hills. In fact, there was not even a flag staff of any description, I started contacting the various veterans’ Posts adjacent to our cemetery, and I found that for years each post had been going to certain specified cemeteries in their area to hold their Memorial Day services. Everywhere I went I was greeted with the information that it was too late for their posts to change any plans; therefore, after starting at the bottom I decided to continue at the top. I introduced myself to the District Commander of the American Legion of our District and received an invitation from him to attend the monthly meeting of the Commanders of the 23 posts of that district; which was held the first week in May. At that Meeting I told these Commanders my story briefly, that I would like to have a Memorial Flag Staff dedicated on Memorial Day, and while I realized that their Posts could not attend this dedicatory service, that I would at least like to have their colors represented by volunteer delegates from each Post.

The next week I presented a similar invitation at the Monthly District Meeting of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The result was that our first Memorial Day service had a good turnout from the 23 posts of the Legion, and the 16 Posts of the V.F.W., with many of the Commanders them¬selves attending. They were so inspired and pleased by the beauty of the site where we erected the Memorial Flag Staff, that it was decided then and there that Forest Hills would be the official cemetery for the entire District Memorial Day Joint services in the future. All of the Metropolitan and Community Newspapers gave publicity to this service, the first time in many years that the name of Forest Hills had been mentioned by any Newspaper other than in the obituary columns.

Due to the late spring it took a long time for me to secure suitable films in color, of the beauties of the Cemetery, Late in May we began our Moving Picture Travelogue Lectures in the Churches and Lodges, and as the fall season now opens we are booked extensively for the showings. As I have spoken to you before from this platform on Movie Lectures, you know how sold I am on them as an aid to sales, so it will not be necessary to go into this phase of sales promotion here. If you are not familiar with these Moving Picture Lectures I suggest that after the meeting you pay Roy Hatten $5.00 for a copy of the 1937 year book containing this information.

We have not as yet installed our amplified music but expect to do so in the near future. I perhaps should not mention this fact here at this meeting, as I imagine after this talk I will be besieged by the musical exhibitors at this convention. I, however, do state definitely here that while we have not as yet decided on what musical installation we will make, that you can bet it will be thru one of our exhibitors. The Chapel Tent and the Power Lawn Mower, which I mentioned earlier in this talk, were bought from exhibitors at our previous conventions, and I make it a strict rule to favor our exhibitors wherever and whenever possible. Again, I will not go into detail as to how we will secure prospects through our Sacred Concerts. The 1938 year book covers this subject thoroughly. And again, you may get a copy of that book from Roy for another five dollar bill. Perhaps after all, Roy's offer of $15.00 for a complete set of year books will be your best bet.

After our mailing list had been brought to date, we found that there were over 1000 unmarked graves. Thru Bill Williams' cooperation we immediately got out a letter to these 1000 families, advising them that bronze memorials could be installed anywhere in the cemetery, and giving them a sales talk on the use of bronze. Our salesmen in their daily calls with the Historical Records have the privilege of selling Bronze Memorials for which they receive a commission of 10%. While our salesmen are not Memorial salesmen, it does give them an opportunity to pick up' a little expense money through this incidental selling. These families will be systematically followed up, also, by future letters. Quite a few profit¬able orders have already been received for Bronze Memorials, but we have not scratched the surface as yet. In my previous connection at Michigan Memorial Park, it was quite a simple matter to sell bronze memorials, as they either I had to install bronze or nothing at all. Here we are competing with every monument and memorial dealer in the City, and we have to overcome a lot of prejudice that has already been built up in our lot owners' minds. We find that the more bronze memorials we install the easier it is for us to sell additional ones, so I feel that the hardest part of this particular job is already over. I do not want to go on record as favoring the installation of bronze against that of granite. I do want to go on record, however, in saying that by selling bronze we receive a selling profit ourselves, and do not have to be content with only an installation charge. Figure for yourselves a potential average profit of $25.00 each on 1000 unmarked graves and you will see that that total amounts to $25,000.00 possible profit for the cemetery. Multiply that by 400 burials a year and that will give you an additional future profit of $10,000.00 per year.

In this short space of time allotted to me, I could give you only a few of the highlights instituted since last spring. Inasmuch as there is not in this whole audience a possibility of selling one lot in Forest Hills, I am not going to attempt to tell you about the future plans we have in mind for our own particular cemetery. I do hope that if any of you pass through Philadelphia, or any way near Philadelphia, on your way home from this convention, or at any time in the future, that you will drop in my office, and we will then continue the discussion which you and I have had this morning. I know that you will be impressed with the beauty of Forest Hills when I show it to you then. I do not advise you to have any of your salesmen stop by to see it, as they might do what I did last March - move to Philadelphia and become a living part of the beauty that is Forest Hills.

From the publication:
“1940-1941 Cemetery Handbook & Buyers’ Guide”
ACOA 11th Annual Convention & Exposition
Hotel Statler, Buffalo, New York
September 8-11, 194

Today three-fourths of the problems of management lie in the field of human relations. We have largely solved our technical problems. We have done likewise with problems of production and distribution in the various lines of business. Our attention has been diverted during the past 10 years from the mechanical side of our business to the human side, and our big¬gest challenge today is that of our relations with those who constitute our working force.

Today field supervisors and sales managers are being selected less and less because of their technical skill and knowledge of the product and more and more on the basis of their aptitude in handling and developing people. You men at the head of your sales organizations of the companies which you represent must devote more and more time to the human relationship side of the job. You must become more and more personnel ¬minded - the strategies and shortcomings in selling will avail you little if the operation of your department does not provide for an intelligent broad gaged policy of dealing with those who are on the firing line.

As an aid in building such a personnel program, I take the liberty of bringing to you some tips which are not new ~ which most of you at one time or another recognized and applied, but which are important enough to stand repetition.

1. Our salesmen are largely what we make them. There is nowhere a supply of perfect salesmen. Every salesman is endowed with certain abilities and certain weaknesses. The sales manager's job is to make the most of the human resources that are put at his disposal- to help the salesman develop his ability and overcome his weaknesses.

2. Ability to handle people is an acquisition - not a gift. It is some¬thing that we can study and analyze with resulting constant improvement in our technique. Some sales managers are much more skillful than others in the art and technique of supervision. We must bear in mind that such skill is not some mysterious gift which a person either has or must for¬ever go without. Some sales managers, due to their bluntness, energy and ability, do not have the patience necessary to train those under them. This is the schooling which the sales manager must invoke upon himself.

3. Judgment rather than impulse must be used to meet the problems of salesmen. We must think out our course of action in advance of the arrival of the problem. You can and should anticipate most of the ques¬tions that will arise in the minds of your subordinates and supply the answers.

4. Don't be afraid to give praise. Salesmen need a word of encour¬agement now and then just as they need food. It has been estimated that 85% of us suffer from an inferior complex. Praise is the greatest known stimulant for an inferior complex. Don't worry about the other 15%. I prefer to work with cocky stem-winding salesmen who generate their own steam - and who may occasionally need to be toned down - a lot rather than a group of lagging - self-satisfied men. Salesmen will work just as hard for mental wages as they will for cash commissions. Cash wages keep body and soul together - but mental wages spur the salesman on - ¬keeps him on his toes - and makes him put in his efforts - that something which is not apparent on the surface.

5. Praise the work - not the worker. The sales manager is interested primarily in production. You should therefore put the emphasis there. Word your praise as coming from the general manager - rather than from you as the sales manager - because it carries more weight. Praise is usually more effective if given in the presence of others. Such praise is genuine proof of your sincerity. Don't spread your praise too promiscu¬ously - reserve it for the unusual job -like the fellow with the constant grin - continuous praise loses its force and effectiveness. The quantity and quality of praise must be adapted to the individual salesman. For most salesmen - an occasional pat on the back is essential to bring out the best that is in him. A few salesmen hold such a high opinion of their own ability that they don't need to be told they are good. Those who will become bloated with praise and go to pieces - however - are in the minority. To such salesmen - it is well to temper the word of deserved praise by a reminder that some other branch of his sales work is still not up to expectations.

An- indirect method of praise which is very effective - is to ask the salesman for an opinion as to the method or progress of a certain problem. This gives him a sense of importance - helps to sustain his ego - and believe it or not - his opinions or suggestions may teach you something.

6. Handling of grievances sympathetically is a most open form of mental wage. Salesmen will come to you with various complaints and grievances. They may seem small to you - but they are important to the salesman who has mustered up his nerve to come to you. Listen attentively to the entire story. Don't cut his recital short with a statement that you know all about it-or you will take care of it later. You will immediately create the feeling that you are unsympathetic and unjust. Grant the salesman an opportunity to relate in private - if possible - the entire story. If he is excited - or otherwise worked up - first attempt to restore him to a normal state of mind. Generally the time is never right to dis¬cuss or settle a grievance until you have won a smile from the complainant - and a smile is only possible if the person is restored to a reasonable¬ normal frame of mind. Get all the facts involved and do not let the sales¬man rush you into making an arbitrary decision. Explain to him that both sides are entitled to a hearing. After you have obtained all the facts in the case - make a definite decision as promptly as possible. Undue delay will weaken the salesman's faith in you. Unless you have conclusive authority and faith in your decision - be smart enough and big enough to leave the door open for an appeal. If a salesman is not satisfied with your decision - and you are not sure of your ground - offer to accom¬pany him to your superior officers - where the dispute may be talked over calmly and objectively. The salesman will rarely take up your offer - but certainly the invitation cannot leave him with a feeling that you have been bull-headed and unfair.

7. There is only one justifiable purpose for a reprimand, and that is constructive - to help the salesman improve his work. A reprimand is not merely a bawling-out to be administered in a burst of anger - nor to make the erring salesman feel small- or break down his morale. Be sure the thing you are going to criticize is worth the time and effort that it takes to give the criticism. If it isn't - then skip it. Be sure that the reprimand is deserving. Hold your criticism in check long enough to find out the facts in the case. Do not act in anger. If a salesman makes a mistake through ignorance - the case usually calls for training - not blame. Don't store up resentment over repeated infractions until you bowl over - and rebuke sharply - and in anger. A salesman's reaction to such procedure on your part is one of injustice and bitterness. "If all these things are true - why didn't he speak to me about them before" - is his logical question. The correction of each offense as it occurs will prevent explosions due to penned-up emotions.

8. Don't hesitate to reprimand a salesman for fear it will make you disliked. Disciplining your associates does not detract from the respect with which you are regarded. The boss who is an easy mark is neither respected nor does he get maximum production. Nothing is more unfair to your subordinates - particularly if they are new people - than to allow them to persist in a serious fault without attempting to correct it.

9. Adjust severity of the reprimand to the individual. A sensitive ¬high-strung person may be quite broken up by a scolding which would have little effect on one with a thicker skin and perhaps a duller mind. Gage your method by your analysis of the offender's personality - and also by your experience of his reactions to previous reprimands.

10. In criticizing a salesman's performance - compare his work to a standard - and not the accomplishments of a fellow employee. People do not object to being compared to a standard because that is imper¬sonal. They do object to being compared to a fellow employee who may have other shortcomings which the salesman has had the opportunity to observe. "Why are your sales constantly lower than Mr. Blank's.?" Such a question immediately generates a dozen excuses - "Mr. Blank has been longer with the company" - "He has a private drag with the superin¬tendent" - "Has a drag with the telephone operator and secures tips on prospective buyers" - "Has less missionary work to do" - "Has a drag with some of the undertakers" - or one of many other excuses - which to the salesman are valid reasons.

Such a reprimand fails in its purpose. It does not fill the salesman with the desire to study his own shortcomings - instead it fills his mind with a desire to tear down Mr. Blank - and belittle his accomplishments. The average individual is quite ready to suspect that such is a basis against him and in favor of someone else. No one likes to be compared unfavorably with a person who works next to him. It arouses antipathy against the person whose work is held up as an example - instead of stimulating a resolve to improve one's self. It is better to set up a standard of comparison. Say for example - "We have set a mark - that no sales¬man will turn in less than 3 lots a week" - or - "We are proud of the reputation established by our salesmen - and do not want to spoil this record."

11. Is a public reprimand ever permissible? Such a reprimand may humiliate and embarrass a salesman unnecessarily - while a private talk will offer a much better opportunity to get your point across. I. would say that the only exception to this rule is when the salesman has violated dis¬cipline so openly that other salesmen must be made to see that he cannot get away with it.

12. Check yourself constantly in your dealings with sales people. Sales managers may err in one of two directions. Some are too lenient and mild in the handling of salesmen. Others are too severe. Watch for these danger signals if you are too lenient.

1. Your salesmen will display a lax attitude toward the work in hand.
2. In various cases they will impose on your good disposition.
3. They will exhibit a lack of respect for you.
4. Your salesmen will try to restrict their own output.
5. Your praise will lose its power to stimulate them.

If you are too stern - the following signals may be noted.

1. Your salesmen will begin to avoid you.
2. They will display a stubborn and sullen attitude.
3. Turnover in your Department will be higher than normal.
4. Your salesmen will try to restrict their own output.
5. Their dislike will be manifested by opposition shown to things that you are trying to accomplish. This opposition is usually hidden and generally very difficult to detect, except by decreased production.

13. Be a teacher. Have you ever heard a sales manager say in tones of exasperation - I have told that fellow a dozen times how to do that job and he still doesn't know how to do it- the rather obvious answer to such a statement is that apparently some one did not do a very good job of teaching. For teaching is not merely telling. It is telling plus fol¬low-up. First explain - then demonstrate if you can. After you have done this - ask the salesman to explain and demonstrate the idea to you until he has assimilated all of the details. From this point on - the training job consists of persistent and unceasing routine on your part of follow-up –follow-up – follow-up.

14. Give your salesmen a chance to earn mental wages. Every salesman seeks recognition and some measure of a place in the sun. Men will work hard to merit service stripes or medals to prove their value to you and your company. Do not hold back with these little things which mean so much. I heard a story recently that illustrates this point in reverse. A young man who had been working for about 6 months was asked by his father - How he was getting along. "Fine" - said the son. "They want to make me a partner in the business already." "Is that so? What did they say about that" - inquired the father - "They told me I would have to get another job if I did not take an interest in the business."

15. Don't take yourself too seriously. A sense of humor is an exceed¬ingly valuable addition to a sales manager's kit of tools. Many a serious situation can be passed over and tranquility restored by a joke or a hearty laugh. Don't make the mistake of confusing dignity with serious¬ness. Be cheerful in, order that those around you may be likewise and the entire atmosphere purified thereby.

However, jokes that ridicule or have a basis of sarcasm are extremely dangerous. To a subordinate a spiteful jest or a note of sarcasm is par¬ticularly galling. One of the bitterest comments that a salesman can make of his boss is - that is sarcastic.

16. You are a constant pattern for your subordinates. The instinct of imitation is one of the most powerful of human instincts. Those whom you employ are being constantly and unconsciously influenced by your appearance - your voice - your manner - your entire attitude. If you are a poor example - expect nothing above that grade from your employees.
A great president once laid out 14 points by which he hoped to con¬vert the world. All of his points had merit. A world that was out of tune soon disregarded his 14 points.

Here I am bold enough to present 17 of 30 points to men who must be thinking constructively along these lines - or you would not be hold¬ing the position you do occupy. I only hope that my 17 points will not meet the same lack of acceptance that was accorded those 14 points which President Wilson propounded.

From the publication:
“1940-1941 Cemetery Handbook & Buyers’ Guide”
ACOA 11th Annual Convention & Exposition
Hotel Statler, Buffalo, New York
September 8-11, 1940

Gentlemen, the title of "Profits Through Publicity" and the subject itself is really so broad that you might say it would be more or less correct to feel that every branch of the cemetery business comes more or less under publicity.

Never having had a publicity department connected with my property, I will touch upon and explain briefly several of the different branches of my business, the activities of which could be more or less classified under publicity, inviting any of you to interrupt me at any time to ask questions about anything you wish.

The generally accepted form of publicity or what we all call publicity, that is the mortuary notices, news articles with reference to prominent people who have died, the dedication of flag poles, fountains, public memorials and so forth and so forth as well as the use of sign boards, radio, paid newspaper advertising, both black and white and rotogravure, and the use of hand-out pieces of literature have produced results of course, but these results have been of a rather intangible value and so extremely hard to measure that I will not attempt to go into that in detail.

We have in the past used direct-by-mail canvass with more or less favorable results but it seems that the public is only susceptible to this type of publicity at irregular Intervals and the results of even this type of publicity are somewhat hard to measure.

My experience however has been that there are a few types of what might be called publicity, the value of which can be more or less accurately measured from a profitable standpoint and of course all of us already know that "volume of sales" is the answer between profit and loss, providing that volume can be created without too much expense.

Now all of this, as I see it, boils itself down to one basic principal, that basic principal is personal contact. This personal contact may be had in quite a number of variations, some of which I will explain but the basis of any successful campaign in this business I believe is fundamen¬tally personal contact. Now, that personal contact of course can be more effective if it is assisted by such things as a good piece of literature, fine improvements in your cemetery, large Endowment Funds well regulated, moving picture lectures, historical record contacts, prizes for prospective purchasers to visit the grounds, recommendations or introductory cards introducing representatives to prospective lot buyers, Easter Morning services, Memorial Day services and so forth and so forth.

After all of the outlined above activities and publicity has been used along with many other things I have forgotten to mention, just how much business walks in your front door wanting to buy a cemetery lot-not much-in fact, we would all starve to death if we did not go out and beat the bushes and follow up by personal contact. Recently one of my salesmen said that he was the third man to canvass a certain territory and he got more business out of it than the other two combined. He thought it was strange but I did not think so-that is the natural result of per¬sonal contact publicity. The first man through that territory only picked up a very few prospects but started the people to thinking-the next man through picked up a few more but refreshed the minds of those people to the fact that they should own their cemetery lot and by the time the third man came through that territory, it had been called to their attention and they had given it serious thought, making them cemetery conscious. That is one type of publicity seldom recognized as such but certainly one that pays dividends.

The ones who make these personal contacts of course must be trained in the particular type of contact they are to make or they must be par¬ticularly gifted in some particular line of personality so that the all impor¬tant fundamental of selling, will be immediately evident, that fundamental being the ability to inspire confidence on short acquaintance.

Now I ask you, can any representative, associate or employee of a cemetery organization inspire confidence unless he is confident, knows his business and is thoroughly sold on it himself; therefore I say to you, the point of beginning is to sell every member of your own organization first. If you see you cannot sell them, invite them to get other employment. The different types of personal contact which produce the best profits and best results are not always the methods of operation that the salesmen like the best. By this, I remind you as managers and sales managers that in hiring salesmen many potential salesmen would not even go to work for you if you told them immediately they must canvass but if after a period of months each salesman turns in a report showing where each sale originated and that report develops that about 70% of all sales originate from canvassing, then the salesmen sell themselves on canvassing as being the best method to produce the most results.

The historical record which has been explained to this Association creates good will among the lot owners and produces the names of friends, relatives and business associates at a time when they are cem¬etery conscious and therefore it produces steadily a volume of business that can be measured in dollars and cents.

One other medium of publicity has recently been developed and the ideas I am using have principally been copied from you gentlemen listening to me, so I will not go into detail at this point on the program in connection with the colored moving picture lecture system, however I have brought with me my colored moving pictures and my charts and before this convention is over, I will show those pictures and give my lecture which I use before church sponsored groups and I will give this just for the benefit of those few who may wish to hear it. It will not be a regular part on this program.

This lecture system however which we have now used for just about three months is a form of publicity which can be used in two or three different ways and the value of each one of these methods can be meas¬ured in dollar volume of business. In fact, the second month we used this lecture system, the month of July, it produced a very satisfactory volume of business which could be traced direct to the lectures themselves. This lecture system which is based on a very nice entertainment in our own chapel in the center of our cemetery property gives the sales¬man an opportunity to bring out their prospects at a definite time and in most cases where these prospects come to these lectures a sale is made immediately following.

Now getting back to selling the salesman which is more or less indirect publicity. I do not believe that a sales organization can have too much system and from my observation the system most generally used is to pat the representative on the back, wish him well and hope that he will make a sale. This will produce only modest results, if any. Certainly the training of sales people is essential and then after they are trained they must be advised with at regular intervals-in fact their entire day must be more or less laid out for them-they must be furnished with sales kits and literature of course but from time to time the sales manager must sit down with each one individually and refresh their memory on things they already know but have not been using. Recently in one of our sales meetings I asked each representative to take a piece of paper, write a personal inventory of their own methods, ability, how much time they were putting in on new contacts and at what time of day and so forth and to complete these personal inventories by criticizing their own methods. The results are fine. Of course I pretty well knew what the criticism of each man should be anyway and each man knew it himself but in writing it down and then sitting down with me for a half hour or an hour and going over their entire program and their prospects schedule for the coming 60 days, "it had the same effect that a school boy who misspelled a word and is required to write it on the board fifty times-he just does not misspell it again and the salesman who has been contacting 3 or 4 new contacts a day on the average begins to set aside 3 or 4 hours a day for new contacts and systematically make 25 or 30 new contacts a day. Several of my men who had apparently worked them¬selves into a rut immediately began to become enthusiastic, their mental attitude was changed, they began to produce and again I say to you that the first and most important publicity is the foundation work in your own organization.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: Does anyone have any questions now? I would like to ask Mr. Eubank if he would describe two things in the form of publicity with respect to his perpetual care fund. One is billboards and the other is advertisements in a general church paper showing the growth of his fund from nothing up to the present amount.

PRESIDENT EUBANK: There is a chart of that growth which will appear in the lecture tomorrow morning, starting out with nothing and growing to over a quarter million dollars, dates taken two or three years apart and the amount of money in the endowment fund as of different dates. That explains that part.

We used lighted signboards scattered all over the country. We didn't get many results from them. We didn't get any-results that we could trace, so I just quit all of those and contracted for one lighted signboard on our grounds. We happen to be located on the main highway between Houston and Galveston and we are right in town. The main traffic to the Bay goes right through our property. We are on both sides of the road. We built a fifty-foot signboard lighted with Neon, and every four months we changed the color scheme on that signboard. The same mes¬sage from an advertising standpoint is always on the board and the one thing that is featured is the amount of dollars in the perpetual care trust fund endowment, perpetual care and endowment funds of so much money-that is in dollars and figures. That is the one big thing. Below that "Ask your banker." And the date is put on there and the amount of money in the endowment fund as of that date.

We actually traced $2,000 in sales the first 90 days that came in our front door from that signboard. Does that answer your question?

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: Then about the church paper.

PRESIDENT EUBANK: The church paper is a list of dates, the amount of money in the trust fund as of each of these dates, starting out with small type and gradually building up, just like the insurance figures do.

MR. C. E. BRYAN (Pasadena, CA): I would like to ask a question. I notice that it is getting to be quite a fad to advertise your perpetual care fund. Now I have analyzed that a little bit in our territory because we have one concern "Forest Lawn," which makes quite a show of it, and it has actually been my experience that has been bad advertising.

Now here are the results: There isn't a man in this room that can tell how much money ought to be put aside for perpetual care fund, and we use it actually against the cemetery. We say to them that the law of our state compels you to put up 25 cents a foot for a grave, which we can show absolutely isn’t enough. It requires us to put up $15.00 for a crypt that is more than four times as much in proportion as 25 cents for the grave.

Now, the only thing I am making the point of is that if you can simply say you have a perpetual care fund and anyone who is interested in it can be given the full information, but to tell the public about the perpetual care, you have raised the question that is an obstacle to your sale.

PRESIDENT EUBANK: We have found it just the opposite. Every banker in town knows about the trust fund and we advertise the amount of money in it. We don't talk about how much a square foot just about the amount of money, just saying "Ask your banker."

MR. GALL (Cleveland): Over how long a period did it take you to develop the trust fund you have today?

PRESIDENT EUBANK: Eighteen years. We have about $276,000 or $277,000.

MR. GALL: $278,000 is some trust fund!

MR. YELLAND: We put aside 10 percent.

PRESIDENT EUBANK: Ours is a good deal in excess of the require¬ments of the law, but the percentage basis I think is wrong. It ought to be based on so much per square foot. Ours is created that way and is irrevocable. If it doesn’t comply with the law, we will put up whatever does.

MR. COWAN: I should like to ask, does the amount you put in your perpetual care fund which you advertise, represent the actual amount or the value of the securities in which the money has been invested.

PRESIDENT EUBANK: That represents the actual amount that has been put in. At this time we have it in one railroad bond that is under par. Practically all the rest is in government and municipal bonds, and cash. Any bonuses or premiums are taken out of income.

MR. SPARKS (Philadelphia): Did you find those city maps you put out were good publicity?

PRESIDENT EUBANK: Excellent. We put out 35,000 and we had to reach another medium because so many of the people of the town had those.

MR. S. WHEELER (San Antonio, Texas): I would like to ask if, after all, the perpetual care that you give your cemetery isn't what you base your sales on. If it isn't the perpetual care you are giving, what have you to give over the hone-care cemetery and isn't it good business to advertise it? There are some cemeteries today that say they have a perpetual care fund. It is not an irrevocable fund and it is not a trust fund. It is managed and controlled by the cemetery owners or boards, and after all, outside of the perpetual care fund, what have we to offer?

PRESIDENT EUBANK: I think a perpetual care fund is one of the biggest selling assets in the cemetery. That is the way I have always looked at it. I think any perpetual trust fund should be an irrevocable trust.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: Mr. Shea of Houston voiced a question to Mr. McBride, which seems to me is very important, and I am going to precede it for just a moment. How many here have chapels in their cemetery, any kind of chapel? (Several) Let me see the hands of those that have 60 percent of their services in the chapel. (Two) How many 50 percent? (None) How many 40 percent? (None) How many 30 percent? (None) How many 20 percent? (None) How many 10 percent? (Five) This question of Mr. Shea's to Mr. McBride is rather pertinent. We find in some places the funeral directors resent the use of the cemetery chapels and Mr. McBride must have developed something to reach that percentage and I wish he would tell us what it is.

MR. McBRIDE: Mr. Shea, we don't attempt to hold or try to get the people to hold the entire service in the chapel. We don't want to take anything away from the undertaker. They have their service at the funeral home, as usual. The people call at the funeral home. The service that I talk about as being 60 percent held in the chapel is that service that is normally held at the grave. The percentage of the services held in our chapel of the entire service, I wouldn't be able to tell you. It is probably insignificant.

MR. SHEA: But the main services are held at the undertaker's?

MR. McBRIDE: The services are held as usual at the funeral home and the normal service that would be held at the grave is the service I refer to as being held in our chapel.

MR. HOEFGEN: Do you sell him the idea that that is more comfortable than at the grave?

MR. MCBRIDE: I do. Our superintendent is a very sympathetic man and kindly man to meet, and just the type of person for that particular occasion, and our success, if it has been a success, and I think it has, due to the fact the people like it, is almost entirely due to him. We had some objections first from the undertakers, they not understanding that we were not trying to take anything away from them. They also felt that it required them to handle the casket twice, but when we got over the idea that we were not attempting to take anything away from them in the form of usurping any part of their service and also the fact that we take the casket from the chapel to the grave, and that they are through once it is delivered in the chapel by themselves, their responsibility ceases, we have overcome to a great extent that objection, and that is the part of the service we hold at the grave normally. Sixty percent of it is now held in our chapel rather than at the grave.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: Do you find a drift of the families toward having a complete service?

MR. McBRIDE: No, I would say not.

MR. HOEFGEN: You are fortunate, Earl, in being able to contact your lot owner and client, which most cemeteries don't have the opportunity of doing?

MR. McBRIDE: Almost entirely we invariably insist, unless it is on special occasions, that we interview and make the entire arrangements that are to be conducted at the cemetery with the individual.

MR. HOEFGEN: Most cemeteries don't have that opportunity.

MR. HOWARD T. OTT (Milwaukee): I was wondering what means of conveyance you use to transfer the body from the chapel to the grave. You said you dismiss the hearse.

MR. McBRIDE: Ordinarily that has been conducted on one of these little rubber-tired buggies. We are just now considering the purchase of a proper vehicle for that. Our cemetery is not so large and our chapel is located almost in the center of the cemetery, so they don't have more than about 1,000 feet in the long direction and 400 or 500 feet in the shorter directions from any place. That is a great advantage.

MR. OTT: In some places, particularly in Milwaukee, they have rather objected to the idea of the chapel. It necessitates handling of the casket twice.

MR. McBRIDE: We have overcome that.

MR. OTT: The idea surprises me that you will get an undertaker to depart without completing his service, to leave the body with you, an unlicensed individual, as far as the handling is concerned. I had one occasion where an undertaker in Milwaukee became very much vexed with the idea. It began to rain and because it rained the family elected to use the chapel and he handed me the papers in a rather rough manner, if I may say so and said, “There are your papers and there is the body” and away he went. We didn’t do much about it until about a half hour later when we were sure he got way back home. I called him up and asked him if he wanted me to tell the family we were going to haul it or whether he would send his hearse. We wouldn’t do it unless the family knew what we were doing.” In 17 minutes he was back in the hearse and he called it off. After that we are getting along all right.

MR. A.H. BIGELOW (Omaha, NE): Do I understand the undertaker is the master of ceremonies in your chapel exercises as well as the funeral home?

MR. McBRIDE: In our town the undertakers don’t participate much in the actual service. They are there, but the services are generally conducted by a pastor or somebody of that sort and our people look after whatever is necessary in the chapel, bringing the flowers and the undertaker is in attendance at all funerals but invariably they depart after the service.

From the publication:
“1940-1941 Cemetery Handbook & Buyers’ Guide”
ACOA 11th Annual Convention & Exposition
Hotel Statler, Buffalo, New York
September 8-11, 1940

In every line of business today profits are largely dependent upon busi¬ness management and not upon haphazard luck, as it has been in a good many years in the past, and business management is dependent upon the records they have upon which they have to base their decisions from day to day.

I have had an opportunity to prepare a little chart of what I feel are the primary records within a cemetery, and these include the following: You have, of course, your sales department, and under that your prospect records and your sales records. You have your lot records with the lots sold, your interments, and indexes to lot owners and you have your accounting department with their component parts of collecting the money, the accounts receivable, the accounts payable and the payroll records.

I want to cover each one of those things with the prospect record be¬cause, after all, that is where your business begins. You can't collect money for selling of lots or you can't sell monuments or tombs or have interments until you have sold a lot, and neither can you sell a lot until you have had a prospect for selling one.

Whether you as a cemetery owner manage the salesmen yourself or whether you have someone else as sales manager that takes care of that. You are interested in knowing what your salesmen are doing, is he developing prospects, and so forth? A very simple prospect record can be taken care of in three parts, - one alphabetic listing of all of the prospects for the purchase of lots, monuments, tombs, or whatever it may be, set up on 5x3 cards and indexed alphabetically, which will contain all of the prospects that the various salesmen have.

Then we have found that a visible record containing two forms in which each salesman's prospects are set up alphabetically - these forms right here. One of these remains in the file (illustrating) as a permanent card and to this is posted each contact, each follow-up date, and so forth. The other form contains exactly the same information except it is the salesman's work card and being invisible equipment, it is possible to use signals on this so when a salesman comes in and says he has to follow this up on such and such a date, a signal is indicated to indicate that date or a day prior. The girls in the office can go to this file and for each salesman she pulls out these orange cards and hands them to the sales¬man and that is a reminder he is supposed to follow a certain prospect on such a date. At the same time there appears on the visible margin a black space to indicate the orange card has been given to the salesman. At the time this is returned, if he hasn't completed his sale the girl posts here the date of next follow up and readjusts the signal.

What are the advantages? You have a complete record of each sales¬man's prospects. You know the cards he has taken out to call on and hasn't reported. There is a space here on which you can mark the various stages, - his first call, the demonstration, the date he brought the man in to look at the lot, and so forth, and you can go to that at any time and have a complete check up on exactly what your salesmen are doing, which I think is a pretty good idea, and in that way you know exactly where your next possible sales may be located.

A salesman develops a prospect. You sell your lot, and the next thing is to keep a record of the lots that you have sold, which calls of course for a lot record and of course there must be a cross index to that.

I have developed a few systems for records as used by the Harrisburg Cemetery, which we feel is the ideal set-up. We realize there are as many different kinds of equipment being used as you might say people selling office equipment, but these people have made use of this possibility. They set up visible equipment, one card for each lot in the cemetery. This is indexed numerically by section and lot number. When the lot is sold, this card is removed from the visible equipment and to this is posted right on the visible margin the name of the lot owner, so this one record com¬bines two purposes. It acts as a complete list of the lots sold or your lot record, as is usually accepted, and it also gives you all of the lots that are yet to be sold.

Of course, you have got to have with this an alphabetical list indexed to lot owners. This is usually taken care of either on vertical cards filed alphabetically, as do the Harrisburg Cemetery Association, or you can make use of Kardex Chainex, which as an index to lot owners is nothing more than reference for that can be typed on three lines of space.

This gives you an amazingly fast, compact, visible record for refer¬ence purposes. Your complete information, of course, is on your lot record card. Then, of course, your index to interred. On this card, as each burial is made in the cemetery they post the date of the burial, name of person, and other information. Of course, the design of the card form will conform with the wishes and demands of the particular ceme¬tery. In this case they just post the date of burial, name and coded information.

They cross index, so this is made on 6x4 vertical cards, and the reason for this 6x4 card in this case was due to the fact they wanted a good deal of information about each of the interred. Where such is not the case, it is easily possible to use your Chainex for this purpose.
Therefore, these three records, - your one lot record card set up by lot number and indexed to lot owners, plus your index to interred should be sufficient information so that you can secure the name of any person that has been buried in your cemetery, the name of any lot owner, a com¬plete list of all lots that have been sold, and also a complete list of all lots that are to be sold.

A lot is sold and of course you want to get your money for it. That is the most important thing. You have to go to the accounting depart¬ment to do that, and you have your accounts receivable, accounts payable, and the payroll. The accounts receivable, of course, collect for your interments, for special care, payments for perpetual care, and various charges of many kinds. A good many of the newer cemeteries are selling lots on a deferred payment basis. I don't know how many of you gentle¬men are doing that but I think quite a few. When you start dealing in deferred payments, you complicate your accounting problem a good deal. However, there are some cemeteries that have made use of an accounting machine which we feel has simplified this a good deal. If Mr. Minear is here, he could probably explain this better than I can, because I believe he is using this set-up.

In this case there are salesmen and the sales office and they are both paid on a commission basis. This requires, of course, that they keep a complete record of the account with the customer after the lot is sold, - the salesmen's commissions and the sales office commission and they do this with one single posting which we have posted of both the cus¬tomer's account, which is maintained, the sales office commission account and a salesman's commission account, and at the same time they posted the salesman payroll statement.

This is usually closed out, and at that time the ledger card is removed from this section and filed in a section in which all are paying commis¬sions to the office. It is maintained in a different section until all the payments are made and the customer's account is closed.

Of course, this is very fine, but there is one drawback to this set-up. That is, when you start dealing in deferred payments there is a little item of getting your money. A lot of people who make a few payments decide, “Well, I don’t know whether we wanted that or not" or "We will wait a couple of months, we have other bills we want to pay and things are a little short. So it is nice to keep an auxiliary record to this and we feel that either Kardex or some of its component parts or various things of that line are the ideal record for keeping this follow up. Through the use of signals it is possible to chart the age of the oldest unpaid balance of each account at all times, which makes the job of finding delinquencies very easy. You have got to know who owes you money before you can go after them to get it. Through the use of signals it has been found that delinquencies have been improved anywhere from 2 to 4 percent, which is not bad.

Of course, in a good many cemeteries that do not use the deferred payment basis, it has been possible to incorporate the ledger card with the lot record. That again is dependent on the number of lot record cards and whether or not the two departments operate close enough together to make this possible.

Going from this into your payroll record, where a machine is used, such as this, where you have your statement, you also have the payroll record kept the same way. Of course, the government has complicated those a good deal with social security, unemployment insurance, and so forth. In this case they take their personnel record card and post that on the machine. However, for the gardeners, office help, where they do not keep this commission statement, they use standard record forms kept in a small book unit for keeping the social security records of other than salesmen, which has been found to work out very satisfactorily.

Now there is one other item that I want to refer to, and that is this: The records of a cemetery are very valuable. They are supposed to be kept permanently, and I am quite sure you all plan to do that unless something might happen which is not foreseen, and which I might say is a fire. There is a little subject of record protection. Your lot records, your inter¬ment records, your accounts receivable, you know are too often entrusted to iron safes or steel vaults with a steel door, which our underwriters will not rate more than half an hour protection against fire. Such a thing just shouldn't exist, when it is so very easy to place all of these records in certified, insulated equipment congruent with the risk in which these records might be forced to be. And you can do this without losing any of the operating efficiency of the record.

There has been a great deal of new equipment developed within the last five or six years in which all such things as Kardex cabinets, filing cabinets, ledger trays, are insulated. Quite often it is figured a steel file cabinet because it is steel won't burn. Unfortunately, the contents of it do, and it is so often the case. That is the one thing I would like to impress upon you, that you gentlemen look into that problem, because I have been in quite a few cemeteries in various places, and there are a lot of them where your interment records and lot records are set in steel files, and they shouldn't be. For one thing you owe it to your lot owners and the people buried there to keep those records for them. A steel file won't do it.

Going back and briefly summarizing, considering your sales depart¬ment with your prospects, your lot record with the simple index of lot owners, and your index to interred, plus your accounting department - an office that is laid out that way, as you can see there (referring to black-board), - your lot record is tied up with your sales record. Your accounts receivable is again tied up with your lots sold. With that set-up I think you might be able to simplify things a good deal as far as maintaining of the records within your office is concerned.

From the publication:
“1940-1941 Cemetery Handbook & Buyers’ Guide”
ACOA 11th Annual Convention & Exposition
Hotel Statler, Buffalo, New York
September 8-11, 1940