The tombstone prospecting and selling met
In Ghana, the one-year remembrance day of the death of a loved one involves the unveiling of a tombstone very early in the morning by family members and friends, a remembrance service on Sunday, and after that, party time!
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So one can imagine the amount of planning that is required within a month or two before the day.
A few years ago, I had a personal experience when such an event had to be planned to remember my father-in-law. Indeed, it required a lot of planning to deliver “a flawless execution” as my friends in brand management would say. My wife who is the Chief Organising Officer (COO) in the family (be it parties, weddings, christening, etc.) was as usual deeply involved in making things happen. Very thorough and devoted to what she does, she started by doing a check-list of all the 'to-do' items.
Suddenly she asked "'Mawuli, do you know where to order a tombstone from?" What? I asked. Neither of us had a clue! Our first step was to look through the various business directories without any success. Secondly, we searched online for “tombstone suppliers in Ghana” which returned "No results found."
In our frustration, we began to make phone calls to persons we knew had lost loved ones and had gone through the same process. It was in the mist of this chaos that a phone call came through to my wife in the office.
Caller: Good afternoon, may I speak with Mrs. O
Wife: Mrs. O here.
Caller: My name is ...............I build tombstones, and I know you will need one soon.
Wife: How did you know that I needed a tombstone and who gave you my phone number?
Caller: Well, it is almost a year ago when you lost your father, right? When can have a meeting and I will tell about how we may be able to assist you?
I was indeed very curious and keen to understand this tombstone salesperson's prospecting and sales system, so I joined my wife for the meeting.
Below are the six lessons salespeople can learn from the tombstone salesperson:
1. Develop a Sales process
The tombstones salesperson uses a well-defined sales process which aligns with the buying process of buyers. They understand the fact that by tradition, tombstones are erected as part of the one-year remembrance of the passing of a loved one and therefore their sales cycle in one year.
Successful sales organisations have a clearly defined, documented sales process for their salespeople. However, in my consulting work, it is shocking to see the number of sales organisations who don’t have a sales process.
2. Always generate leads
Every day the tombstone salesperson scours through the newspapers for leads for potential tombstone buyers by cutting out obituary announcements. These leads are carefully filed away knowing that the sales cycle is a year. This continuous leads generation activity creates a huge data base of leads for the tombstone salesperson.
3. Develop your criteria to qualify leads
In order to be effective, the tombstone salesperson uses a number of criteria to create the ideal customer profile out of the leads generated. This includes a) the size of the obituary announcement – for example a quarter, half or full-page; b) whether it is published in colour or black & white; and 3) the number of times it is published. These are all criteria in determining the ability of the family to afford the different types of tombstone available in terms of price.
In addition, many of the obituary announcements are a treasure trove of lead quality, since they usually include a tall list of names of widow(er)s, children, cousins, nephews and nieces, grandchildren and chief mourners. And of course, they come with their titles, professions as well as work places. The profession, social and economic status of the family members also become a qualifying criteria used by the tombstone salesperson.
4. Be prepared before approaching the prospect
Successful salespeople are those who know budgeting cycle of their clients, when decisions are taken to buy a product/service, as well as who are involved in the decision-making process and their specific roles.
The tombstone salesperson is a master at this. He starts approaching qualified leads two months before the one-year remembrance event; because that is the time families start planning and taking key decisions. More importantly, that is when a budget is made available. It is exactly what happened to my wife.
The tombstone salesperson simply looked up my wife's name from the obituary announcement (filed for the last 1 year), checked business directory and found the telephone numbers to her company and called.
5. Presentation is important
The tombstone salesperson’s presentation was compelling and straight to the point. Using his laptop computer, he showed my wife a wide range of options with different prices, delivery terms etc. Salespeople should invest time in developing compelling presentations and carry tablets or laptops to their meetings.
6. Build long lasting relationship with your customers
The tombstone salesperson still has my wife’s contact on his database. He calls occasionally to say hello and not to ask for referrals. He knows by being constantly in touch, he will be top-of-mind should there be any opportunity for a referral. Selling is about long lasting relationships and the tombstone salesperson knows that. A couple of months ago, he called my wife and said “I am in the cemetery where your father was buried erecting a tombstone for a client. I just checked on your dad and noticed that his tombstone needs some touch-up, so we’ve done just that.” Awesome!