Groce Funeral Home

Six years ago, Dale Groce believed an active preneed program was not essential to the long-term success of his Asheville, NC, funeral home. But when falling interest rates on preneed trusts began to affect profitability, Groce turned to Homesteaders to develop a more strategic approach.

Preneed Funeral Program (PFP) Vice President Troy Lovingood and Homesteaders Senior Account Executive Brandon Full worked with Groce to actively promote advance funeral planning in the community. Within the first year of implementing a preneed marketing strategy, the firm generated more than $1.5 million in preneed sales.

“We found out the conventional wisdom was absolutely crazy,” Groce reflected. “It turns out our clients did want to arrange their own funerals, and they did want to take the decision making and the burden away from their families.”

Lovingood credits much of the success to the firm’s willingness to adopt PFP’s customized approach to research-based marketing. “We tailor marketing solutions to every firm,” he explained. “We let our marketing analysis determine our strategy.”

In the six years since joining Homesteaders and PFP, Groce Funeral Home has increased its market share by 15 percent, secured more than $8.5 million in preneed funds and grown its at-need business by 20 percent. Groce described their success noting, “I attribute a great deal of that to the marketing being done by PFP and Homesteaders.”