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As part of our ongoing training of our sales staff, I reviewed the Elberton Granite Association (EGA)’s Monument Selling Techniques. As with any business concept, any organization that is going to thrive must conduct internal training of its staff.
EGA identifies and lists the five buying motives as pride, profit, fear, love and need. Although these are very general categories, these motives can be made into specific actions for memorialization.
Our clients take pride in purchasing monuments from us to honor either the life of their loved one or their own life, to recognize their family, to record accomplishments, and to assure themselves that they will have a personalized design. It is natural that a family would want to express pride through memorialization.
Clients purchase for profit to save money today over future costs and because there is a perceived value to the consumer.
Clients purchase monuments because of the fear that a grave will become unmarked. As one who has spent a lot of time in cemeteries, it is very sad to see graves without a headstone, with the monument of someone’s descendant lost to time.
Love is expressed through a tangible expression that will last for eternity. When I memorialized our family through a personalized bench (see www.ValdostaMemorials.com) it represented my tangible expression of love for all to see, both during my lifetime and beyond. My love was communicated through personalized messages engraved on the bench.
Likewise, when I built the coping for our family with four corner posts with the paternal and maternal family names of both sets of my grandparents, I engraved the story to bear witness and to explain forever the story behind the engraving. Every grave should be memorialized with the idea that the story should be self-explanatory after all living relatives have expired and all who knew the deceased have themselves expired.
The final buying emotion is need. Every purchase involves the desire to mark the grave. Likewise, a memorial is a permanent object and location for the focus of grief. Many families have come to realize a sense of incompleteness when a loved one’s ashes are dispersed without a permanent memorial for remembrance and grieving.
As part of need, everyone realizes that the burial process is not complete until the monument has been purchased and installed with an assurance that the product purchased is made from quality material that will withstand the test of time.
Upon reflection, pride, profit, fear, love, and need are very appropriate motives that should be addressed by the sales person, in both the pre-need and at-need setting for maximum long term satisfaction, because the client is experiencing these feelings. A client should question any memorialist who does not recognize these motives, as this profession is not just about “business.”
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