Dale Groce, along with his brother, proudly carry on the legacy for their family owned funeral home Groce Funeral Home in Asheville, NC which can be traced back to the Great Depression.
Prior to bringing on PFP as their preneed marketing partner, Groce didn’t see a need for an active preneed program and relied on bank trusts for the preneed contracts that he did have on the books. Once the bank interest rates began dwindling, he recognized the need for a stronger, more active preneed program and soon after brought PFP on board.
PFP initially conducted an in-depth market analysis to determine the most appropriate marketing strategy for their funeral home. Troy Lovingood, PFP’s Senior Vice President & Regional Director, noted the investment PFP makes into developing only the most qualified leads saying, “Every single time we match the message in a mail piece to the segment we’re trying to reach . . . home-run.”
With PFP and Homesteaders by their side, Groce Funeral Home produced more than $1.5 million in preneed sales in the first year.
After beginning their preneed marketing campaign, Groce saw the expressed interest in pre-planning from the families in his community. “It turns out our clients did want to arrange their own funerals,” Groce said. “And they did want to take the decision making and the burden away from their families.”
Since becoming PFP’s partner in preneed, Groce has seen success across the board at his funeral home. “In the six years that we have had a proactive preneed program, our at-need volume has grown 20%, our market share has grown 15%, and we now have more than $8.5 million built up in preneed funds,” he said. “This absolutely ensures our future the and the future of our next generation of our family who is carrying on the business. I attribute a great deal of that to the marketing being done by Homesteaders and PFP.”