Since my friend, Michael Manley of the Funeral Business Advisor, has been so kind as to share his plans for world domination (insert maniacal laughter here) I thought I’d rain on his parade a little.

Actually, Michael has basically (in not so many words) asked me to give him my impressions, so I’m going to do it.  Hopefully he can use these questions and the suggestions I’ve offered (without being asked) to make his plan more robust.  No sense conquering only half the world if a little tweaking could help you take it all.

If you’ve got no clue what I’m talking about, read Can You Negotiate SCI-Level Casket Discounts?, where I answer a reader’s question about creating a collective, and then check out Michael Manley on a Possible FBA Buying Collective, where Michael Manley describes the plan he’s already formulating.

Here’s a recap of Michael’s plan, as I understand it:

1.  Solicit vendor members and funeral home members using the current advertising and subscription list from Funeral Business Advisor.  The vendors will get orders and advertising while the members will benefit from group-only discounts.

2.  For a fee ($99 a month for vendor, $19 a month for funeral home) the collective will create a website to show off all the discounted products.  The collective will also have a ”Buying Guide” section in the Funeral Business Advisor magazine.

3.  Twice a year they’ll publish a “Buying Group” catalog for members.

4.  The collective will handle the ordering and invoicing for members. 

And now, my questions:

1.  Encouraging a funeral home to spend $19 a month for this service means you’ve got guarantee you’ll save them at least that much on merchandise.  Without signing up every casket manufacturer (a difficult task), how can you guarantee that big a savings, especially if the funeral home doesn’t use one of the casket makers you’ve signed up?  While I know Final Embrace will be offering our quilted mortuary cot covers through your collective, I can’t imagine that even a 10% savings on a product someone buys once every few years will make up for the expense.

2.  Will you allow more than one vendor for each market segment?  In other words, will you restrict membership to just one casket maker, one cot cover maker, one fluid seller?

3.  How do you keep advertisers from abandoning the more expensive advertising space in your magazine by joining the buyer’s group?  Do you think you’ll be able to encourage companies to continue advertising in the other sections?  Or is the buying collective one way to encourage smaller companies, who might not be able to spend a lot of cash on big ads, to utilize your ad services?

4.  Will you charge a transaction fee to the vendor?  If your collective makes great strides, handling orders, invoicing and collections might cause a strain on your administrative staff.  And since they’re aren’t infinite numbers of potential vendors and clients, wild success might mean a huge strain on your ability to service the group without equal gains in cashflow.  It’s possible that charging a transaction fee after the first “X” number of orders might be more appropriate.

5.  Would you streamline the process by requiring all vendors to offer the same discount (say, 10%) or would you allow each vendor to create their own offer?

6.  Could you expand the group by buying a few pages in other industry publications and advertising the group?  This would help mitigate any credibility issues your magazine might have with people who haven’t yet received your publication.  Of course, just because I hadn’t seen it doesn’t mean most of the independents haven’t.

7.  What keeps the vendors from simply raising their price by 10% and marketing exclusively to your 17,500 prospective buyers?

8.  How will you handle firms with multiple locations?  Will they be receiving an unfair advantage because they only pay $19 for all their locations? 

9.  Now that I’ve finished giving you heck, when can I sign up?