I watched the finals of the tennis world’s French Open last month and marvelled at the ease with which Rafael Nadal dispatched his opponent in straight sets (6-1, 6-3, 6-0).

In fact, he didn’t lose a set during the entire tournament.  He played his best and won big.

And his opponent was Roger Federer, who’s won the last five Wimbledon titles and has been called the best tennis player of his generation.  Others claim that Federer is close to being the best player ever.

Except, he can’t seem to beat Nadal on a clay court.

I’ve been thinking a lot about “being the best” lately.  Trying to choose advertising for upcoming magazines, deciding upon which fabric patterns need to be added or deleted from our offerings and planning for future product lines have all put pressure on me to figure what might make us “THE BEST COT COVER COMPANY” in the industry.

And then I had a small epiphany:  we don’t have to be THE best. 

Often, trying to be THE best ends in failure, as you realize that you don’t have the necessary tools, personality or funding to achieve the goal.  THE BEST is a lofty height to reach, and the path, in any field, is littered with the deflated egos of those who couldn’t make it.

But we all strive for THE BEST, because we’ve been told that’s the mark to aim for.

I’ve decided to aim lower.  I’ve got some good resources (tools, skills and cash) that may not be the best ever, but I know how to use them.  If I can figure out how to use what I have to make this company OUR best, we might just make a huge impact on this industry.

First, being OUR best is a goal I know we can achieve.  Second, using our resources to their greatest potential will yield unbelievable results for our small company. 

Think about it - while only one person, company or team can be THE best, being YOUR best is attainable. 

RELATED POST:
Stop Competing on Their Court

In between showings of our beautiful cot covers to attendees, I had time to chat with Ryan and Spencer from Hilltop.net about the nature of trade shows and how to grab the attention of passing funeral directors.

Ryan’s early pitch to passersby was “Do you have a website?” which occasionally yielded a “No,” providing an opening for him to talk about his easy-to-use and inexpensive web service.

Unfornately, everyone who answered “Yes” kept walking, as it was clear, at least to them, that he wasn’t offering anything they needed.

After discussing the “art of the pitch” with Ryan and Spencer, I suggested they look more closely at what their company really does.

Does Hilltop.net make great websites?  Sure.  But if I’ve already got a website, I don’t have a “I need a website” problem.

“But,” Ryan countered, “We make websites a lot easier.  With our software, you can upload obituaries to your site in seconds, without having to know any programming.”

“And you don’t have to resize photos,” Added Spencer.

So the problem that visitors might have isn’t “I need a website.”  It’s “My website is too hard to update and maintain.”

Ryan and Spencer decided to start asking variations of the questions “Do you have an easy-to-update website?” and “How fast can you add an obituary to your current website?” to more accurately focus their visitors on what their company really does.

As for our cot cover business, I learned from several of my new customers and those who chose not to buy that certain features of my covers are more desirable than others.

In fact, I got a lot of upturned noses and dismissive waves when I mentioned that the ULTRA model of our covers features a second pocket.  Turns out no one cares about another pocket.

I also tested my new “don’t contaminate your suit pocket” line on folks and found that it worked better than I had anticipated.  Here’s how the “contaminate” pitch goes:

And the DELUXE cover features this VersaPocket.  It’s got a compartment for paperwork, so you don’t have to shove the paperwork under the deceased’s feet anymore.  And this outside compartment is for gloves.  Now, you don’t want to leave those gloves at a family’s home, but you also don’t want to shove them in your pocket because they’re used gloves.  This pocket is made entirely from our FluidBlocker lining, which is impervious to fluids.  Why contaminate your pocket - I don’t know about you, but I only have this coat drycleaned once a month - when there’s such an easy, sanitary place right here on the cover.

And it worked!  Better than imagined.  And now it’s part of my aresenal.

Why is it so effective?

Because, like my pitch about our CleanEdge binding protecting the lower edge from dirt and my pitch about the soft yet protective features of the FluidBlocker lining, the VersaPocket’s compartments for gloves and paperwork solve a specific problem that many funeral professionals didn’t even realize they had.

To put this into a wider consumer perspective, imagine music before the iPod or other MP3 devices.  No one had a portability problem (the Walkman debuted in 1979) back then.  The iPod solved a problem few knew they had:  storage.  It seems like a huge issue now, but few people could carry all their music with their Walkman.  In fact, people often created mixtapes or carried a box of cassettes to expand their music selection.  Later, CD wallets boosted the number of albums that could be easily transported.

If you had been visiting a consumer electronics show in the late 90’s early 2000’s and been asked “do you have a portable music system” you’d have pointed to your Walkman or transistor radio and kept walking.

Why talk to a guy selling portable music systems when you don’t have a “portable music” problem?

Luckily for their bottom line, Apple and others didn’t sell early iPods or MP3 players as “portable music.”  They asked the question, “can you carry and access all your music instantly?”

Asking the right question translates into real money.

What else worked?  Well, we also got a lot of people into the booth by asking if they’d ever seen one of our new-style covers.  If they had, we asked if they’d seen them in person and then asked permission to show them the two reasons why our covers are so much better.

The most important point for us was getting guests into our booth to look at our covers.  Once we got them to agree to take a look at our product, we generated sales almost 1/3rd of the time.

Knowing the right question, related to a real problem your market experiences, can be the difference between profit and debt.  Choose your questions wisely.

I’ve convinced my friend, Michael Manley (publisher of Funeral Business Advisor), to host a “mort dinner” for exhibitors at the Kentucky Funeral Directors Assocation Convention.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Thomas R. Stegelmann

We’ll gather at a local restaurant on the 2nd day of the show, Tuesday, June 24th.  The show ends at 4:00 pm that day, so there should be plenty of time to close up shop and get to dinner.

At the dinner, we’ll discuss all kinds of topics relating to vendors and I’ll talk about the early planning we’ve already done for our big vendor-only training classes at the NFDA Convention in October.

Want to join us in Kentucky?  Final Embrace is buying dinner for the first five folks who RSVP.  Not a vendor?  No problem!  We want some funeral director input, so you’re also invited.

You can call me at 321-287-0628 or email finalembraceonline@gmail.com.

Fredric Baur, of College Hill, Ohio, was such a fan of the Pringles can, that he asked his children to bury part of his cremains in a can next to an urn containing the rest.

His children complied, since Dr. Baur was the designer of the recognizable snack container.  He died on May 4 in College Hill at the age of 89.

You can learn more about this interesting man in his full Cincinnati Enquirer obituary.

Of course, this story makes me wonder about the nature of the containers we use in funeral service.  What rule says a family has to buy a traditional urn? 

Can we offer other alternatives that will spark a family’s interest?  How many families that would normally forego an urn would reconsider if you offered something different?

Take a look at your current shelf of urns and ask yourself:  How can I add variety to this selection?  What might catch my customer’s eye?

Final Embrace is located just 40 miles from Orlando, so the upcoming NFDA Convention is practically in our back yard!  In fact, I lived in Orlando for almost a decade before moving to the small, sleepy town of Eustis just a few years ago.

All of which means I’ve got a lot of knowledge about the city, the attractions, various clubs/restaurants and other fun stuff to do in the area.

Orange County Convention Center by Flickr User dasroofless

Which is why I’m planning to create a website for those funeral professionals who will be attending the NFDA Convention in October.  On the site (and in special sneek previews on this site) we’ll share tips for getting the most out of local theme parks, bring you updates on plays and concerts taking place at the same time as the convention and offer suggestions for local restaurants and clubs for those who seek exciting nightlife.

Swan Boat in Lake Eola Park by Flickr User Jordi Gomara

Even better, we’re working with a few area funeral homes, cemeteries and crematories to bring some behind-the-scenes tours to convention attendees.  And since we know how important some of the training seminars are, we’ll schedule these tours so they don’t conflict with important convention events.

The site will be sponsored by a few of the vendors coming to the show.  We’ll also mail out a “catalog” of sorts which will highlight our events while showing off the sponsoring companies.

Downtown Orlando by Flickr User Jordi Gomara

Our goal, for vendors, is to provide an inexpensive way to send a pre-show mailer to those who plan to attend. 

For funeral directors, we want to offer some exciting, imformative events and some helpful hints to see more than just the show-biz side of Orlando, a thriving and diverse community that features a ton of world-class golf courses, a plethora of fine, unique restaurants and an impressive array of afterhour and live-theatre venues.

Whenever I want to impress friends, I usually fall back on my favorite dinner recipe.

The meal includes a special breaded chicken, a basil pesto linguine and some type of fresh, steamed vegetable.

Of course, I sometimes add a special salad or fun dessert, but the basics are here:

MAYONNAISE-BREADED CHICKEN

Chicken breast
Italian bread crumbs
Saltine crackers, Ritz crackers
Mayonnaise (fat-free or fat-full, whichever you want!)
Sliced ham (optional)
Sliced swiss or provolone cheese (optional)
Salt and pepper

Don’t tell your guests that this has mayo in it or they’ll just fret about the calories and the fat.  And honestly, the mayo flavor drops out after baking.  It’s really just in here to keep the meat moist.  The ham and cheese is optional, but they make the dish pretty, add some more flavor and make it look like you spent A LOT of time on this thing.

When I first started making this, I used bread crumbs, but a big dinner party stretched my supplies and I had to crush up some other crackers to make my crumbs go farther.  Turns out, the extra crunch made the meal even better. 

Spread some bread crumbs in a low, flat container.  I like to use a pie plate or a cake round.  Grab a handful of saltine crackers and crush them in your hand, preferably while holding it over the bread crumbs.  I don’t like to pulverize them, because you want pieces that are between 1/8″ and 1/4″ square-ish size.  Do the same with some Ritz crackers or anything else with a unique flavor (once, I chopped some wheat thins and Triscuits up and made an interesting topping).

Add salt and pepper and mix it all up so the bits are evenly distributed.

Now, butterfly the chicken breast so it flops open like a book.  Turn it smooth side up and spread a healthy coating of mayo all over the meat.  By healthy, I mean you don’t want to see the meat too easily, but you don’t want the mayo to fall off in big goops and glops when you turn it over.

Flip the chicken over onto the bed of bread crumbs, making sure the mayo-coated side is facing down and into the mixture. 

OPTIONAL:  Cut some sliced ham and cheese into slices small enough to fit on one half of the chicken breast.  I usually cut one piece of cheese and one piece of ham in half and stack the sections together on top of one half of the breast.  Flip the uncovered side over onto the other.

Before you transfer the meat to a foil-lined cookie sheet, make sure you’ve got all parts of your mayo covered with crumbs.  This is a pretty messy recipe, so don’t work about being neat and tidy with your work.

Repeat with as many pieces you need.  I always make a few extra and I never have leftovers.  Trust me, someone at your table will want seconds!

Cook at 375-400 degrees for 20 minutes or so.  I check them by cutting into the heaviest part of the biggest piece (and since I don’t want anyone to be served the now-deformed piece, I get to choose the one I want by cutting into it here).

BASIL PESTO LINGUINE

Fresh basil
Fresh parmesan cheese
Linguine
Olive Oil
Garlic
Salt and pepper
Pine nuts (optional)

This recipe is adapted from a meal I had onboard a cruise ship.  I loved the pasta so much that I bought their cookbook and changed it up for my own use.

I like to make the pesto up in advance, since it requires a few tools.

Since the basil can be expensive, I usually buy a package of fresh (enough for four people) and supplement it with one of those tubes of basil paste they sell in the produce section if I’m expecting more guests.  You can also add some dried basil, but I’d rather have less of the quality basil than an overabundance of the cheap stuff.

Pull the basil leaves from the stems.  I rip out the heavy leaf veins as well.  Toss the basil into a blender.  A food processor will also work, but a blender does the job faster.

To the basil, add a coupla cloves of garlic.  If you love garlic, add a lot.  If you’re using pine nuts, add a small handful of those here, too.  Top it off with a healthy dose of olive oil.

Basically, you’re creating a paste.  But you want it to flow freely, so don’t worry about adding too much oil, although you don’t want it to look like salad dressing either.

I blend the hell out of mine.  After you get the consistency you want, add some fresh grated parmesan cheese.  I don’t like the powdered stuff, because it acts more like flour than cheese.  You can buy a wedge and grate it yourself (which I do) or you can buy a container of fresh-grated cheese.

Spread the rest of the pine nuts (if you’re using them) in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Toast these in the oven until they get a rich dark brown color.  You don’t want to burn them, but you want to get them toasty.

Make your linguine as normal.  After you drain, toss with just a hint of oil to keep it from sticking.

Just before you’re ready to serve the meal, pour the pesto over the pasta.  Toss it well, so all the great green flecks get all over the pasta.  add the pine nuts, some salt and some pepper and give it one more quick toss.  I like to put a container of fresh-grated cheese on the table for guests to add to their pasta.

This is, by far, the best pasta dish I have ever made.  If your guests appear nervous because it’s green, assure them that it’s awesome and that it doesn’t taste like vegetables.

ASPARAGUS OR GREEN BEANS

Fresh veggies
Garlic
Salt and pepper
Bacon (optional)

Steaming vegetables is easy.  I have a steaming pan with holes in the bottom.  It attaches to the top of a sauce pan where water is boiled.  I usually add some salt and pepper and chop some garlic that I drop on top of the whole mess.

I don’t like to steam my vegetables very long (soggy vegetables are not tasty to me) but if you need a little extra softness, try wrapping them in bacon!

Here’s how you do it:

Steam the green beans or asparagus until just slightly “bendy.”  They should still be kinda firm.  Remove them from the steamer.  Once they’ve cooled enough to handle, make stacks of three or four pieces and wrap a piece of bacon around the center.  You can overlap the bacon like a bandage or wrap it round and round like a thick belt, if you choose.  But just use one piece - the bacon is only a decorative way to tie the pieces, not the main course.

Place these on a baking sheet (put down foil first to make cleanup easier) and bake for about 10 or 15 minutes.  Just make sure the bacon is cooked.

Now you have individual servings of healthy veggies, served up in a tasty wrapper. 

CONCLUSION

Everyone I’ve served this meal has loved it.  How do I know?  Because when the meal is over, they’re usually complaining of full bellies and their plates are clean enough to put back in the cupboard!

A friend emailed me this note after checking out my blog recently:

Love the blog;  who knew you’d written so much lately!  But why do you share so much personal (and sometimes embarrassing) stuff about your business and mistakes you’ve made?  If it were me, I would accentuate the positive.

So I told her, in a hour-plus phone call, that analyzing and dissecting my mistakes helps me grow.  Plus, it might help others who were headed the same way, either in a business or personal situation.

Then this morning I found a Flickr user who posts funny, ironic or awkward pictures on his photostream.  Now, before you visit mmk_kobayashi’s photos, you should know that there are quite a few pictures of partially naked people in foolish situations.  Might not be safe for work hours.

Most of the pictures made me laugh, but others made me think about some important lessons I think can and should be reiterated.

LESSON:  When you realize a mistake, it might be easier to find a quick fix, but more often, the best solution is to invest the time and energy to do it over again the right way.

LESSON:  Your best marketing efforts can have unintended meanings and consequences.  Spend a few extra minutes thinking through your design or advertising words.

LESSON:  Lots of old people don’t know they’re old.  The outside doesn’t always match the inside.

LESSON:  Don’t assume that everyone is familiar with your technology or your jargon.  Even if the tech was brand new to your generation.

LESSON:  Have backup tools available.  Nothing destroys credibility like being unprepared.  Plus, you’ll look like a complete moron.

Photo by Flickr user Nettsu

I spent the last few weeks getting stuff ready for the Eustis Fire Department’s first annual Fire Muster in the Park.  For the uninitiated, a muster is an event that brings together firefighting teams and antique vehicle owners to compete in old-fashioned firefighting games (bucket brigade, hose cart race, etc.).

We held our event in Ferran Park on the waterfront in downtown Eustis.  We shared the park with the 7th Annual Lake Eustis Chili Cook-off - a natural partnership, in my mind - and then braced for a really wet day, as the forecast called for 60% chance of thunderstorms.

We knew the event would be enjoyable for the participants who bothered to show up in the bad weather, but we had no idea how good the events would be for spectators.  So we made a difficult decision:  we didn’t push a lot of advertising.

We ended up with about 600 visitors to watch the games, check out the antique fire apparatus and buy our famous 1/2-pound hamburgers.  And the rain held off until an hour before we expected to finish up.

Had we expected better weather, a greater amount of participants (we had just four teams this time) or more antique trucks for display, we’d have advertised a lot more and tried to turn out thousands of visitors.

So why didn’t we?

Because if the event had been disappointing (bad weather, few teams, only a handful of trucks) we would have done more damage to our fledgling “brand” than not holding the event at all.

Every new or relaunched brand needs “early adopters,” the folks who take a chance on a new product or give the new funeral director in town the opportunity to provide services.  These people can become great evangelists for a new product or refer friends to the funeral director who did an awesome job, boosting a product or service to success.

But they can also do a WHOLE LOTTA DAMAGE to a company that does a bad job or provides a crappy product.

Movie producers know this, so they like to give sneek peaks of their good movies to film buffs.  These are usually advertised in entertainment magazines and occur a week or two before the movie’s general release date.  The bad movies generally get a big bunch of advertising without screenings for buffs and critics.  The really awful ones are sent straight to video.

But what if your product is bad?  What if getting more customers just means disappointing more people?

Truth is, advertising only helps if you have a decent product/service in place.

A good/decent funeral home can survive without traditional advertising, because satisfied client families will tell others.

And for most products, advertising can’t save a bad/awful company. 

Interestingly, funeral homes serve a different kind of customer:  one who reluctantly buys services only when they’re needed, every 5-10 years.

That may be why some bad funeral homes - the ones that never serve a family more than once - can survive on a heavy advertising campaign.  But they can’t rely upon word-of-mouth, since their service is atrocious.

So yes, you can advertise before you’re good enough.  But only if you’re willing to advertise A LOT and not care how bad your services are.  Otherwise, advertising before you’re ready will just destroy positive word-of-mouth and cause you a whole lot of pain.

I watched the Super Bowl last night, accompanied by several friends and our trusted dog, Thor (I don’t know who he was rooting for).

Between chili cheso dip and chicken wings grilled with the Eustis Fire Department marinade recipe, we marvelled at the impressive credentials of the New England Patriots (18-0 until last night) and rooted for a respectable showing by the underdog New York Giants (a wild card team who no one expected to be in the Super Bowl this year).

This year, the Super Bowl was played in Arizona

 But then something happened.  The people no one thought even belonged in the game beat the expected champs!

It’s one of the reasons I love football:  the games are decided on the field, not by the fans in the stands or by the announcers in the broadcast booth.

Sure, everyone can say you’re supposed to win, but until you actually get out there and do it, the winner is still undecided.

There are a lot of perceived “Champions” in the funeral industry.  Whether they’re the leading manufacturer of caskets, the 1000-firm chain of funeral homes or the world’s largest pre-need insurer, they all got there by getting it done “on the field.”

And they’ve got to continue getting it done “on the field” everyday, or someone else comes along to challenge the crown.  The Patriots won 18 straight games this year, some by a teeny-tiny little bit and some by a whole lot.  But last night, they couldn’t get it done.

Starting a new funeral home, removal service or funeral product maker is a daunting task, made all the more formidable when there are established giants in the field. 

This year’s Super Bowl includes this awesome lesson:  No one is invincible.  No one is ever completely “out of it.”  Even industry leaders have to keep producing to stay in the lead.

I’ve also noticed that all the commentators who offered there opinion that New England would trounce the Giants are all still employed.

It’s helpful to remember that opinions are often worthless because they’re so cheap to dispense. 

December is a pretty slow month for our cot cover company (has been for each of the 4 years we’ve been in business) so I get a lot of free time to create a truly wonderful Christmas.

However, I also get those jittery business vibes during December; you know, the kind of feeling that maybe, just maybe, this slowdown in business isn’t related to the holiday season and is actually a signal that our cot cover business is experiencing real problems.

Many of my friends who don’t understand what it takes to build and sustain a business jump to conclusions when I tell them about our latest sales totals or lack thereof.  After learning last year that we had three straight months of $5000+ sales totals, one friend proclaimed that the business was finally a grand success and that I could “sit back and take it easy.”

I wonder if RecipeforDisaster.com is available?  (Darn it!  It’s already taken!)

Most of us know that sustaining success means constant work.  In fact, when I returned from the NFDA Convention, I was congratulated on our hugely successful showing.  Our $8000+ sales figure from the convention more than doubled what we paid to attend.  And while some thought it was time to congratulate and reward myself for all the hard work and success, I knew that it was actually an opportunity to leverage our company to bigger and better things.  In fact, I find myself working harder now that we had such a great show!

Which is why I used the profits from the convention to buy some new equipment, register us for two more conventions and stock the shelves with more product (my employees have been working extra-hard to get us restocked after the convention rush!).

Next time you’re feeling comfortable and think you can rest on your success, ask yourself:  “Am I really on solid ground?  Or am I more like the mountain goat in this picture?”