š What You'll Learn
Know Your Caller Before You Talk Price: How the first minute of a call tells you whether you have an imminent family (pre-planning while a loved one is on hospice) or an at-need family, and why that one distinction changes the goal you're steering the whole call toward.
Take the Two Minutes: Why letting the family lead and leading with comfort and compassion before pricing builds the trust that wins cases, and how a family who feels cared for will often choose you even over a slightly lower quote.
The Follow-Up System (What and When): How to close the loop the same day, always set a clear expectation for the next contact, and run a follow-up cadence so a shopping family doesn't slip away in silence, because you rarely lose the case on price, you lose it to silence after the call.
Silence Is Not a No: Why a quiet family usually means overwhelmed, not uninterested, and how to re-engage by leading with care, making the next step tiny and easy, giving them a gentle reason to reply, and always leaving the door open.
Staffing Smarter with Erlang C: How the free Erlang C calculator, the same industry standard used by 911 dispatch and every major call center, shows you when your phones are busy so you can staff inbound coverage and schedule outbound follow-up calls around the rush.
š AMA Summary
This month's AMA was about building follow-up systems that convert, or as Will framed it, lead follow-up hygiene. The big idea: the inquiry is never the win. A hospice referral or a family dialing your number is a lead, not money in the pocket, and you don't lose the case on price nearly as often as you lose it to silence after a shopper call. It starts with knowing your caller: "just put on hospice" is an imminent (pre-planning for a death likely within 30 to 60 days, so your goal is to register them), while "passed away last night" is an at-need (where the goal is the case itself). On either call, Kylie's advice is to take the two minutes: let the family lead, show comfort and compassion, and hold off on price until they're ready, because families remember how you made them feel, and that trust often matters more than being the cheapest option.
From there it's about cadence. Personalize every proposal email (start from Parting Pro's templates and weave in the family's name, their loved one's name, and a detail from your call), then pair it with a scheduled follow-up call and tell the family when to expect it. Will's rule of thumb is a half-day delay: a morning shopper gets a call back that afternoon, an afternoon shopper gets one the next morning, closing the loop the same day so a competitor has less time to snipe the case. And when a family goes quiet, remember that silence is not a no; re-engage with care, make the next step small and easy, and leave the door open as a free, unbiased resource. Will also covered the operational side, a clear overnight process so every first call gets a morning follow-up, call etiquette (retire jargon like body, pick up, disposal, and refrigeration), and using the Erlang C calculator to staff your phones around busy hours. The best news: it's all built into Parting Pro through proposals, case links, templates, and task lists. Homework: run a test case with yourself as the next of kin so you can see exactly what your families receive and when.
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