Why the Revolving Door Happens

Let's name the problem clearly, because understanding it is the first step toward fixing it.

The funeral industry is experiencing the same sales turnover problem as senior living. People come in metrics-driven — setting quotas on phone calls, outreach, and tours. That works in industries where the product is a commodity. A funeral isn't a commodity.

Think about what happens when a traditional sales hire walks through your doors. They've been trained in another industry — insurance, maybe, or senior care facilities. They know how to work a pipeline. They know how to track contacts and close deals. On paper, their skills look like exactly what you need.

But within the first few weeks, something starts to go wrong. The directors give them the cold shoulder. The embalmers don't return their messages. The front-desk staff quietly routes families away from them. Why? Because the funeral home team can feel the transactional energy — and it goes against everything they believe about the work.

The salesperson isn't a bad person. They're doing what they were trained to do. But the framework they were given — quotas, call volume targets, commission incentives — comes from a world where the product sits on a shelf or behind a desk. In this industry, the "product" is care. It's trust. It's walking alongside a family during the worst week of their lives.

You can't quota that. You can't commission-structure your way to it.

Here's the pattern, and you may recognize it:

1. Month 1: New hire is enthusiastic. Makes lots of calls. Attends community events.
2. Month 2-3: Directors start complaining. "They don't understand our families." Tension grows.
3. Month 4-5: The hire gets frustrated. Targets aren't being met because the pipeline takes longer here. They start pushing harder — which makes things worse.
4. Month 6: Someone leaves. Usually the hire. Sometimes a director who's had enough.

And then you start over.

This cycle costs you more than salary. It costs you reputation, team morale, and the community relationships that took decades to build. Every time a salesperson pushes too hard with a family that your director has been nurturing, it chips away at something precious.

So if quotas don't work, and commission structures breed the wrong behavior, and traditional sales training creates friction with your care team — what's the alternative?

That's exactly what we're going to explore in the next lesson. Because there is an alternative, and the funeral homes that have adopted it are seeing results that stick.