sales professional

sales

inside sales representative

funeral director

sales representative

Catholic Funeral & Cemetery Services

Working for Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services can be meaningful work, especially if you value serving families during one of the most difficult seasons of their lives. The mission is strong, and there are individuals on the team who genuinely care about the families they support. The salary is steady, the benefits are solid, and you will gain skills that translate well into other roles within the funeral and customer service industries.

However, the culture and internal systems fall short of the mission. High turnover can make consistency difficult, impacting both staff and the families being served. Training from the company is readily available and accessible, but internally, the training and consistency is lacking and may leave new employees frustrated - especially if they are not familiar with this industry. Files are not always easy to find as former employees have filed them away incorrectly. Communication from management can lack consistency, lead distribution can feel uneven, some employees are not always transparent about their leads or the details of their contracts, with management at times appearing to look the other way. More transparency in that area would help build trust and support retention. Additionally, outreach efforts in the Toledo area are non-existent, which affects visibility and opportunities to educate the community about available services. 

Grave properties and services are priced higher than many families expect for the Toledo market, which can create challenges when supporting families who are already grieving and financially stressed. 

This role requires someone who is adaptable, self-motivated, and confident in asking questions and advocating for themselves. If you thrive in environments that are still developing their processes and don’t mind building structure as you go, there is potential for growth. If you need well-defined systems, consistent direction, and predictable workflows, parts of this position may feel challenging.

The mission matters, and the work makes a difference — and with improvements to communication, outreach, and internal infrastructure, this could be an even stronger place to build a career.


This job is sold as ministry position. In reality it is a quantitative results dominated, pre-need numbers driven sales position with quotas on sales dollars, calls, appointments set, active leads in bank & referrals. Qualitative metrics do not exist and very little importance is assigned to the quality of service given to families who experience an immediate need. You are expected to show up early, stay late, work weekends, and even come in on days off to make your sales goals and will be criticized for only working your scheduled time. There is little opportunity for advancement especially if you are a top sales performer because they want the money to keep coming in. 

Management is in constant conflict with eachother, so change and continuous improvements are slow going. There are challenges with technology because investments have not been made to upgrade to digital record keeping. Handwritten contracts, typewriters, and hand drawn maps are still being used. Advisors have to be detectives to find information and waste a lot of time on unnecessary paperwork when there are several cemetery specific software programs that could be purchased. 
The training program for new Advisors is unstructured and inconsistent. Current Advisors are responsible for training new advisors and seem largely annoyed that they have to do it. Seasoned advisors intimidate, bully, ignore, misguide new advisors regularly. There are not consistent standards & procedures, so each current Advisor shows new hires "their way". Naturally, that can be very confusing. There is a ton turnover because of this. A dedicated trainer is necessary. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
One of the best parts of working at CFCS was being able to help families during such personal and emotional times. I also got to see funerals from a completely different perspective—behind the scenes with directors and service providers who work so hard to make everything run smoothly. It really took the mystery and heaviness out of death and showed me how much compassion and care goes into every detail.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part of working there was honestly the gossip and cattiness among some of the staff—it really caught me off guard, especially considering we’re in a field centered around compassion and caring for others. I was new to the industry and expected more support, but there wasn’t any real formal training—just shadow someone and somehow read minds. The environment could be pretty toxic at times, which felt especially ironic since every workday started with a prayer.

Typical day is spent calling old leads to try to drum up business. The organization is inept at trying to acquire new prospects and relies on legacy to earn business.

You need to learn a lot of patience to deal with grieving families in a respectful and helpful manner. You also need to be very persuasive to help someone pre-plan their cemetery needs.

The organization management is atrocious. I liked my location manager but the rest of the hierarchy at this organization is below par of most organizations.

Workplace culture is significantly lacking. If you can get away with skirting the rules you can make a decent income. If you play by the book you need to be very good and work twice as hard to make anything worth showing up and even then you have to wonder if it’s worth it for something as emotionally draining as working at a cemetery. There is an abysmal process of lead protection and due to the lack of leads and saturation of duplicates due to poor pipeline management it is a very regular occurrence for people to argue over leads.

This organization really touts being different from all of the other cemetery and funeral providers, but is just like all of the others. It's a high stress environment, very sales driven without a real sense of purpose behind it beyond some posters on the wall that are changed out every couple of months with a new logo on them.  Management is under constant pressure to reach higher and higher numbers. 

I love my coworkers, we do have a sense of family amongst us, but the CEO/Exec team is just a money hungry group wanting more more more. I feel bad for the Director and management team under constant pressure to exceed unreasonable demands.  We pretend that we are here for a different purpose (charity) but we are just here to drain money out of people like all of the rest, while draining our own mental health at the same time.

I often say this is the hardest but the best job I've ever had.  Every day we are privileged to serve God's people uniquely.  Some may think it's challenging to work in a cemetery, but I've experienced most of my co-workers view their work more as a ministry than a job.  Of course, there are difficult days, sad days, hard days, but knowing we've been able to guide our families through these days prayerfully is humbling and fulfilling.  The environment of the office is fast-paced, progressive, prayerful, professional, and supportive.  I enjoy collaborating with other locations throughout the country to share best practices and ideas. Our teams support each other, beginning with management, office staff, and grounds.

The opportunity to begin each day with a prayer.  The ability share my faith with others and to see the connection to the Bishop's families and their mission.  The culture is warm, inviting, sharing, yet businesslike.  The most difficult part of the job is the need to over communicate while the best part of the job is an ability to make a difference at so many levels in peoples lives.  We effect not just Bishop's families, but our internal work family and that of other Diocesan employees that we have contact with.  I find management open and willing to listen, encouraging my feedback and taking decisive action on issues raised.

I have worked for CFCS for 17 years. Almost everyday when I go to work I expect to make a positive difference to both my co-workers and clients. Typically I am involved in implementing programs and meeting clients. No two days are ever the same in my work, so I am always learning new things. I have found management to be understanding and fair. I work with some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. The hardest part of my job is waiting on a response from parishes and organizations that I have contacted. The best part of my job is job satisfaction, helping others and making a difference in their lives is truly rewarding.

I hope every person thinking about submitting an application to work here thinks twice. You’ll be burnt out, not because of the funeral industry, but because of upper managements lack of caring. If you work in sales, they don’t care about you. They only care if you meet your monthly quota. If you’re a family service director, you’ll be left to drown. Zero training whatsoever, unless you have a coworker that cares enough to teach you. HR department is nonexistent, so good luck reporting anything. Managers won’t care if you’re struggling at all, and gaslighting is the modus-operandi of CFCS.

I was exceptionally disappointed at the lack of processes and organization.  There was no check & balances and often the poor old fashioned filing left one spinning their wheels.  The focus on sell sell sell and quotas for calling people to try and get them to prepurchase or upsell was rather vile.  It was more about the money than the care.  The team members were not helpful as everyone was out for themselves and their pocket.  There was such a click you felt like you were back in elementary school.

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