Interview with Michael McCoy, former President of Sales for National Prearranged Services
We saw in Brent’s book that he devoted an entire chapter (albeit only 1 1/2 pages) to the separation of Mike McCoy from NPS. We emailed Mike and asked him a couple of questions:
Here are the detailed response we received and are posting with his permission:
Tell us about your separation from National Prearranged Services (NPS)?
As Brent Cassity mentioned in his book, there were two divisions to N.P.S.: The counselor/outside agent division and the Advantage division. The agent division had been the backbone of the Company and the division that had built the Company. The Advantage division was created to not only further our expansion into additional funeral homes for counselor/agent sales opportunities, but also secure the sales that would come from a family simply walking through the funeral home doors and want a funeral prearrangement. As the Advantage division began to grow, Roxanne’s relationship with Brent and Jim Crawford became what I could only describe as cozy. My job became more and more difficult. Because of those cozy relationships, the two divisions began to work less and less like a team.
By the 1st Quarter of 2000, I was spending more and more of my time dealing with issues involving the outside sales manager’s frustrations with the Advantage reps. The two primary frustrations were: the quality of funeral homes that the Advantage reps were making marketing commitments to, and commission overrides that had been previously being paid to the manager that were now being directed to be paid to the Advantage rep. The first issue really came down to a lack of communication between the two divisions and should have been easily corrected under normal business circumstances and would have been if not for the cozy relationship. The second issue was a little more problematic, but it could have been resolved as well. I had two options that I was attempting to convey but they seemed to be falling on deaf ears.
So, that brings me to Friday, November 30, 2001, and I was working my way back from East Texas feeling very good about some funeral home commitments that I had generated throughout the week that would open some great sales opportunities for us. I stopped at a Dairy Queen in Hearne, Texas to get a cup of coffee and sit down to write out some thank you notes for the funeral homes that had just signed with us. While sitting there, I received a phone call from Brent. He indicated that he would like me to come to St. Louis for a meeting on Wednesday, December 5, 2001. I told him that I had a workshop planned for that day but that I would reschedule it. I felt that it was very important to meet with him and further discuss the suggestions that I had for the compensation issue. It seemed a little strange to me that he was asking for the meeting when we were all going to be together in a couple of weeks in San Antonio for our annual Christmas awards ceremony. I just figured that he wanted to get this issue resolved so that it would not be a distraction in San Antonio.
I flew into St. Louis on the 5th and went upstairs to Brent’s office and was met with a friendly exchange of hellos. He said that we would be meeting in his dad’s (Doug Cassity’s) office and that Jim Crawford would be joining us. We all sat down and had some small talk. I then began to discuss the frustrations that existed among our field managers and felt there were a couple of ways that we could address them. As I began to introduce one possible solution, Jim cut me off saying, “Mike, I think it is time for you to move on elsewhere.” I was startled but looked at Brent and ask the question, “Brent, do you feel the same way?” He said, “Yes, Mike I do.” With that, the meeting was over. 12 ½ years of fighting the battles with these guys and in fifteen minutes they put me on the street, jobless 3 weeks before Christmas.
There was no such thing as an ultimatum given to him about Roxanne. I knew for quite some time that because of their cozy relationship that was a battle that I would not win. I never had an issue with Roxanne other than her growing reluctance to work as a team player.
Furthermore, as far as the lawsuit that I filed against the Company – it was filed in January of 2003, more than a year after my termination. This is a complete contradiction to Brent’s claim that it was filed the very week after I was terminated. It should also be noted that it was a wrongful termination suit and not a gender discrimination suit, and one in which there was a settlement reached for an amount significantly more than just simply deposition costs and attorney fees, as Brent has stated. Brent should have taken a steady dose of those new memory pills that are out on the market before he decided to write this book.
Do you have any comment on Brent Cassity referring to you as NPS's arch nemesis?
I found it to be laughable but when it comes down to when he felt that way, I would call it a badge of honor. He is describing me that way because I was making it difficult for him and his team to continue with the fraud.
There was a time in the 1994-1998 period that “NPS’ savior” would have been more fitting. I don’t mean that to sound so egotistical, but I played a significant role in helping them survive their first major crisis with government regulators. It stemmed from an ongoing issue they were having with the Missouri Attorney General’s office in 1993. It went on long enough for it to become a major news story in the Company’s hometown, St. Louis.
Mike Owens, an aggressive reporter for the local NBC affiliate, KSDK, did a two week expose on The Cassity family and NPS. It aired three times a night for two weeks and it was far from flattering. It was devastating to the business. A mass exodus of agents and managers, new sales were in a free fall and policy cancellations were going through the roof – a complete recipe for disaster. My mentor in the business, Mark Monia, was the President of Marketing at the time and ask me if I would come into the office and help with the overwhelming volume of calls. I agreed to help.
I was holding my team together but many of our managers weren’t so lucky. The calls coming in were not only policy holders but also funeral directors, and even though it was a Missouri issue, we were getting calls from every state that we were doing business in. It was so bad that as Mark and Doug Cassity crossed paths in the Company parking garage, Doug told Mark that he had been broke once and it would not happen again. He told Mark to get it turned around or he was out of here.
The 1994 Company sales numbers were abysmal, and the strategy was that going into 1995 we were going to limit our focus to Missouri and Texas. Each state ended 1994 with sales volume between $9-10 million dollars, substantially lower than 1993. The decision was that I would become the new President of Texas operations and that Randy Murray would become the new President of Missouri operations. In 1998 Texas finished the year with about $24 million in sales volume and Missouri finished with about $16 million in sales volume. The Company was back on its feet, and I was promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Savior or Nemesis? My guess is that Brent would have been looking for a career change 15 years prior to 2008 had it not been for me and a few other key individuals.