Every agency deck says "compassionate" and "trusted." The decks are interchangeable — the people aren't. Sixty years of cultural skepticism about funeral service quietly shapes how most marketers write about your profession, and that inherited doubt leaks into copy in ways a style guide can't fix. This guide explains why you should vet the actual humans on your account — have they stood in a receiving line, planned a service, thought about what funerals are for? — and gives you the eight questions that sort real partners from vendors in one meeting.