Episode 253: Turn Your Agency from Streetwise to Saleswise

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast.

This podcast will give independent insurance agents all of the tools to grow your business and live life on your terms. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or well on your way to the success you desire, with the right people, processes and promotions in place, you will be unstoppable. And now I'd like to introduce your host, Mike Stromsol. Greetings and welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit podcast. Omg, as they say, you're gonna not wanna, you're not gonna want to miss one second. So get something to write with and something to write on. If you need to pause, do that. Because I have with me two of the best world class heavy hitters not only in business relationships, but you, you know, our thought process, get clients, keep clients, the simplest business game plan in the world. And we're talking about the guest clients for the most part. With me on the podcast today, super privileged, honored and grateful, the one and only Mr. Bob Berg and Mr. Jeff C. West. Gentlemen, welcome.

Thank you so much for having us on.

Great to be with you.

Thank you for making time out of your extremely busy schedule. So rather than taking a lot of time time and in going over the long and detailed bios of these two world class sales superstars. Jeff west, over 30 years in sales, sales, leadership and entrepreneurship. He's now a best selling author, award winning author, speaker and leadership coach. He's got books, the Unexpected Tour Guide and Said the lady with the Blue Hair. And now he's co authored a book with Mr. Bob Berg Streetwise to sales wise become objection proof and beat the sales blues. That's what we want to talk about today. How we want to help all of you is to become objection proof and beat the sales blues and get more clients to continue to grow your business. And Jeff's long accolades are beyond that and he's an insurance guy as well. Jeff, tell just a 20 seconds on your insurance history.

Had 20 years in field sales management with a Fortune 500 insurance company primarily specializing employee benefits. Eight years as a district manager, two years as a regional manager and then I did the last 10 years as a state manager before I began writing and speaking and doing this for a living.

So fantastic. Congratulations. Thank you for making an impact in our industry. We're super grateful and I'm glad to connect with you. Mr. Bob Berg blew our boot camp audience away when he spoke at Paradise Point in San Diego. But for over 30 years Bob has been a successful.

Leader in business industry Period. Showing entrepreneurial entrepreneurs and leaders and sales professionals how to communicate their value and accelerate their business growth. That's how I first learned about Bob Berg Probably 20 years ago when I got the book Endless Referrals. And I devoured that thing multiple times and implemented it in our agency business which caused us to completely explode our business. And then with co author John David Mann, they created the Go Giver series. I've personally devoured every book they've published there and it's been sold and translated into 30 languages that created a world wide movement. Now Bob, because of his heart and who this man is, he just wants to continue to give back. He's also partnered with Jeff and we're going to talk about their book Streetwise to sales wise become objection proof and and beat the sales blues. Bob Berg, welcome.

Hey Mike, it's so great to see you. Been a couple of years now and just loved meeting you, Andrea and the entire gang. That was such a fantastic conference and it really, really was your leadership on display in, in the, you know, they always say the organization reflects the character of the leader and certainly did.

Well, thank you Bob, we appreciate that and I'm grateful, thank you for your kind comments. But how about we help some agents? Sound good guys?

Perfect.

Fantastic. So we're talking about sales and if you're involved in any business, frankly you should and are in sales every single day. So what, what's going on out there? Well, it's not getting any easier. I'll suggest that. And being in the trenches with all of our members, having been in sales myself in the agency business for over 35 years, it's always changing. But if, like, you know, the late great Jim Rohn said, if we want things to change, we've got to change. Because if you're willing to change, everything will change for you and you attract exactly what you are and who you become. So let's talk about probably one of the key buzzwords in the sales industry as a whole, objections. So I'll throw this one out to start. Why, why do you say objections no longer need to be something to fear? Because in the mind of salespeople. Oh, I fear the objection. Why do they not need to fear objections anymore, guys?

Well, you know, objections have been the bane of the salesperson's existence for as long as there's been sales, I would imagine.

And it's interesting because as you know.

The, the same basic objections are going to come up in every sales conversation.

And through, by the time you've been through one or two Sales conversations, you've probably heard almost all of them. Every so often, something's going to come out of left field, but really it's the same ones, right? So instead of fearing them, what if we learn how to effectively handle them? That's what we want to do. But there's. There's one more thing, and that is the, what I think is the counterproductive idea that we should be overcoming objections. And the reason Jeff and I say this is because when you think about it, what does, what does overcome mean? It, it goes back and it shares a, A Latin origin, Latin root, with convince. Convince, which basically means to conquer. So when you're trying to overcome an objection, you're really trying to conquer the person who's given you that objection. Now, you know, Jeff and I, we speak on sales, and we can speak for hours on sales, and one of the things we've agreed with quite often is that there is not one prospective customer or client out there who wants to be overcome by their salesperson and told they're wrong. So trying to overcome is just not gonna. Not gonna happen. The other challenge with trying to overcome objections, having that mindset, that frame, if you will, is that there's. That there's always one specific answer to every objection. And there's. There's not. And the reason why is because half the time when a prospect gives you an objection, it's not the actual objection. It's simply a symptom of the. The root objection. Now, I'm not saying that they're lying to you, and if they are, that's a whole different issue. That's a trust issue. You're not even in the game at that point. You've got to go back and re. Establish that trust. No, I'm saying that, that typically, because we as sales people know our products, our services and our processes so well, and we do them several times a day. Well, we're talking with a prospect who, maybe they do it once a year or once every five years or once every 10 year, what have you. So they don't necessarily even know the questions that they should be asking. They may not want to look ignorant, they may not want to appear. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So what happens is they may have a, a feeling that, you know, they're not quite sold on this, but they're not totally sure why not. And it, it's like the old Spider man cartoons when he had the spidey sense, right? He. He didn't. He knew there was something or he didn't know exactly what it was, but he sensed that there was something that wasn't quite right. So what the. The. Since the prospect really doesn't know exactly what it is. Right. They don't know necessarily what they don't know. They kind of come out with, you know, whatever the standard objection would be, your price is too high. I've got to talk it over with. So. And so I need to think about it. It's what, you know, whatever it happens to be. So here's the thing, Mike. If you took a Sales 101 training class or, or whatever, and you heard, well, when someone says the price is too high, you say this. Or when they say it's not in the budget, you say this. Or when they say it's a, you say this. You could give the best, the smoothest, the most articulate response to the wrong objection. So what we say is rather than be, you know, rather than try to overcome it. See, objection Proof is simply, well, it's a philosophy, but it's also a methodology. Allows the sales professional to work effectively within the objections aspect of the sales process. So what we want to do is not overcome an objection. We want to work within that objection in partnership with our prospect to discover the actual root of the objection. The real objection. Then advance through the sales process.

So that's how you advance the sales process, by getting to the root.

You've got to get there or else you're. You're basing your answer on a false premise. And as the saying goes, even the best logic in the world will never get you the correct answer when it's based on a. A false premise. Right. So, yeah, you've got to be. You've got to be working within the actual correct objection.

Fantastic. And you know, in insurance, Jeff, people just love to talk about insurance. Right?

They do. It's their favorite subject. Right. After going to the dentist.

Exactly.

Yeah. And buying a car and various other legal aspects.

But all of that. Right. But, you know, so instantly we've got that barrier up, if you will, when we're helping people with their insurance, whether it be PNC benefits or otherwise.

Absolutely. And when you start from that position, Mike, what happens is you. You're immediately putting the prospect, if it's a cold, basically a cold call in some form or fashion, you often will put the prospect in just a little bit of what is a negative emotion. And anytime the way our brain works with emotions, whether it's positive or negative, as soon as an emotion happens in the brain, it sends a somatic marker to the body. And people respond according to that feeling. And if it's a negative emotion, an interruption or whatever, and you've not established any relationship prior to that point, that feeling is going to be negative and they're going to block you. They're going to put that with the logic of what they're trying to get done with their day. And it creates what I call a collision point. But if in the process, even in insurance, which you and I have done this for decades, the if you, in the process, you are able to instead flip it a little bit and establish a positive emotional experience in their brain. And it sends a somatic marker to their body that they love. If it's a feeling of joy, a sense of belonging, safeness, they love that feeling. And when you combine that with the logic of what you're asking them to do at that moment, then it makes them more comfortable moving forward. And it's why the objection proof process works. I branded what that emotional experience with logic as fusion points engage the science of persistence. But basically it's that combination of positive emotion it combines with logic. And when that happens, it creates a very unique situation where people get committed, they persist, and they're very comfortable taking that next step with you. Wow.

And you've perfected that, and I heard you say, or something similar to it, you've created a science on how to get to the root and how to help people advance the sales so they can get to the close.

Absolutely.

And I, I'm sitting here thinking to myself, well, I want to learn more, I want to learn more. And we can't possibly get it all in in the time that we have together today. So I'll just drop this on the table and we'll circle back at the end on this sales wise. LIVE 2024 is something that Bob and Jeff have put together to help people go through all of it and to get to understanding of how to deliver it out there in the marketplace. So super excited about that event that you guys are bringing to the table. But let's get back to it. So we were talking about advancing the sale, and we're getting to the root so that we can advance the sale. And I heard you say, Bob, you talked about framing. And either one of you can take this. What do you mean by framing and why is it so important?

So what is a frame? By definition, a frame is the foundation of, from which everything else evolves. So because of that, Mike, when you set the proper frame or reset someone else's negative frame, when the Proper frame is set. You're basically 90% of the way to where you want to be, to the result you want, because everything's operating within that. Within that frame, within that matrix, if you will. Right. If you, if you saw that the first movie, not the other, not the other ones. But so, and so here's an example of a frame. And we'll take this outside the, the business. And yet I think it. It absolutely applies to the business and to everything. Years ago, I was at a Dunkin Donuts, and there was a little boy running around the restaurant about two, three years old, running around, having fun. His parents call him back to the table. He starts running back there, when all of a sudden he takes a spill on the floor. He slips and falls. He didn't hurt himself. He was fine. But he was confused. Okay. This was not something within his experience. Right.

So what's the first thing he did? Immediately, he looked at his mom and dad to get their interpretation of the event. What happened, happened? He wanted to know, okay, you know, what comes next? Now I'm watching this, and you can tell if the parents began to get panicky, if they, like, ran over. If they were, oh, no, my poor baby, he'd have started crying.

Okay?

Because it could have gone either way. The mom and dad handled it so beautifully. I mean, they walked over quickly, of course, but they walked over very with a joyous look on their face. They were calm and serene, and they approached them and they. They looked at him and they smiled and they. They laughed and they said, oh, how fun. What a good trick that was. Well, so what did the little boy do? He began laughing, right. Having fun with it. What the parents did is they set a productive frame from which he could operate. So rather than trying to calm him down after crying and drying his tears, which would be sort of like answering an objection, why he shouldn't feel bad. Instead, they set the perfect frame. So it was. It was fine.

Right?

And as. As salespeople, we can do that just by who we are and the way we come across, you know, a nice smile, greeting someone in the right way and. And so forth. But the question. And that, that's fine. That's easy. But what happens when someone comes to the table with a negative frame already set and whether they're in your office or whether you're at their kitchen table, and they say, okay, I. I just want to tell you something. You know, I've spoken to a bunch of insurance. You're the best around. I just want to let you know, you know, I'm not some easy mark. So don't, you know, whatever that they say, right. I'm, I'm exaggerating, but, you know, and, or you can just tell that they're right and they're saying, we'll keep this show positive, Bob. Exactly. So if you. Now they set a frame, right. Unconsciously, of course, they unconsciously set a frame of.

At.

Of adversarial.

Right?

They're adversarial. If we buy into that frame, what do we do? We become defensive. We either say, oh, well, I, you know, I'm not that. Or we say, well, I gotta tell you, I, I know what I'm, you know, whatever, whatever it is, it's push against push and it's just not going to work out.

Okay.

Instead, we need to reset the frame. Okay. So it might be something as simple as, you know, Dave or, or Mary, while I've been honored to help a lot of people in this area with their, you know, whatever it is needs that you're helping them with, whether or not I'm the right answer for you, we can't know without digging deeper and determining exactly what you need, what will fit your needs. So please know our conversation is for both of us to do that and if it turns out that we're a good fit, fantastic. If not, that's okay too.

By saying something like that, you just made the whole conversation all about them.

Yeah, we just totally reframed it. So now instead of us against them, it's both of us trying to do the best we can for them, which is exactly what they care about. Right. You've heard me say, nobody's going to buy from you because you have a quota to meet. Right. They're not going to buy from you because you need the sale. They're going to buy from you because they believe their best interest will be served, which is fine in a free market based environment. That's exactly the, you know, why they should buy. And, and so.

Sure.

So you've reframed this now beautifully into a, into two allies.

We're going to fight that big bad insurance industry together and we're going to get you to the right place.

Fantastic. Jeff, anything to add on that?

You know, one of the most beautiful things about the process is when you, when you lay it out correctly and you do it that way, instead of it being an adversari relationship, it becomes a place where, because of how you handle it and because you're focused on the other person, it becomes a place where you bond. And not only do they get comfortable taking the next step that you're asking them to take? They also that bond doesn't leave on the initial presentation, the initial conversation. As long as you do your job and keep, like you said earlier, keep that client for life. And they will bond with you so much that not only will they not go other places when their friends are looking for things, they'll. You'll be the first name that comes to mind. You'll be top of heart, as our friend Grant Mueller says. And they'll recommend you immediately.

Grant Mohr. I have not heard that name, but we call that toa.

Toa.

TOA versus Toma. You know about toma, right? Top of mind awareness. But what's even better than that is TOA top of heart awareness.

That's great.

Fantastic. Well, we'll give Grant all the credit for that. But Jeff, you also said a couple of minutes ago you were talking about fusion points. Let's build on that for just a minute. Why do you say that they're key to all sales success or achievement, if you will. Fusion points?

For a couple of primary reasons. Number one is again, it's the. It's that science that goes on inside our bodies. It's that neurology in the brain. And too many times sales training ignores that science at best and sometimes conflicts with it at worst. Because if you understand that science and, and you work with it, the. The body naturally wants to move forward in the next step. So it works well for everyone. So when we're. When in the book you'll see it as Thaddeus is learning different things to become, to take that journey from someone who knows absolutely nothing. And in this particular case, Thaddeus is in the insurance industry to becoming very successful. He's got so many things to learn and that's one of the things that he picks up pretty quickly and pretty early in the storyline. And it's also extremely useful because sales is a career that in the beginning, especially the nose that every salesperson is going to get. The way most novice salespeople look at it, first year agents especially is that knows a big deal and it creates. I may not get this sale. So it hits that negative emotion than the bad somatic marker. And it doesn't matter how great your logical training is, they push back. They don't want to go, they don't want to go do that. So one of the areas that we reframe and how we do this and we do it because we're creating that fusion point with the new agent is what a no really means. You know, most people don't actually quit sales because they're getting no's. They tend to quit sales because they think they're the only one getting a no. And it, it affects them so negatively. But one of the ways that as the leader, you can reframe their position on that, just kind of tilt it a little bit and you get them to understand what a no really means, and you get them to understand how to frame that note. Because the truth is, there was a principle that I learned in a book. Gosh, it had, I learned it 40 years ago. And I think the book was old then, all right. And it was a book called How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Batcher. And he was also in the insurance industry. But one of the things I learned in that book was how to calculate what the actual value was of a contact for me. You know, I was in the industrial uniform industry pretty early on in my career and I knew that if I calculated how many companies I needed to contact, I divided it out by my average commission per sale and I knew my closing ratio, it was pretty easy for me to then know what the value of that contact was in it. Back then. This was in the mid-80s. My average contact was worth $23 to me. How it reframed, my thought process is it kept me from going through the highs and lows that salespeople will do. You know, on the days you're closing a sale, sales is great. It's wonderful. On the days you get a no, sales stinks. I don't like this anymore. And that, that cycle, it make, it makes the new agents seem almost like they're, they're manic depressive to me. I mean it's, it's the, it's that it's up and down, up and down. But if you can reframe that for them and you walk them through that to where they can calculate their average what the value of a contact is, it can totally take that pressure off for me. Those Contacts are worth $23 if they said yes. So I didn't get real excited. They were worth $23 if they said.

You got to tell that story, then.

Okay, I will go ahead.

I was in the Atlanta, Georgia market in the industrial uniform industry in the mid-80s. And that's a very blue collar industry. It's a very, it can be kind of tough. And I walked into this place on Monday morning and as I walked in, the administrative assistant was sitting there behind that her was the owner of the company. And I literally hadn't got more than. My name was Jeff west. And I was told the name of our uniform company. And he lit into me, told me how we were all alone by the mafia and how, how he didn't know me, but I couldn't be any better than the rest of them and that we all were bad. And, And I started smiling at him and he kind of stopped mid sentence. And he said, how. Why are you smiling at me right now? And I said, well, I just want to thank you for the $23. And I turned to walk out. He said, what do you mean, thank you for the $23? And I, I used to. I've got a music background, so I've been in marching bands and military formations. I did a little about face and I explained this about how I, I knew my average call was worth $23. And he said, boy, I need to have you come in and talk to my salespeople. And I said, yeah, for a fee. I had no idea I was predicting my own future.

That is beautiful. Congratulations, Great job. And you gotta. You probably heard of pattern interrupts. Right?

Right.

Which is leaning towards marketing, which is Bob's area and probably your area as well. But you interrupted the pattern, which he was wanting to go, and brought him back in a different direction.

Absolutely. My smile alone did a whole lot of interrupting that because he couldn't believe anybody would be smiling when he was chewing their backside out. So.

But I'll suggest also you were prepared.

I was.

When you walked in. And you know, our great friend Ben Franklin said, if you're failing to prepare, you're preparing to fail.

Absolutely.

So you prepared yourself for that situation. You prepared yourself for whatever. It wasn't an outcome. Excuse me, an objection, but how to overcome anything that might come your way.

Right.

And now you've taken that moment and added decades on top of that in the insurance industry and learned it. And I'm going to ask you for some information. Just a second, a quick heads up. And now you're teaching it to help people who might be new in sales, who might be experienced in sales to learn the right way based on current times to close more deals. And I also write something, wrote something down. I was just in a conversation with one of our UP members this morning and they have a sheet right up to what you were saying called Stop Chasing Butterflies. That's just their name. Right, Right. It's exactly what you just said. They know exactly how many contacts they need to make to get to X Number of appointments to get to X, number of closes. And that's exactly the answer to the question. It's not the no's that caused potential salespeople to quit. It's not having a plan and knowing what to do. And you outline that and so much more in your current book and you have the information, Jeff, on the book. Where can people find this book and get all of the information we're talking about today and so much more.

The easiest way is to go to streetwise to saleswise.com it'll have the information about the book, some of the endorsements are there, even the links where if they so choose, they could go purchase the book. And Bob and I have decided that we want everybody to have the first two chapters anyway so they can download the first two chapters, then make a decision if they'd like to buy the book itself. But it's the easiest way to do it.

Now, Mike, I will say this, that you know, for. We've been great getting feedback on the, the audio, the audible version. And one reason why is because Jeff, who again has a musical background, remember the story takes place in New Orleans. So there's a big blues, you know, and big jazz and big, you know, music has a lot to do with the, the storyline. And Jeff may or may not have actually done an imitation of Mr. Louis Armstrong. Old Satchmo himself singing. I'm not saying he did. Well, saying he did, but he may have.

Like I mentioned, I just finished a book this morning and I'm on to my next book. So this may elevate, you know, street wise to sales rise wise to the top, which will be in my ear either later on today or first thing tomorrow morning, whichever comes first.

The, the audiobook has been very popular.

Fantastic. I can't wait. You just elevated it to next. So my audio study either later this afternoon, definitely first thing tomorrow morning. Streetwise to saleswise.com Correct.

Perfect. That's exactly correct.

Yeah. And, and thank you. That's a very generous offer. You get the first two chapters for free to see if you even like it, you know, in. To add on a perfect example for what we were talking about earlier when we were talking about David and Mary. I think the characters were. Hey, we just want to learn more to see if we're even a good fit for you.

Right.

Fantastic. Go ahead. Anything else?

Nope. They. That's the best place to find the information there. They can also connect with us on any other either of our websites.

Fantastic. Time for just one or two more questions. There's an old believed but false saying about objections.

What is it?

Yeah, and this is really funny because I certainly bought into it because when I first, you know, 40 years ago when I first got into sales, one of the, one of the sales teachers said.

You know, objections are a good thing. You should, you should be glad there's objections because if they weren't interested, they wouldn't object. They just wouldn't buy. Okay, well, I'm a student, you know, I knew nothing really about sales diamonds. I believe that that, that makes kind of sense. Sort of, kind of did, kind of didn't. Then I realized when reading the book Spin Selling by Neil Rackham and, and Neil said that that's absolutely not true. If you do a good enough job in your discovery, you're going to take a lot of the objections right out of the picture. And so, and I said actually that makes sense because that's what I'd always try to do. And so, so really it, it's not that you should want objections.

It'S just.

That they're a part of life. Okay, but if you can in if you know there's objections and again we were talking about earlier, there are certain objections that are simply baked into your product or service. Okay. Answer them in advance. Okay. Jeff likes to say when, when, when, when you bring them up, you're educating them. When they bring it up, it's an objection. What's a better frame to operate from? And there's people say well why would you bring up an objection that they haven't brought up yet? Yeah, they, they, they have, they still have, they still have that objection even if they bring it up. But it will be the most dangerous kind of objection, the one they never ask.

Right.

And so because they'll either be thinking about it then or afterwards, after they've bought, they're going to be thinking about it and they're right. So, so no, answer the objections first in terms of education. Now there's still going to be objections that you're going to have, of course, and we can utilize the objection proof methodology in order to, to, to handle that effectively.

But yes, that, you know that old saying that yeah, objections are good or else they wouldn't. It means they're, they're interested or that that actually makes no sense. I can't believe how long I bought into that for just because, you know, I was basically buying into everything I was taught, you know, when.

Well, as part of the programming that you got to correct, huh, Bob?

Right. Exactly.

Premises. Berg, start questioning premises.

Exactly, exactly. So, I mean, you know, back to the same adage that I've also learned. If I say it, it's false, but if they say it, the person on the other end says that it's true, right?

Absolutely. You know, that's one of the areas that if people are truly focused on that other individual, I always say if you're focused on their value from your proposition, a lot of companies don't really kind of hit the value proposition exactly right. In my opinion, I will hear them say, well, we do this and that's the transaction, but then we do this on top of that and this, and we add that, and that's all well and good, and their intent is good, it's honorable. But it really misses the point because your value proposition is really how it changes their world when they do business with you. It's their value from your proposition. And then if you. If you know where their value is, you can craft questions that will get them talking about things in the way that they need to, to be able to think through their issues. And they will tell you everything that you would have said anyway if you ask the right questions. But it has more credibility when it comes out of their mouth rather than yours. My favorite saying about that is if you say it as a salesperson and you haven't earned their trust, they don't know you. They don't necessarily have an opinion as to whether they like you, but they definitely haven't built that relationship with you yet. If it comes out of your mouth, it's suspect, but if it comes out of their mouth, it is the gospel truth. So if you ask the right questions and they say, well, you know, I'm really been looked, I need to do something to do this for my family, or I need to do this or that, as far as their insurance needs go, and you've asked the questions that get them to do that, you don't have to sit there and say, well, you know, you need to take care of your family. You need to make sure you've got this covered and that covered, they'll tell you. And then when they tell you, it gives you the option to do another Fusion point. You. When they've told you two or three different needs, you say, hey, Mike, you know, you said you would really want to do this. I've got some good news for you. You said you want to do A, B and C. What you told me earlier, we have this which does A, B and C. And it doesn't. It doesn't create a problem in any other area that you're working with. How would that make you feel to be able to do that? And all of a sudden, you've connected again with them in a positive way. You combined it with a logic of what you're doing. You created that fusion point and they were comfortable moving forward.

We're advancing the opportunity.

Absolutely.

That is absolute gold. I hope you picked up everything that Jeff just said and everything that Bob and Jeff have said so far. And if you missed anything, please go back and re watch this re listen to this and make sure you get all the gold nuggets. And again, everything that they're sharing and so much more is in their new book, streetwise to sales wise.com and the wise is W I S E. By the way, grab it. I'm going to start it either this afternoon or tomorrow morning because there's some bonuses in there musically, as Bob mentioned. So I've got one more question for you as we wrap this thing up. And whoever has the answer, please. How important is empathy? Because I don't know if you guys have noticed. We're all advanced and seasoned. Right? How important is empathy in overcoming objection proof? And objection proof is part of your system. It's the systematic way that you teach to do sales the right way. But how important is empathy in becoming objection proof?

Go ahead.

All right. You know, Mike, I've. I've often said that people skills are the differentiator between the successful person and the ultra successful person. You know, talent, hard work, ingenuity, all those things. They are so very important. And you can get to a certain level of success just with those. But in order to get to that next, that stratospheric level of success, people skills are key. The ability to work effectively and constructively with others. And I would say that empathy is the single most important people skill. Now, empathy by definition is simply the identification with or vicarious experiencing of another person's feelings. That's by definition. The challenge is that we don't necessarily know how they feel because we're not them. We come from a different set of beliefs, experiences, worldviews, everything, right? And so the. So we, we. We don't necessarily know how they feel. The good news is empathy doesn't necessarily mean that you know how they feel. It means you understand they're feeling something and that this something is distressful to them and that you were there to help them work through it. And you do this sometimes through what you say and how you say it, but other times just by. Just by being there and Showing up as, as you. And it's helping that person to feel comfortable throughout the entire process. When that's the case, they now understand that you have their well being at heart. And as Jeff was talking about earlier in the know like and trust process, that is so very important.

You know, I learned from Bob Berg. I'm not sure if you're familiar with him. People refer and do business with people they know like and trust. And we've taken it to Bob, we took your words and, and altered it a little bit. We say people refer and do business with people they know, love and trust.

I like that even better. I like that even more better.

So with that being said, thank you Bob for, for dropping that on us so many years ago. But absolutely. Emotional intelligence, if you want to go down that path, empathy, I think all in the same context because really it all leads to the answer to the most important question.

Why should people do business with your agency or your business over and above any and all other options available to them as we advance to the close, that's the. We want them speaking it into existence, if you will, on their end.

Right.

Because once they speak it into existence on their end, then it's true, as Jeff said. So gentlemen, I, I agree. You know, we said that before we started today we could go on for hours about this and now I feel we absolutely can. But here's is the good news.

I will add it again because I will be starting this either this afternoon or tomorrow morning myself. Streetwise to Sales Wise and you can pick up the book streetwise to sales wise. @streetwise to saleswise.com Forgive me. Go grab a copy and you can listen to the first two chapters there on the website and see if you even like it. See if it's even a good fit for you because remember this school's never out for the pros and the day you stop learning is the day you stop growing. And in today's world, if you're going to be at the front of the line and lead people to where they need to go, we need to continually be sharpening our saw. Gentlemen, Jeff West. Jeff C. West. Mr. Bobberg, thank you for helping all of us sharpen us our saw today. Thank you for all that you're doing for so many out there. And if you picked this up earlier, we were also talking about sales wise live 2024. There's nothing out there yet on it, but if you are interested in that or want to know more information, just sending us an email here at UPP. Just email us at VIP very important person. That's you VIP@upplife.com and in the subject line, just put the word sales wise. That'll get to myself and our team and we'll kick you back some information on that so you can learn more. Because like I said, we've got to continue becoming more because we attract exactly what we are and who we've become. Gentlemen, thank you was an honor.

Thank you for having us.

No, honor and pleasure is all ours. And if this is your first time on the podcast, welcome. My name is Mike Stromson, widely recognized as a leading author, speaker and coach for the independent insurance agency industry. You can learn more about what we do at UPP by simply going to Unstoppable Profit producer.com and if you're interested in attending one of our live events, our virtual events, go to uppfaststart.com uppfastart.com and I know we're dropping a lot of URLs. There's only two you need to know out of this one, streetwise to saleswise.com and upbfastart.com check it out, it will help you. Everything that we do and everything these gentlemen also do is all designed to share with you the best money making strategies that we've all developed here with you today. Over a hundred years in the trenches doing it. And we want to share with you these strategies so you can grow your business, create wealth so you too can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. That's why we're here. That's why we exist. It is our absolute not only passion, but obsession to help you do the same thing. And if this is your first time on the podcast, please make sure that you subscribe. Just go to unstoppable profit podcast.com go up to the top and click subscribe so you don't miss one valuable episode. So you can continue to grow, continue to learn and continue to get that gold nugget that's going to shift everything in your favor and advance you to the close more easily with no objections. Wouldn't that be awesome? You got this. So and of course our podcasts out there on all the channels, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, our YouTube channel, Amazon and more. Again, gentlemen, thank you so much.

Our pleasure.

Super, super grateful for all that you guys are doing for sales professionals everywhere. And thank you for continuing to develop and innovate more. Can't wait to dive in to Streetwise, to sales wise, the book and I. I will report back on everything that I learned. So, gentlemen, take care. All right, everybody out there, thank you for joining us on this episode. I will see you on the next episode. Until then, remember this. You got this. We believe in you. I'll see you in the next episode.

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