Episode 34 : Staying In Front of Your Marketplace Part 3

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This podcast will give you all the tools to grow your business and live life on your terms. Millionaire agents and entrepreneurs think and act differently than others. This podcast will give you a simple, proven three step blueprint to grow your business. Over the past 31 years of research in your industry, Mike Stromso has created a unique philosophy called the three people process and promotion. This outside the box thinking and guidance provides agency entrepreneurs just like you the knowledge and tools you can quickly implement to explode your agency business. He has been there, done that, and he's still doing it. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or are 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 Stromso.

Greetings everybody and welcome to episode number 34 of the Unstoppable Profit podcast. This is Mike Strompso coming to you live from the living agency laboratory where it all happens. We have been there, we have done that, and best of all, we are still doing it. We are churning it out so we can share it with you. And today I want to share with you the final part, part three of our three part series called staying in front of your marketplace. It involves acquiring clients. In part one, we talked about acquiring clients. If you missed it, go back and listen to it. It's sitting somewhere on this site. Number two is retaining your clients. Okay, once you get them, how are you going to keep them? Strategies to directly and effectively retain your clients. But bigger than that, how are you going to continue to build that relationship? You know, I came up with something this year in my study because I am an absolute student of personal development and growth in business and personally otherwise all of the time. And so this year, in my own personal development, just out of the blue, one day came this thought process. And if you want to write this down, go ahead. It's E. The E means experience. So you provide somebody an experience plus F. That experience makes them feel a certain way, okay, equals C. It's connected. You're connected to them because you provided an experience. You've made them feel a certain way and you're connected with them, hopefully a good way. E plus F equals C. The next line down is R. The R is relationship plus.

T. The T is trust. So you've connected with them. You're starting to build a relationship. The relationship plus the trust that you build equals mft. Money follows trust and interacting with Your marketplace is exactly what all of that is about, because you build a relationship, you connect with them, you've got the trust, they've given you the money. Now it's time to take that to the next level. Today, I want to share with you just a little bit about interacting and engaging with your marketplaces. And more importantly, we're going to talk a little bit about referral programs today in depth. But, you know, I had this philosophy that I've taught for years and years about referral programs. You know, first of all, it's not just asking about referrals. And you can't just think you ask for a referral, you're going to get one. What I've taught for years is you've got to earn them first. You have to earn them first and then ask for them. If you haven't done the work to earn it, don't bother asking because you haven't earned the right to ask yet. But I also have a new add on to that philosophy that I've learned through my own personal growth and development and coaching this year. And it's, you've got to deliver. You've got to deliver every single time, every single day and every single way. You've got to deliver. If you're not delivering, you have not earned the right to get that referral. So you've got to earn, you've got to deliver every single day in every single way, every single time. It's about how you talk, it's about how you answer the phone. You know, I was interacting with an agent just yesterday who asked me for some information. So I got on a quick phone call with him and I said, what phone number do you want me to call you at? He said, call me at this number. And it was his main office number. And I called the office, and the young man that answered the phone did a phenomenal job. He said the this is so and so. How can I make this the best call of your day? I said, so and so. You can make this the best call of the day and let Joe agent know Mike Stompso's on the phone for our call.

Bam.

That was flipping awesome. So what is your. What are your people saying? Because everybody analyzes you and they get an opinion about you within the first four seconds of a conversation or an interaction. So I want to share with you today all about interacting with your marketplaces, whether they're clients, prospects, centers of influence, or otherwise. See the single agency component that continues to churn money month after month, year after year, gives back to our communities and helps our team members learn to be more giving.

And has an 8 to 1 ROI on average. First year commission is our agency referral rewards program. We've had it since last century so it's been going strong for a couple of decades. It continues to churn and churn and churn at first year return on investment only. So do you have a systematic, effective referral program? I can tell you this as we're heading into another year. We have not been doing as good a job this year because of all the marketing balls that we have in the air, our first P issues and other things that are going on out there. But we will get back to it next year. We need to get our game back to its highest level in our referral rewards program because you know there is so many things that you can be doing and it all starts with thought process and what you want to name your referral program. We theme name all of our referral programs. Alright, so right now our referral program is the Inspiring Happiness by making a difference Referral program for 2018. The Inspiring Happiness by making a different referral rewards program. You know, and it really depends on what your core brand is and who you are with purpose as to what your theme name is. And it should all go hand in hand. When we went through a complete rebranding process, it was developed from that intense, deep rebranding process that our team does. Just two words, two things. We inspire happiness. So we build off of that and next year we're going to be building off of that when we theme name our referral program. It will be coming up very, very soon. So I'm looking at our flyer. The colors on the flyer are in conjunction with our complete branding process. It's two sided. It tells people how they can win in three easy steps. But you know, at the end of the day, the intention of it all is to be a soft reminder and a conversation starter. Those are the two things that I think the flyer are more than anything else. It's a soft reminder and a conversation starter. I'm looking at the backside. Last year we helped raise over $21,261 for charities and communities. And in 2017, just through our referral program, by giving back with every referral and to other charities that are involved in our organization, it's an absolute win win. Because you know, the law of reciprocity is always in effect. And what was developed off of that single thought process was inspiring happiness with strong. So inspire happiness with strom. So it's a program where anytime anybody uses one of our inspiring happiness balls and sends us a picture from regardless of where they are, they get profiled in our inspiring happiness with dram. So program, we send them a gift, we engage with them, we follow up phone call with them. We want to know the story about how they did it and we share that and we can video, we can vlog it, we can transcribe that and get it out there in a blog. I mean, for friends, if you're picturing this or imagining what you can do with any of these strategies, the sky is the absolute limit. And it's got a little note attached to all of it. And I've got a visual of it, the ball, the flyer, and there's a little note on it says, we are so grateful for the opportunity to serve and protect you, your loved ones and everything you work so hard for. That's one of our taglines. And I'm going to go off on a real quick squirrel here. I did an interview with somebody today for our sales team and who was referred to us, by the way, by a center of influence community partner who has identified us as the leading insurance agency. His words, not ours, in our communities. Think about that for just a minute. How does he feel that way or why does he feel that way? Because of everything we've got going on, he said to me when I saw him at a charity function recently, he said, mike, you guys are doing things that nobody else is doing. Nobody is doing it to the level you are. So grateful for the kind words. But he put me in touch with somebody. That prospect ended up today for the first interview. And when I was talking to this prospect yesterday during the phone interview, this person said, confirm for me exactly what the business does.

And I said, we protect people and everything that they work so hard for. And she told me in the interview today, she goes, I will never forget how you said that because it affected me and connected with me like nothing else. Win, win, win. How are you showing up every single day and every single way? I'm off track. I'm going to get back to our inspiring happiness program. We've got lots and lots of pictures and visuals at charity events. We had somebody who's connected to our agency send us a picture of the smiley ball in another part of the world. I mean, they're thinking about it, but how cool is that that they got a smiley ball with them when they're over in Asia or. I'm not sure where this picture is, but they have a smiley Ball with them in Asia and they're taking a picture and sending it to us. How flipping awesome is that? All right, so question for you. How systematically documented is your referral program to fully engage with your marketplace? I'm looking at ours. We have a six step initial phase of our referral program so that we make sure that we consistently follow up and deliver every facet of a referral program. You know, it's not that everybody in our organization is not intelligent. They are all very intelligent people. But at the end of the day, they have a lot going on. So we use checklist upon checklist upon checklist. And you know, the six step referral process checklist, it talks about step number one, just even getting back to the referral, connecting with them, doing the quote process, sending out the offline snail mail item if we don't close it right there on the spot. And here's. Let me give you a ninja secret. Step number five. Step number five is the agent to contact the refer all within seven business days of the contact to make sure that we've answered all their questions. And here's the ninja. This is the ninja step. Step number six, the agent to contact the referrer, the referrer within seven business days to report back to them on what happened to the referral. If somebody sends you a referral, ladies and gentlemen, they're thinking in the back of their mind, hey, I referred it to Mike. Did he really take care of the referral?

Is he really serious about providing service of unequaled excellence to my referrals? With this step, my friends, you are confirming, you are confirming back to the people that trust their reputation in referring you. That's delivering, my friends. That is delivering. Okay, the people who win in our referral programs and who are kind enough to bring back to us time and time and time again, make sure you get photographs and every opportunity. Post the winners to social media, to blog to everywhere. One of the things that we need to step back up again this year is the offline direct mailings to our marketplace of the referers where they work and, and everything that they do. We get our team involved. We do live video drawings. We do. I mean, the sky is the limit. There's so much. And we also have a separate facet aside from reviews and testimonials that we call our ferocious feedback program. We have a ferocious feedback program, includes client service report cards, it includes feedback forms. You know, we have this little business card, if you will, that I borrowed from a billion dollar company that we do business with that says we're not 100% satisfied unless you are. All right, so that's our online review program. And all of the sources of reviews, be it Google reviews, Facebook reviews, Yelp reviews, the sky is the limit. Consistently be listening that feedback every particular way. Now, part of our feedback program is we created a separate website for our reviews. Ours is SIA reviews.com and people can go there. So every time that people leave us a review, we do a drawing and we do a spontaneous periodic drawing for people that have left us a review. And you draw a winner and they win a $101 Visa gift card. Hey, it's a small price to pay for credibility, my friends. Trust me. It's a small price to pay for credibility. Credibility. Credibility. Credibility is everything, my friends. Trust me on that. So another question concerning your review and your feedback process. If you use electronic signatures, we Happen to use DocuSign. Have you built in your review link to the back end of DocuSign? It's a very simple tech process. I frankly do not know how to do it. Only the tech people on my team do. But that's a really, really great source of wonderful reviews, feedback, and other forms of credibility that come into organization. Because when we close it, when we close a deal, and if we've done the work to create the experience that people are looking for, when we send the application out to them to electronically sign, they leave us a review before they get off the signature. And I got one today. It's one of the best reviews that I have seen in a long, long time. Now let me give you the other ninja trick that is so critically important that people don't do anything about. I stopped in my tracks after I read that and I immediately forwarded the review to the person who it was written about because our review system tells us that. And the team leader for that department and, and the marketing department and one other leadership person so that we all knew. Okay. She said to me, among many other things after I sent her that email and she responded within like two minutes. She said, my heart is smiling, my friends. Do you think she's going to be on fire for the next calls that she's going on today with prospects? Absolutely, she is. Her heart is smiling. How flipping awesome of that. Don't make sure, make sure that you do not miss that additional step. Send a snail mail piece to every person who writes a review. Are you doing that as well? That person who left the review today, this piece should be going out. It's an offline piece to the person It's a handwritten letter says thank you for sharing kind words about our team. And it's because of amazing clients or people like you, we identify what they are that we love. What we do love is all caps. We're so grateful. It's in our unique.

Airmail envelope with a live stamp turned sideways like nothing else. We've got a $5 Starbucks gift card in there, one of our referral flyers. I mean, the sky's the limit, friends. You can do this. You can do this starting today. You can do it starting right now. And the people in our coaching program have access to all of of the time. So all they have to do is plug and play. It's really that simple. So what kind of experience you providing with your mobile app as an example, Are you pushing this kind of information out to people that are engaged with your mobile app as well? See, picture this or imagine this if you will.

Everything that I've just talked about in all of this three part series can be pushed out digitally also through a mobile app if you have one set up. It's really that simple. My friends, what we want for you is we want nothing but this vast array of connection, of engagement, of interaction with every marketplace that you do business with. What does that mean for you? You will be known as the absolute independent insurance agency leader or the business leader, whatever you are, the particular marketplace that you choose to do business with, business in, if you will take the steps to systematically and effectively deliver all of these things. Our offline newsletter and our online newsletter has fillers in there, things like recipes from our team, crosswords, quizzes, something to take them take their mind off the world. I mean where the flip did Facebook get billions of people involved in their program? Because people want to get away, be the one that helps them get away, be the leader. Do you do contests and giveaways?

Do you have a client of the month program? And how are you delivering that? Note of gratitude to the client of the month. I'm looking at ours. We've got lots of fillers, it's in a glamour envelope, on and on. And you know, we also send the client of the month a Harry and David spontaneous gift basketball. I'm looking at the response from somebody just this year that received that. Thanks for all of your help over the past 20 years and the delicious pears and cheese and the gift. We've very much enjoyed them and we remain grateful to you and to your team for taking excellent care of us. Happy New Year to all of you. Etc, Etc. Client. I Mean, these emails that come in, they're just heart touching and they're awesome. You are engaged. You are connected like nobody else. When you're doing this in a timely, systematic way, that's spontaneous, my friends. It's awesome. Are you educating them via video? We hope that you are via your email signatures, via your nurture emails, et cetera, on your website. I mean, the sky is the absolute limit and ninja trick that I talked about in part two of our series, take your videos and transcribe them and. And you have now a written document that you can publish out there to the world, my friends. Everything that you ever need is sitting right at your feet in your own acre of diamonds. Are you thanking them? All right? Are you thanking our veterans as an example? The example that I'm looking at right now is one of these things, you know, we identified that somebody was a veteran in a phone conversation. So our team took it upon themselves to immediately thank them spontaneously without them knowing it. Okay? So they wrote. They wrote a note. We have custom letterhead with a certain way of filling it out like we do. And we said, hi, this veteran's name is Eric. Hi, Eric. Thank you so much for your service, for your courage, and for your sacrifice to protect our freedom. As a small gift of gratitude, please enjoy a coffee on us. Gratefully, Mike and the production team, we sent it out to him along with one of our unique custom envelopes to his workplace. And we got a note back. And I'm going to read you the note. He said, hello, Mike. I received your special unexpected accolades in my corporate meeting this morning. I shared it with my associates and they thought it was very cool. And I'm so surprised and appreciative of the gift card and thank you from a proud veteran, Eric. My friends, that's the kind of stuff that happens. If you will use two ears in your one mouth to listen for these opportunities, identify them, and take flipping action. The sky's the limit. You got this. All right. Imagine. Imagine if your team were to celebrate Flag Day, Independence Day by sending handwritten thank you notes for your service notes to everybody that you can identify that served your clients, your prospects, your community members, etc.

Plan it.

Plan it. At the beginning of spring, early April, start planning this adventure with your team. You can do this, my friends. It's an absolute game changer. And your team that's writing the notes wins just as much as the people that are receiving them. Give back to your community. I'm looking at the visuals.

Our kindness programs involved in Rotary Groups, the kindness revolution in our schools, the Boys and girls clubs, the team members that are at the city hall, at the police department and the fire departments thanking our first responders. What are you doing to show the appreciation, to engage, to deliver to the people and everybody that supports you? My friends, to wrap it up today, remember this mindset because your mindset is your skill set. Let me repeat that. Your mindset is your skill set. You gotta be answering this question every single day in every single way, every single interaction with anybody, every phone call, every face to face interaction, everything that you do, you've got to be closing all the time and closing on this thought process because everybody's thinking this in every interaction with you. Are you ready? Why should people do business with you over and above any and all other options available to them? My friends, they have other options. They don't need you. They don't need you one bit. But when you prove to them every way, in every single interaction and every engagement that they should be doing business with you, that they should be giving you their money, that money follows trust, you're going to continue to grow your business. Let me repeat this. Why should people do business with you over and above any and all other options? They don't need you, but they want you. And so prove to them why they should continue to give you their hard earned money. My friends, all of this is systematic, it's automatic. It's all part of the three Ps, the simple philosophy, people, processes and promotion that if effectively implemented consistently, you will grow your business, you will create wealth, and you will have more freedom to live life on your own terms. I'm looking at a quote from, there's this little company out there, they seem to be pretty successful in today's world. It starts with an A. What is it? Oh yeah, that trillion dollar company, Amazon. I'm looking at a quote from Bezos. He said, I knew that if I failed, I wouldn't regret that. But I knew that the one thing I might regret is not trying. But my friends, I remember the story about Bezos and he is sitting at the boardroom table with his board of directors. And the board of directors were saying, you're spending too much money on the online platform. You've got to cut your cost. We need to get more back to our bottom line. Bezos said, I'm not going to do it and if you're not in agreement, I'll walk and we'll remain friends.

They said, well, when can we expect a better return on our investment? He said stick with me my friends. Possibly the most wealthy man on the planet because he stuck with the process and he makes it so easy to give them money. My wife now gives them so much money because they make it so easy for her and she's not a techie.

What are you doing today to make it so easy? My friends? I hope you've enjoyed this three part series on acquiring more clients and once you get them, how to retain them and most importantly, how do you interact with them? Because you got to be answering the question all the time, why should people do business with you over and above any and all other options available to them? They have other options available to them. They don't need you, but make them need you and value you more than anything else so they're never going to want to leave you, my friends. Love you guys. Make a Difference. Be unstoppable. Leave no regrets. This is Mike Strompso coming to you live from the Leaving Agency Laboratory. I can't wait to interact with you again on our next episode. Until then, go take action. Don't think about it, don't talk about it. Only action is going to get you to the next win and to the next lesson. We'll talk to you soon.

Thank you for listening. If you would like to listen to more episodes or share this podcast with someone you care about, please visit www.unstoppablepr.profitpodcast.com. now go out and make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets.