Episode 49 : Selling A Players

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 Production Motion. 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.

Welcome Everybody to episode 49 of the Unstoppable Profit podcast. This is Mike Stromco coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. And today we're going to be talking about selling a players. That's right, I said selling a players. You might be thinking to yourself, what is he talking about? Well, let me be clear. In the Unstoppable Profit Producer program, it's all built on a philosophy that's been developed now over 34 years in your industry for from the trenches. And the name of the philosophy is simply affectionately called the three Ps. It's people, processes and promotion in that particular order. You've got to have excellent people on your team working within world class processes and systems and then simply all you do is promote the heck out of it. What this means for you is you're gonna grow your business, you're gonna create financial wealth and security for you and your family and you will have more freedom to live life on your own terms. That's all we want for you and what this means for you. If you will follow the path through the wins and the lessons that we've laid out for you, you too can experience all of those things and more. So let's dig in today and start talking about selling a players. I learned from Earl Nightingale and his magical iconic game changing book from 1955 called The Strangest Secret that we are in sales all of the time, every single day, every single way, personally and professionally. To give you an example, if you have children as an to use that analogy, we're selling our children all the time on the value of doing right, not wrong, of telling the truth, not lying, of being punctual. Not being late and all of that. We are selling, selling, selling all of the time, including selling A players to become a part of our team. So let me give you some background on that. I have studied this intensely and I'm going to come to you with, with some of the newest stuff that I've learned that I've never taught before. And I want you to have this so that you can take it forward and find more of the A players or the best, not the best available. If you want to have a world class organization that is humming on all cylinders without you, you've got to have the best team members. Not the best available. You got to have the best. And you can only be satisfied with the best. If you're not satisfied with the best, only then you're going to have mediocre or average or, or, or. And we don't want that for you. Okay, so the first thing I want you to jot down, by the way, if you don't have something to write with and something to write on, please pause this. Go get something to write with. Go get something to write on. And by the way, I forgot to remind you, shut off those devices. They're gonna be there when we get done. We're gonna be together for about 20 minutes today and you can get back to that when we're done. So get something to write with. Get something to write on. Here we go. The first thing I want you to write down today is mission. So create a summary of the mission of your organization and this particular person's position within your organization. What is their core purpose? What is their purpose and why the role exists and how do they fulfill it? How do they play into it? Most importantly, written in plain language, make it so simple even a kindergartner can understand. But outline their purpose or their mission within the organization. What is the expected result? What is their mission? The second thing is what is that expected result? So once you've outlined their mission, what is the result? You see wages are paid for a specific result and the question that you need to answer for them because people are silently waiting to be led. What is that result that you're looking for? This is not the tasks that they will be doing, but the results that they should deliver through the tasks that they're doing. High performance requires clarity. You cannot hit unidentified targets if you are shooting a gun. If you want to hit the core of that target, you have to be able to identify it. Key point hire for vital functions, not titles or positions. You're hiring to get s Done not to fill an org chart. All right, Number three, skills fit for the position. Higher evidence, not hope. Hope is not a strategy. You don't have time or resources to teach skills. Higher proven skills and a track record whenever possible. Hire proven skills and a track record whenever possible. It's not always possible. We're going to talk a little bit more about character and the other in just a couple of minutes. Number four, attributes fit for the position, the culture and the leader within the organization. You have to identify all of that. What we've got people that we're associated with, that we work with within the unstoppable profit producer program who can help with all this. Not just an A player, but the right A player, the right best player. There's a lot to it. All right? The right person in the wrong culture is still the wrong person. The right person in the wrong culture is still the wrong person. You see recruiting top salespeople at a competitor and soon they're going to produce equally as well in your company. That that's lazy recruiting. Don't be a lazy recruiter or hire or anything. You've got to do the work. You've got to do the work. You're not looking for the competitor's trophy. People you see often other people tolerate B players or average. Don't make assumption. Now. The key is next to implement the hiring magic. Okay? You see, you may have heard of Coach K, my coach, Coach Krzyzewski from Duke, one of the winningest college coaches of all time. He says, at Duke, we search for the good kids with strong character. Not necessarily kids with great talent who can play, but great individuals who are willing to be part of a team and who are coachable. That is a huge point. That is a huge thing that we drill on down in our own organization once we get to the team interviews. Because I am in the team interviews all of the time. Many times I'm not. I don't talk to any prospects that might become team within our organization until we get to the team interviews. But when we're in the team interviews, I am looking to dig in and make sure that that person is coachable. They've got to be coachable. They've got to be willing to listen and to get better every single day. Okay? Roy Williams said, I recruit character as much as I recruit ability. That character is absolutely key. And the late, great, iconic John Wooden said, some people have great individual ability. They might reach some success, but if they don't have character, they will go down fast and the road down is much faster than the road up. And the big one, and this is the one you cannot miss. They've got to have the heart. They've got to have the heart. Okay, Simon Sinek said, customers will never love a company until the employees love it first. And you gotta make sure that they love it first in order for the customers to love your company. You see, Back to Harvey McKay, who wrote Swimming with the Sharks. He said, do a job that you love and you'll never work a day in your life. It's got to be that kind of information about Swimming with sharks. Guy is a young film executive.

Thank you. Anyway, customers will never love a company until the employees love it first, according to Simon Sinek. See, at the end of the day, you want to hire Patriots, not mercenaries. You want to hire Patriots, not mercenaries. At the end of the day, okay, there are Patriots and there are mercenaries. Wars are won with Patriots. People who believe in the mission, who believe in the purpose, who are following what you're trying to accomplish. Okay, you see, organizations have two different types of people. Those who work to be part of a mission, and those who work for a paycheck. We want to surround ourselves with only people who care about what we care about. And as an organization, our purpose, our brand, what we're trying to accomplish as an organization. Okay, so let me ask you a question, A question for growth surrounding heart.

Think about the people on your team. Now, does every person on your team love, love, love what they do every single day? Will you have the guts to remove the mercenaries? Not the Patriots. Will you have the guts to remove the mercenaries? Not the Patriots. You know, I learned in my evolution, oh, some 20 years ago, I'm gonna suggest that you've got to be firing your weakest link as often as possible. It will make all of the rest of the Patriots stand up and take notice that you're only settling for Patriots. All right, let's move on. So with that mindset, and once you've got a crystal clear vision of the type of person that you're looking to attract, let me share with you five things that the best are looking for. This is the best available out there. Not the best available. Only the best people. Only the Patriots. Only the A players and my friends, I'm here to also tell you, they're not usually looking. However, when you create the kind of organization, the kind of presence that people want to be part of, they will find you. Trust me on that. Okay, so here's five things that the best people are looking for. First, of all, they're looking for a sense of belonging. They're looking for a sense of belonging. They're looking for a special community, a culture with great people already in it. To give you some companies who might be this, you know, Virgin, Starbucks, Google, Apple, Zappos, those types of companies are. People want to be part of those kinds of cultures. I remember I've been to Zappos a couple of different times on their tour. I took our leadership team on that particular tour and I will never forget the looks on their faces because I looked when the person from Zappos who was telling them about how Zappos operates, you see Zappos at some point in the first, I'm going to suggest 60 days or so, if not sooner, actually offers a full month of compensation for them to leave. They say to the new team member, it says, we will pay you one month's compensation. If you are not happy here to leave right now, we'll park. Friends, that's believing in your mission and your purpose. That's awesome stuff. So you're looking for, number one, people who are looking for a sense of belonging to a culture. Okay. Number two, you're looking for people who want a challenge. You're looking for people who are inspired by big bold ideas, big goals and the chance to do something great. Not just average, the chance to do something great. You see a players want to be part of something great, special and meaningful, something that makes an impact in the world. They crave a yardstick by which to be measured. Something we're doing as we head into the future of our organization is we now have a scorecard with metrics because we have identified that these great people on our team, they want to have that scorecard, they want to be measured. That's why they are a players. Number three, what you should be thinking about when you're looking for the best, you want to make sure that you define what attributes are, what heart is and what drives them. Because at the end of the day, number three is they were looking for opportunity. They are looking for opportunity, okay? See, people want to see a pathway for a better future. They want to be able to envision in their mind the future within the organization. You see, the mind works in visuals, okay? It works in pictures and in frames. Picture this. Can you imagine this? Can you envision this? The mind works in visuals. People want to be able to see that pathway. We have a very high performing UPP platinum member who, who actually draws out a five year plan for every new team member and presents it to them before they even start, say, this is the plan that I've already drawn out for you within our organization, and we want to help you get there. Is this something you can, quote, see yourself doing over the next five years? And the person starts gathering questions based on that. Okay, so number three is opportunity. The fourth thing that the best are looking for is, is growth. They want to continue to grow. They don't want to be stagnant. Complacency kills. Never be settled, never arrive. That's what the best players want. They want to grow. They want to feel better about themselves. What makes them feel better about themselves? Growth. What makes them feel better about themselves? Growth. Okay, and number five, the best. Yes, money's in the picture, but it's not number one on the chart. How does your recruiting script read? Maybe start it backwards, I don't know. Depends on what you're looking for. Does your ads speak about compensation at all? Maybe yes, maybe no. Ours personally do not. Okay, you want to sell. Remember, we're in sales all of the time. You want to sell both the position and the company to the candidate. I believe in my heart of hearts that any candidate that I get in front of within our organization, once I am done, price is not the number one thing on the table. I will personally guarantee that because I have sold the company to them, sold our vision, I have sold our future. I have sold their career path and everything surrounding that within our organization. Okay, so you've got to make sure that you sell both the position and the company and everything it's about to the candidate. All right, so where are you going to find these A players? Now? We've defined who they are, the five characteristics that they should be as a players. And if you want me to recap that for you, let me just do it real quickly. The five things that these A players are looking for. They want great people on your team. A sense of belonging. They want a challenge. They're inspired by big, bold ideas, big goals and a chance to do something great. They want opportunity. They want to see a pathway for a better future. They want growth. They want to feel better about themselves. They're silently waiting to be led. And they're playing their favorite radio station, which is wiifm. What's in it for me? All the time and money. They want to know about how the compensation is going to work. It's not a top priority. Okay, so let's talk about where you might find these A players. Okay, well, first of all, I have, through Diligent, working in the Trenches, hiring people, firing fast, upgrading our team. We have upgraded our team more in the last two years than we ever have in the evolution of my journey in this particular career path. So far are, and we continue to get better. There is many people on our team that have said emphatically, right now we have the best team we ever, we've ever had. Why? Because we continue to attract nothing but the best. And if they're not the best, we move them on, release them back to the marketplace. We release them back to the marketplace, as we affectionately say. Okay, so who, who, where are you going to find these people? All right, first of all, it's estimated by the people who have experience in this, who I've studied in depth, okay, 20% of these people are going to be found through your personal network. People that you know, people that you associate with, people that you're close to that you can pick up the phone and call. And you have Normally at least 100 people in your personal network, personal people that you've grown to know over time. And they're all connected to somebody as well. You know, I learned many, many years ago that everybody has at least 250 people that would arrive, come to their wedding, or that might come to their funeral. And let's get conservative on that. Let's cut that in half so it's still at least 125 people. So if you got, you know, even if it's down to 50, even if you have only 50 people in your network, multiply that times 125. My friends, there's a lot of people out there that can help you find these best players. You just have to write the descriptions. You have to attract them. We've written all the job descriptions, we've written all the hiring ads for every particular position with every particular characteristic for everybody that's within our coaching program. So it's all done. Okay, so your personal network is 20% of where you're going to find them. Your team member or your employee network can be as much as 50% of attracting new team members. We have an incentive within our team that's always open all the time. $1,000 to any team member who can help us find the next great team member. They get 500 upon hiring, they get 500 after day 91 to make sure that they stick. But that's always open. 50% comes somehow some way from within your employee network. 20% personal network. 50% employee network. 10. Only 10%. Only 10% come from online job boards. Only 10%. Indeed. ZipRecruiter all of that. Yes, there's people out there, but generally that's not the greatest place to find the best. Yes, you're gonna find people who are looking, but it's not the place to find the best. And that's all you can be satisfied with, is the best. All right? I'm not suggesting that you don't use these, but it's just part of what you do. And you just have to know psychologically that generally you're not going to find the best out there on the online job boards only. In addition to that, let me add that we have found we are highly, highly cautious. If we find somebody from an online job board and they are not currently working, why are they not currently working? To us, that's potentially a big flag, right? We want people that want to work, that want to work hard, that want to make a difference, that want to be part of something great, okay? And the other 20% is just out there in the wild, okay? Your vendor supplier network, you've got a huge vendor supplier network, people that you write a check to. Go back and look at your. If you used QuickBooks as an example, look at all the people that you've written a check to over the last number of months. Those are potential people that can help you find the next best team player, your client network. If you have hundreds of clients, if you have thousands of clients, go to your triple A clients, your very best clients, and say, hey, I'm looking for new great people. Do you know anybody, any of associations that you belong with, either personally, professionally, any associations there might be a source, your church and your peer groups. Anything else, your chambers of commerce. I mean, anything else that you belong to that could potentially be a source. Let me do a quick recap for you here. 20. You get as far as the best people, not the best available. The best people. 20% are generally found in your personal network. 50% are found in your employee network. Only 10% are found on the online job boards. 20% are found out in the wild. Things like your vendor supplier network, your client network, your association group, your church and peer groups. And my greatest encouragement as we begin to wrap this up today. And I'm going to pause. I believe there's power and pause. My greatest encouragement. And please write this down. Please put it on your bathroom mirror. Please put it on the dashboard of your car. Please put it if you want to. I don't want you to remove the photo of you and your family from your phone, but put it somewhere where you're going to see it all the time. Always be recruiting. Always be recruiting. I can tell you stories upon stories upon stories from people that I work with all over North America who thought that they had a great team in place. They were humming, they were ready to kill it, and one of them quit, one of them moved on, one of them's spouse got a position, moved out of state as an example. All of that and more. You never, never know. You always must be recruiting. You always have to keep your pipeline full, as my great friend Jeb Blunt said. Jeb Blunt is one of the best sales trainers in North America and possibly the world, in my humble opinion. His psychology with regard to sales is that your pipe must always be full 90 days in advance. Your pipeline must always be full 90 days in advance. Your pipe is your life. Your recruiting pipe is the life of your business. If your recruiting pipeline is not always full, you're going to get left behind at some point. Just please hear me clear on that, because it's so vitally important, my friends, I hope this helps you. And we actually have a list of many, many ways that you can go out and find the next best team player. Not the best available, the next best a player. Because our job as industry leaders is to always be selling.

This is Mike Stormstrom coming to you live in the living agency laboratory. My friends, these strategies, these tips that I just gave you, what this means for you, if you implement, you will have an upper hand on anybody else out there who thinks that they know how to hire the best, not the best available. And what this means for you, if you understand this psychology, you will be able to find the best. You will have a better team. You will have more freedom. You won't have to worry about, you know, is something done right or your client's been properly taken care of. Because the people that are the best, they are just going to take care of it for you and they will go the extra mile all of the time. What does that mean for you? It means more freedom, my friends. I hope this has helped you. If you need to re listen to this, go ahead. If you need to share this with your leadership team, please go ahead. But most importantly, don't think about it. Don't talk about it. Only action will get you to the next level. All right, this is Mike Shomsto coming to you live from the Living agencies laboratory. If there's ever anything we can do for you, please let us know. Just look us up on unstoppable profit producer.com unstoppableprofitproducer.com and if you really want to accelerate your future, the smartest thing you can do is sign up for our Be unstoppable Bootcamp. That's beunstoppablebootcamp.com beunstoppablebootcamp.Com we have them often and that is the place where all the magic happens because people that are of the unstoppable mindset, they all collaborate there once a year. And we have a couple hundred people that are of the unstoppable mindset and magic happens within that room. Beunstoppablebootcamp.com Go there right now and make sure that you have a seat before they all disappear for our next Be Unstoppable Boot Camp. All right, everybody get out there and make a difference. Be unstoppable, leave no regrets, and I will see you on the next episode.

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