Episode 83: More Money for YOU

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. 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, friends. This is Mike Stromso coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. And I'm excited and pumped to bring you the next episode in the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This is one of my very favorite subjects out there. Yes, we talk about the people. Yes, we talk about the processes. But the promotions are a lot of fun. They're sexy, they're energizing. Love talking about it. Love teaching it, Love sharing it. We're going to dig in today because ultimately, at the end of the day, knowing your destination is all you need to get there. And you have got to know your numbers, because numbers don't lie. You have got to check the scoreboard. I don't have a picture of it, but my grandson Nate came over to the house one time. He had a shirt on, and the shirt said, check the scoreboard. And it had a subcaption on it. Numbers don't lie. I love that thought process. You've got to be aware of exactly what you're doing in your promotional and marketing programs or all of the time. So let's get right to it today. Please get something to write with. Please get something to write on, because what I have for you today, if you implement it fully, will change your game completely. It will completely change your game forever. Your business in the promotional and the marketing realm. Because these strategies and thought processes, I've studied, I've studied, I've implemented, I've implemented, I've studied, I've studied, I've implemented, I've implemented. And when you get it right, there's nothing better, my friends. So I'm going to go kind of quickly because I've got a lot of information for you today, but please go back and listen to this again. Please go back and watch it again. And more importantly, please share it with anybody you know who will benefit from these thoughts and strategies, these ideas for their particular business. So, number one for you today, how many different selling methods do you currently have? How many currently selling. How many current selling methods do you currently have and use within your business? Number two, how many new potential selling methods have you tested in the last 12 months? Are you sitting on your laurels or are you testing new things as marketers? We test my Friends, as marketers, we test the next item is how many formalized referral generating systems do you have working right now in your business that everyone in your enterprise actually uses and follows and has been trained upon? How many at all, if any at all? Next is your business being marketed tactically or strategically? Is it pre designed for a customer ascension funnel? Once they get on board with your business.

Do you have a powerful USP that comes across to your target market or markets as being the only the only viable solution to a problem they have? Remember, a problem solved is an opportunity for sale. A a problem solved is an opportunity for sale. How many do you have a powerful usp? Okay, unique selling proposition. Do you have one? If not, hey, regardless of your past, you have a spotless future. Or just turn the page to a blank page. Start over right now or get one down right now. Next do you know what your retention rate is? Do you know what your retention rate is and why people stop buying from you? Do you know? If you don't, you should. You should have a systematic process in place to find out why they left you, why they stopped buying from you, and more importantly, try to get them back. Do. Next do you have a comprehensive database of your prospects and clients that identifies everything that you might need to know from name, from address, from email address, from best telephone number? Yes, it's their sale and yes, you can text them what they buy, how they like to buy, how they like to be contacted, and on and on and on. Do you have one, yes or no? And when exactly they purchased from you and exactly what they purchased and what else is available to them? Next do you actively use all of the data you have collected to target certain markets or certain categories of clients of prospects in different ways for different products or for new opportunities? Are you using it? Are you slicing and dicing it every single way possible to grow your business? My friends, your acre of diamonds that's right beneath your fingertips right now is there waiting for you to take action on, but you just need to take action. Do you know exactly where all of your business is coming from? Your production log? Are you looking at it? Do you know exactly where it's coming from? And more importantly, why did they buy from you? I love going into my production log and identifying because we require that our team inputs the exact emotional reason. My friends, people don't buy on logic. If you think they buy on logic, I will disagree with you. They buy an emotion. I want to know exactly the emotional reason why they bought from you. And are you implementing New strategies to further stimulate that thought process to others so that they will buy more from you or new people will buy from you? Do you know? Have you identified exactly what your biggest source of untapped business is and ultimately how to mine it? Mine that acre of diamonds. Have you done that? And do you know? Does at least 25% of your business come from referrals? If it doesn't, implement a strategic and systematic referral program with steps. Train your team to use it and make sure they use it every time. Is the average number of referrals that you get per month going up or going down? If you do have a referral program, do you know, can you reverse the trend? Right. Do you have a reliable system, a predictable system of collecting and creating client testimonials and success stories using at least three different methods of collecting them, such as in writing, such as a review, such as video, to give you three examples to boom, Implement right now, starting today, right here. If yes, how many do you have? Do you know? And is it growing? You should know, and it should be growing all of the time. It should be a process that's built into your unstoppable agency machine. Okay? Do you effectively.

And powerfully use your testimonials and your client success stories and all of your marketing and all of your advertising and all of the sales efforts that you do? My friends, I don't like to shock you, but they don't care what you say. They don't care what you think, and they don't care how you feel. But what they care what other people think, say and feel about their experience with your business? It's not about them. It's all about you. It's not about. It's not about you. It's all about them. It's not about you. It's all about them. So make it all about them. Do you have respected people in your field, in your target markets, in your industry, who unheedingly endorse you and your business? And are you using that influence to grow your business? Think outside the box. How can you do that? You might be thinking, how can I do that? I'm not 100% sure. I know it applies to your agency, business, or other business without asking more questions, but can you think outside the box? Right. How many endorsements or live references do you have that you're actively using within your business or leveraging them within your particular marketplace? Live references? Yes, we have multiple live references that we have in our unconditional complete satisfaction guarantee. I can walk out with that anytime and sell with that document alone. I believe that in my heart of hearts. We'll get to that more in just a minute. So next, do you have a continuous systematic approach program actively in place to continuously, continuously secure prominent endorsements from some of these people or other centers of influence? Centers of influence COIs within your particular marketplace or marketplaces that you're leveraging all of the time? Do you repeatedly test as marketers, we test. As marketers, we test. Do you repeatedly test headlines, subject lines or the equivalent in all of your telemarketing scripts, your phone scripts, etc. Etc. To further and more effectively gain leverage within your particular marketplace? Are you constantly testing, including the five trigger words you guarantee free new sex, the five trigger words in the marketing language? Are you blending those in? Are you listening to your calls and getting better all the time? Going off track here? Do you have a systematic, ongoing follow up system put in place on an action basis for every prospect and every first time buyer you acquire? Do you have a systematic, ongoing follow up system that you've put into action for every prospect and for every first time buyer within your organization? If you don't, fantastic, you can start it today, right here, right now. How often do you follow up with past clients by phone, by email or in person? If they've already done business with you, they're four times more likely to do business with you again. They're warmer than a cold lead. Are you following up how often by phone, in person, electronically, by video, or or, or, or, or do you know your allowable cost of acquiring a new prospect and or a client? If yes, do we invest up to that limit to get a new one? Case in point, do you know the lifetime value of a customer within your business? If you don't know the lifetime value of a customer within your business, you should and you need to find that out and you need to know what that number is. If a person came to me and says, Mike, I've got exclusive leads of your ideal client, either personal or professional or, excuse me, either personal lines or commercial lines. I have a list of your ideal client and it's unlimited list, okay? It's exclusively yours and we have a proven conversion. How much are you willing to pay per lead? My mind immediately. That number for me is $321. I would pay up to $321 per lead if I was guaranteed to convert the majority of them. That's the lifetime value of a client within our organization. On an average, know that number. It's really, really Important. Okay, next. How much time do you invest in marketing? Working on your business, not in your business, on your business, away from the business. Time that you can have clarity, that you can focus, you can think about things, that you can test new things without interruption, without the minutia of the day to day getting into your mindset. So your mindset's your skill set and the better it is, the more you study, the more you consistently improve it, the better. How much time do you invest working on your business? Not necessarily in it. It should be at least 20% of your time. If you're not there yet, that's okay, but that should be a minimum goal. 20% of your time should be invested in working on your business. Okay, next, Ready? Do you use a bold guarantee, a risk removal strategy to close sales and completely differentiate you and your business from your competitors and anybody else within your particular marketplace? Do you, do you have it? If you don't, no big deal. We can help you with that as well. Okay, next. Do you use priority media, other relationships, radio, newspaper, magazine, interviews, etc. Etc. Within your particular business? If you don't, it may or may not be the right fit, but be thinking about it. Think outside the box. How can you strategically use those in your business to increase the credibility, the positioning of you in a particular marketplace, say a niche marketplace, etc. Etc. Have you written a book as an example for a particular marketplace and use that to leverage and build your authority status in a particular business? It's really, really important. It can be really, really big, my friends, if used properly. We can help you with that. Okay, next. Do you use the results of these activities, all of these marketing and positioning activities and excerpts or reproductions as part of your marketing? Do you just a part of it? It doesn't have to be a lot. And remember, today's marketplace is highly distracted. They don't have time to read a lot anyway. So use excerpts and support it with a testimonial or words from another person within a particular marketplace to support that it's absolutely accurate because so and so said it was true. They don't care what you say, but what somebody else says and is what really, really matters. Next. Do you use articles, special reports, or books for promotional positioning? My friends, I spent hours and hours in the middle of the night for a while just gathering information and typing it because back then we didn't have dictation, anything. And I would sit there, I would type it and I would type it and I would type it and sooner and after A period of time I had all of these articles and positioning documents done that I was putting out into the marketplace to leverage our position. I still have all of that. My friends, we want to help. We want to help you grow your business, create wealth and have more freedom. Next for you today. How often do you send out quality emails? How often do you send out quality emails? Not just, you know, copying and pasting something from a carrier as an example and blasting it out? See, the carriers have smartly and strategically made that email all about them. It's not about your agency. People are doing business with you, not a carrier or they are a carrier, obviously, but ultimately, at the end of the day, you want that relationship, the depth of that relationship to be with you. How often do you send out quality emails to provide a benefit to your clients and or your prospects? Okay, monthly, bi weekly, how often? It should be at least bi weekly, if not once a week and depending on the particular marketplace in your strategic positioning. Yes. And it should be a quality email. If you don't know. You want to build relationship. You want to build relationship. You want to build relationship email. E +F equals C R plus T equals MFT. Experience plus feeling equals connectedness. Relationship plus trust equals money follows trust. That's a philosophy that I developed at a time that I was working on the business. It just came out of study that I was working on that particular time. It's absolutely accurate. Now I do keynotes on it. It's a very insightful strategy when used properly. If you want to know more about it, let me know. Or if I haven't done a podcast on it, maybe that's coming to your podcast channel very soon. Next, let's keep on with what we're studying today. Do you have a continuous strategic way to consistently build your email list? Do you have a consistent strategic way to continuously build your email list? In addition to that, know this, my friends and I've also learned this through study. People up to 10% of your list probably changes their email address annually. So you've got to continue to update it so you can connect with people. The key to an email is the subject line. The key to an email is the subject line because if you don't get them to open the email, you're toast. Now if you get them open the email, then your copy better be good within the email or they're not going to keep reading. More on that some other time. Okay?

Are your emails educational and content based and not merely self serving? It's not about you, it's all about them. You want to enter the conversation that's going on in their minds. You want to enter the conversation that's going on in their minds. And it cannot be self serving and it cannot be about you. It's all about the them. Next. Do you have a direct response website that's built around your marketing principles? Do you have a direct response website that's built around your marketing principles? I hope you do. Let's keep going. Next. Do you do effective meaning at both? Meaning at both? Attracting and converting? Do you do effective meaning both convert? Attracting and converting. That's the definition of marketing, my friends. The attraction and conversion of quality prospects that fit your ideal marketplace, your ideal client. Excuse me, the attraction and conversions of a prospect who fits your ideal client. That's what we want for you. Okay, so do do. Do you do effective search engine optimization that builds more prospects, buyers and business productivity so that you can attract and convert more prospects who are your ideal client? Do you do effective SEO? If not, hey, regardless of your past, you've got a spotless feature. You can do this starting right now, starting today. Have you, and more importantly, have all of the people who have contact with your prospects and your clients had formalized consultative and advisory sales training?

I hope so, and I hope it's ongoing. Motivation is like bathing. It's recommended daily. Training is like bathing. It's recommended daily. You can't train them once and forget about it. It's got to be ongoing, it's got to be advisory. And if it's the best of the best, it's from outside your organization. If you are doing it, they are too close to you already, especially if you worked with them for any period of time. Think about it like children. Why do children, when they get to 5, 6, 7, 8 years old, sometimes quit listening to every word that you say? Because it is human nature, my friends. We can't do anything about it. Us human beings are a interesting bunch, if you will, aren't we? Okay, so bring in somebody from the outside to train your people on effective consultative and advisory sales so that they can close more business. Okay, next again, how often do you retrain and advance their skills in this particular realm? Again, training is light bathing. It's recommended daily. You see, according to Zig Ziglar, Zig said, the only thing worse than training somebody and losing them is keeping somebody and not training them. Train your people, team. Train your people to get better every single day. Next.

Do you offer buyers greater quality, quality products and increase the level of protection to increase the size of each sale. Do you give them options? Do you automatically add an umbrella to every quote? Do you automatically add a life policy to every quote as an example, Proactively, without them asking what's the worst thing that's gonna happen, my friend, they might buy it. Yes. Proactivity. Proactivity. Proactivity, not reactivity. Next, do you hold, do you run? Or do you do special events such as seminar, new product introductions, end of the year promotions, co company promotions, private sales, meet the management meetings, meet the team meetings, and other company events? My friends, we are in the middle of the great reset. Business will never be the same into the future. And as we knew it in the past, we're in the middle of the great recess. It doesn't need to be live. You can do it electronically, via video, via zoom, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, I'm doing interviews of people within marketplaces fairly consistently now and it goes onto our YouTube channel as an example. Do you. Yes, you can. You can do that starting right now, right here, starting today. Do you personally talk to buyers, to prospects and clients from time to time to learn what they want and then to build relationships with them? Do you talk to your clients and prospects and other buyers of your product to learn more about them and how they like to buy? Because, my friends, here's something that happened in my world within the last couple of years and when I heard that, it changed my mindset forever. And this is not an ego statement, but at the end of the day, my friends, depending on your experience in business, nobody knows what you know. Nobody knows what you know. Okay? So if you're experienced and you're the one making that call, you're going to hear things that other people can't necessarily hear because they don't know what you know. They don't have the experience yet. Contact people. Have your researchers, your client avatars, your client profile, maps, etc. Ready to gather that information so you can better market to them? Remember, people buy an emotion, not necessarily logic. They buy an emotion, so you got to understand what's making them tick emotionally. Next, do you regularly shop or buy from your competitors to see what they do differently or are doing that your company isn't yet doing? Do you regularly shop and or buy from your competitors to see if you can find new strategies to get better every single day? Do you have. Next, do you have a written marketing strategy and tactical implementation plan that you continuously apply and follow? I hope you do, my friends. It's so vitally important. How can Your team ever follow it? If you don't have it written down, what gets written down and crossed out gets done. So make sure you have a written plan and train them on it, Review it, tweak it, alter it, make it better as you go, as you grow, let's grow. Okay, next. If you do, do you regularly monitor that plan? Okay, I got ahead of myself. There's. If you do have one, do you regularly monitor the plan? Measure the results and the performance of your teammates within that particular plan and adjust, replace, eliminate certain strategies within that particular plan so you can continually grow your business? All right, next. Do you know the top 10 objections of your prospects and those top 10 objections about your products and your services or your business? Let me restate that. Do you know the top 10 objections that your prospects have about your product, your service, or your business? And if you don't, you need to find this out. Because as we wrap this up today, what I'm going to say next brings it all together. So do you know those top 10 objections? If not, you should find out. And lastly, as we wrap it up today in our the diagnosis of our promotional or marketing program.

Do you and your team know the answers to those top 10 objections? Cold. Do you and your team know the answers to those top 10 objections? Cold. If you don't, you. You're missing opportunity.

My friends, opportunity is always knocking. I don't want you to ever miss any opportunity that comes before you or your team because our goal here at UPP is to help you grow your business, create wealth, and to have more freedom to live life on your own terms. My friend, I hope this marketing diagnosis has helped you. I hope it's helped reveal new ideas, thoughts, strategies that you can quickly implement. Because, my friends, any of this you can implement in your business right this minute. My friends, I want your marketing machine to be absolutely unstoppable. I want it to be getting better every single day in every single way. My friends, this is Mike Somso coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. I will see you on the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit podcast. And if you haven't done so yet, please go to unstoppable profit podcast.com unstoppableprofitpodcast.com Go there. Subscribe. That way, every podcast will automatically get dropped into your platform, whatever you've designated that be. We're on Apple devices, we're on Droid devices. We're out there in the stores. So just find the device and the app or the platform. That works best for you. Make sure you subscribe. Subscribe so we can keep in touch with you so you don't miss one message because you never know when that one idea, two ideas, three ideas will make all the difference and become transformational for your business and for your life. And if you heard anything today that you think would help somebody else, please share this with anybody you know. Just have them go to Unstoppable ProfitPodcast.com, subscribe so that they can do. They too can continue learn and get better every single day. My friends, thank you so much for joining me today. I will see you on the next episode and until then make a difference, be unstoppable, leave no regrets and most importantly get out there and take action. See you next time friends. 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.unstoppableprofitpodcast.com now go out and make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets.