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Is Your Small Business Ready for the Grand Opening?

Posted on August 30, 2018June 12, 2019 by Mike Stromsoe

Prepare your insurance for its grand opening with these tips.

From the concept to the business plans to installing the computers, you’ve nursed your insurance agency along the whole way. Now that it’s time for opening, you’ll want to be sure that you’ve done enough to set your business up for success. The cost of putting up a brick-and-mortar agency is huge, and you’ll need to get it ready for opening – before you open the doors!

Get your website together.

Plenty of businesses, even today, have sloppy or unprofessional websites or lack a social media presence. Technology is incredibly important in today’s society, and it’s a sure way to get your business out there. Take advantage of easy advertising on social media and capturing a large audience with a website by updating your pages today!

Get promoting.

Now that your website and social media have stepped into the 21^st century, it’s time to get the word out about the opening of your business. Small businesses must work hard to tell the general public of their services and product, and invite them into the office for the grand opening. Welcoming potential clients face to face is much more successful than writing ‘we’re open!’ on Facebook.

Get your equipment together.

Do your employees have everything they need to make the business run smoothly? When it comes to opening day, you don’t want to be lacking pens, business cards, or an Internet connection. Check and then double-check that you have everything in place before opening the doors.

To learn more about how to be successful in your business, contact Mike Stromsoe’s Unstoppable Profit Producer Program. We can offer guidance, helping you perfect your professional posture. We also offer a premier wealth creation program that helps you to work less, earn more, and enjoy life.

What Are Insurance Clients Looking For?

Posted on August 23, 2018June 12, 2019 by Mike Stromsoe

Understand what your next insurance client truly wants.

As with any industry, knowing your market is imperative. Understanding your client’s wants and needs goes a long way in tailoring marketing strategies and crafting services and products. Insurance clients are a unique market. They know they need insurance and most of them want to purchase all-encompassing, full coverage. Yet, many of them don’t. To help you drive more sales in your insurance agency, you’ll need to understand what it is they truly want.

Millennials

The Millennial generation grew up around computers and are well versed in buying products and services online. As a result, they want to find accessible and affordable insurance with clear coverage. Although this generation may be in the habit of thinking they are invincible, it is your duty to stress the importance of insurance to cover their risks. Don’t be surprised if Millennials don’t opt for full coverage right away.

Online Quotes

The ability to provide an online quote is essential to compete with online direct writers. When someone shops online for insurance, they want to see figures – how much it’s going to cost them. An online quote helps to give them a ballpark figure of what they’ll end up paying. If someone, whatever their age, wants to compare coverage from three different sites, they’ll want to see numbers without picking up the phone or visiting an office.

Quality Service

If someone has to file a claim, they want (and expect) the insurer to handle it with care and caution. If they feel that the insurer doesn’t have their best interests in mind, this is when customers are going to begin looking elsewhere. Keep checking in with your clients to ensure that their needs have not changed and to answer any queries they may have.

Working towards understanding what your market wants from you can only benefit the business! To learn more about how to be successful in your business, contact Mike Stromsoe’s Unstoppable Profit Producer Program. We can offer guidance, helping you perfect your professional posture. We also offer a premier wealth creation program that helps you to work less, earn more, and enjoy life.

How to Create an Insurance Agency Marketing Plan

Posted on August 16, 2018June 12, 2019 by Mike Stromsoe

Tips to write a marketing plan for your new insurance agency.

Is your insurance agency just getting started? You will need a marketing plan. A marketing plan for an insurance agency requires knowing the vision for the agency, resources (both finances and time), and the type of clients you want to attract. It may sound like a complicated task, but putting together a marketing plan can be simple.

To create an insurance agency plan, ask yourself these three questions.

1) Where is my agency right now?

Before you start coming up with marketing ideas to help your agency grow, you need to set a benchmark – a starting point. In order to truly see how far you’ve come, you first need to establish where you are before you begin. Assess your current sales, clients, marketing plans, and budget to understand your agency’s picture.

2) Where do I want to be a year from now?

Once you’ve established your benchmark, it’s time to start thinking about where you want to go. In other words, you need to set some goals. Make goals specific so that you can easily measure your success. For example, instead of noting down ‘Close more policies,’ put ‘Close an average of 10 new auto policies and 5 new home policies a month.’ Also, don’t solely focus on new sales. Set goals for other areas of your agency like retention, service, referrals, and reviews.

3) How do I plan to get there?

This is where marketing tactics come into play. Write down your ideas of how to reach your goals. Some tactics may include:

Building an email list of prospects and create an email marketing campaign about why they should contact the agency for a free comparison quote.
Providing quote forms on the website for online visitors to quickly fill in.
Using social media to promote the referral program.
Using a monthly newsletter to provide useful information to clients.

Don’t forget about your insurance plan throughout the year. Open it up at least once a month and hold yourself accountable.

Marketing your insurance agency doesn’t have to be difficult! To learn more about how to be successful in your business, contact Mike Stromsoe’s Unstoppable Profit Producer Program. We can offer guidance, helping you perfect your professional posture. We also offer a premier wealth creation program that helps you to work less, earn more, and enjoy life.

3 Ways to Create a Happy and Healthy Workforce

Posted on August 9, 2018June 12, 2019 by Mike Stromsoe

Retain your top talent and boost employee morale with these tips.

fulfilling tasks, driving sales, and operating the business from the inside out. Once you’ve found a good team, you’ll want to keep them around. To keep your top talent, you may be tempted to give them a raise. However, even bonuses and raises aren’t enough to keep employees happy. Many studies show that employees with high job satisfaction are less likely to look around for another agency position. If you’re looking to improve your team’s health and happiness, read on.

Prioritize the work-life balance. Make work a positive experience by working with your employees to accomplish their goals. If a team member needs to telecommute a couple days a week or do a split shift now and again, let them. Working with their schedule helps them to achieve a better work-life balance.

Ask for their input. Everyone likes to feel valued. If your team members feel that they can be easily replaced, they are less likely to feel satisfied in their role. Show your team that they’re valuable by asking for their input, whether it’s about a deal, a client, or the website. You could even follow through on a sales idea they suggest. You may be surprised by their suggestions!

Help them to become healthier. Health and work productivity go hand in hand. Set your team up for success by providing healthy snacks, holding walking meetings, and setting up health incentives, such as to quit smoking for a day off work.

Here’s to a happier and more positive work team! Want to learn more about how to be successful in your business? Contact Mike Stromsoe’s Unstoppable Profit Producer Program. We can offer guidance, helping you perfect your professional posture. We also offer a premier wealth creation program that helps you to work less, earn more, and enjoy life.

Bye, Bye First Interview… Let’s Just Have Coffee

Posted on July 26, 2018June 12, 2019 by Mike Stromsoe

Hiring the right people for the role could depend on what questions you ask in the interview.

When interviewing candidates for a job position, most managers will ask questions about the candidates’ work history, how they would fit in the team, and how they would go about solving problems. While these are suitable questions to ask, they don’t help the business to understand anything about the individuals themselves. If a business doesn’t understand their wants, needs, and skills, then they could end up choosing the wrong new hire. Instead of trying to sell them on the position, check out these tips that can help to get the most out of the interview.

What’s your dream job?

Asking someone about his or her dream job helps test the potential fit right at the start and lets you know what they want out of a job.

What do you do in your spare time?

Not all questions in an interview need to be directly related to the position you’re hiring for. Although a company does do hard work, having fun together is a major bonus to a well-oiled team.

What did you like and dislike about your last job?

This provides insight into what type of job fits with their skill set and preferences, and in which ways they are looking for a suitable company.

What would you have changed about the company you worked for last?

Although anyone can point out what they like and dislike about a job, it takes someone with problem-solving skills to provide a plan to fix what’s wrong around them. This question also helps to improve your own company culture by understanding what potential employees disliked about their previous workplace.

These questions focus on the interviewee. They dig a little deeper into who they are as a person and not just as an employee. Knowing more about each candidate makes it more likely you’ll pick the right one.

Finding the right team is just the start. To learn more about how to be successful in your business, contact Mike Stromsoe’s Unstoppable Profit Producer Program. We can offer guidance, helping you perfect your professional posture. We also offer a premier wealth creation program that helps you to work less, earn more, and enjoy life.

Ways to Help Lead Your Team More Efficiently

Posted on July 19, 2018June 12, 2019 by Mike Stromsoe

Tips on how to lead an elite team to improve your business.

Most great leaders have a natural passion for building and motivating. While it comes naturally to some, others must work hard at maintaining a happy and healthy team for their business’s success. The art of leadership can be a tricky one to master, but it can be done! Check out some of our top tips to lead your team more efficiently.

Maintain good communication.

Employees want to be kept in the loop about ongoing projects, goals, and deadlines, so it’s important that you communicate well with them and inform them about updates in the organization. It’s also a good idea to encourage feedback so that your staff feels that they can readily approach you.

Recognize good work.

Everyone deserves to be recognized for his or her contributions. One of the most critical goals as a leader is to recognize and reward great work when it happens across your team. Not only will your team feel more appreciated and content in their position, but it will also inspire other members to ramp up their productivity.

Build positive relationships.

It’s important to get to know members of your team individually. Learning more about how individual team members are doing will help to catch conflict beforehand, and you’ll get to understand their strengths and weaknesses.

Learn to delegate.

Part of why it’s important that you establish a relationship with your team and get to know them individually is so you can assess what their personal strengths are. This way, you can easily delegate tasks to suitable people, improving the productivity of the team.

Set a good example.

Your staff will look to you for guidance and inspiration, so it’s essential that you set a good example in order to gain their respect. If you expect them to behave professionally and commit themselves to their work, you must do the same.

How to Create Awesome Video to Promote Your Business

Posted on July 12, 2018June 12, 2019 by Mike Stromsoe

Use multimedia to enhance your business’s marketing strategies.

We’re in the visual age. People want easy access to information and a personal touch never goes amiss. Videos are ideal for businesses to use to support their marketing strategies and excel their reputation. Videos are also great for businesses that want to establish themselves as experts in the industry. Information in text and video form can help your business to grow. Are you ready to get started on your video? Check out these tips to produce professional and watch-worthy content!

Decide how you’ll record your video. You don’t always need the most expensive camera to get started. You can do it on your smartphone and produce a relatively high-quality video. Decide what device you’ll use to film and if you’ll need a selfie stick to record yourself further away.

Pinpoint the location. Will you film indoors? Outdoors? Will you need to rent a studio? Think about the background your audience will see. Is it interesting but not distracting? If natural light isn’t sufficient, you may need to pick up a couple of lights for the viewers to see you clearly. Unless it’s part of your brand to be outside, it’s probably better to do it in a quiet space where you can control the ambient noise.

Pick a professional outfit. Think about the impression you want to make. The rule of thumb is to never wear stripes or small patterns (they will show up blurry), solid bright red or orange (because it will wash you out when you add the effect of lights), or glittery eyeshadow or lipstick. The clothes you choose will convey a message – so make it a good message!

Prepare your content. Are you an off-the-cuff speaker that needs minimal prep work? Or do you require a script to follow? Determine how you can talk best and start preparing. Think about all the points you want to cover and cut the information down into bite-sized chunks so that the video isn’t too long and that viewers can keep up.

Polish and profit. When you’re done filming, you can edit the video through a variety of programs. Find the one that best suits your computer and skill level or hire an editor to do it for you. Once it’s good to go, it’s ready to share with the world! Publish it where you see fit and link it throughout your website and social media sites, too.

Tips for Powerful Presentations

Posted on June 28, 2018June 12, 2019 by Mike Stromsoe

Engage your audience with a powerful presentation.

It’s safe to say that almost all of us have sat through a boring presentation in our lives. Whether the topic was irrelevant, the presentation was dull, or we were completely disengaged, we know that information in that setting is not going to be well received – especially if we’re bored. A great way to start making better and more engaging presentations is not a minefield, although it can appear daunting. A powerful presentation is the most critical tool in communication and business today.

Clear communication can do wonders for any insurance agency. When you articulate your ideas clearly, you:

Win multi-million projects
Secure buy-in from your team on your new vision
Build awareness
Inspire change
Communicate ideas that have the power to spread

Most presentation organization is left to the last minute, causing the dedicated team or person to throw together a whole meeting. Insurance agencies spend billions of dollars and time on their brand, yet rush through pulling together their keynotes. Finding time to research, write, design, and rehearse a presentation is a challenge. However, you must invest the time and energy into doing these tasks if you want your audience to invest their time and money in you.

A powerful presentation is:
Clear, easy to read, has simple language, infographics that visualize key points and highlight the benefits.

A poor presentation is:
Overloaded with facts, stats, numbers, corporate jargon, dense text, inconsistent design elements, and no key message.

It is more important than ever to cut out all the clutter from your presentation to present clear and consistent messages. What gets left out of your presentation is more important than what goes in. Be sure not to drown the audience in complex words, mixed messages, and unreal theories. Your design must support the speaker. Look for bite-sized chunks of information, easy-to-read material, and keep it to the point.

You have the power to make a difference! To learn more about how to be successful in your business, contact Mike Stromsoe’s Unstoppable Profit Producer Program. We can offer guidance, helping you perfect your professional posture. We also offer a premier wealth creation program that helps you to work less, earn more, and enjoy life.

Texting Within Your Insurance Agency Marketing

Posted on June 21, 2018June 12, 2019 by Mike Stromsoe

How your agency can utilize text message marketing.

In our digitally-driven era, it’s not surprising that 91 percent of U.S. adults own a cell phone. Amazingly though, 90 percent of marketing messages are read within 20 minutes of being sent. As an insurance agent, that is a pretty powerful source of marketing. To help your agency make the most of this resource, read these tips.

Build a database that’s compliant.

There are several organizations that regulate text message marketing. Why? Because text messages are delivered via the cellular phone network, which is heavily regulated. The Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Mobile Marketing Association, CTIA, and Telephone Consumer Protection Act all have a role in regulating the industry. Basically, don’t buy or rent a list of numbers and blast messages to them. Instead, ask visitors to opt-in and ensure it is easy to sign up and stop messages.

Promote incentives, discounts, events, and new products.

There are so many ways to utilize text message marketing these days! Make the most of it by sending out different texts that will inspire and engage your audience. You don’t want to be sending out the same introductory message all the time – so get creative!

Be mindful of timing.

It’s important not to send information too often. You don’t want to give the reader a reason to opt out of receiving your texts. One way to do this is to commit to not sending more than one or two texts per month. Additionally, be aware of the time of day in which you send the text. Avoid doing it during rush hour, too early in the morning, or late at night.

Marketing your insurance agency doesn’t have to be difficult! To learn more about how to be successful in your business, contact Mike Stromsoe’s Unstoppable Profit Producer Program. We can offer guidance, helping you perfect your professional posture. We also offer a premier wealth creation program that helps you to work less, earn more, and enjoy life.

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