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Create Stability While Growing Your Business

Posted on by Mike Stromsoe

Starting your business can be a little shaky over here, and wobbly over there. Once you know what owning a business is actually like, it’s time for some stability! Follow these steps to help your business gain some stability as you continue growing.

  1. Regulation.

Staying with regulations are very important for the continued growth of your business. Join organizations and seminars to know the updates on any regulations your business should follow.

  1. Hiring the right people for the job.

Hiring the right person for the right position is the most valuable asset for your organization. When interviewing your candidates, make sure that you give them an opportunity to talk about their experience in the field, their training, and what lead them to apply for this position. While money may be the real answer for all your applicants, the clever ones will have researched your company and given you an answer that fits your company’s values.

  1. Trust & Trustworthiness

Employers want the ability to trust employees, customers, vendors and the others with which they conduct their business, and vice-versa. However, in order to gain trust one must be trustworthy. Being a good leader is the best way to gain the trust of your employees. Learn from your mistakes and communicate well with your clients. Leadership begins with the careful and purposeful integration of identity and performance, being and doing, essence and activity.

Stability is sought after by everyone. After you’ve worked so hard to get your business off the ground, achieve the stability your business deserves. It is time to figure out how you can start earning more, working less, and enjoying life! Contact Mike Stromsoe’s Unstoppable Profit Producer Program to do just that!

Use This Tried-And-True Formula For Success

Posted on by Mike Stromsoe

This formula will help your business realize success this year.

All business owners want to be successful. After all, when you thought about starting your business, being broke, working long hours, and watching your business fail were not on your list of to-dos.

How, exactly, do you succeed? While plenty of people will give you a complicated answer, we say it doesn’t have to be such a headache! To help your business achieve its full potential, follow this straightforward three-step formula for success.

  • Do Your Homework: New business owners think they’ll learn about the market as they go, while seasoned ones think they already know it all. You’re both wrong. All industries change and grow, and technology is making those shifts happen faster than ever before. Take the time to take a step back and research your industry. Who are the top players? Who’s changing the game? Where are customers’ needs not being met?
  • Discover Your In: Once you have the facts, you’ll be able to lay them all out to figure out where your business has a channel to success. Maybe all of your competitors are doing something you’re not, and you need to start. Maybe no one’s doing something customers are calling for, and you can. Look for any opportunities your business has in front of it.
  • Make A Plan Of Attack: So you know the background and what you want to do. Don’t just plunge ahead blindly! Instead, take the time to create a detailed, organized, logical action plan. If you’re going to change your business, it’s in your and your team’s best interest to be prepared before you do.

If you want help doing market research, discovering your opportunity, or making your plan, contact Mike Stromsoe’s Unstoppable Profit Producer Program. For on-the-ground training, don’t miss our “Leave No Regrets” boot camp in San Diego, California. At it, we’ll teach you how to learn how to work less, make more, and enjoy life!

Tips to Drive Retention Rates Up

Posted on by Mike Stromsoe

As a business owner, you strive to recruit and retain the highest quality employees to represent your company brand. Sadly, retention rates have begun to plummet in recent years. While it may seem like you have only wasted time in interviewing, hiring, and training a new employee that has a fast turnover, your company also suffers financially from high turnover rates. Compiled are some tips to help you drive retention rates back to normal:

  • Keep in mind that compensation is not as critical of a role as you may have previously thought.
  • Turn your employee value proposition mentality into job value proposition. Rather than explaining the specifics of the job description upon hiring, honestly explain the pros and cons of the position so that you can attract those who fit the job right from the get go.
  • Employees expect the opportunity to grow within a company. They are expecting career opportunities at the end of their path.
  • Many employers fail to recognize the importance of a suitable work environment. Security comes first for most employees, and then they begin to think about the level of appreciation they receive for their hard work and other factors.

For more of these wonderful tips, be sure to contact Mike’s Unstoppable Profit Producer Program. This program can lead your organization to success.

The Five Steps Of Learning And Retention – Part 2

Posted on by Mike Stromsoe

The second step is Repetition.  My research of a university study revealed that an idea that was read or heard only one time was 66% forgotten within 24 hours. But if that same idea was read or heard repeatedly for 8 days, up to 90% of it could be retained at the end of the eight days.

So once you’ve read this manual all the way through, go back and read it again. But this time read with a highlighter, a pencil and notepad handy. Mark up the book. Write down the ideas you feel fit your personal business situation. This repetition will help you retain more of the information than if you had read it only once.

The third step in the learning and retention process is Utilization. This is the “doing” step. It is here that neuromuscular pathways(the study of this has been fascinating) are actually developed, creating a “mind‑muscle memory.” And according to the study quoted earlier, once you physically experience an action, it becomes twice as easy to recall as if you had heard it only.

Fourth, is Internalization. Actually making the idea a part of you. That may involve some customizing or tailoring of the idea to fit your situation or style, but it is vitally important for you to personalize the idea and make it “yours”.

The fifth step is Reinforcement. In order to maximize the effectiveness of an idea, you should continually be looking for ways to support and strengthen it. The more you can support the idea, the more you will believe it, the longer you will retain it, and the more effective it will become in helping you serve your customers’ needs.

Now, what does all this have to do with your business? Simply, this. In your daily business and personal activities, as well as throughout your experience with the information in this article, you are going to be overwhelmed with great number of ideas.

Some will be brand new, that is, you’ve never heard them before. Some will be ideas you have heard in the past, but have forgotten. And others will ideas you come up with on your own as a result of something that was triggered in your mind as you read. Understanding and applying these five steps in the learning and retention process can help you retain more of what you read and experience. These experiences can then be implemented and executed to put more cash in your pocket!

The Five Steps Of Learning And Retention

Posted on by Mike Stromsoe

Learning – the acquisition of new information or knowledge, and Retention – the ability to capture that information and recall it when wanted or needed, is actually a process that involves five steps:

First, is Impact. That is, actually receiving the idea in your mind. Impact can be in the form of a word, a visual observation or a concept. It makes no difference. Your mind isn’t capable of making a distinction between a visual or an actual experience. Nor is it capable of determining the difference between a conscious or an unconscious impact an idea may have on you. As far as your mind is concerned, those experiences are all the same and your mind will accept them, regardless.

If information or an experience appears real to your mind, your emotions and nervous system will react as though it were actually real.

To illustrate this point, try this simple experiment:

Seat yourself in a comfortable chair, feet flat on the floor and your hands resting comfortably in your lap.

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, let it out slowly and relax. Take another one. Let it out slowly. Relax even more.

Picture in your mind a lemon resting on a table in front of you. Visualize it. See it clearly. Look at its shape – its color – its texture.

Now, mentally reach out with your hand and pick up the lemon. Bring it up to your face. Look at it closely. Squeeze it. Do you notice how firm it feels? Feel the texture of the lemon’s dimply and waxy skin. Notice the lemon’s yellow color and round shape, with its pointy ends.

Now, hold it up to your nose. Smell it. Do you notice the lemon’s citrusy smell?

Place the lemon on the table and mentally pick up a knife that’s laying nearby. Cut the lemon in two.

Pick up one half of the lemon and see the juice dripping from it. Bring the lemon up to your nose. Smell it again. Now bite into the lemon.

What’s happening to you right now? Is saliva flooding your mouth, both in your mind, as well as physically?

Now consider what just happened. In actuality, there was no lemon. You just pictured one in your mind. While this was just a mental exercise, and the lemon was just imagined, chances are, if you are like most people, the mental image you were playing on the screen of your mind triggered certain responses which manifested themselves physically. So, you can see by this demonstration, that Impact, is a critical step involved in the process of learning and retention.

Being a Unstoppable is ALL about IMPACT. The next steps are coming to you over the next few weeks.

Until, then GO IMPLEMENT something!!

 

Unlimited Abundance

Posted on by Mike Stromsoe

Walt Disney was a man of extraordinary vision and foresight. He knew what it would take to be successful in his chosen area of business, and he developed a formula that expressed his philosophy, and could be used in any type of business to ensure its success. He called it, his “Law of Unlimited Abundance.” Walt said that it didn’t matter what type of business or endeavor a person was engaged in, they could be successful and enjoy unlimited abundance, if they would simply follow his formula or plan. Walt Disney’s “Law of Unlimited Abundance,” stated, that to be successful, you must: “Do what you do so well, that the people who see you do it, will want to see you do it again, and will bring others to see you do it.” That’s the credo that built the enormous successes of Disneyland and Disneyworld. And in their arena of operation, they stand alone.

 

 

The Law Can Work For You!
It can be similar in your agency, too. You see, the key is to, “do what you do,” not always what someone else does, but what you do. Simply covert the “way” you perform everything done by you and your team. That’s what makes you special, sets you apart from others, and attracts people to you. You are not a conformist.

Then you do what you do, “so well,” that is, provide what your customers require, want, or need in an exceptional manner. It leaves no room for mediocrity, it’s “so well.” That implies exceptional performance.

And if you will do that so, “the people who see you do it,” (your customers), “will want to see you do it again,” (that’s repeat business), “and will bring others to see you do it,” (that’s referral business), you too, can meet with an unparalleled< explosive, success.

Because so few people perform in business that way, it sets you completely apart from all the competition. Customers can’t get the kind of caring protection from anyone or anywhere else. It’s simply not available anywhere, at any price.

So, by default, you become unique, different, and difficult to replace. And it will be reflected in your business and your bottom line. It has to. There’s no choice. It is a basic, eternal law of nature. You simply reap the results of what you’ve sown.

You Reap What You Sow

 

The question you must answer in your mind is, “What are you going to sow, so you will reap the kinds of rewards you wish to have?”
In the world of business, this is a most critical question, and one you would do well to take the time to answer. Fact is, most business people simply don’t understand how important the answer to this one question really is.

You see, many people go into business because it is something they have always wanted to do, or because they want a certain amount of freedom, or perhaps they want to be their own boss.

Now, those are not necessarily bad reasons, but they are selfish reasons for the most part, and while they may sound good on the surface, in actuality, some of them may not be very practical.

If you go into business for selfish reasons, and fail to give the customer his or her rightful due, your chances of success are likely to meet with hard times.

Business, like farming, requires that you do certain things in a particular order if you are to realize an abundant harvest. Now the answer to the question:  “What are you going to sow, so you will reap the kinds of rewards you want?”…is simple. You only have to look at the question backwards.

First, what kinds of rewards do you want? Second, what do you have to do to get those rewards? And third, who is it that can give you those rewards?

If you will always remember that although you may represent certain companies, they are not who pays you.

Hope this helps, hope you take action. Good luck!

 

Mike Stromsoe, Creator of the
Unstoppable Profit Producer Program™
A Coaching Program for Insurance Agents
Call 800-770-9984
www.unstoppableprofitproducer.com

PS As a special bonus for March, since it’s the month of GREEN, I will help you make MORE green. For all of the details, call 800-770-9984 or Email us ([email protected]) today for your F*REE, 29 minute, in-depth, no-obligation Agency Analysis!

 

Here’s What Other Agents Say About the Unstoppable Profit Producer Coaching Program and How Their Lives Have Been Changed:

“I have had the pleasure of working with Mike Stromsoe on various projects over the last four years. I must say that I have never met another individual in business who is more focused on getting the job done, whatever the task, and getting it done right with the utmost integrity. Mike has taught me many things in the business environment but what I am most thankful for is his example of discipline to get things done and get them done right, quick and precise with the customer in mind always. I highly recommend Mike Stromsoe and his team to anyone who is looking for his services.”

Terry Young ~ Southern Risk Services

Should You Hire Experienced CSRs or Hire No Experience?

Posted on by Mike Stromsoe

There’s great debate among agents over this. You’ll find agents on both sides of the fence, and most who just don’t know.

From my perspective – for many reasons I won’t get into here – hiring no experience is the way to go. However, I also know that sometimes you just have to hire an experienced CSR.

When you do, don’t just throw that person into their role thinking they require no training.

This is the main reason experienced CSRs end up causing problems. They bring somebody else’s business philosophy with them … and potentially lots of bad habits.

So, here’s a little training program for your newly hired, experienced CSR to adopt “your way” of doing business. Do this first and they’ll be much more effective in their CSR role.

Start the new person out as the receptionist or admin assistant – just for a week. Here they’ll see your systems in action at their simplest level.

They’ll work from an Accountability Checklist and refer to procedures that explain how to do tasks.

They’ll learn your phone and visitor management systems. They’ll learn your tools and software by actually doing simple tasks.

Bonus: you’ll quickly identify a hiring mistake without disrupting your service team or client relationships. How?

If your new hire can’t function within your simplest of systems, they’re going to resist everything you do and try to do everything their way. Cut ‘em loose and try again.

After a week, move them into an assistant’s role for another week. Here they’ll get deeper into your organized processes and procedures and learn more tools, checklists and software.

At this level they’re learning how you separate duties and delegate work. They’re learning all the things they will NOT do as a CSR.

After a week (or two) as an assistant, they’re ready to move into their permanent CSR position. They know your tools and systems. They know your way of doing business – your policies and procedures. They know what the assistants do and what to delegate to them.

Now they can focus on client relationships … and do things “your way”.

Think this through and develop your training program. Trust me, it’s worth the small effort!

Make a difference, Be Unstoppable, Leave No Regrets

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