Episode 302: All there is About Hiring an ISA

In the 302nd episode of Mail Right Show, Jonathan Denwood and Robert Newman asked Dale Archdekin to discuss how a real estate agent can determine the right moment to recruit an Inside Sales Agent (ISA) and find the right one capable of converting leads into appointments. Archdekin is a lead optimization expert and the founder of Smart Inside Sales, a residential real estate agent, and a broker coaching and training organization. Dale began his business in real estate by cold calling and following up on internet leads. He quickly rose to become one of the top FSBO and Expired listing agents in his market over his first five years. He eventually rose to Director of Lead Generation for a small local team, where he played a critical role in expanding it into a top-5 Keller Williams Realty Mega Team. Dale’s inside sales staff was instrumental in the team more than doubling its sales to more than $200 million in just three years. Dale and his team are now replicating customer performance throughout the United States and Canada through sales training, lead conversion, and team expansion coaching.

What is an Inside Sales Agent (ISA)?

In a real estate organization, an ISA or Inside Sales Agent is responsible for qualifying incoming leads, prospecting for new information, and following up on old leads to ensure they are ready for the agent to sell.

An ISA may also be referred to as a cold caller, lead scrubber, appointment fixer, or one of a variety of other terms widely used by real estate agents.

Whatever they are named, ISAs may considerably enhance your real estate business’s revenue by qualifying and following up on leads to help you convert more effectively, as well as by prospecting for new business prospects.

An ISA may perform various functions depending on the tasks allocated to them by its separate agents.

ISAs are often classified into two categories based on their shared functions. The first (also known as an FRA or First Response Agent) contacts and qualifies inbound online leads, while the second is prospecting outbound by cold calling FSBOs and following up with previous leads, clients, etc.

When is the right time to find an ISA?

If a solo real estate agent builds his business on his own and spends a significant amount of time handling incoming inquiries, accounting work, scheduling open houses, coordinating with escrow, and a dozen other tasks, this can be exhausting and highly inefficient for his firm.

If he’s reached this stage, he’ll almost certainly require assistance with lead quality, follow-up, and prospecting, so he can focus on the critical task at hand: converting leads into customers.

That is to say; the time has come to hire an Inside Sales Agent (ISA)!

Hiring an ISA could be a game-changer for the business, as it can save significant time, increase efficiency, and assist in closing more deals than ever before.

Why do you need a suitable ISA and give the best trainer for them?

Unfortunately, 70% to 80% of the time, you’ve hired the unsuitable person and spent more money on training and resources for someone you probably shouldn’t have employed in the first place.

The truth is that telesales, telemarketing, or simply talking on the phone with people is a pretty cruel profession. It requires a particular personality that can take a great deal of rejection in stride while maintaining a genuinely excellent attitude. It’s challenging to locate folks who are well-suited to such a profession. And when you do find them, it is critical that you invest in them. You want them to have to cope with the emotional aspect and—what they will have to accept as part of their job choice. You want them to have the tools necessary to achieve the best outcome possible since this will make them feel better about their work. And, number two, you must equip them psychologically to deal with any rejection they encounter, which is frequently not rejection at all; it may simply be a question of bad timing. Thus, it is critical to select individuals who are the best match for the position and provide them with the best trainers available.

How to pick the best ISA?

Hiring the top ISA is not much magic. It’s a lot. There is a great deal of repetition. To begin, hire someone from your region since they will better know how to handle things. Thus, you cannot take a person from Philadelphia and have them speak with someone in Georgia without sounding like a snob. That is simply not going to work. Then you create an excellent advertisement. You keep it all running. You boosted it and paid for it to be sponsored. You wish to receive between 50 and 100 resumes per week, but you will not read them. Why? Here are two reasons why reading a resume is useless. First, a resume will never accurately predict whether an individual will be a good, productive, and lucrative ISA or not. And second, the only people capable of creating an effective résumé are effective liars. This does not make them adequate ISAs. Rather than that, you get resumes and then demand applicants to provide a voice or video recording of themselves.
They will introduce themselves and respond to numerous questions about why they believe they are the most significant match for this post. What unique traits or talents do you possess? If they cannot figure out how to obtain a video, they cannot articulate themselves, and their language is incomprehensible, so they do not proceed. However, suppose they pass it. Then you send them one of your modified old-school scripts and tell them they’re going to do a role play with you. And they say, okay, this is after you inform them of the position, the compensation, how they will be compensated, how they will earn a commission, the tasks they will be assigned, and the fact that they will be required to take six hours of general prospecting every day. And if they’re still with it, they’ll follow the script you’ve provided. And you tell them two things. You inform them that their objective is to assume the role of an agent. You’ll take the position of a homeowner on the lookout for a property. You’re going to put their sales abilities to the test. Their objective is to schedule a meeting with you. The only way students can fail this activity is if they hang up before asking all of their questions.

And by doing so, you may determine their level of sales ability, ability, and experience. It’s an excellent filter for weeding out a large number of people who will be unable to complete this. Then, if they pass, you transfer them to a 30- or 40-minute calling session during which you teach them a script. You hand them a stack of old leads or circle potential information via a recorded line. They have two hours to speak with these individuals, to set appointments. Then you see what occurs. What attitude do they have, how much energy do they have, and are they capable of doing it? Are they able to secure some appointments? With this rigorous screening method, you can almost certainly identify someone capable of handling pressure while performing their job and converting leads to