As a successful team leader of a productive and thriving sales team, one extremely effective way to scale your team is to implement an inside sales team. Inside sales agents (ISAs) can create appointments for you and your team members to help lead conversion and maximize all opportunities that exist for you whether they are with people you know and your client base, or with outside leads that come to you from other listings or marketing efforts.
There are many approaches to determining the right timing, pay structure and system for generating leads for your team. This will take time and a planned strategy to ensure optimum results.
Here are 6 considerations when thinking about employing your own inside sales team for increased appointments, listings, sales and revenue:
- How to determine the set-up structure. It is important to know whether you want to hire out your ISA team or create one that is in-house. There are pros and cons to both. Hiring an outside company allows you to hire quickly and creating the in-house department allows you to have more control over the system and processes. Consider both and really evaluate which set up is in your best interest. Also consider in-person versus remote work arrangement as well.
- Know the right time to hire. Timing is very important. You want to make sure you have enough leads to give to an inside sales agent to call and follow up and set up appointments for you and your team. When you are missing leads and losing opportunities’ that is a good time to get an ISA. When you can afford to pay and have reserves for a few months then you are ready to hire your first ISA.
- Have system in place before you hire. Having your script strategies in place for setting appointments with buyer and listing leads before you hire your ISA will make the process of training them easy and create quicker results. Having the system in place will make for a successful implementation. Create the scripts, dialogues and follow up system for emails, texts and phone calls so they are ready to be launched. Determine the plan for how often to connect with leads, what value added services you can offer these leads to attract them to work with you and your team.
- Set goals and expectations for desired outcomes. Based on the number of hours and number of leads you are giving to your ISA, you will want to determine the expectations up front. Set the goals for how many secured listing appointments and buyer consultation appointments should be made each week. Set the expectation of how many calls and contacts need to be made daily for success. Communicate these to your ISA team members so they have daily and weekly goals that turn into actual listings, sales and revenue.
- Track and measure repeatable processes to scale. Having a successful system that generates a set number of weekly appointments and continues to follow up with the leads in your pipeline will be the beginning of your repeatable and scalable system. Tracking the calls, appointments, leads converted and properties listed and sold as well as the total return on investment should be tracked and measured weekly and monthly. Repeating a successful system will bring you more closed business and dramatically increased revenue and market share. You should be able to know exactly how many sales happened as a result of the inside sales agents on your team and the leads they converted for you.
- Motivate and incentivize for increased results. With the right motivation and incentives, your ISA team can create amazing results and make great increases in revenue for you. Using incentives will help get your team excited about creating their increased success. Recognize their efforts. Offer bonuses for appointments set above the expected goals and have additional bonuses for homes listed and sold as a result of their successful appointment conversions.
Gamification leader boards will help your team have friendly and healthy competition. Ring the bell when someone generates an appointment. Report daily success and track the conversion rates of your agents. When implemented properly, ISA teams will dramatically increase and scale your sales and create a predictable and repeatable system that you will drive even more increases of sales to your team. Success is contagious and will multiply even more success.
To speak with Sherri Johnson Coaching about how your team can double or triple production quickly, or to learn about its custom and co-branded training platform, Sherri Johnson Academy, schedule a free strategy call, click here.
Sherri Johnson is CEO and founder of Sherri Johnson Coaching & Consulting. With 25 years of experience in real estate as an agent, broker, and executive, Sherri now offers her proven methods through coaching, consulting and keynote speaking services nationwide. She is a national speaker for the Homes.com Secrets of Top Selling Agents tour and is the Official Real Estate Coach for McKissock Learning and Real Estate Express. Sherri has also been named a RISMedia Real Estate Newsmaker in 2020 and 2021 as an Industry Influencer and Thought Leader. Schedule a free 30-minute coaching strategy session, or visit www.sherrijohnson.com for more information.
