Many of the most successful real estate teams in the US and Canada point to the hiring of an Inside Sales Agent ( ISA ) as the catalyst for the incredible growth they’ve experienced in their businesses.
After all, it makes sense as a good ISA can add as many as 55 sales to the bottom line on a year-over-year basis.
Plus, the opportunity cost from not hiring an ISA can be WAY higher than the investment you would make to bring one on board.
In fact, your business can and will incur some legitimate challenges and setbacks by not hiring an ISA...all of which will cost you a significant amount of time and money in the near and long term.
Let’s take a look at three of the most significant ways your business actually suffers by not hiring an ISA.
1. Missed opportunities
For most agents, the first thing that suffers when they get busy are their prospecting efforts.
Unfortunately, when you miss your prospecting time blocks or if you prospect in frequently, you also end up missing out on opportunities.
It pretty much goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway, if you don’t generate and convert leads consistently through a solid phone prospecting strategy, your business just isn’t going to grow.
What’s worse, is that the leads you do spend money on to generate - and even the opportunities that come your way without you having to lay out a bunch of cash - are going to be missed because you’re just not making regular contact with prospects.
Missed opportunities just don’t happen at the initial point of contact after the lead is generated, they also happen after listing appointments that don’t result in a signed contract.
Sometimes, you’re a little early in the decision-making process for the seller, sometimes you’re one of three or four agents interviewing for the job, sometimes you’re good, but not great in your presentation and you just don’t leave the house with a signature on the dotted line.
When this happens, follow up is as crucial as it will ever be in the sales process.
The sad thing is that many agents won’t make phone calls or even send a thank you note after not getting the listing on the first visit.
I think Jim Rohn said it best: “There pennies made in the sale, the fortune is in the follow up.”
Having an ISA ensures that prospecting calls are made consistently and the the requisite amount of follow up - even after listing and buyer appointments - is employed to ensure that legitimate sales opportunities don’t get missed.
Your ISA can call anyone you need them to call, any time, for any reason, giving you the best chance to consistently convert the leads that you generate.
2. Fewer listing appointments
In the spirit of complete transparency, let’s cut to the chase: most real estate agents hate prospecting.
After 15-plus years in the real estate industry as a salesperson, coach, business owner and mentor, I’ve come to realize that a lot of agents just don’t want to get on the phone.
Who can blame them...it’s the toughest part of sales.
Calling people you don’t know to sell them something they may not want at the time.
Unfortunately, this is a challenge because even today, with all the other mediums through which we can contact someone, the phone is still the best way to prospect and convert leads for appointments.
Yes, expireds, withdrawns and FSBOs are getting a boatload of phone calls on a daily basis.
Yes, there are a decent number of agents doing circle prospecting in and around your area.
Yes, inventory is as tight as it’s ever been in just about every market in the country.
Despite all that, there is still a lot of opportunity to get listings in your marketplace if you’re willing to pick up the phone or have an ISA do it for you.
Think about it, if you could sell one expired a month, one FSBO a month and score one listing from circle prospecting per month, that would be 36 listing sales right there alone.
Plus, you have to remember that you’re not looking to work with everyone.
In fact, if you can get 3% of an area with 3,000 sides sold, that’s 90 home sales.
It’s not a Herculean feat, but it does require persistent, consistent prospecting efforts...even to the low-hanging listing “fruit” that other agents are also trying to pick from the tree of opportunity.
An ISA is especially helpful here because 1) they have to call all the lead sources you tell them to call and 2) they’re going to be on the phone 6.5 to 7 hours per day - every day - ensure that dials are made to get the requisite number of contacts to get you consistent listing appointments.
ISA = more listing appointments.
Period. End of discussion.
3. Lower quality listing appointments
The only better feeling than securing a solid, qualified listing appointment is getting that listing agreement signed on your first trip to your prospect’s house.
If you buy into the belief that stronger relationships lead to better sales conversions, then you’ll also agree that going on appointments with prospects with whom you’ve cultivated solid rapport is a far more desirable strategy.
The fact that more sales for agents come from referrals than any other single source is proof that that real estate consumers want to feel comfortable with the agent with whom they choose to do business.
Unfortunately, a lot of agents are focused on now business.
This strategy is challenging for two reasons: 1) only 3 to 5% of the sales opportunities out there are now business and 2) it’s hard to cultivate a solid, trust-based relationship with someone you barely know.
And to that end, it makes listing appointments more challenging.
Conversely, if you have a solid nurture strategy in place where you can foster relationships where the seller gets to know you and your company and vice versa, your listing appointments are not only of a superior quality, but they are easier ,and take less time, for you to convert.
Without an ISA, it’s hard to make the requisite 6 to 8 contacts, or more, to prospects to establish a great foundation and nurture a relationship to the point where sellers will welcome you with open arms into their home to help them list and sell their home.
Having an ISA ensures that you are positioned as an authority with your seller prospects.
It also means that you’ve been edified on multiple occasions and will be viewed as the absolute expert and go-to agent in your marketplace, making you more desirous in the eyes of your seller prospects.
And who wouldn’t want that?
Setting your business up for success means that you employ the best strategy you can in every department in your real estate enterprise.
Failing to do that means that your business won’t function in an optimal manner on a day-over-day basis.
This holds especially true in the lead generation and conversion strategies you employ.
If you don’t hire an ISA, your business will surely suffer as a result of not doing it.
Consider hiring an ISA as soon as you can afford to do so.
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