Being Inside Sales Agent ( ISA ) has its own set of challenges.
Yes, there’s lots to be happy about and it’s a great job for the right person.
But you, as your ISA’s manager, need to make sure that you keep your ISA even keeled and do what it takes to keep them happy.
The happier they are, the better the results you’ll get. In fact, happy employees are 12% more productive than the ones that aren’t.
Plus, they’ll want to stay around longer and even find another position in your company when and if the time comes to make a move.
Here are a few ways you can keep you ISA happy so everybody wins:
It’s all about the benjamins
Needless to say, your ISA is a salesperson.
Any salesperson worth a lick is at least partially driven by the monetary aspect of their job.
Now, part of meeting your ISA’s financial goals, needs and aspirations rests on them. They need to master their scripts, dialogues, time management, daily activities rotation in order to get optimal results in what they do each day.
However, the other part rests on your shoulders. You need to set your ISA up so that if they meet their requirements, they can make serious money.
To do this, you need to create a solid compensation plan that is comprised of a solid base salary and the opportunity to earn some great commission dollars.
The salary you offer should be competitive, but not too much. Ideally, your ISA is going to earn a little less than half their total income from salary. The rest will come from commissions on sales that are made.
Going with all salary can give your ISA the chance to coast from time to time and that hurts both of you. And again, if your ISA is a good salesperson, they won’t want just salary.
Conversely, if you put them on all commission, the combination of the long sales cycles in real estate and the fact that they’re getting only a fraction of the whole commission can make it hard to hang on as an ISA.
Plus, if things get tough financially, you can start seeing bad appointments set in hope that they’ll turn into legit listings. What’s worse, is that your ISA won’t be able to hang on any longe and they’ll leave sooner than later...which stinks for both of you.
Now, that’s not to say that money is the only thing that makes people happy, but it does play a role in their overall happiness for sure.
Give your ISA a serious opportunity to earn and you’ll keep them happy for sure.
It’s all about the benjamins...part 2
In order to keep a smile on the face of your ISA, your listing game needs to be on point.
Your ISA is going to work diligently to put you in front of legitimate sales opportunities and you need to make sure you close them.
If you’re unable to secure listings on a consistent basis, then the appointments your ISA sets for you will go for naught.
You must be able to sit in front of sellers, make a great listing presentation and then lead them to the conclusion that you’re the best person for the job of getting the home sold.
Yes, it would be great if you could gain your seller’s commitment at the first meeting, but as long as you can still get the listing agreement signed, you should be good.
Ideally, if your ISA can get you 3 listing appointments a week, approximately 65% of those people will show up.
If you can convert 55% of those, that’s roughly 50 listings taken per year.
At those conversion numbers, you should be in great shape to make some great money for yourself and ensure that your ISA does the same.
Make sure they get a time out
I’m not using time out in a bad way here. On the contrary, I’m meaning it in a very positive way.
Making 300 to 500 dials per day, every day. Hearing lots of “No’s”, getting hung up on, dealing with bad attitudes, etc., can add up over time.
Even the most positive of people would need some time away from that.
To keep your ISA happy, you need to make sure that your ISA gets ample breaks during the day and some time off on a semi-regular basis.
Based on being at the office for 9 hours (8 hours of work time and 1 hour, unpaid lunch), here’s what your ISA’s day should look like:
If you give them a break in the mid morning and one in the mid afternoon, they should be able to keep their powder dry and maintain their energy while calling the rest of the day.
We try to have our ISAs stay off of social media and their cell phones while they are dialing. Instead, we encourage them to do that stuff on their breaks and at lunch.
Emergencies notwithstanding, it’s a good strategy and it works well.
Make sure your ISAs get ample time to break up the day and recharge their batteries.
Make your work environment fun for them
Yes, work is work. Right?
That being said, there’s no reason you can’t make the job of being an ISA fun.
There’s a few simple things you can do to make that happen:
Again, being an ISA is tough work. Doing little things like these go a long way in making their job and work environment much more enjoyable.
There’s a strong possibility that everything I’ve shared here with you could apply to other people on your team.
At the end of the day, though, your ISA is one of the key figures in the overall success of not only your listing business, but also your overall business.
That’s way, It’s worth it to do the things I’ve mentioned here, plus anything else you can think of, to help keep your ISA happy.