“The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.” - Henry Ford
If you’re going to spend the time, energy and money to hire an Inside Sales Agent ( ISA ), then you need to make sure you put them on the path to massive success.
One of the best ways to do this is to give them the training and direction they need to start getting results quickly and then build momentum until they are setting listing appointments consistently, with ease (without your help at all).
It’s when you get to this point that amazing things happen in your business.
Here’s a look at how you need to train your ISA so you can enjoy massive success from their efforts.
Training Never Stops
One of the biggest mistakes we find that agents make in bringing an ISA on board is that they stop making calls themselves too quickly.
Sure, you hired an ISA because you either can’t, or don’t want to, prospect for consistent appointments.
But, if you want to truly reap the rewards of having an ISA on your team, your ISA needs to be as good as (if not better than) you with all the skills necessary to build relationships, move prospects along in their pipeline, and set appointments consistently.
These skills range from scripts and dialogues to influencing prospects over the phone, from active listening to being an expert at asking questions, from handling objections to using tie downs, trial closes and closes to gain commitments from prospects…and everything in between.
And to get your ISA to be amazing at all of these skill sets, this type of training never ends. You will continually need to work on all aspects of selling over the phone with your ISA.
You’ll do this by doing things like:
- Holding weekly training sessions: The training topics can be on anything related to skill sets for prospecting, technology, dispositioning leads, etc. The important thing is that the training is good, consistent and helps your ISA improve.
- Role-playing with your ISA (or getting them a role-play partner): Zig Ziglar said it best - “Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.” Consistent role playing helps your ISA internalize the words they need to know how to say in order to get great results.
- Shadowing him/her on live calls and giving him/her feedback: Providing immediate feedback at the time something positive or negative happens on a call, gives your ISA the chance to learn on the spot, which accelerates their improvement drastically.
- Reviewing recorded calls with him/her and breaking the call down: Hearing what we sound like when talking to someone is a HUGE learning tool. The change this exercise will affect in your ISA is worth its weight in gold.
- Having your ISA handwrite the script every couple of days until they internalize it: Your retention of materials increases dramatically if you write it. Getting your ISAs brain physically engaged in internalizing scripts and dialogues will most certainly accelerate their learning efforts.
- Making calls and letting your ISA listen to you as you do it: Your ISA needs a good example to follow so that they know what good prospecting looks and sounds like. You need to make sure your ISA sees and hears you - or sees and hears someone - make calls as part of their training.
There’s no shortage of things you can do to train your ISA on improving his/her skill set. The most important thing is that you never stop training your ISA as long as they work for you. Your reward will be a larger number of high-quality appointments.
I Do It, We Do It, You Do It
The easiest and fastest way to transfer your knowledge and skills to your ISA is through a strategy called “I do it, we do it, you do it”.
The methodology has been around for hundreds of years as it has been used by tribes to transfer knowledge, skill sets, and traditions down from one generation to another.
With this approach, your ISA gets to see the perfect model (you) in action, receives the proper instruction with your involvement and isn’t left alone on an island trying to figure things out by himself/herself with little guidance from you.
Here’s how it works:
I do it: You will make calls and your ISA will sit and listen as you prospect the various types of seller leads you work in your business. When doing this, you’ll point out important points for your ISA to make note of and help your ISA learn by watching you.
We do it: You and your ISA sit together for prospecting sessions. In these sessions, you and your ISA alternate back and forth in making calls. You give the ISA feedback on ways to improve and you also make note of better ways to handle certain situations based on how you handle your calls.
You do it: You will sit with your ISA and let him/her make all the calls. As he/she makes the calls, you will give feedback and help make your ISA as independent as possible on the phone before you turn the reins.
Now, even if you’re not a rock star yourself on the phone, there are still certain skill sets you can pass along to your ISA during training.
So please don’t think you can’t add value to the onboarding and training process.
And, if you can, seek out a good ISA training organization that can help you with the initial onboarding and ongoing training of your ISA as they mature in the position.
That can be a game changer in helping you attain massive success in your ISA hiring endeavors.
Hiring an ISA will most definitely change what happens in your business forever.
The key thing to remember is that you must train your ISA properly to ensure that you achieve massive success and get a solid return on your investment.
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