In part 1 of this story, we established that inside sales departments are not cheap. They are an investment in the team, and like any investment you are putting out money to make more money. In this situation, it is with the goal of connecting with more leads to sell more houses.
Who would make an ideal inside sales agent (ISA)? Experience is an asset in most cases, but when looking for a good match, there are things that you should weigh more heavily. You want to be very comfortable with your DISC personalities when looking to hire anyone on your team. Your ISA should be a type “I” personality – these are the influencers, the talkers, or an “S” personality – these are the steady, consistent, relationship builders. They should match the “I” or “S” with a “D” – dominate, or a combination of “I” and “S” may be possible. The backing of the “D” personality will be the one who books the most appointments, whereas the “S” personality will book the most follow ups.
At the end of the year, their numbers would ultimately be the same for appointments set. You need someone who is hardworking and has proven phone experience. You would look for the best cold caller or telemarketer. You need someone reliable, but it’s especially important here, because you need to be able to leave them to go their job and only “check-in” once in a while. You hired the best and should leave them to it, for the most part. Finally, this role does need to be licensed, but if you are able to get the world’s best telemarketer and they can prove it, the easy part is getting them licensed.
How to compensate:
Every team, every leader and every agent is a different situation, but as a general overview, here’s an idea of a compensation structure for your inside sales department. During the first stage, generally during training, your ISA would make a base salary or an hourly wage and percentage commission per transaction. They would stay at this stage until they can complete one deal for two months consecutively.
The next stage is usually reached in the third month. This is an increase hourly and in commission per transaction. To move to the next stage, they need to complete two deals in a month, for two months consecutively. This stage would offer a bonus to make up the difference of the hourly wage.
The third and final stage is more per hour with another increase in commission, when they complete three deals per month. This stage also offers a bonus for reaching the goals, both individually and as a department, but it is higher than the one in the second stage and to achieve the same goal of making up the difference of the hourly wage.
How many leads?
There are four factors to consider regarding the number of leads needed to keep your ISA busy. First, look to the cost of leads. You want the low cost or forgotten leads for your ISA. They’re a month old, outside sales agents won’t be calling them, so your options are to give them to the ISA or forget about them entirely.
Second, look at the conversion. Your ISA should be converting better than your outside sales agent, because your ISA is an expert. Third, the amount of supply needs to be high. You need to keep the phone going. Your ISA will never leave at the end of the day with a job done – there will always be more calls to make tomorrow. Fourth, your ISA is a long-term solution. They will get appointments from last week, from last month or from last year.
Not every call, every day, or every appointment will be a glowing success, but when you do make money off of the low-cost ads, that benefits the team in a big way. You need to be ready to support the department and streamline the role with proper scripts and training, and then let it do its thing – call people, book appointments and make money.
Inside sales is a science. The top inside sales departments in Canada book thousands of face-to-face appointments per year, with hundreds of deals resulting from their departments. This role, done right, is THE game changer to take a team to a powerful organization with increased profits, retention and residual income. Teams that were built using these systems now have more than 60 to 70 per cent of transactions coming from this trusted source. The power of ISA is difficult to ignore.
Kathleen Black is a globally recognized high-performance mindset & performance expert, bestselling author, and renowned transformational speaker. Her unique, holistic approach to empowered leadership and genius mindset training has guided iconic brands and high-net-worth professionals to add billions of additional dollars in sales volume annually.
Kathleen’s remarkable achievements have earned her numerous accolades, including the Iconic Leaders Creating a Better World for All Award. She is the two-time bestselling author of The Top 1% Life and Relentless to Rise.
