ISA Series Part 1 - Hiring & Compensating Inside Sales Agents

Inside Sales Agent Training ISA — Click Image for ISA Job Description

Learn the process for recruiting, interviewing & hiring an ISA, along with the different methods for compensating ISA’s. Since most agents disdain generating and converting new business on the phone, hiring an inside sales agent has become an increasingly popular real estate industry trend. However, most agents make the mistake of rushing through the interview process and make bad hires. It’s no surprise that there is an abnormally high amount of turnover in this position. Below we provide you with various interview techniques tailored for hiring a talented ISA, along with some suggested ISA compensation structures. First watch the following video as Dale Archdekin explains the inside sales agent hiring systems and compensation structures that he implements in leading a group of ISA’s on his real estate team that closes 1,000 transactions annually:

ISA Compensation & Hiring

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ISA Interview Techniques

Hiring an ISA can be very time consuming. The most burdensome part is often sifting through endless telemarketing candidates that want to apply for the job. Before ever meeting or speaking with ISA candidates, have them provide you a resume and complete a behavioral assessment so that you can first determine if they are qualified and worth taking up your time to interview. Then use the following 3 interview techniques specifically designed to help quickly screen and filter through the remaining applicants to ultimately hire a talented ISA.

1. Have ISA Applicants Leave a Voicemail – First email or call them to have them to call back and leave you a voicemail with an answer to the following question:

“Which skills make you the best fit for this position?”

Not only will these voice messages tell you more about the applicants and the skills they possess, you will get to hear their phone voices and learn how well they articulate over the phone. You will also get an idea of their work ethic and preparation by listening to how organized and smooth their presentations sound.

2. Role-Play Over the Phone – Next email them a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) Script and schedule a 20 minute role-play telephone call with them. Once you start the actual call, inform them that they can’t let you off of the phone until they have asked all of the questions on the script. You will then see how they work under pressure, how quick they are to overcome objections, and how well they prepared for the call in advance.

3. Have them Prospect in the Office – Now have them come into the office for about 3 hours to conduct a call session. Spend the first hour teaching them the script you want them to use and role-play it with them.

Next, have them make calls for the next 2 hours. Make sure you either video them making their calls, record their calls, or just be in the same room while they call. Now you can review their techniques and assess their energy, attitude, and frustration levels. Were they confident? Did the struggle? Did they recover and bounce back? It is also important to provide them with the full 2 hours because candidates are often terrible at first. It takes anyone a while to hit their stride when learning a script for the first time.

ISA Compensation

Inside sales agents are typically paid both a base salary and a bonus on closings. The base salary provides the guaranteed pay most ISA applicants want, and the bonuses add incentive to motivate them to set more quality appointments. Inside Sales Agents with no previous experience typically make $40,000 – $65,000 a year with salary and bonus included. More experienced ISA’s make $60,000 to $80,000 on average.

The difference between these two income ranges is the amount of bonuses experienced inside sales agents hit because of their increased proficiency at setting good appointments. Below are the average salary and bonus structures for teams utilizing inside sales agents in their businesses:

ISA Base Salary – $24,000 – $30,000 per year

ISA Bonus Structure – Bonuses should be compensated on 5% of gross commission income (GCI) after closing. Some real estate teams even pay 10% of GCI. Other teams pay bonuses of $50 to $150 on appointments conducted. Never pay bonuses for appointments merely “set” since this typically leads to a lot of cancellations and low quality appointments that waste a lot of time and resources.