ISA Series Part 2 - Inside Sales Agent Training & Management

Learn these inside sales agent training and management systems to develop, motivate and hold ISA’s accountable to their expectations and goals. Below you will find our suggested goals and expectations for inside sales agents, along with weekly tracking categories to hold them accountable to their activities and results on a weekly basis. First watch in the following video as Dale Archdekin explains the inside sales agent training systems and techniques that he uses to lead a group of ISA’s on his real estate team that closes 1,000 transactions annually:

Inside Sales Agent Training & Management

Please feel free to browse through our REAL ESTATE TEAM LIBRARY by clicking here.

ISA Goals & Expectations

40 Contacts Daily – A minimum of 40 conversations with “decision makers” (not kids, wrong numbers or house guests) must be made. This may not sound like that much, but dialing through various wrong numbers, answering machines and calls with no answer takes a while. Plus, inside sales agents have many other important responsibilities they must perform. These tasks include entering notes in a database, setting appointments with outside sales agents, lead follow-up or “nurtures”, interaction with outside sales agents, rescheduling appointments, accountability meetings, training, social events, role-play and staff meetings. Understand that all of these tasks are just as essential to an ISA’s success as making contacts.

2-10-40 Appointments – The expectation for appointments set by an inside sales agent is 2 per day, 10 per week, and 40 per month. An efficient ISA making 40 contacts a day should be able to establish conversion ratios that meet these expectations. Imagine how a real estate team’s production will increase with 40 extra listing appointments and buyer consultation appointments each month!

5 Contracts Signed A Month – Setting a standard of 5 contracts signed per month helps ensure the quality of the appointments that ISA’s set for outside sales agents. Also understand that 5 contracts signed is a minimum standard. Often times the appointments set by inside sales agents will result in 10 or 15 contracts signed during busier Spring and Summer months.

Inside Sales Agent Training & Accountability

A lack of inside sales agent training and accountability is the greatest cause of turn over in the ISA position. It is advisable to meet with inside sales agents 3 times a week. Each meeting focuses on a different topic designed to help them hit their goals:

1. Coaching Session – Often done with the entire group of inside sales agents at once to train new methods, scripts, dialogues and objection handlers. This is also when ISA’s can ask the coach and the rest of the group for help with issues they’re encountering in the role. This meeting could also be done over the telephone or in a group call.

2. Group Role-Play – Ideally inside sales agents will role-play with each other. This provides them a designated time each week for skill development where they can critique and learn from each other.

3. Accountability Meeting – Weekly accountability meetings are typically done one-on-one with each ISA. This conversation centers around the various activities that the ISA tracks on a “Daily Tracker” form. It is important to guide inside sales agents with a series of questions about the results of the data shown from a week’s worth of the ISA’s Daily Tracker forms. The simple questions that should be repeatedly weekly are as follows:

How did you do with regards to hitting your daily, weekly and/or monthly goals?
What do you think you can do differently next week to ensure that you hit your goals?
Can you think of any other people, training, skill development or materials that will help you?
Is there any way that I can help you?
What new actions will you take to ensure that you hit your goals next week.

ISA DAILY TRACKER FORM – A Daily Tracker form doesn’t just motivate and hold ISA’s accountable. It also helps to diagnose performance problems and identify specific needs for inside sales agent training. For example, suppose an ISA regularly makes 40 contacts a day but is not setting 2 appointments per day. We can diagnose that this ISA likely needs script & dialogue training, along with more role-play time to develop better skills for setting appointments. Similar diagnostics are revealed by examining the other metrics recorded on the form. The 13 activities typically recorded on an inside sales agent’s daily tracker form include: