How To Train Your Virtual Real Estate ISA

Welcome to our latest blog post, where we dive into the world of sales and real estate, and uncover the secrets to enhancing your market presence and lead generation through the effective use of Inside Sales Agents (ISAs). In today’s highly competitive real estate landscape, understanding how to strategically hire and train an ISA is just as crucial as your transaction coordinator. This post serves as your ultimate guide, introducing you to the innovative LPMAMA technique. This technique is designed to elevate your ISAs’ performance during calls, ensuring that every detail is meticulously covered. By integrating LPMAMA, your ISAs will not only sound more engaging and conversational, but they will also deliver unmatched quality in their interactions with potential leads.

In this comprehensive guide, we aim to provide real estate agents with an in-depth understanding of the role of an ISA in the sales process. From the basics of what an ISA is to the intricacies of its role in driving sales, we cover it all. You’ll learn how to effectively hire and train these team members, along with strategies to measure and maximize their success. Additionally, this guide offers valuable insights on managing your ISA team, creating impactful ISA scripts, and seamlessly integrating ISAs into your broader sales strategy. Whether you’re new to using ISAs or looking to refine your approach, this post promises to be an invaluable resource in your journey to real estate success. Let’s get started so you can start selling!

What Is a Real Estate ISA?

A real estate ISA (inside sales agent) is a … [add the definition. What it is vs. what it’s not]. Real estate ISAs are often misunderstood as receptionists or personal assistants. This is inaccurate and misleading, as a true RE ISA is so much more than that, in the hands of a successful brokerage. 

An ISA is similar to an outside sales agent, but they don’t attend buyer appointments or walk clients through the selling process. Instead, they focus on being highly trained and experienced salespeople, inside your organization. They can do many of the same things an outside agent does, like setting appointments and nurturing leads.

When leveraged successfully, an ISA can be an invaluable support to the rest of your real estate team. It’s all about having a dedicated and experienced professional to generate and cultivate leads. This will increase your transactions over time as they support your sales efforts.

What Does a Real Estate ISA Do?

Discover the multifaceted roles a Real Estate Inside Sales Agent (ISA) can play within a brokerage, from lead generation to client retention, through these eight key examples.

1. Set daily and weekly goals for prospect dials, connect conversations & follow-ups.
2. Track and measure conversion ratios and meet performance benchmarks.
3. Manage and answer all leads calling and registering on your website, making sure that all communications are being logged completely in CRM.
4. Contact all leads through phone/text/email within 5 minutes of site registration during the VA’s shift.
5. Monitor leads daily that have recently visited your website and follow up with them, especially those leads that have yet to be successfully contacted on the phone/text/email.
6. Handoff HOT leads that need additional conversation to a team member/agent whenever possible.
7. Manage and answer all leads calling and registering on the website, ensuring that all communications are logged completely in CRM.
8. Add all listings to Realtor, Zillow, and Trulia.

Benefits of Real Estate ISAs

Let’s explore just five of the benefits of incorporating a Real Estate ISA into your team, illustrating how this role can significantly enhance your business’s efficiency, lead generation, and overall sales success.

• Increased Lead Generation – An Inside Sales Agent is dedicated to identifying and nurturing potential leads, often resulting in a larger pool of prospects. By proactively reaching out and maintaining consistent communication, ISAs help ensure that no potential lead slips through the cracks, maximizing opportunities for conversions.
• Enhanced Customer Relationship Management – ISAs play a crucial role in building and maintaining relationships with clients. They provide a personal touch through regular follow-ups and check-ins, which not only improves client satisfaction but also increases the likelihood of repeat business and referrals.
• Time Management and Efficiency – By handling initial client interactions and qualifying leads, ISAs free up valuable time for real estate agents to focus on closing deals and other high-priority tasks. This division of labor allows agents to operate more efficiently and effectively, ultimately driving more sales.
• Market Knowledge and Insights – Inside Sales Agents often possess in-depth knowledge of the real estate market and current trends. Their insights enable them to educate and advise potential clients effectively, positioning your agency as a trusted and informed advisor in the real estate sector.
• Streamlined Sales Process – ISAs contribute to a more streamlined and organized sales process by ensuring that potential clients are well informed and prepared before they reach the agent. This preparation leads to smoother transactions and a higher rate of successful closings, as clients feel more confident and engaged throughout the process.

What Does a Real Estate ISA Need To Be Trained In?

Getting the most out of your real estate ISA requires proper and consistent training. To properly leverage your ISA you need to ensure you share any knowledge of the role you already possess with them. The eventual goal is enabling them to do the job even better than you, after some adequate real-world experience.

There are certain skills and abilities that you should expect your ISA to already have upon hiring. Like good customer service and communication skills, familiarity with your target market, and basic administrative skills necessary for data input and scheduling. 

• Product Knowledge: A deep understanding of the products or services being sold is essential for effectively communicating benefits and addressing specific client needs.
• Lead Generation Techniques: Training in identifying and attracting potential customers is crucial for building a robust sales pipeline and ensuring a steady flow of business opportunities.
• Prospecting Skills: Effective prospecting strategies enable agents to identify and reach out to potential leads, increasing the chances of converting them into customers.
• CRM Software Proficiency: Mastery of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is vital for tracking interactions with prospects and customers, and for managing sales activities efficiently.
• Lead Conversion Tactics: Knowledge of techniques for converting leads into customers, such as understanding customer pain points and presenting tailored solutions, is key to successful sales.
• Follow-Up Strategies: Training in effective follow-up methods helps maintain customer engagement, builds lasting relationships, and increases the likelihood of repeat business and referrals.

The path to closing the deal is paved with questions and answers, so every ISA should be trained in knowing what to listen for, what to ask about, and how to connect it all to the value you offer.

How To Train Your Real Estate ISA

To set yourself and your ISA up for success from the start, here are some training tips. These are proven, everyday practices that are guaranteed to get your ISA on the level you need them to be. A lot of experienced assistants will come to you with many of these skills and abilities. But some will always require a bit of focused training.

Hold Weekly or Bi-Weekly Training Sessions

This doesn’t have to mean setting aside a bunch of time every week to continue training. As it’s expected that eventually, your ISA can mostly operate autonomously. But it’s important to check in regularly, anyway. Quick meetings every week or every other week, just to check in on performance, answer questions, provide guidance and feedback, and educate them on anything recent that needs addressing.

Get Them Confident With Your CRM System

The cornerstone of an effective ISA is their proficiency with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. It’s essential to invest time in training your ISAs on how to use the CRM software efficiently, as it houses critical information about leads, clients, and sales processes. A well-trained ISA can utilize the CRM for tracking client interactions, setting reminders for follow-ups, and maintaining updated client records, all of which are crucial for personalized and effective communication. By ensuring your ISA is confident in navigating and leveraging your CRM system, you’re not only enhancing their productivity but also significantly improving the quality of client engagement and data management within your brokerage.

Train Them To Use a Lead Qualification Checklist

Training your ISA to use a lead qualification checklist is a pivotal step in streamlining your sales process. This checklist serves as a vital tool, guiding ISAs through a structured evaluation of each potential client, ensuring that they meet your predefined criteria for a qualified lead. By systematically assessing factors such as budget, timeline, needs, and decision-making capacity, ISAs can efficiently prioritize leads that have a higher probability of conversion. Implementing this method not only enhances the effectiveness of your ISAs in identifying viable prospects but also ensures that your agents are focusing their efforts on the most promising opportunities.

Role-play With Your ISA

Consistent roleplaying with your assistant helps solidify the training they’ve undergone. This allows them to practice without the consequence of failure. It’s perfect for helping them internalize the dialogue you’ve scripted for them, and remember the kinds of phrases and questions that should trigger specific responses. It also helps them get better at handling spontaneous situations that training didn’t cover.

Provide Feedback On Live Or Recorded Calls

Recording your ISA’s real-world phone calls with prospective clients is the best way to dig into their strengths and weaknesses, and reinforce their training. By listening to their performance with them, you can address missed opportunities as well as praise and support what they did well. It’s also valuable for anyone to hear how we sound from the 3rd-person perspective and adjust ourselves accordingly for next time. Train them on how to use a lead qualification checklist, and observe them go through an agreed-upon script as they check off requirements and ask appropriate questions.

Have Your ISA Shadow You

Having your ISA shadow you can be an invaluable learning experience for them. This hands-on approach allows the ISA to observe real-life scenarios and interactions with clients, gaining insights into the nuances of sales conversations and client handling. It also provides an opportunity for the ISA to understand the complete sales cycle, from initial contact to closing, and see firsthand the techniques and strategies that make you successful. This immersive experience not only enhances their understanding of the real estate business but also helps them to align their approach more closely with your brokerage’s standards and expectations.

Provide Your ISA With Effective Scripts

In the following section, we’ll delve into the significance of equipping your Inside Sales Agent with effective scripts, incorporating the LPMAMA technique. This approach ensures that each conversation is not only structured and professional but also adaptable and engaging, aligning perfectly with your brokerage’s strategic goals.

LPMAMA

The 6-factor Framework for Real Estate

LPMAMA is an acronym that stands for Location, Price, Motivation, Agent, Mortgage, and Appointment. It is a 6-factor framework that helps agents to understand how qualified a buyer is and gauge their true intentions about buying the property, using specific questions. This isn’t about scrutinizing or interrogating them but helping the salesperson get in the buyer’s mind. This allows the ISA to understand the buyer better, and develop trust that will eventually win you their business.

Download The Infographic

Hiring a real estate ISA may sound like an easy move to boost your sales prospects, but it can be a futile gesture if you don’t do it correctly. Proper time must be dedicated to training upon hiring any ISA. A popular resource for a reliable and experienced real estate ISA is virtual assistant services. 

At MyOutDesk we have a large, diverse pool of experienced and proven real estate virtual assistants, ready to be an ideal real estate ISA for any sized brokerage. You can start giving your outside sales agents better leads to work with, and more support to close them. And you can start doing so right now. Use the link below to request a free consultation and see if one of our virtual assistants is right for your real estate sales needs.

Click Here To Boost Your Sales Operations

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s a real estate ISA script?

The number one tool your ISA is going to need is a solid script. Because the script can make or break your ISA during all of these calls.

Here are the basics for an ISA script:

1. CRM connected to the phone is most important, from the start.

2. Some semblance of numeric scorekeeping for leads – measure not only time frame but motivation

3. When do they wanna buy, and how motivated are they to follow through? Motivation and timeline.

4. How much education do they still need, before purchase?

5. An objection handler document and a position document.

6. A clear buyer’s journey, broken down so it’s clear to your team when somebody is ready to be handed off to a salesperson, versus being kept and nurtured more.

Once you have these things set up, you can start working in the lead space and start calling leads together.

Which is best? An in-person or virtual real estate ISA?

Hiring any professional will always come with risks, regardless if they’re remote or in-person. The trick is to understand which risks and benefits are most relevant to you and the work you’re outsourcing. Most virtual risks are mitigated when you have tracking applications for keeping in touch with your assistant. MyOutDesk has proprietary software that any business can customize and utilize to their liking, allowing them to monitor their assistant’s activity, location, and time-tracking. A lot of real estate business involves in-person connections, which is where your local experts should be focusing their efforts. Leverage a remote working assistant for everything else.

Does a real estate ISA have to be licensed to prospect?

The easy answer is, it depends on your State’s laws. Every state is different in what tasks they allow for an ISA to perform, licensed or not. Whatever the requirements may be, do not let it hinder you from hiring an ISA anyway! There are still ways you can gain more leverage with your ISA Virtual Assistant.

For your reference, we have put together this table of different States and what the laws are for each. However, make sure to double-check your local laws as there may be updates and amendments. You can also check this article from REALTOR Magazine.