May 6, 2021
Ginger Crosbie
Is your real estate ISA doing these 5 things? Probably not...so you're losing money.
You did it.
You finally hired a real estate ISA for your growing business. You know you need the help because you can’t support the needs of your current clients and continue to grow your pipeline.
You went through the growing pains of creating the job, interviewing candidates, hiring someone, and now you’ve been training them to get the new ISA up to speed.
The problem?
You already know…
The new ISA isn’t so new anymore. They’ve been around for five months, and their ability to qualify and convert leads into appointments on your calendar still isn’t up to snuff.
You’re getting frustrated, they’re getting frustrated, and you feel like you’re spending more money on the ISA than the ISA is bringing in, and you are leaving money on the table in missed opportunities. You’re ready to pull your hair out.
Luckily for you, Smart Alto has hired and trained hundreds of real estate ISAs around the world. This is our specialty. So we know what separates an excellent ISA from a mediocre ISA.
We’ve found that there are five things that most ISAs aren’t doing that are crucial for setting appointments.
We’ve talked about the importance of texting on our blog numerous times. But for the people that may be new to Smart Alto and what we do, let’s unpack this.
Your ISA needs to meet your leads where they are. And where are they? They are texting.
95% of texts are read within three minutes of being sent. That’s because our lives and the lives of the people we do business with are busy. They are full of personal, work, and family obligations.
Think about yourself. If you’re out at lunch with a friend and your phone starts ringing, what are you going to do?
Do you immediately answer the phone and start talking to the person even though your friend is in the middle of telling you about the awesome deal they just closed? Maybe that’s the reason you're having lunch with them in the first place, to celebrate.
No!
You’re far more likely to glance at the phone and set it back down. Maybe you’ll make a mental note to get back to it later, but chances are you’ll forget because the truth is that we all ignore our voicemail box.
However, what if you received a text message during lunch? You still might glance down to see if it’s urgent when you receive the notification, but your likelihood of following up increases because you have that visual reminder when you pick up your phone again when you become available.
Texting allows people to stay connected without detracting from their existing obligations. It’s far easier to glance at a message notification and get the gist of the message than it is to listen to voicemail.
If your lead sees that you respond to their inquiry quickly, but for whatever reason they aren’t able to respond immediately, the likelihood that they will respond when they become available is higher because you’ve already shown them that you’re on it by reaching out via text quickly.
78% of your leads wish they could have a text conversation with a business. So again, why not meet your leads where they are?
Not sure about the power of texting? Check out this article, Better Than Email Campaigns - Covert More By Texting Real Estate Leads.
We often use the saying, “time is money,” to describe a situation where our time is wasted.
However, we challenge you and your ISA to think about this in terms of how long it takes you to get back to a lead. Every minute you wait to respond to an incoming lead is money lost.
If your ISA isn’t responding to incoming leads within the first 5 minutes of receiving the lead notification, you’re losing money.
Leads are 10x less likely to respond after five minutes. If it’s taking you more than five minutes to respond to your leads, you’re also creating space for another real estate agent to engage with that lead.
We hate to make this feel like a race to be number one, but it is somewhat.
Read that again… Your ISA’s availability is your liability.
Thinking back to our last point, Your ISA Isn’t Responding Fast Enough, what happens when you get a lead notification at 2 AM on a Saturday night? Who is going to respond to that lead before 2:05 AM to increase the odds of getting a response?
Probably not your ISA because they have a life. Not to mention the fact that to pay them to be available 24/7 would be costly.
This is really where our ISAs at Smart Alto shine. We have ISAs positioned around the world which means that while you’re busy sleeping, our ISAs are engaging with your leads and converting them into 15-minute appointments on your calendar.
Having an ISA is great, but you’re likely spending way more than you need to be spending for an ISA.
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Hiring Smart Alto as your ISA can not only save you money but make you more money because our ISAs are available 24/7/365.
Does your ISA have real estate sales experience? Or did they do sales in another industry?
For most, the reason for buying or selling a home is tied to a potentially big life shift, such as:
All of those are big life changes and require a level of soft skills (situational awareness, empathy, and emotional intelligence) that the average salesperson may not need to tap into.
Unless your ISA has experience with this, asking the question, “so why are you looking to move” could lead to an awkward conversation. It’s possible that the person is getting divorced, in which case asking the question in an excited tone could feel awkward when you get the answer.
Your ISA is awkward with your leads and doesn’t have the soft skills necessary to convert at a high rate.
Our ISAs at Smart Alto do this every day. Because of that, they know:
The final reason your ISA isn’t setting appointments for you is that your well-meaning script is making them sound robotic.
You gave them the script because they needed a little hand-holding when they got started. Understandably so, they were new to the job and you wanted to make sure you were still about to convert the leads you’re paying for.
However, that well-meaning script has become a crutch for your ISA and they won’t let go.
Part of what made you so successful when you were talking to leads before you hired your ISA is that you knew how to adjust on the fly. Your ISA is relying so heavily on that script that they haven’t developed skill.
Instead of a script, we teach our ISA at Smart Alto to use BANTAR - 6 pillars to have an ultra-productive conversation with leads.
Want to learn more about BANTAR? Check out this article, How BANTAR Can Help You Turn More Leads Into Appointments.
By teaching your real estate ISA to use these pillars instead of a script they are able to have a conversation with your leads. Instead of sounding robotic, they’re able to weave in and out of the different pillars to formulate an ultra-productive and engaging conversation that helps the lead feel heard while capturing useful information for you.
No two conversations will be the same though they are all based on the same pillars.
Your business is growing. You can’t do every task in your business. To continue to grow you have to outsource. The problem is that the ISA that you hired isn’t setting appointments like you need them to.
You need a better way, a better solution before you start losing money.
If you already have an ISA on staff that isn’t converting and setting appointments, try making tweaks to all or some of the 5 things we mentioned here:
But what if your ISA still isn’t able to convert and set appointments? Then what do you do?
Well, at that point book a demo with Smart Alto. Our team of ISAs is already performing at a high level for your competition.
Stop wasting time and money (both yours and your leads) and start setting more appointments in as little as two days.
The Smart Alto Appointment Setting System guarantees your team never misses another sales opportunity.