Real Estate Inside Sales Agent (ISA) - Boost Your Agency's Performance
Outsourcing real estate inside sales agent (ISA) services is a strategy for your agency to increase sales productivity, revenue, and profitability. Specifically, this outsourcing strategy streamlines the “front-end” of the sales development process, prospecting, lead generation, and appointment setting. Consequently, the outsourcing provider fills your company’s sales pipeline, while your in-house sales agents close the deals.
Outsourcing the inside sales function is not a new concept. For example, companies have been using independent distributors, agents, and contractors for many years. However, for a real estate agency, this leveraging of “sales as a service” might be a new concept. Specifically, working with an outsourcing partner to act as a virtual manager of the inside sales process of the company.
So, let’s discuss more outsourcing real estate inside sales agent services, factors you should consider before moving forward, and the advantages of doing so.
Real Estate Inside Sales Agent Overview
The U.S. real estate sector has historically been an engine of growth of the economy of the country Overall, 5.64 million homes were sold in 2020, with a 5.6% increase from 2019. Consequently, how well your real estate agency sales team finds, qualifies prospects, and converts into closings will determine your agency’s slice of this large pie.
Inside sales are the function of acquiring sales prospect information, contacting, pre-qualifying, and setting up appointments for follow-up by your agency’s in-house direct sales agents. Generally, a company uses the inside sales process to maximize the time and efficiency of its in-house sales team, to increase sales conversions.
Where An ISA Fits In
A real estate inside sales agent (ISA) is part of the inside sales function of an agency. Basically, an ISA’s function is that of a business development representative. Specifically, the real estate ISA exists to increase the productivity of the agency’s in-house agents. Generally, the real estate ISA does not visit prospects in person, unlike the in-house agents who are constantly attending buyer appointments or walking the client through the selling process.
Traditionally a real estate ISA conducts business with prospects via outbound telemarketing (i.e., telesales). However, real estate prospects now expect the agency’s sales team to be accessible via email, text, Skype, Zoom, and other forms of online communication services. Also, with this “always available” expectation, traditional office business hours do not apply anymore.
Real Estate Inside Sales Agent Function
Prospecting qualified sales leads is one of the most difficult parts of business development. Consequently, the real estate inside sales agent (ISA) focuses on solving this typical barrier to growing your agency’s business. Since future sales aren’t possible without first directly speaking to a qualified prospect, the ISA’s goal is to get the two real estate actors (prospect and agent) in the same room.
The real estate inside sales agent performs the beginning stages of the top of the sales funnel of the agency. That is to say, it’s all about finding interested buyers and sellers, with the financial means, need, and interest for your real estate services. Basically, this involves contacting prospects, pre-qualifying, and scheduling appointments for your agency’s in-house sales agents.
The strategy to outsource real estate inside sales agent services is an effective way to identify qualified prospects, educate them, determine needs, and schedule sales appointments for the in-house sales agents. Afterward, they follow up via a telephone call, video conference, or face-to-face meeting to close the deal.
Real Estate Inside Sales Agent Specialization
The purpose of the real estate ISA is to dedicate specialized resources to focus on the prospecting of sales leads. Conversely, the agency’s in-house sales team does NOT spend time on prospecting sales leads.
Because of technology, personnel profiles, data sources, and conflicting sales priorities, your in-house sales team are not the right fit to daily reach new customer prospects. Rather, the ISA’s specialized talents focus on nurturing these pre-qualified sales opportunities into closings and commissions. Basically, this is a specialization of production to improve the efficiency of your agency’s sales process.
The lessons to be gained are that your in-house sales agents should focus on what they know best: your company, products, and services. While outsourcing real estate inside sales agent services gives you access to sales expertise that leads to greater agency productivity and improved ROI.
Real Estate Inside Sales Agent Leverage
A real estate manager understands that time is money. So your in-house agents have limited time and are constantly trying to keep up with the demands of their schedules and closing deals. Consequently, when you outsource real estate inside sales agent services, you address a key challenge of business development.
The purpose of outsourcing and having real estate ISAs as part of your sales team is for leverage. In brief, a real estate agency is faced with a never-ending list of demands. So, by using ISAs, you leverage prospecting, lead generation, follow-ups, and scheduling appointments. Consequently, your real estate agency is likely to see more sales closings, increased revenue, profitability, and ROI.
Outsourcing Real Estate ISA Services Factors
Outsourcing real estate inside sales agent services requires you to consider various factors before moving your agency forward. Because it is like any business decision involving a fundamental change in how your agency conducts business. So let’s review factors to consider and how to be successful with the results.
Loss Of Control
Outsourcing implies delegating a portion of your company’s functions to an outside service provider. Accordingly, based on your level of outsourcing experience, this can be relatively easy or a big challenge for your agency.
With this in mind, you need to be sure that when you outsource real estate inside sales agent services, the ISAs:
- Represents your brand correctly.
- Adheres to the processes you have established.
- Makes the best use of resources (time, personnel, and systems) to generate proper sales opportunities.
- Provides transparency in communication.
- Offers flexibility in adjusting the sales process.
Alignment
Your real estate ISA is a virtual extension of your agency’s sales organization. Consequently, you need to ensure that there are consistency and transparency within your ENTIRE sales team.
So here are factors your outsourced real estate inside sales agent will need to focus on:
- Align and adapt to your company’s established processes. Also, identify opportunities for improvement.
- Identify and correct communication noise (misunderstandings) with your in-house sales team.
- Adhere to a clearly defined “sales prospect” profile. Likewise, identify the need to adjust.
- Consistent communication (messaging) of your company’s products/services values and benefits.
Skin In The Game
Your sales are the lifeblood of your real estate agency’s long-term success. So, how can you trust this with an external real estate inside sales agent?
From a different perspective, is your real estate ISA really your partner in the sales battlefield? That is, do you want to share your foxhole with your real estate ISA?
This only makes good business sense when YOUR agency’s success translates into THEIR success. In brief, you both need to have skin in the game, with a major stake in the success of the relationship.
Consequently, your outsourced real estate inside sales agent needs to be incentivized to ensure your long-term success. Also, your outsourcing provider must consistently demonstrate the importance of retaining your agency’s business as a client, just as winning new customer business is for you.
Is The Price Right?
Outsourcing real estate inside sales agent services has a variety of tangible and intangible costs. So, you will need to know whether they are proportional to the benefits gained by your agency. Basically, is the price right and fair to both parties?
You may find outsourcing ISAs to be economical or expensive depending upon your agency’s present situation. While there will be a price tag each billing period, your focus should be whether the investment provides the return your agency requires.
Due Diligence
Your due diligence should estimate the value of outsourcing real estate inside sales agent services and ROI for your company. For example, you will need to measure the cost of services provided for the value received:
- What will be the size and cost of building your sales pipeline? I.e., qualified sales prospects?
- How many sales prospects are converted into qualified sales appointments? That is the conversion percentage over a period of time.
- What is the percentage of sales appointments that convert to new customers? Remember, this also reflects your in-house sales team’s performance.
- How much will new customers contribute to your company’s revenue? I.e., what is the average revenue per new customer over a period of time?
DISCLOSURE: Nexus Teleservices is a Nearshore Real Estate Inside Sales Agent Services Business Provider.
Real Estate Inside Sales Agent Benefits
Your real estate agency is constantly being challenged to improve its performance. For instance, this might be sales growth, profitability, competitiveness, or other metric. Consequently, to respond to these challenges, outsourcing real estate inside sales agent services is a business strategy you should consider. So, let’s discuss the key benefits of this in greater detail.
1 – Lower Costs For Sales Function
For most real estate agencies, the sales function is a major cost component. When considering personnel salaries, benefits, employment taxes, recruiting, training, turnover, and facilities, the inside sales team is a major investment.
Real estate ISAs are expensive and in high demand, with an average turnover rate of approximately 30%. Consequently, your agency’s management will need to take time away from the hiring process, adversely affecting business development. Also, after an initial ten-month period, less than one-half of your ISAs will be profitable. Finally, when you need to replace an ISA, it will cost your company over 1.5 the annual salary.
It should be clear that building and maintaining a real estate inside sales agent team is expensive and will strain your agency’s budget.
Personnel Strategy
An outsourcing strategy of ISA services allows your agency to significantly lower costs related to hiring, training, and maintaining sales personnel. Because the outsourcing provider has already hired and trained ISA personnel for other clients like you. So, your agency has rapid access to these ISAs, particularly when starting up new activities.
Your agency’s risk of personnel turnover using an outsourcing provider is also much lower. Additionally, your outsourcing provider assumes the financial risk for the replacement and training of their ISA personnel, not you. Finally, by outsourcing real estate inside sales agent services, the investment in infrastructure and technology is also assumed by the provider.
All of these factors reduce your agency’s total sales function costs, while allowing your in-house sales agents to focus on generate opportunities quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively.
2 – Increases Sales Function Flexibility
Outsourcing real estate inside sales agent services allows your agency to leverage the provider’s resources and experience to increase the flexibility of sales operations. Generally, it takes time for an agency to set up the in-house sales resources for a new product, market, or growing sales program. Conversely, by outsourcing, your agency can respond much faster to these market opportunities.
Sales flexibility will be determined by how quickly your outsourcing partner can adjust to new business demands and how well your agency leverages the relationship. So, let’s discuss this in greater detail.
Adaptability
Business planning often requires your agency to make a mid-course correction. So, outsourcing real estate inside sales agent services can offer additional resources, as well as changes in the sales process to adapt to the unanticipated business demands.
Scalability
Your agency’s marketing and sales activities will vary (up or down) for many reasons. Consequently, your outsourcing provider gives your agency the resources to support new markets, seasonality changes, or a varying business cycle.
Strategy
Your outsourcing provider should help teach your agency how to be better at sales. Correspondingly, they will assess and provide feedback on the sales process and what changes need to be implemented for success. For example, the sales pitch, customer needs, market reaction, and other elements needed for improvement.
Processes
Your agency’s sales processes can always be improved upon. Despite what worked well before, changes will be needed moving forward. So, by leveraging your outsourcing provider’s expertise and perspective, your agency can adjust and refine its sales processes.
Technology
Outsourcing real estate inside sales agent services implies that your service provider specializes in SELLING. Consequently, they provide superior selling tools and technology to improve your agency’s flexibility, speed and competitive standing.
3 – Reduces Sales Function Risk
Any business decision your real estate agency makes entails some level of risk. Outsourcing inside sales to an external provider is no different. However, outsourcing to the provider also implies a transfer of risk, which needs to be balanced and managed differently.
When you outsource real estate inside sales agent services, it needs to be a virtual extension of your in-house sales team. Consequently, both groups need to share the risk of failure as well as the glory of success. In short, both need to have skin in the game.
Your real estate agency will need to understand and define the risks for both parties in the outsourcing relationship. Specifically, where the risks are likely to be found and who will be held responsible. Generally, the party that has the resources allocated defines the area of responsibility and related risk. In other words, if you have the power, you have the responsibility, and you have the risk if you don’t perform.
Metrics And Transparency
Your real estate agency will likely structure a performance-based contract with your outsourcing provider. Accordingly, if your outsourcing provider fails to perform to expectations, there is a loss of revenue for them as well as your agency. So, it is important to have a well-defined set of performance expectations and goals, plus the transparency of how the metrics used are determined.
The decision to outsource your inside sales team is to reduce your company’s risk of failing to take advantage of new business opportunities. Specifically, outsourcing real estate inside sales agent services reduce lost revenue, taking advantage of new market opportunities, or scaling to meet additional demand. Basically, you are mitigating the risk of not being flexible and adaptable to changing market conditions.
Real Estate Inside Sales Agent Summary
Outsourcing real estate inside sales agent services is a strategy for your agency to prioritize and dedicate its in-house sales agents for the best ROI. Specifically, in-house sales agents focus on what it knows best: the company, its products, services and customers. Conversely, outsourced inside sales agents prioritize front-end sales development (prospecting, lead generation, and appointment setting) to feed your company’s sales pipeline.
So should you outsource and use ISAs? Unquestionably as this speeds the sales cycle, keeps the pipeline full, is flexible, affordable, and offers measurable results. In brief, your real estate agency will reduce risk, lower costs, .
Please call us at (888) 339-6699 to discuss how our real estate inside sales services will serve your business needs or Contact Us.
I have some contact in the real estate industry that really should consider using an ISA to help their agency grow. I will send them a link to this post.