Five Character Traits of a Successful Inside Sales Agent (ISA)

In recent years, more and more real estate agents are looking for ways to leverage themselves and Inside Sales Agents or ISA have become a necessary part of any successful Real Estate team.

Most of us have ISAs on their teams or hire virtual assistants to do this job. So, when we interview a potential ISA, we want to make sure that the person has experience in cold calling, can handle objections, and of course, can set appointments.  We are particularly picky when it comes to proof of success and the numbers. We also review DISC profiles and want to hire high D personality types. These are all important factors, but they should not be the determinative ones.

Here are five important character traits a successful ISA must have which should be considered before the stats.

1.    Natural curiosity

When a person is naturally curious about the process, that person goes a long way to find out the answer and to learn things. Natural curiosity trumps laziness and stimulates brain function. It is very helpful in the work of an ISA as that person can go an extra mile in trying to locate a lead that may have changed the phone number or a bad number was provided in the database (e.g. Vulcan, Redx, Landvoice, etc.). So instead of marking a lead in the CRM as a “bad number,” a naturally curious ISA may research and actually find a good number for that lead and make a contact. Imagine that! No other agents can get a hold of that lead, and because of your ISAs curiosity, you will be the first agent in front of these people.

2.    Attentive to details and predictive nature

We all see it in the job description and read it in the resumes that “attention to details is a must.” However, what does it mean for a job of an ISA? We live in a very noisy and busy social media world. We live in an age when changes happen quickly and conveying of information also happens very fast. A good ISA can pre-select expireds before they actually expire and the day they expire will be the first to contact these sellers.  Also, a good ISA can monitor listings that are likely to expire and track them in the time increments of 30 days as most listings are taken for 90 or 120 days. Keeping and maintaining a database of potential expireds is, and it requires a very attentive person.

3.    Good listening skills

When prospecting for leads, it is as important to listen to what the prospects are saying as knowing the script. If your ISA or VA is only repeating the learned script and not listening to what the prospect is saying, that ISA is doomed for failure. Sometimes, the most important information can be obtained in what was briefly mentioned by a lead on the phone. For example, a lead may say, “we are not going to use a Realtor to sell our home because we don’t have enough equity in our home.” A good ISA will treat it as an opportunity to ask whether they are going to use the sales proceeds for the purchase of their next home and arrange an appointment for the agent to meet the prospect to discuss the PURCHASE of their next home, instead of pushing for a preview or a listing appointment. Therefore, it is important for a good ISA to not only learn the script and handle objections but to be able to assess the situation based on what was said on the phone.

4.    Good voice

This one is hard to measure of course, but I will give it a try. An ISA may forget the script or use a lot of filler words (e.g. like, you know, yeah) but can still get appointments if that person sounds right on the phone. The use of voice tonality plays a big part in building the rapport, and a prospect may naturally open up to a person who sounds smart and confident. Based on my observations, a female ISA will have a better success rate if she has a soprano voice. Prospects, both male and female, naturally open up to a person with a pleasant voice and are likely to agree to an appointment.

5.    Grit

Does your ISA have what it takes to succeed? Can he or she handle multiple rejections? Does he or she have a certain mindset to keep doing and doing and doing? Does she or he count each “No” to get to a YES?  Having grit is one of the most important character traits of any sales professional. If your ISA gets easily discouraged or demotivated because of multiple rejections, then you need to reconsider your hiring decision. If your ISA treats each rejection as a challenge and is working towards conquering this challenge, you got the right person for the job.

I believe that anybody can learn the scripts and anybody can dial the expireds and FSBO database, but the success rate is very much dependent on these personal character traits of the individual dialing. Therefore, when looking out for your next ISA, look at personality types first before considering past experience or number of calls per hour.