When Should you Hire your First Real Estate Inside Sales Agent

Ready to scale your real estate team? In this episode of Real Estate ISA Radio, Nate Joens of Structurely, Robby Trefethren and Erik Hatch of Hatch Coaching share the specifics of what roles you should hire first when building your team, how many leads your ISAs should handle every month and how to onboard and retain your ISAs as you scale for success.

Show Notes

Real Estate ISA Radio - When you Should Hire your First Real Estate Inside Sales Agent

Nate Joens: [00:00:00] Hello everyone. This is Nate with Structurely welcoming you to our second ever real estate ISA radio podcast where we give you an inside look into the science and setup of building a successful inside sales team for your real estate business. I'm here today with my co host Robbie Trefethren as well as special guest Erik Hatch with Hatch realty. Robby would you like to get us started.

Robby Trefethren: [00:00:39] Awesome yeah I'm really excited today because the focus of today's calls is going to shift. Last call we really focusing on the role of the inside sales agents in our businesses. And today we're going to go down the journey of when are we going to hire one should you hire your first real estate inside sales agent. And I think there's no better person to talk about this than than Erik Hatch because Erik, I think it's fair ISA that when you really were first exploring getting in ISA it wasn't anywhere near what it is now in terms of popularity. It was maybe like the new shiny thing. Is that fair ISA at that point Erik.

Erik Hatch: [00:01:20] Yeah I I hired an ISA because I listened to a bunch of people who were top teams that I never thought I would ever even get a smidge of their success the rise of the copy my way to the end. And sure enough I saw the people that were having great success and they were using an ISA. I didn't even know what it meant when I'm outside of having somebody simply answer the phone and respond to leads passion. That's the only thing I knew about it and we fumbled our way to the top here.

Robby Trefethren: [00:01:52] That's probably a good way to describe it fumbling way to the top. Love it.

Nate Joens: [00:01:57] There you go. So Erik sounds like you've got it figured out now but when you know you it sounded like you were starting to build up your team. If if you're a new team leader of looking to actually build your team today should an ISA be your first hire onto your team.

Erik Hatch: [00:02:16] Boy that is a heavy laden question. I'm going to say no I don't think it ISA is your first hire. I think that people want to jump to having and ISA. Well what we have to figure out here and this is something that I have studied in great depth to try to figure out who to hire and when to hire and and then certainly how to hire what we think about is this is if you were the rainmaker for me when I started 2011 it was my first year in real estate. I sold 52 homes in 2011 as an independent agent. I had in the summer months I had a part time college student helping me up but otherwise I was a slow operator and I was just burning the candle at both ends and really struggling to stay afloat and so I did what any reasonable person would do and that was I hired a bunch of people that were my friends and I never regretted that I just brought them aboard. And we grew our team in 2012 from from 4 people to 13 people by the end of the year and how we hired Nate Robbie as we went and I hired two buyer agents and one admin and we just jumped out and I think that's a that's the easy desire is people want to jump in right away and they want to find producers and they want people that can help bring them an income. That year we sold 192 homes and up 182 I did 113 of the transactions and as I coach and as I mentor people throughout this industry I find out that that's usually the case is that the rainmaker even as they're growing their team are still the main producers because were traditionally hiring folks that aren't necessarily trained well and that we don't we haven't done our due diligence to teach them how to do it exceedingly well us a rainmaker know how to crush it in real estate.

Erik Hatch: [00:04:12] We think that that's just the natural progression is when you crush it as an independent agent then you go and you build the team and so I bring all that up to get to the root of the question. Here are the roots of the question depending on where you live in the country. It comes down to this. I think that your first hire should be an assistant somebody to take the stuff off your plate. The second hire should be an assistance. The first assistance I think is again giving you life back in your day they're freeing you up from all that people work and all the added stuff that is so heavy laden in this real estate industry. The second hire then is a growth piece. The first one is really bew. And so now you have more time to prettiest and if you spend that time producing you continue to be sick with coal we'll right. And so this second admin comes in and they help you with marketing support that marketing support is a really important piece of this because now you have to figure out how to market your sphere better. And at this point you may start entertaining purchasing some businesses are going out and using your dollars to create more dollars. The next hire usually say it's an say but if it's an ISA that means you're the producer. And think of the chaos that would create in your world if you now have leveraged yourself through assistance and dad and ISA it's doubling the amount that you're doing. Like that's just that's too much. And so I actually think that the next hire is a showing partner not a buyer agent a showing partner you need to as a rainmaker when you're built in your world.

Erik Hatch: [00:05:53] Spend more time training the people that are there instead of just giving them business and hoping that they can succeed. And you need to use a shrimper model as a way to get better service as a way to train the people that are coming aboard. And as a way for you to protect your bottom dollar. After those three hires I think the next hire your for hire which is your fifth team member. I think that person now is an inside sales agents because you now have leveraged out a lot of your time with buyers. You've leveraged out a lot of your responsibility with the administrative side and with listings and you now are looking again to grow and this and say sales agents is the best way to do so. I do think though and this may be jumping the ship a little bit here. I do think that when you hire one site sales agent you actually need to hire a second. ISA bringing somebody on board so that that one person doesn't get burnt out and that they have somebody to lean on is really important. But to summarize this again here would be how I would hire assistants assistants showing partner ISA and the hire after that is actually another showing assistants or shall we partner because that first showing partner will be graduating to be a buyer's agent who that was a long answer up.

Nate Joens: [00:07:15] I think that's awesome. Robby since you kind of lived in the same world do you think first of all do you have anything to add and second of all how. How important do you think that that piece of hiring two ISAs are one right after another is in terms of competitiveness and just overall team structure.

Robby Trefethren: [00:07:33] Yes. So I'll answer the two plus ISAs and I'm just kind of add some depth to Erik's answer request really won't. One big thing that that has to be happening throughout the hiring of admin one admin too and the showing partner is really this is your role as the rainmaker is to basically put it in shorts because I know Erik will love a second term. You've got to find a way to bring in the bacon and the bacon would be it leads for the team. Because here's the thing is if you're not bringing in leads anything you just said air works. If you're not bringing more opportunity for the team none of that work. And the reality is is when you're hiring other admin it's leveraging rolls off your plate so you can basically put your time into dollar producing activities. So I just wanted to add some depth to that area. Would you agree with that.

Erik Hatch: [00:08:33] Oh of course of course we do. What usually happens is that people are slow to hire and ISA because you think that you can chase after those deals and then you think that you're going to bring on buyer agents and listing agents to chase after those deals. When realistically unless you have to break them exceedingly well and do so you're not going to have massive success. I've said this before and I'll say it again is that if you don't have an ISA you are the ISA and the push that we're having here on this higher is you need to find that spots in your team and you have to make sure that there is enough business for them to chase after as well as theirs and that there's enough business for you to handle.

Erik Hatch: [00:09:21] It's a both and yes it's it's an imperfect science. Erik said we fumbled our way through it and I think that's this process this lay out is because we fumbled a couple times. It's probably the easiest way to describe that two second point or something if you'd like to quit and then I'll get this.

Erik Hatch: [00:09:41] I was just going ISA you don't necessarily have to buy business to employ ISA right away. I think an ISA they can work your sphere and your have mets. I think they're better suited to work. They have not met at least in our world they are but there are US a plethora of expired and FSBOs and things that you can go after and that person could come in and sharpen their teeth before you start spending an obscene amount of money on purchased business so I think that they can go through any old leads that you have whether it be a sign call or an Internet lead or any of those expired service groups but Robbie back to you.

Robby Trefethren: [00:10:22] Yeah I love that and the hitting on old leads is something we're going to talk about in a little bit. How do we onboard ISA. But I want to talk about to ISAs real quick. I want to tell you my experience when I came into this. ISA game.

Robby Trefethren: [00:10:38] Basically the way it worked was I was really the whole time. ISA myself for about three to four months. And what that really meant was we probably had about 300 ish leads coming in per month between Zillow between what we're old Tiger leads me and now been on commission inc. We had organic leads coming in because Erik is very well known in our community. So there was a lot of opportunities out there and we had an ISA that was hired before me but he really transitioned out of the role and it was really only me for about 3 to 3 ish 4 months and I will say that by the end of that three to four months I was completely burnt out to the point where when I brought in the next ISA that we we finally did hire finally like three to four months is a long time but when we didn't bring them in. Basically I just handed everything over to him. Out of pure exhaustion no joke got on a flight went Vegas with.

Robby Trefethren: [00:11:41] My wife for I think 11 days and just completely checked out. And the reason it's it's key to have two is to out that I went through it that all possible have to remember now because it was unbelievably exhausting. A lot of people try to take this role confined to an 8 to 5 job and that's just not possible. People keep trying people keep failing. It will not work because and ISA if you're doing all this outbound work throughout the day especially now what happens is people texting back and calling back at night and if you don't answer that call it really defeats the whole purpose of everything you do because the whole point of everything and ISA does is to call leads generate conversations identifying that conversation whether whether somebody is a prospect or not and then convert the lead. And if people are calling it back and texting you back and you're not taking advantage of it it defeats the purpose. And on her last when we talk about how in this role it's easily a 50 to 60 hour per week rule. With that being said you do need to protect your time and if there's only one to you if you only have one ISA please for their own sake make sure there are some built in leverage for them to take a night off a couple of times a week whether it's you know an agent taking leads for whomever somebody around they will burn up.

Robby Trefethren: [00:13:10] Secondly the other major piece with with having ISAs is it creates speed to lead it creates friendly competition in our world that all leads are fair game. Basically it's almost like something called a shark tank. Basically it's first come first serve. So if a really great lead comes in at 3pm when both ISAs or office because there's trouble. It's a race. Get to that lead first and that friendly competition. The constant comparing each other's numbers raises the floor of their performance and pushes their ceiling even higher. So those are two of the main reasons I say you definitely want to. If you don't have ISAs think about getting a second one. Usually it just forces them to go and find more business that's already in your system to begin with.

Nate Joens: [00:14:06] Absolutely yeah I think that competition is so important. And I think what we'll touch more on onboarding but absolutely don't copy what Robby did and go to Vegas after you or your first ISA. Switching gears a little bit just to kind of put some real numbers to what we talked about this team structure and how to hire and ISA who to hire first. How much are leads I think I think you kind of touched on a couple different variations you can buy. You can buy leads or you can longer work free leads. But how many leads should you be generating before you hire an ISA.

Robby Trefethren: [00:14:44] I'd so I would say I would say the number should look like this.

Robby Trefethren: [00:14:49] Traditionally that suite number I like ISA is 300 or 350 leads per month. We'll keep an ISA busy day can momentarily do more than that. I think if you have them do more than that when ISA long term they're going to burn out or it's just going to happen is they're not going to be able to grab the high hanging fruit because they don't have the time. That number really needs some more clarity though. If you have a lot of high quality leads coming in if it's a lot of property and leads like Zillow or realtor.com if it's a lot of higher quality leads you don't need as many higher quality leads he means more conversations more conversations and more appointments and honestly booking appointments takes a considerable amount of time. In our world if you have will lower quality leads to me and if your strategy is a lot of pay-per-click leads for example you're going to need more of those leads. Keep one ISA for us. I think we've a very healthy bland. Our strategy in terms of marketing we bring a healthy blend in of lay for radio his property from leads from Zillow some home whole search leads as well as a good amount of pay-per-click leads.

Robby Trefethren: [00:16:16] So the number we go off of because we're well bounces around 300 to 350.

Erik Hatch: [00:16:22] Well I would say this also is the answer that would give aid is no way in which the game is played today. Nate what you are doing with Structurely and artificial intelligence ISA to have that as a game changer for real estate ISA companies. I don't I don't know that answer yet. I'll be honest Robby spoke with some fire about where we're at today. I think that number's going to be way way way way way higher in the future. The amount of leads that we actually need to employ one ISA it means less cost for us on the overhead of employing people.

Robby Trefethren: [00:17:05] And I have a quick as well just the echo that or you're 100 percent right Erik that we're where this game is going. When I got into it it was so dependent on me picking up the phone and dialing people. And honestly that was pretty labor intensive. And now this scheme is becoming so much more text based and really what it does is it eliminates the amount of dead time of doing attempts.

Erik Hatch: [00:17:30] And Robby 60 percent of your conversations in the ISA world started via text now 60 percent.

Robby Trefethren: [00:17:38] And it's rising. I honestly and this sounds crazy but I I can envision a world not in the too far future where people don't even answer their phone unless it's a prearranged phone call unless there's a specific purpose for it. Because I sit there and I look at younger generations that's how they behave. It's the millennials and the Gen Z-ers that literally my brothers will not answer my call. If we text about something and arrange a call we'll still talk all day long. But they don't want to be inconvenienced with a random phone call. They're more than willing though to respond to text messages. And that number that you just said is going to keep rising. I don't know what the top end is but it's going to be a lot higher than 60 percent. There's zero doubt about it.

Nate Joens: [00:18:23] I will absolutely second that. I'm I'm 24 and the only person that I'll answer the phone for is my mother.

Nate Joens: [00:18:29] So if it's if it's anyone other than her then it's not happening but I'll text them.

Erik Hatch: [00:18:37] It's not even, It's not even you pretty face millennials either. It's like I'm I'm 38 I'm right on the cusp of Generation X type. And part of me is a baby boomer at my heart. I'm like right in the middle of all of those things and I don't answer my phone unless I know the number. Like unless it's somebody that I talk to because I get I did 10 robo dialers a day right now and it makes me crazy. And that's ISA has changed. People are going to pick up the call for the most part. If it's not a number that they recognize very very valid point.

Robby Trefethren: [00:19:19] And yes start with younger generations. That's how all of these new trends start as they start at the bottom and then it spreads. You look at social media adoption. It was young folks that did it first. And now everyone and their grandma has a Facebook account. Actually now of course young people have been away from Facebook because my mom's on Facebook and I don't want to be on Facebook with my mom.

Robby Trefethren: [00:19:41] But would love you it. That's how it works right. It's young folks start it on because they challenge the status quo to do something different. And then if it's widely adopted it spreads among different folks because I think you're on the accent right. Right. Is it spreading that that behavior is becoming the norm. I mean everybody is just the way it is.

Nate Joens: [00:20:05] Right. I don't and I don't think this is ISA that phone calls will like you know no one will be you know will be calling each other ever. I think that's one thing that we see time and time again through our conversations that our product has via text is you know we'll warm up the lead will ask a few questions maybe the third or fourth conver third or fourth question in they say hey why don't you give me a call. And yet you know it. That's that's the perfect opportunity where ISA or an agent who's acting like an ISA can jump in and actually make that call. It's a very valid point.

Robby Trefethren: [00:20:39] But yeah it did put a bow on that too to really emphasize that point. The game's changing and the amount of leads per an ISA going to go up and undoubtedly really because they don't have to sit there and waste so much time. Instead they're going to be exchanging text back and forth. Now I want to see action that change. What skills are required of contention in the role. Because making sure things are supposedly practiced. You know in your world you have artificial intelligence that's having the conversation back and forth. And you know it can remember text back with human beings. Sometimes we forget to send that text back now for plus reasons. And the system to create and make sure those follow up text don't slip through the cracks are going to be crucial and key to be relevant in the future.

Nate Joens: [00:21:31] Absolutely so. So I think we talked a little bit about you know how many leads should you be generating before you have an ISA. I think I think this is a hard question to ask and answer but this is kind of more speaking to the pipeline that your ISA should be regularly working so I know that I think it's Dunbar's number or whatever that's called says that you can. Humans can only have 150 friends 150 relationships ISAs are obviously superheroes. How many should they be handling in their pipeline every month.

Robby Trefethren: [00:22:07] Man I actually think that the this question has less to do with the person and it has a lot more to do with what is your system.

Robby Trefethren: [00:22:16] For everything I know in our world and I can't even really tell you for a month. Right. You guys heard how many leads we have coming in roughly ISA for month.

Robby Trefethren: [00:22:27] So our number that we worked was that 350 number just right now. And again the numbers going up my ISA is at any point in time. Generally how about depending on the time of year five to eight hundred follow up scheduled with prospects in the future. That means Nate if you were my ISA and you had all these people were following up with that you had once contacted the conversation and they say they're a year out and it's a very firm year out we have 500 to 800 of those generally per ISA at any given point. Now I think the reason Dunbar's number is 1 50. If the ISA was the ISA the agent and the person that stayed in touch with the consumer afterwards I think the 150 number will make a lot more sense. Really what we're leveraging here is all the ISA is doing is nurturing and then handing off to the agent so that that number maybe doesn't have as much relevance in this in this conversation. But for an agent definitely it makes makes a ton more sense because they're chasing their friends or family their sphere past clients and that 150 number is basically saying you can invest the energy to maintain those relationships just because the ideas are only do in the front end of a relationship and then handing it off and letting somebody else do it. The number that we generally see is eight hundred. We let it get to be as big as about twelve hundred once and that was an absolute nightmare. And we had to create again a system and maybe we'll get to that on a different call That's a whole 25 minute conversation but we have a system to make sure that we can keep all those organized because not all follow ups are created equal.

Robby Trefethren: [00:24:23] Basically long story short is some follow up some opportunities in the future are a lot more valuable than others and therefore we need to prioritize those over the other opportunities.

Robby Trefethren: [00:24:35] So it's not ISA the less quality opportunities are crap don't ever make them but you should never call you know a "D" lead before the "A" follow up for example.

Nate Joens: [00:24:49] Absolutely that makes sense. So kind of switch gears on you guys. Now I think we've talked a lot about you know what ISA should look like when they're up to speed. Now you actually get them up to speed. What after you get the right ISA which we can talk about in a later episode. How do you onboard ISA and what's that first. First four to six weeks look like.

Erik Hatch: [00:25:11] Well I'll give you the simple answer and then I'll let Robbie give the more detail answer. Perfect. It is a three step process. The first one is Watch Me The second one is watch you. And the third one is go and do the watch me portion means if you're on board and as ISA if you don't ISA they need to watch you or if you go on ISA I need to watch that person intentionally Nate I'm telling you to read a book or to study a book. You do it differently.

Nate Joens: [00:25:47] Maybe than you. Yes I am.

Erik Hatch: [00:25:51] Like if I tell you to read a book you're going to carefully glance through it but if you study a book you're going to highlight you're going to take notes you're you're actively learning and they say that most of us make is that is that we always assume that people are watching when rarely they're seen us they're not watching with great potential. Robbie go ahead.

Robby Trefethren: [00:26:15] Yes going I was going to say just to reemphasize the just reading a book compared to studying it I just think of you know basically anything that is that is a fiction book is always be something you read and like a nonfiction book would be something you study. Nobody really studies fiction set up because when you get out.

Erik Hatch: [00:26:37] So that that portion has timeframe and people say we're how long does that take it takes as long as it needs to until they get it. If you're putting a exact timeframe on that they may not get it and you're just saying well the other two weeks watching me so they have now. And so it's until they get this second step of watch you is the one that everybody screws up myself included. This is if Robbie is the ISA and Nate you're the new ISA quite often you're going to watch Robbie for a couple of weeks and see what he does and then he's going to ask questions like yeah you've got it. And so he just jumps to start number three and that's going to get you watch me. We talked about it so now go ahead and realistically I watch golf all the time. I love the game. But the second club is in my hands. I become a bumbling idiot and I'm no good I'm no good for nothing. And that's how I practice obsessively with a coach. I'm never going to get better and that second step of watch you is the most important step in that three step process is whoever is the trainer needs to spend a diligent amount of time making sure that that person's swing group rotation foot placement ball placement all those other things are exactly right. And until that happens that person should not be cut loose to go do. But that's my answer from 10000 foot view.

Nate Joens: [00:28:13] That's awesome. It sounds like you're a pro golfer actually. Yeah I really I always play but I always play best ball I tell him my best mom and I go to the best part.

Nate Joens: [00:28:26] It's awesome. That's great. Robby do you have anything else to add on the on boarding.

Robby Trefethren: [00:28:33] So all supplemental Erik said I do think that is the biggest mistake most people completely skip the skip step two. They have the person watch them and then they say go and do and then what happens is two months later the say is having these conversations that are way out of line. What they want out and then they get mad at the ISA and the problem with that is I would say almost all all of these issues are almost never the teammates fault early employees fault. Whenever I see issues in terms of someone is relatively new it's almost all these people skip the. Now I watch you stage and I'm going to make sure that you're doing things correctly. You're having the conversations correctly so most people skipped that and it's extremely detrimental now in terms of specifics. I like Erik's that I like to zoom in really in the first three weeks. Here's what I would say needs to happen first off your ISAs they shouldn't just shadow anyone that's making lead generation calls. They also need to go into shadow buyer consultations listing consultations and the shadow showings open houses now not because your ISAs they should be doing open houses. We used to do that by the way and it's just we moved away from it but because you're ISA needs affirm we understand and have a firm grasp of the whole process. They need to understand what it's like for a consumer to make the call walk in the door go through the closing process because they're going to need to be able to articulate it to other people on why that is value to them and if they've never been to an open house they don't know what to show and looks like they don't know when inspection is. You're missing the boat on an opportunity to train them on what the whole process looks like. So the first few weeks. That is absolutely crucial. Basically I would say the first three weeks is them watching you like Erik said You watch me space. That's all it is. Then from there that's when you know after three to four weeks in that's when we'll do some role plays and I'm going to start watching you to see if you can do the basics of this conversation really well how's your introduction. Jim talks about this really well Jim is hands down the best ISAs in the country and he talks about how most people like go and practice these extravagant role plays. And what you need to do is you need to practice the basics Nepal of John Wooden here John Wooden with all his basketball players. The first thing he would teach them how to tie their shoes. Good think about that time the shoes in his ISAs they were all is. What is your opening question with your potential clients that is tying the shoes. And if you try running with shoes or tie terribly you're going to trip. And if you just start running out of the gate and don't ask the right question right away you're going to trip. So phase two those next week or two. And I don't think we can put like a definitive. This is the amount of time. I think it's this is the checkmarks. you earned right. We don't just push people through space on time. We do a base of competency in the role which I think is really key. And then I want to have one more piece of this in terms of how to onboard your ISA. A lot of people and I used to do this I use advocate when and ISA comes in give them access to leads right away. Give them access to new leads right away. Ace advocate for this and I was dead wrong. Realistically what we found works best is when ISA comes in once or out of the you watch me and I watch you say and now they're in the go and do stage. What should happen is they should start calling your old crap in your database. That should be the first leads your ISAs is ever called Don't Go get them and they expire and expires FSBOs and the card and actually you know. So for me when I first came in what Erik did was I got access to basically I think it was 2000 old Tiger Leads I forget the exact numbers but that was all the leads I got for basically the first two three months of my job All I did and there was another ISA taking the new stuff at that point. All it is for those first two three months was I pulled through a of old Tiger leads. And then I manually did was I went through the last five years of expires and this is before there was companies that would sell you this list but I manually created a list of all expires and canceled that I could chase. And that's all I did for about two three months. And I prove myself to not just Erik through those channels but to the team because I was now ravaging the fruit that was higher up on the tree because I was chasing things that are already bent chased. The trees are even shook by the by the agents or by the other ISA. Now I was creating opportunities out of the old crap. And the reason this is key is if you given ISA a brand new stuff you give him the brand new leads to brand new leads. It's kind of like this you don't give the keys to a brand new Range Rover to a 14 year old or a 15 year old. First off because they're going to crash it no matter what you do when they go and do they are going to crash the vehicle a little bit that is always going to happen and we don't want to miss out on those opportunities because we're still learning to drive. Secondly if you give a 14 15 year old the keys to a Range Rover and then you say hey by the way you got to go drive the Honda Civic. Once in a while to idling is going to happen. I hate that sentiment entitlement don't our world when an ISA comes in they call through that old crap like Erik that expired cancels the old ones. The old leads in the database that have got forgotten about that have been forgotten about and have them create opportunities there then have them slowly worked their way on to arming the best lead sources don't just hand over about good stuff right away. It's it. It's a disaster waiting to happen. And honestly we've done both of these methods. I was on board the I think the right way. When we boarded Jim and I Jim and I talked about this all the time when we boarded Jim. Jim was the guy that came on and I got on the flight to Vegas and he had been on for about I want to say a month at that point. And I just turned everything over to him where those 11 days we didn't really know any better. Right. We fumbled our way forward and what unfortunately happened was Jim got so accustomed even in just those 11 days and then of course once you give it you can't take it away you get so accustomed to the easy stuff that he did learn the work ethic to grind through the tough stuff. And over the next year you would get really frustrated because I learned I came in and I I just work through the tough stuff. And I'd built those habits of making ridiculous styles of getting rejected and not just calling the brand new Zillow leads. So we've learned that both ways of course. Jim now has it turned out well thankfully. We coach up and Jim self discovered a lot of this and now he's on you know the best ISAs in the country. But his first year he would be the first to tell you his mindset wasn't right. And honestly that wasn't his fault it was mine. I onboard him think incorrectly. I give him access easy stuff to suit up. Don't make my mistake. Don't go on a flight to Vegas and turn over the easy stuff to your new ISA please please please have them prove himself in the old stuff. By the way that's free money free right. And those all expired. It's free for all of us with those old leads free money that we all forgot about. Go find some free money for you. And then during that process the promises are going to be legitimized by the team. That's just how it works. Yeah for sure.

Nate Joens: [00:37:12] I think that onboarding peace is so important to get right. But you guys might have not gotten it right first but you certainly figured it out now. Absolutely. So I want to kind of flip the flip the script here a little bit. We've been talking a lot about the ISAs role. When they get on the team and how they get on but I think we have you know really interesting perspective here with Erik and Robbie. What qualities is in ISA actually looking for in a team leader.

Erik Hatch: [00:37:46] I like that question. I would I would say this. First off We have to understand who's going to be brought in as ISA in our world it's not somebody who's a traditional salesperson. It's not somebody it's not somebody who is who has the high "I" super social outgoing person that loves people interaction and face to face stuff all day every day. And so what Instead if you're familiar with the DISC profile. And we heard it in our last one we're looking for oftentimes in "D" "C" or a "C" "D" personality somebody who is dominant a driver and then somebody who is good with detailed systems. So I would make this proclamation based on that aforementioned information. The leader has to have a very clear vision of where the team is going and the success that awaits them. For somebody to be foolish enough to sign up as an ISA they have to understand that they are coming into a position now as the bottom person on the totem pole rather you show them the path of what it takes to grow into management and leadership and influence within your organization. The team leader has to be able to say I want you to be the central player in all these people's business and you were going to be the key person that we lean on for growth and for sustainability to be able to have that kind of articulation around it is essential. And so I think that the team leader has to have a clear understanding and then they have to be able to have the right kind of follow up to say yes we talked about it. Now here's how we're actually going to do it because a "D" personality doesn't wait around for many people and the "C" personality needs to see a plan. And they need to see the steps that are taken there. So we have to have that roadmap laid out. It is difficult to bring somebody on board and say I hope you do really well and I hope you get help our agents make some money and by the way you're not going to get a paycheck for months and months like that's it that's your sales pitch you may as well hit slap yourself in the face so it's not going to work.

Robby Trefethren: [00:40:05] I want to add that I think if you're hoping your way towards leadership I think your leadership is probably nonexistent. While one of a recent event somebody had kind of brought up in our world. I think what Erik is honestly you know if you were to come to Fargo and be exposed to our team and our relationships what Erik is known for is finding out what the people in his world wants and helping them get it. Erik you always talk about how you're trying to build runways who the people in your world. It's kind of your go to right and from where were you go wrong. I think in leadership whether I think especially with ISAs DC personalities where you will go wrong is you will make assumptions on where you think people want to go and you can't just tell people that you want to build runways for people what you have to do is not just have the mindset Erik talk but you have to also be willing to zoom in with your ISAs dig into what they want what matters is where do they want to go and then help them build a plan to get there. That's how you're going to lead and ISA I think honestly I'm not just an ISA like anybody on your team on fire. Is are you taking the time to sit down asking Nate in this case or you know anybody else. What matters to you. What do you want to change by your life. What do you want to do. We are we going and then saying how do I help you get there if you can do that. And if you can find ways to align your business with helping the people in your world become better versions themselves envision and help them create the better life that they desire. If you can do those things I promise you people are going to stick around. Especially at higher rates than normal in this industry. That's what creates fighters settle creates advocates in your world is when you take time to not just make everything about yourself but about the person across from you because here's a reality. You go ask any of the best ISAs I know they don't want to make calls. They don't want to go shoot text messages. But what we've done is we will like the work that they do with helping them achieve the goals that they want to achieve and that's what a great team leader does is use zoom in to find out what matters to them. And you bring in alignment with what you're doing in your world and how do you create that pathway to get people to where they want to go. That's how you create a loyal hard working fully bought in ISA and any team member right.

Nate Joens: [00:43:06] And I think you guys that's why it's so exciting to have you both on the on this podcast as you guys have figured out both sides of this although you know you might not have figured it out it's that first you guys have built one of the most amazing really real estate teams in the country. I firmly believe that you've figured it out with leadership from Erik's side and Robby's side as well as you know the day to day you guys are hiring the right people training them right. And it's exciting to see. Guys I really appreciate. Really appreciate everything that you guys brought to the table today. And I think with that we'll wrap it up. So that's all we have today for When Should you Hire your First Real Estate Inside Sales Agents. You can find more free insights like this by searching Real Estate ISA radio on Spotify, iTunes, Google podcasts or on theisaradio.com. Also be sure to check out the best in ISA coaching at hatchcoaching.com and the most insightful artificial intelligence ISA at Structurely.com. Until next time everyone happy closing.

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