Wanna stop talking to cold leads in the real estate closers. You'll discover how to stop sourcing deals and start closing them after working with hundreds of wholesaling businesses. Samantha and David share how you can build systems that give you motivated sellers on autopilot. And now here are your hosts, Samantha and David.
(00:26): Hello everyone. And welcome to this week's episode of the real estate closers this week. We're gonna be discussing the key qualities to look for when hiring your VA. So when hiring your virtual assistant. So one of the first things is that you've got to look at the right personality for this, the role, the right personality and character, uh, that you're looking for in your VA. So not just personality, but things like adaptability and suitability for the role, really critical, you know, a lot of clients just look at the skill, set, the experience and, uh, what the VA has done in the past with other clients whilst that's very important. There's also that chemistry, uh, that's important as well, and bringing the right type of person for your business and for the role that they're gonna be carrying out. Would that be a cold caller lead manager or indeed acquisition manager.
(01:19): So when you're interviewing for a VA, let's just assume that you are bringing in the VA yourself. You are recruiting your VA and you are bringing them in house. These are sorts of things that you need to, you should be looking at when you're interviewing them and evaluating their profile to bring into your business. First of all, it's very clear what type you need for the role. So if you look at, for example, the disc test, which I know a lot of you will be familiar with, for those of you aren't, I can explain a little bit about that call caller. So disc, let me just go through that first. So the D stands for dominance decisiveness. So somebody who's can make decisions very quickly is very forthright, very clear, and very decisive. The eye is how the interact is interaction. So it's the interpersonal skills.
(02:06): What are they like talking to people? How do they interact with people? So what are their person to person and interpersonal skills like the S from disk stands for stability. So are they good at following instructions? Are they consistent? You know, the stable, the very consistent, you know, exactly what you're gonna expect from them. Very calm, very stable. The sea of disc is cautiousness. Now that can be a good thing. They're cautious. They think things through before they make decisions or before they say anything, but it can also be a bit of a disadvantage. This is what's important about looking at a disc, be careful what you're looking for. They could be too cautious. They might be worried about making decisions or about saying something to a client or perhaps proposing something. They may need more direction from you because they are cautious, but looking for more direction, more management.
(02:59): Again, that can be a good thing. If you are the type of, uh, clients that likes to be more hands on, you want to direct your agent more. But if you are somebody who wants to be more hands off, and one of the reasons, as I've mentioned before clients outsource, is because they want to take that. They want to give that responsibility of managing the person constantly directing them day by day to an expert outsource provider. They don't want to do that themselves because they want to focus on other key aspects of their business, dealing with their clients, talking to wholesale ERs closing deals. So it's always very, very careful to look at the disc test and what you are looking for. Now, the other thing is about good work ethic and about being flexible, our, uh, VAs they're working from home on their own in many instances.
(03:50): So they've got to be self starters. They've got to be somebody who doesn't necessarily need that handholding and constant direction. And they've got to be flexible because our VAs work with all sorts of different types of clients, they type, they deal with clients who are very autocratic deal with clients who are more relaxed and more open to sort of, uh, discussing matters with the VA and coming to decisions together. Thus clients that are, are very, very directive and clients who are just more hands off. So that flexibility that you need to look for in your, your VR is hugely important. So with all these things, this is one of the reasons why so many clients decide to outsource to companies like no ducks, wholesaling, caller solutions, Cal sales, because there's a lot that goes into recruiting the right VA. They're not just recruiting them, but then managing them from then on in.
(04:45): And so a lot of clients just don't want to deal with that. They want somebody like ourselves who are experts in managing VAs and contracting with clients with call callers, lead managers, acquisition managers, and they want to outsource that area because it can be very, very time consuming. And in fact, you've done properly. It's very time consuming. So whilst you are spending time looking at all these areas, not just for the recruitment process, which is very time consuming in itself. I think as some Anthem mentioned in the last episode last week, one of our business units is global search and selection recruitment, and it is hugely time consuming to do that properly screening people, interviewing them following up second interviews, third interviews, taking references and that kind of thing, hugely, hugely, uh, time consuming. And then once you've brought the, the, the, the VA on then managing them day to day, week to week, month to month, again is another stress on you as a client.
(05:47): So a lot of clients just want to outsource this, which is thankfully while we're in business with wholesaling caller solutions, cause so many clients want to do that. So that gives you, uh, just a, I think an overview of the, the, the sort of personality, adaptability and suitability for the role that you need to be looking for. If you are recruiting a, a VA yourself, of course, if you outsource to somebody like, no, we'll be doing this for you, but you do need to be aware of these, these areas and, and how time consuming and how important it is. So with that, I'm gonna hand over an now to Samantha, who's gonna talk about the level of experience that you might want your VA to have. So over to you to Samantha, just to talk more about that.
(06:30): Sure. David, thank you. And if I may, David, I'm just gonna further expand a little bit, going back to the disc test regarding the disc test. David went into some great detail about what each of the letters mean, but in terms of what we would recommend to look for in those results of, of a disc test. So if you are looking for a cold caller, what I would recommend is someone with who scores high in the eye and the D, and obviously there are exceptions to the rule, don't get me wrong. This is just what we have seen as a general rule of thumb. But if you want a good cold call, the ones that I have on my team that are the best will score high in the eye. So they're very interactive, very extroverted, bubbly. You know, they like chatting to people. They've got the gift of the gab, right, as we say in the UK, and generally they'll be fairly decisive.
(07:30): So they're really good at opening on the phone. They're good at getting information. The high D the high decisiveness works well for a cold caller because they need to be quick on their feet if the conversation changes, cause they need to understand how to go with the flow, uh, handle direction, sorry, handle rebuttals. If they're getting a difficult question, how do they handle a rebuttal? How do they handle questions that maybe they don't know how to answer? So the idea is really useful and really, really quite necessary. If you want someone that has the ability to think on their feet, because someone who is not decisive generally, can't think on their feet as quick as someone who has that higher level of dominance and decisiveness, again, don't quote me on this. There are exceptions to the rule, but if I were to hire a cold caller for my business, I would look for a high eye high D in the S and the C low.
(08:35): So stability and cautiousness low, maybe more mid range for the S but low in the cautiousness. However, generally people that are high in the I in the D will be equally as low in the S and the C I know this because that is my personality type. I took the, uh, the Tony Robbins disc test. And it was, it was very insightful because my level of interactiveness was through the roof at like 80%. Then my level of dominance decisiveness was like a 90 and the S and the C was, was low. Now, if we're talking about hiring a lead manager and an acquisition manager, then it changes a little bit, I would say for a lead manager, you could hire someone that's a bit, score's a bit lower in the D still mid eye, high eye, but maybe a little bit higher in the S and the C because you need someone that is consistent, can really follow up in the CRM is a little bit more cautious, really filtering out those leads to send to the acquisition team for the acquisition managers.
(09:45): Well, they're hard closers. So I would say again, you do want someone high in the eye in the D, but also you would probably want someone that's a little bit more mid range in the S and the C because you have to crunch numbers, you have to make offers. You have to be a lot more detail, um, orientated because just opening and gathering information like a cold call. You're actually the one that is closing the deal now going onto my next topic that I wanted to talk about the level of experience as David quite rightly said, a lot of this sourcing and filtration process, looking at the disc test and gauging the potential, uh, candidates, personality type adaptability, and suitability for the role that would all be done by us by an outsourced agency. But of course, if you're looking to, um, hire someone remotely yourself, or in house, these just vital steps that you need to take.
(10:49): And it's particularly crucial to look at the personality of the person to see if they're gonna be a good fit, because maybe you might be a type, a highly interactive person, highly dominant. You might not vibe well with someone that has the same personality type. So you wanna make sure that you don't have a clash with your agent. And of course, a strong work ethic is just paramount to success and flexibility. A lot of our clients, they, they might have families. They might have other businesses, or they work full time. They might be smaller operations, and they don't have time to be working with someone that isn't adaptable to change. They can't shift with the market change, that can't be flexible with changing the script or receiving feedback or constructive criticism. So these are all really important aspects that and observations that one has to take into consideration.
(11:52): So how important is the level of experience? Well, obviously having experience in real estate is, should be an important requirement, but is it really necessary? I don't think so. Not for, not for hiring a cold caller. Now, remember that if you're hiring an agency like nomad ducks, nomad ducks, wholesaling, caller solutions, we provide training. So we are constantly bringing on new blood, new talent because we need to, right. We can't just always use the same VAs. And a lot of our experience, VAs are already with clients. A lot are coming off campaigns, and we can offer highly experienced VAs. But at the same time, how do you bring on new talent? And how do you give people an opportunity to get into the real estate industry? How do you give them a chance to get their feet wet? If you only hire people with experience?
(12:49): So it needs to be a mix. So generally what I like to do, I'm the client relations director. I'm also in charge of recruitment. What I like to do is bring people on. Obviously we do look for real estate experience at a plus, but if people haven't got experience, we train them and they can start, you know, doing call calling. Really what I look for is motivation, work ethic, personality, and the training. I think we mentioned this in a previous episode a week or two ago, the training, it's not just important to get them trained, but I use the training as a test because we put people through the training, even if they've already got experience, generally, what it does is it filters people out. So you see not only how good they are, if they pass the training, but you also see how motivated they are to learn how hungry they are.
(13:49): So I would say that if you're looking for a cold caller and they don't have experience in real estate, but they've worked on the phones in different industries, give them a chance, give them an opportunity if they're hungry and they're motivated and you love their personality, why not? Now, if you're looking to hire a lead manager, an acquisi or, and an acquisition manager, then I do feel that they really should have started probably at the beginning, having done cold calling in real estate. And then they worked their way up and they got experience in different roles. Having experience is important, but as I said, being reliable, having a strong work ethic, being punctual, being positive, being a self starter, highly motivated for me, those things are far more crucial. So if you come across a candidate that has awesome soft skills, what do I mean by soft skills?
(14:45): Well, are they punctual? Are they hardworking? Are they amicable? Can they build rapport? Are they flexible, adaptable? Do they have an open schedule? Are they agreeable versus someone that maybe has the hard skills, but maybe not so much suitability with the soft skills? I would always go for someone that has more appropriate soft skills, because the hard skills running comps, learning a script, understanding a CRM, being able to make notes in the dialer. Those can be learned, but soft skills such as being able to, to chat with people, easily, making people laugh, building rapport, and just making conversation. That's not so easy to learn. It can be taught in training, but if you don't naturally have that ability to gain people's trust to make them like you to make them want to do business with you, then that's more like a personality thing rather than something they can actually really be taught.
(15:50): So that's personally what, what I would look for and that's it really, you know, I think again, just to summarize personality is key personality type flexibility, adaptability, soft skills, over hard skills, and everyone is trainable. Let's give people a chance in, again, going back to our training program, we cover all of the roles we cover cold calling lead management and acquisition management. The lead management and acquisition management is usually for those who have already been on the phones for many years and have done cold calling. Um, but we also offer the training to people of all levels. And then afterwards, what we do, we ascertain who's gonna be more suitable as a cold caller, and who has the more relevant experience and skills to be a good lead manager and acquisition manager. I'm gonna pass you over to David now, because he's gonna talk a little bit about more of the technical requirements that you should look for. And that as an agency, we also look for,
(16:57): Thanks, Samantha. Yeah, some really important, uh, uh, items there that Samantha went through. And I'm gonna talk now about making sure that the VA that you take on for whatever role it is, whether it be a call call or lead manager, acquisition manager, you know, or perhaps some of the other type of role, they have the relevant and appropriate technical understanding for the role. And also gonna talk a little bit about checking references as well, which is hugely important. So going back to the technical aspects, you need to ascertain and understand and check and test how tech Savage is the VA. You know, what is the technical knowledge, for example, are they able to navigate the way around various dialers, whether that be then call, uh, ready mode as it's called now, mojo call tools, you name it, are they familiar with how to navigate around dialers?
(17:46): Do they understand the reporting systems in the dialers? Do they UN understand the different aspects and how to use that dialer effectively and also CRM systems? You know, whether it be pod Salesforce or others, you know, there's a whole raft and of different CRM systems out there now. And our clients use a, a whole range of different types of dialers and CRMs. So how flexible and how experienced is the VA that you are looking to bring on with those technical aspects, those systems and, and applications, uh, hugely hugely important. And then what's their setup like where they're gonna be working from the majority of our agents, uh, in this business, in this, using this business model they're working from home. So, you know, they've got to have things you must check for things like what, what is their internet speed? What is the upload and download speed?
(18:38): What do you require for your business? Will that be adequate for the systems that you are going to asking them to use? Can they have multiple tabs open on their PC with the CRM, with the dialer, uh, perhaps with, with Skype, perhaps with other internal messaging systems like slack that you might use in your business is their internet and their PCs as well, capable of handling the sort of systems and apps that you, you require them to use to effectively carry out their job. And again, with the laptop, what's the, the age of the laptop, what's the capability, what's the memory, you know, the Ram, how sort of stable is it? Is it going to be hooked to the task of doing what you want them to do? So all these things need to be, to be checked, linking into that very, very important people.
(19:27): Often don't think of this. They've got great internet, fantastic PC latest model, rapidly, you know, absolutely super fast. And then they use a very poor quality headset. It's not sound canceling, no, sorry, noise canceling. So you're hearing the customer. The homeowner is hearing all sorts of different noise in their background, cuz they've just got a very cheap headset. So all those things. So the internet connection, the type of PC and the type of headset that they're using is vitally important as well as their environment. It's the environment that they're working in. Like, you know, the kids in the background, dogs barking, parrot squawking in the next room. You'd be surprised what we've come across during our time in business and setting up VAs at home. Um, all these things are hugely important, a quiet space. So it's a professional environment with all the right tools, all the right, um, sort of equipment, um, so that they can speak to your, um, customers and homeowners and represent your company and brand in the manner that you would expect them to.
(20:31): So all hugely important. Now I mentioned references again, this is, this is key critical. A lot of people do forget that they talk to the VA, they have an interview. They love them. It's quite common that I think anybody interviewing somebody, they generally make the mind up in the first. I think it's the first 30 seconds or first minute that I've read. They often make the mind up that they like them. They gel with them, the chemistry's there and they want to take them on and they get very excited to offer the person the job. Oops, haven't taken up references. You've got to remember that. A lot of these, uh, well, a lot of people who have worked for their employees, they're very, very good at covering. If they've done something wrong with a previous employer and they've been disciplined or they've done something serious, they're very good.
(21:15): It's, they're very aware. They've got to cover that up. And they're trying very hard to make sure they're covering that up. And they're trying to put on as good a show as possible. They can often sound better than somebody who's got a great disciplinary record has fantastic references because they are so focused on the fact that in the back of their mind, oh, I know I've got this problem, my last employer or my last clients. And they desperately try to cover that up in a lot of instances. They're very good at it. So you've got to make sure no matter how much you like the VA, no matter how much you want them and you think they're a perfect fit for your business. Remember you've only carried out a short interview with them. When you check references, you're getting references from people that they've worked for a lot longer than obviously you, they haven't started working with you yet.
(22:00): So check references and as many as possible, you know, you don't have to go mad if you get the previous employer and the one before that, then you're likely to be okay if those references come back a OK. And clean. So I think that just to summarize, obviously making sure that your VA has the technical understanding and knowledge, they don't have to be, it experts, systems, experts. They don't have to write computer code. They don't have to be developers, but they have to have enough technical understanding, experience and ability for the role that you want them to carry out using the apps that you want them to use, the CRMs, the dialers, their working environment, their own internet connection, um, their laptop, their headsets, and the kind of office environment, their, their office, home office space. What is it like? Is it conducive to providing a professional service and speaking to people on the phones and then check references vitally important? So with that, I'm gonna hand back tos, just have some closing messages for you.
(23:04): Thanks, David. I think he summarized everything nicely, Beth, as he was saying earlier. And as you know, I was saying just to reiterate, obviously the, uh, the technical requirements, looking at the level experience and a suitability for the role, those would be things that we would do. If we were to obviously present a client with a VA that's already done, that's an advantage of using an outsource provider, but if you were to do it in house yourself, then these, I cannot state how important these, these, uh, things are to, to, to really just take into consideration. So really hope that you, you enjoyed the show looking forward to next week. And please don't forget to check out our website, ww.nomad.com. Uh, you can also send us a message or contact form on there, and you can also send me a WhatsApp message also on the, uh, on the site. We have some client testimonials check them out and I'm really excited about next week's show. So check in then bye bye.
