As real estate investors use cold calling to scale their business, there inevitably comes a time when it isn’t practical for them to make cold calls anymore. This means that it’s time to hire one or more cold callers so that you can better spend your time. The position of a cold caller is an important job that you want to fill with the right person. You want to hire callers who enjoy talking on the phone and who have other important job qualifications. This article answers some common questions we get about what makes a good cold caller and discusses some important qualifications they should have to be a good fit for the job.
How do they sound all the phone?
It’s really important how your callers sound over the telephone. You want callers who sound like someone you would want to talk to. How your caller sounds over the telephone is one of the most important job qualifications, so pay close attention to their voice tonality, how they speak, and the rhythm of their dialogue during your conversation with them.
Are they personable and friendly?
It’s really important that your callers have good mannerism and that they are polite while they are talking on the phone. This will help you decrease the amount of people who get angry when you cold call them and it will maximize the leverage you get from each contact you make. So, make sure that the person you’re considering hiring as a cold caller is both personable and friendly while you are interviewing them. If they aren’t personable and friendly towards you, then they probably won’t be personable and friendly towards the people they talk to when they’re making calls for you.
Would they cause someone to let their guard down?
A bonus quality to a good caller is their capacity to cause other people to let their guards down. Sometimes the leads you call will be guarded for various reasons. They will have their guard up to know why you called, how you got their number, and what the purpose of your call is. Sometimes the leads you call will have their guard up because they are embarrassed that they are losing their home. They are understandably guarded because their house may be going up for auction soon, so it’s important that your callers are able to put potential sellers at ease. You want the seller to cooperate with your caller, so it’s important for your caller to operate within the context that your company is trying to help them solve a problem. If the seller won’t put their guard down and acknowledge that there is a problem, your company cannot effectively offer them any solutions.
Do they need to have cold calling experience?
It’s nice when they have experience with making cold calls, but for us experience is not a necessity. Instead, we place more importance on the job qualifications discussed above.
How much time should your cold callers spend making cold calls?
The time range will usually vary between 2 to 4 hours a day, but if you have the lead volume it’s fine if your callers make cold calls for full 8 hour shifts.
Are they good at autodialers?
If you’re using auto-dialers, finding a caller who is familiar with the type of autodialer your company uses is a bonus to consider when you’re hiring. However, if you find the right caller who sounds good over the phone and they aren’t familiar with your autodialer, you can always train them on how to use it. In other words, it shouldn’t be a deal breaker if they don’t know how to use autodialers.
Do you hire a professional company for cold callers?
It depends. If you decide to hire a company to make calls for you, make sure that you find out if they call both landlines and mobile phone numbers (some call centers that use power-dialers don’t call mobile phone numbers due to compliance issues). If they don’t call mobile phone numbers, this could make a major difference in your hit rate. Our experience has shown us that callers who we hire as a part of our team perform better than call centers. We did an experiment once by sending the exact same list to both a call center and a caller who works for our company. They called the same list, but our caller produced more leads.
Commission only callers vs Hourly wage callers
If you hire callers that you only pay commission to, make sure that a commission only pay scale is a realistic and fair model for them. If they don’t get paid enough, then their performance is likely to suffer and there will be a high turnover rate. You will consistently need to hire and train new callers to replace the old callers who have quit if a commission only pay scale is unrealistic. Paying your callers hourly and offering them commission is another option. An hourly wage provides security for them so that they will be inclined to stay longer, and the possibility of commissions ensures that they will put extra effort into their work.
Where do you find good cold callers?
We find our cold callers by posting jobs on Indeed.com and then we vet all the candidates.
What if I don’t want to hire a cold caller?
Knowing what job qualifications a good cold caller needs is imperative if you want to consistently generate business from making cold calls. Some investors don’t hire cold callers and make the cold calls themselves, but it’s important for them to evaluate themselves to determine if they have the qualifications to be good at making cold calls. If they’re making the cold calls without possessing the job qualifications and they don’t sound good over the phone, their business will suffer because they’re doing a job that they don’t possess the qualifications for. If you’re an investor making cold calls and you don’t like talking on the phone, do your business a favor and fire yourself from that position and hire a good cold caller who can consistently generate appointments for you so that you can get properties under contract and close juicy deals.
You can learn more about generating leads through cold calls and what to look for in a good cold caller during our weekly coaching calls. Getting on our weekly coaching calls is easy, all you need to do is sign-up for one of our plans that gives you instant access to good data so that you can find home sellers and start making offers on properties that your competitors can’t touch.
