A new contact just signed in on your website. A highly qualified lead requested more information about a house on Zillow. The first real estate agent to respond usually earns that customer’s business. This is where a real estate ISA can be beneficial.
But what if you are in a meeting? Driving? Showing homes? Sleeping? Those who get back a little later will watch their conversion rates plummet.
Enter the world of virtual ISAs or real estate inside sales agents. ISAs contact your leads and conduct a quick intake process, trying to set an appointment with your agent. This allows your agents to do their best: working with buyers and sellers face to face.
Virtual real estate ISA companies allow you to avoid hiring and training someone in-house but still benefit from the services of an ISA to qualify and route your leads.
Most ISAs are designed to handle inbound leads, but some can perform outbound sales functions like cold calling and telemarketing.
Top Real Estate ISAs
AgentAssistant
AgentAssistant is a valuable tool that will help you identify and contact potential leads. They will classify your leads and set appointments for you. Additionally, they offer a lead gen program that will help you identify and contact potential customers.
Conversion Monster
Conversion Monsters provides an ISA service that nurtures and qualifies leads on behalf of agents. Leads are passed along to agents as warm connections, and Conversion Monsters keeps track of calls and records scripts to help agents connect with potential customers.
Real Contact
View Other ISA Services Real Contact is a virtual lead qualification service. Their concierge promises to engage with your leads within 90 seconds of a lead
Rokrbox
Rokrbox is a lead nurturing service that will contact new leads and hand them off to an agent when they are 90 days out from the purchase. They are a great choice for mid-sized real estate teams or larger teams looking to outsource their lead nurturing and conversion.
Ruby
The Ruby Receptionist live answering service is great for businesses who want a team or small office receptionist solution with humans instead of a robotic call routing service. They receive and route inbound calls, schedule appointments, and make outbound calls in Spanish.
Smart Alto
The Smart Alto real estate ISA service integrates website chat and text messaging with live virtual assistants to provide a promised 2 minute response time. It features numerous integrations with other tools, giving you a lot of flexibility in how you use it.
Structurely
Structurely is a top-tier real estate AI software that helps agents quickly engage new leads and contacts. Asia Holmes is a chatbot that's integrated into your website. This service features both text and live chat support, and has a respectable and growing number of direct integrations.
Upcall
Upcall is a great service for outbound sales needs. With remote employees who will execute your prospecting campaigns, it is an ideal solution for those who want to outsource their lead generation without having to hire a sales team.
Verse.io
Formerly Agentology, Verse.io is a leading enterprise level concierge/ISA service with the goal of nurturing and handing off your leads to the best possible provider. They have a vast database of inbound and past leads and are the perfect partner for third party real estate offerings like CINC.
Other Real Estate ISAs
Other real estates ISA and telemarketing services to consider include:
- Aiva
- 3C Contact
- iSales
- PowerISA
- Real Contact
- Referral Genie
Not included are virtual assistant companies which hire part-time or even full-time employees for your business.
One significant difference between virtual assistant companies and ISA companies is that the latter often emphasizes fluent English more so than virtual assistant companies. VAs often may serve as admin, transaction managers, etc.
Database Marketers
Some companies focus on lead nurturing within your database and serve a similar function to ISAs. I’ve grouped these among the “database marketing” companies. Instead of responding to inbound and outbound lead generation, these companies look within your existing funnel, convert cold leads, and prospect within your database.
Verse.io is an example, formerly called Agentology.
Licensed or Unlicensed?
ISA means inside sales agent, and deciding whether a licensed ISA is important to you is a decision you must make upfront. Depending on your State’s rules, unlicensed ISAs might be more accurately described as “appointment setters,” unable to discuss real estate with prospective clients.
Often, a larger real estate team or brokerage might consider hiring a full-time inside sales agent so they can be licensed and have more flexibility on the phone. A licensed ISA can quickly jump-start a new prospect’s home buying or selling process with listing alerts or housing market information before the agent gets to their appointment.
Related to the licensed vs. unlicensed question is the concern over lost authenticity. Inbound leads might expect to hear from the agent or team leader, not a scripted ISA from a call center in a different state (or country).
A highly trained ISA should be able to conduct the warm handoff seamlessly with your real estate business so that there is no lost trust, but it will never be perfect.
Final word
Virtual ISAs solve one of the most significant pain points for Realtors and brokers: follow-up.
That said, it is not a magic bullet. The follow-up has to be seamlessly integrated with your brand and personality. Your ISA is the first impression of your business, and a bad one can lose customers.
Hopefully, some companies can help you scale your business affordably and efficiently while preserving your style and brand.
