RECRUIT + TRAIN MY
SALES TEAM
multiplies my efforts + profits
I built a team to do all the things I can’t do and, as the business owner, I shouldn’t do.
KEY ROLE:
Find and train a sales and support team to handle our membership and coaching students and real estate activity.
RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDED:
- Educate on Our Products and Services
- Creating a How-To Manual for Sales + Support
- Recruit and Upgrade, Fire Slackers Fast
- Ensure workflow accuracy of CRM + Onboarding
Other core duties was to:
- Marketing Recruiting Website of Work Opportunities
- Trained proper use of phone, email and CRM system
- Created CHP Designation and Ceremony when Achieved
- Teach high-value sales skills for our products and services and affiliates
- Build the process and train strong relationships with new and existing clients
ABOUT THE TEAM:
Recruiting Website: HomeSupportTeam.com
Years: 1997 – 2022
When I began investing in real estate, I did all the work myself. I mowed the yards, paint the places, returned the calls, showed the houses, … and truth be told, I wasn’t very good at any of it. I eventually realized that mowing, painting, screening prospects, and showings are not investing; those are activities that kept from me from investing.
In my business and coaching students always emphasis the real in real estate. Good relationships before, during and after is just good business. But in real estate emotions can be big and, in the case of renters and when I buy property on contract, the lifetime of that relationship can extend decades.
MULTIPLYING MYSELF
I knew the ‘face’ of my companies had to be professional, immediately available and knowledgeable. But the day-to-day interactions of leads and customer care was more than I had time to do. So, in 2002 I hired and trained my first virtual assistant to do emails and onboarding. That was a huge learning curve, both culturally and personally, and I almost threw in the towel. Since that time, I have successfully hired, trained and worked with long-term VA’s in Russia, China, Pakistan, Thailand, and Chile.
(More on how I built a virtual team)
Next, I needed someone local to help at seminars and phones. I hired a personal assistant to build and maintained strong relationships with both new and existing members, and general tasks like errands. I also built a trusted, loyal core of seven local contractors for rehabbing and maintenance and a real estate agent.
CONVERTING AND ONBOARDING
My main, long-term support team was two people focused on converting prospects to sales, and the onboarding those sales into our memberships, coaching, housing and products; and eventually upselling to affiliate offers.
RECRUITING WEBSITE
We put recruitment ads in almost all of our marketing and drove that traffic to a tailored website that informed what we were looking for, sample work opportunities and an application to join. We attracted contractors, handymen, cleaners, stay-at-home moms who wanted to bird-dog or learn investing. That marketing even brought in renters and house sellers, and would-be investors that we could sell to.
A RESPECTED DESIGNATION
To encourage the team to achieve the high level of knowledge needed to provide great support I created a designation, called Certified Housing Professional, the CHP. Once they earned the designation, they could put the acronym and logo CHP after their name in their signatures and in their resumes. With the CHP designation I would have the team member record how-to videos for new tenants showing how basic preventative maintenance and easy repairs that could be performed without the need of calling for help.
TEAM APPRECIATION
Every year I hosted a team appreciation party where we rented out a restaurant for a wonderful diner. I gave gifts and presented awards like Plumber of the Year. After I ran ads in the local papers congratulating the winners with pictures of the awards. I also met weekly and for paid for lunch those contractors on my REI Dream Team.
TEACHING MY TEAM BUILDING
After mastery comes teaching. At live seminars from the stage and webinars I’ve trained hundreds of real estate investors how I find, screening, train, manage and my team. I brought in my trusted REI Dream Team to explain how we work together, how contractors really think and how to avoid bad contractors.
In real estate especially, the emphasis is on the con in the term contractor. A bad contractor can cost a real estate investors tens of thousands of dollars in just one renovation and make generally your business a nightmare.
That is why I recorded and produced several successful educational seminars that included my entire company handbook of procedures, my paperwork, contracts and addendums. Some of the how-to crash course material made it into the real estate courses Rent Your Way Rich™ and Flip Your Way Rich™.
TURN-KEY MACHINE
With proper understanding and a great playbook, you can avoid the pain and put your investing on auto-pilot. With a business that operates smoothly and throws off cash without me babysitting it I can focus on the only true money-makers: sales and marketing. If, God forbid, I lose it all tomorrow the first key I would turn would be building my sales team.
