I know there are tons of solutions when it comes to hiring a lead generator, someone to fill the roles of making outbound calls to sellers. Let me explain what we've tried in the past, what's working for us now and who we're looking for currently. Previously we've tried:
Paid Craigslist Ads: The return was almost nothing as we didn't want to pay to post the listing multiple times a day, our ad just got bogged down amongst the rest of the spam.
Paid Indeed Ads: We've posted ads with various and numerous filters (even asking for a video) and although we've received a decent response most of the applicants have been "hit and apply" leads and weren't really qualified for the position.
International VA paid hourly Managed Professionally: This was great in terms of having a set schedule every week that we could count on someone to be making dials out. It was professionally managed so most communication would go through the manager and they trained their VA's for a total of one week before assigning them with an investor. They held 4 rounds of interviews total with 4 different VA's before we chose our gal. They did allow us to personally train her outside of her calling schedule we paid an additional $6 an hour. We trained her for a min of 1 hour a week and had her on for a total of 3 months. During that time we received a steady flow of leads, somewhere around 6-7 leads a week however 1 out of 10 were an actual qualified lead. Had we had longer to train her or had someone with a bit more experience in this field and who's previously worked for another investor we maybe could have made it work. However at the time we were spending near $800 a month and after 3 months not one lead converted to a closed sale. Also she was managed by the company so if we wanted to work with her privately she would have to have gone against company rules and left her position with them to work with us. I'm not against hiring out a 3rd party VA to lead generate but at this time we're looking for a more personal relationship.
Warm Market: Through mutual friends and past working relationships we've hired the two lead generators working with us currently. One has been with us for the last 6 months and has shown tremendous commitment to the process, loyalty and desire to grow. He takes our training and consistently gets better after each call. He lives 2 hours outside of LA and does not come to our office but works from home multiple times a week and and held accountable to a training and calling schedule. The other lead generator has just joined recently and he is following a similar schedule and is also being trained weekly, he also lives an hour or two outside from LA. They both have a strong desire to be in real estate and want to be in this business long term and they both hold full time jobs.
What we're looking for... Ideally: Someone who has a previous interest in real estate and is looking to grow within our company for at least 1-5 years. We virtually wholesale in Tennessee and it would be great if we could find someone that lives in the states we market in however they do not need to be local to us or in our office to make the calls. Someone that has a stable income and can dedicate the time to a calling schedule and commit to replacing their W2 income with real estate income. This person would understand the long game and is seeking for a team to help them get to their goals. Someone is is more than willing to start off in a commission only role and who has the tenacity to progress and scale up within our company to a more stable and rewarding position.
My question to all of you that have tried all of the above and more, how do you find this type of person to work with your company and how can you incentivise them without paying them a base or salary for at least the first 3-6 months? We've been looking for quite a while for the right person but I figured who better to ask than others who have probably already been in our shoes.
Thank you in advance!
