Since 2006, Anna Krueger has been an inside sales leader. In 2013, she joined the Haro Group as their first and only ISA at that time and her efforts resulted in 46% of 185 closings during her first year. Impressively, she was able to achieve this despite the fact that she was new to the team and didn’t know a lot of people from the area.
In 2015, she joined the MAPS coaching program as a mastery agent coach and she is now recognized as one of the thought leaders for ISAs in the nation. Today, Anna runs her own consulting company where they partner with teams, observe lead generating behavior and provide immediate feedback. She is also a huge advocate of language patterns and believes that learning the science of talking is vital especially in this industry.
Let’s join Anna as she shares her thoughts on finding the right ISA and her tips on how to build your own ISA team.
In this episode, we talked about:
(03:37) Why is it important to generate your own lead in today’s market?
(07:49) What things can you do to sharpen your skills?
(08:22) How to make people talk to you
(15:07) Where do you go if you are looking to hire an ISA?
(17:35) The personality traits to look for in an ISA
(19:09) What is the proper compensation for an ISA?
(23:35) Who should an ISA be calling to generate qualified leads?
(27:50) Should an ISA focus only on inbound leads?
(29:23) Must all incoming leads go to an ISA or should some agents get them too?
(31:18) What are some simple things you can do to keep track of data?
(32 34) What are the benefits of having in-house ISAs?
(33:49) Why you should be okay with “boring”
Reach out to Anna Krueger, visit www.AnnasCoaching.com
Episode Transcript:
Brian Charlesworth 0:35
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the GRIT podcast. I'm Brian Charlesworth, the founder of Sisu, we are the real estate growth automation software. And I'm your host of the show. And today we are here with Anna Krueger. And Anna has been in real estate I think since 2016. She's been in doing inside sales stuff since 2006, maybe 2015. I'll let you correct me here in a minute. Okay. So she's been in the inside sales world forever came in worked with the Haro team who happens to be one of our customers. And then she moved over to maps coaching in 2015. I guess she moved to the ROI team in 2013. And it's been working with maps coaching still does and also has her own business called platform consulting, where she basically consults people on really how to grow their businesses. So welcome to the show, Anna. And is there anything you want to add to that?
Anna Krueger 1:32
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. You're allowing me to do my favorite thing, which is speaking and podcasts and all that. So thank you so much for the platform. And yeah, it was inside sales since 2006. And then real estate since 2013, with Haro group and then maps 2015. So yep.
Brian Charlesworth 1:50
So you came into Haro group. They didn't have an ISA before you right?
Anna Krueger 1:54
No, I was ISA number one
Brian Charlesworth 1:57
for them. Okay. And I think I read that you did 46% of their transactions were done through you as an ESA that year.
Anna Krueger 2:04
Yep. So my first year and also I didn't have a sphere in the area, because I'm from Baltimore, DC and their team is in South Carolina. So I knew some people just not a ton of people. And the first year I was there, they had 185 closings in 46% came from the efforts I put in for lead gen. So I'm saying that to say you can really figure out how to be successful in real estate, even if you don't know anyone really in the area that you're selling real estate.
Brian Charlesworth 2:29
That's awesome. Congratulations. So were you the only ISA? Or did you run a team of ISAs? Because that's a lot of transactions.
Anna Krueger 2:36
Yeah, I was the only ISA. And we have seven agents. And they all lead generate in the morning for three hours with me. And then I continued in the afternoon as they left. So we were all hands on deck lead gen. And then in 2015, we started adding ISAs. And we hired them right as I was transitioning into maps coaching. So I did hire some ISAs. And then quickly others took over leading that team, because honestly the coaching grew way faster than I expected. And I was out fully into that within about two to three months. Yeah, leading that team.
Brian Charlesworth 3:10
Okay. All right. Well, congratulations. I'm super excited to have you on the show today. As I go. And you know, I speak with teams, we probably have over 600 of the top thousand teams on our platform now. And as I speak with these guys, on a weekly basis, I mean, there are all kinds of questions right now around building an ISA team around. And I'll talk more about why they're so interested in that. But I wanted to find out from you. Why is it so important to generate your own leads in today's market?
Anna Krueger 3:42
Yes, because first of all, we have to have lead gen, if you don't have lead, Gen, your business goes away. And I always tell ISAs, and there's lead generating this is your first domino, if you don't have lead gen everyone else on the team, you have nothing to operate, we have nothing to transact. And we want the skill to be there. And if anything 2020 has shown us is you've got to be able to do very well with the leads you have, right you've got to your quality of conversation has to be very high, you have to be very good yourself at converting the lead. You can't rely on others or you know, some magic formula, you have to be really good at knowing how to talk to people and engaging them, and removing their concerns. Because otherwise you're going to we found when COVID hit in 2020 that people's contacts needed to go up by 2.4 times in order to get the same number of appointments. And so your skill has got to be on point. And that's I mean, it's definitely been revealed in 2020. Right, a market shift.
Brian Charlesworth 4:44
Yes. Yeah. And a lot of our teams I saw the same thing. In just a lot of the people that I've worked closely with, they told me that they're during March and April and this is not the case anymore. People are back to work now but during March and April when people were not working they instead of getting About a 10% answer rate, they were up in the 30% answer 30 to 40% answer rates, and still having to have twice the conversations because people were willing to talk but not necessarily ready to transact.
Anna Krueger 5:12
Exactly yeah. And I found it interesting. And I think it speaks so much to mindset is I had very talented ISAs, who were actually better than they were in January, because they were scripting more because of the market shift. And I saw them get in their head like Anna, you know, on a coaching call Anna, what's wrong with me? I'm not converting the same I was before maybe I've lost my touch. And it's like, no, this is a numbers game and a market shift everyone we're talking to needs 2.4 times the number of contacts to set an appointment, it's really important to protect your mindset, that it's, you know, when something like that happens, it's you could be more skilled than before and still need more contacts. So you got to watch that time set to
Brian Charlesworth 5:54
Anna, do you think that's still the case today? Or was that a March and April thing
Anna Krueger 5:58
that was more of in March and April things. So what I'm planning on talking to people is they're back at their normal levels. In fact, some because their skill improved during that time, are they're finding that they actually need less contacts than they did even in January, to set the appointment. And I think that's reflective of all the work and effort they put in to get better on the phone during COVID. So now their skill has increased, things have more normalized and they're actually doing better than they were before the pandemic.
Brian Charlesworth 6:26
So what is the average conversion rate from conversations to appointments?
Anna Krueger 6:34
So contact is set I'm seeing right now between five and 7%. With those people that have really worked on their skill, it does depend on your lead sources, if who you're calling Of course, if I'm if someone's circle, calling a neighborhood, that's going to be very different than if I'm calling expireds or a Zillow lead or someone that came in through a Facebook ad. On average, however, five to 7% is what we're seeing right now, during COVID. It was down around two to two and a half percent.
Brian Charlesworth 7:01
Okay. So if you are skilled, and I love that you've emphasized work on your skills, work on your skills, work on your skills, because I think so many agents think I'm just gonna make more calls, make more calls, make more calls. And what happens is that's called burnout.
Anna Krueger 7:15
Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so it doesn't make sense. But yes, a lot more to work on besides just dialing the phone.
Brian Charlesworth 7:22
Yes. So a couple of questions along those lines. And what Anna is saying everybody is if your talent in this area of setting appointments, whether you're an agent or an ISA, if you talk to 100 people, you should set five to seven appointments.
Jennifer Seeno Tucker 7:39
Yes. Yeah.
Brian Charlesworth 7:42
Yeah. Is everyone clear on that? I'm not going to move on until we're all clear. We all Claire. Okay, so, so Anna, what can somebody do to work on their skills, because it's such a vital piece that I just think people ignore, they think I can just do more instead of being smarter, and sharpen my pencil and just be more talented and ask the right questions.
Anna Krueger 8:04
Well, the danger there too, is some people do have that personality that people are drawn to them. And they haphazardly find their way towards success, yet it's not repeatable, right? Then you hire people, and how do you tell them to do you know, I don't know. It's just what I do. That's not something you can teach people that you hire to duplicate yourself. And so really, for when, for me, when it comes down to skill, I believe in language patterns. I'm a huge proponent of language patterns. That's been what I've centered my career on since 2006. And it's really more the science of how to talk to people. So for example, there's a five-step process to say hello, on the phone that will make someone want to stay on the phone with me. There's a three-step process you follow. If someone says I'm busy, can you call me later? There's actually a language pattern for that.
Brian Charlesworth 8:50
Okay, can you share more like, tell us what is the five steps? Yeah, what are the five steps? What are the three steps? I want to know this? Okay. Is this NLP? Is that what we're talking about here?
Anna Krueger 9:00
I have actually not taken NLP but people that have asked me, did you take NLP? So these are language patterns I learned in my first sales job back in 2006. Okay, no, but there's a lot of it Incorporated. And I have studied NLP to an extent. And there is a lot of overlap. It's a lot of psychology. So how to open a call, I'll give you the five steps. And I will say a lot of people in a physical classroom will look at me like, this is so easy. And the feedback I get is when I went to do my opener, it was harder than I thought. So here are the five elements is one your name to their name. And I like to add if you don't know their name, I used to call a lot of expired. You didn't always have the right name. Yep. Well, you want to do then you say, I'm hoping you can help me. And then I'm looking for the owner of 123 Main Street. A lot of agents just say, this is Anna, I'm looking for the owner of and there's a psychology to Hey, I'm hoping you can help me because now I'm more human. Most people want to help others. So it's a cycle. logical thing that gets the person engaged, even if it's a wrong number, so one my name to their name, or I'm hoping you can help me. And the third that really helps is thank you so much for taking my phone call today. And someone might say thanks for taking my call. But the point is expressed gratitude. And here's why Brian, if I just express gratitude that you took my call, kind of a jerk if you hang up on me, right? So, and also gratitude raises our energy and it feels good. So name, their name, thanks for taking my call. Then step four is tell them why you are calling very succinctly. I'm calling because you you clicked on our Facebook posts last night, I'm calling you because your home it came off the market, calling because you were on our website last night. And then step five, is ask an open question about motivation. And that the two main things in that opener are gratitude, and an open-ended question about motivation. What we don't want to do is say How are you? That's a meaningless question, right? I'm good. How are you? or How can I help you? Well, they don't even know what we do. They don't have any idea the depth of the ways we could help them. So if I start with, how can I help you, that can lead to a very short conversation. But if I instead say, Brian, moving is so much hard work, what makes you want to move that's immediately more engaging, and more beneficial than really anything else I could say. So those are the five steps. And then if someone can,
Brian Charlesworth 11:32
Can you give us a couple other question, good, open-ended questions that that drive activity on those. I just, we have mostly team owners on here. But whether you're a team owner or an agent listening to this, if you're a team owner listening to this, I hope you took notes just like I did, even though I'm not a team owner, and share this with your teams.
Anna Krueger 11:52
Yes, yeah, you'll see an immediate improvement. When when I teach this in class, the next week, people will say I had more pickups and a higher conversation rate just in the last week just from this, even though it sounds so simple. The other questions I like that are open-ended to start a conversation. If they were a website lead, I like to kind of have fun with them. So I would say, hey, you could have been online checking football scores, or, you know, it's Thanksgiving time, you could have been online shopping for a black Friday deal. What had you instead of looking at homes last night on the website? Yeah. And so that gets them talking. And my favorite one is simply moving is a lot of hard work, what has you thinking about it, because I'm acknowledging This is hard. And so I think it makes you human, it's a little unexpected for a real estate agent to point out that moving is hard. And I find they just go deeper, faster. And he could also just simply say, what's motivating you to move? It's really, you don't really need too many good questions I find I always just use the same one moving a lot, a lot of hard work, what made you think about it? Okay. And that's plenty, right? is whatever they say, just keep asking about it. What's important to you about that, and you get their motivation. And the reason that matters, is later on, if I get an objection, I already know their motivation. So I can say, Brian, I totally hear you. I also remember you saying you wanted to downsize and that would help you save money. So you could buy an RV and travel. Wouldn't it be worth figuring out this objection. So that's why motivation is first.
Brian Charlesworth 13:27
Great, great stuff. I love it. I asked you why it's so important. And you talked about, it's really the key. I mean, that's the first thing to driving a business. But I see so many people in today's world have said, you know, I'm going to go to upcity. I'm going to go to Zillow, I'm going to go to whatever Google AdWords, you know, there are a lot of different things people are going to, to generate leads, I still just want to emphasize how important it is that you're doing this because even on those you need to convert, and if it's in if it's Zillow, and upcity, you're going to, you need to be willing to give away 35% of your transactions, or you know, so what's more important to you really learning how to do this? Or are you okay to give up 35% on every deal?
Anna Krueger 14:13
Yeah. And also, as you do this, well, and you have that relational sales. You know, I believe that sales should be very relational. I don't want them to feel like they're talking to a salesperson, even though I do know, sales techniques. I want them to feel like they're talking to someone that cares, and is guiding them. I'm their real estate coach. I'm there. And I'm not talking to agents, although I do coach that I mean, I am that buyer or seller's real estate coach and consultant. And so when you do that, well, now I'm getting referrals because people had such a great experience. I love her. She's so great. It's so relational. It's just the language patterns. But that leads to referrals, which is great, right? That's not a paid lead. I now have a referral from someone that I worked with because of this skill on that phone call.
Brian Charlesworth 14:57
Absolutely. Okay. You've been They've been an inside sales for 14 years now. So I'm guessing you. So you've like totally mastered this. If I'm a real estate team owner, and I want to start generating my own leads. First step is Who do I hire? Like? How do I find somebody like you to run this game?
Anna Krueger 15:20
Great question. And I believe it comes back to your own sphere, past clients and vendors. And I work with a lot of high level teams, because I coach ISAs and so I tend to bump into a lot of large teams because of that. And I asked them, where did you find your ISA? Where did this person come from? and consistently across the board? The number one answer is fear, past clients, and then vendors or referrals from those sources. And now, I will give you some questions to figure out in your sphere who should rise to the top. If you do ads, I find Indeed, the website indeed, is if there is an internet ad, that's the one that seems to produce the best results, I kind of look at it, like circle prospecting those. So if I'm, if I'm posting an online ad, I'm going to need a lot more applicants and a lot more resumes to go through to find that one good person, if I'm going to my sphere, past clients, vendors, it's going to be a lower conversion ratio, so to speak, because they know me, there's some trust. And what I would say, as far as what you're looking for, in your sphere, describe the behavior of the person you're looking for. So if I called you, Brian, and I'm looking for an ISA, and you're your past client, I might say, hey, Brian, you know, I'm looking for someone who's going to have an excellent year, next year, no matter what they're doing, because that's just who they are. This person may already be employed, actually. But they're the kind of person that would be open to discussion and explore an opportunity. And they probably are the person that just knows everybody, they're in the grocery store, and they might strike up a conversation with the person behind them. And they love a challenge. The biggest thing I want to say right now, and I'm gonna get real passionate about it, this is not a customer service job. And I see a lot of teams fail when they hire customer service people for inside sales. Yes, we need an element of customer service. Yeah, this is a sales job. It is, it is inside sales. And so you want this person to be great with people. And they like the challenge of the sale. They're not they don't feel bad asking for the clothes. They're very comfortable in what they have to offer and asking people to engage with it.
Brian Charlesworth 17:28
So I've noticed that real the real estate industry is really good on hiring based on characteristic traits, right? Are you a D? Are you an I? What? What should somebody? What? What are the personality traits that you're looking for in an ISA?
Anna Krueger 17:41
Yeah, so someone who's assertive. And you can see how that shows up. Even in the interview process. I also look for someone who is detailed enough, because remember, they're going to be managing CRM and follow up tasks. So I often when interviewing would give somebody tasks to do like, hey, email me on this day with this information? And I didn't even really need it. I just wanted to see, could they follow that instruction? Did they win on time, and I loved it when someone did it way sooner than expected, because that showed urgency. And we want someone with urgency. So assertive, urgent behaviors. A fast-paced is someone you're looking for. Yet you also want someone and this will sound like a Hallmark card. You want someone who feels like a friend quickly. Because you have voice tonality, personality, that's all you can go off of when you're making phone calls. You know, we have the benefit right now that we can see each other. So there's body language, there are other cues. Yet, when you call your applicants to see is this someone I want to bring in for an interview? do that over the phone and pay attention to even over the phone? How quickly do I feel comfortable with this person? Because they're going to be making calls on my behalf? So are they good at making that connection? over the phone?
Brian Charlesworth 18:53
Yeah, okay. Great. So I'm going back to that question. I'm just getting ready to start an ISA team. Or maybe I have one and it hasn't been super successful. So now I'm going to hire the right people. Yeah. What do you recommend as far as compensation for an ISA team and how do I keep them wanting to be ISAs, rather than wanting to become agents?
Anna Krueger 19:18
Yeah. So what's funny is I talked to a lot of ideas. So that's really my one thing. And a lot of them say I would never want to be an agent. So however, I've noticed a theme of how are those I essays that say that how are they paid? What are they what leads do they work, so I'll share that. So I firmly believe the best way to compensate an ISA is base pay plus commission. If I hear a team saying salary only. Think about the type of person we're looking for. We're looking for someone who's results-oriented, they're assertive, high degree of urgency, and we're asking them to do the activity on the team that is the rain making. Really it's the rain making position. They're not the only They're not actually the Rainmaker that owns the team, of course, yet they will make it rain, that personality style is not going to want a ceiling of income. It would be like telling an agent, you know, and a lot of you are agents. Imagine if I said to you, you're going to do this activity that brings in all this business, yet the most you'll ever make is this. It's a cap salary. So we find a lot of people don't stay if it's got a ceiling to it like that. So they would need to be licensed if they're going to get a commission. And that's what I would recommend. And then a base pay usually a 1500 to 3000. And that will depend on your cost of living in your area. Most commonly I see 2000. And then commission upon closing, and I know there's teams that do this, and they may have a way that it works. Yeah, when we pay people for appointment set, or appointment showed which I've heard of, I often hear rainmakers, they'll call me and say now, my ISA is setting appointments that don't make sense. It's like, Well, yeah, because they get a bonus when they set an appointment. Even if it's not a good one, they get bonus. So but if you motivate them towards closings, yes. Now you only pay them when you get paid. So it makes more business sense. And it also drives them towards the right type of appointments to set for you. Okay, basically plus commission.
Brian Charlesworth 21:17
Great. I've done a ton of research on this. And I agree with you, 1,000%. Okay, great. Um, what's the what's kind of like the mark, you know, when every real estate agent comes into the industry, every new agents goal is to make $100,000, it doesn't matter if they live in New York City, or, you know, in the middle of the country where the costs are extremely low, they want to make $100,000, I've kind of learned ISAs are kind of the same way like, everyone wants to make a six-figure income. So is that really the key is to set them up to be able to make a six-figure income plus,
Anna Krueger 21:53
yeah, and I know several ISAs that do not in their first year, typically, because you're building the pipeline, right. And I think that's one thing for knowing the audience here is it is mostly team owners and agents that might hire and I say, is it takes six to 12 months for them to consistently produce because they come in, they build a pipeline, and say, by that 90 day, they're consistently setting a number of appointments, then they have to meet with you, then they have to go under contract, that's another month and a half. So usually, around the six-month mark is when you start seeing the money coming in and I coach the ISA to say your first year you're laying the groundwork, you'll make money and have closings. The second year is when it gets really fun. And that's when you can start tapping into that higher income amount. I coach several essays, or have coached by ISAs that make six figures. And they're not always even the leader of the team. They just have a lot of closings. And they also, here's the other fun thing.
When I became licensed because I wasn't at first, when I became licensed, my brain flipped and I started thinking, well, if I'm going to get paid, I get paid for the amount of commission. So why do I not target higher-priced homes, and I raised my personal price point $30,000 in a very short period of time, just from thinking I should be more strategic and focus my time and energy on higher price points. So that's another good thing about the commission structure.
Brian Charlesworth 23:31
Yeah, awesome. So who would I say is call in today's market? You've talked a lot about fizzbuzz and expireds. But I don't know if those are the right people to call today. Yeah. Who should ISA? Let's say I have a database of 50,000 people, you should who should the ISA team be calling.
Anna Krueger 23:50
So unless you already have that database, squeaky, clean current, absolutely start on the database, and then inbound leads that are coming in. Because what I find a lot of times is will hire an ISA, and we'll start having them call lead sources that we've never worked or worked a little bit. And then we look and it's like you have this huge database that is massively out of contact you can find so much business in what you already have. And then if your ISP starts adding a flood of new people, they're gonna get lost in that database to 50,000. And now it's I literally look at it I have a tissue right here. I literally look at it like this is a weed. I found a new one today. Oh, there goes another one. Oh, there's another one in this big database. And what you really want to do is work the leads you already have. I believe in lead gen and lead convert every day. I mean, most of your appointments are going to come from leads you already have and converting them and referrals from those sources. I'm pretty passionate about it if you can't tell. Yeah, when expireds and fizz bows come back. Work on those I mean that that is actually one of the highest converting lead sources you should you can usually get one out of 10 and right now a lot of people We're coaching to expireds and FSBOs, even though they're really not around because they will be. And I want people to be prepared when they show back up. But yeah, right now, good luck finding an expired or a FSBO.
Brian Charlesworth 25:11
Yes. Okay. You're talking about coaching. You coach, ISAs specifically, and you do this is we're talking about maps right now. Right? So in order to have you coach my team, I need to be a kW team. Is that right?
Anna Krueger 25:26
Not necessarily. So I now really focus on webinars. So up until earlier this year, I had about 40 coaching clients one on one. And when COVID hit, I also was working on I was kind of doing some self-discovery of what do I really love, what am I gifted at, and I realized I love to speak and I love to teach that is my lane. It's one of my happiest. So I now fully focus on group webinars, which is open to any brokerage, it is offered through maps yet for group coaching, any brokerage is welcome. And then I also have a consulting business on the side. Consulting is different than coaching, consulting is more likely partner with you probably for three months on average. And it's going to be more us telling you what to do through we observe you on zoom, kind of like what we're doing now, I might observe people making phone calls, and then say, okay, based off what I've heard, we need to work on this, this and this, this is what we're going to attack the next three months, and then you're on your way. And we're done that consulting relationship. So I’m primarily now consulting, and then coach for maps through group coaching. And they obviously have IOC coaches, if people are looking for more than long term coaching relationship.
Brian Charlesworth 26:35
Okay, so we're, I'm kind of jumping ahead here, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Tell us more about your consulting company.
Anna Krueger 26:42
Okay, so it actually started, probably three years ago, someone approached me and said, Would you watch us work and tell us what we're doing wrong, and fix it. And I thought, Okay, that sounds actually kind of fun. And I fell in love with it. And so now that is primarily what I do. And we partner with teams, of usually somewhere between two and four hours a month, depending on the need. And we we zoom in, I have a partner that does this with me, we zoom in, we observe lead gen behaviors, and we provide immediate feedback. So whether it be we need this language pattern, or Hey, I'm observing, there's a lot of inefficiency in your system. So we need to fix this system, because it's not working for you, I can see it on screen. And so it's really, there's not like one topic we talked about it is all centered around lead gen lead conversion, because that's my one thing yet, I might talk to one team more about their lead gen systems and a different team or about their lead gen conversations. And it's really it's customized. So it what it usually looks like is we hop on the phone, we do a discovery call. And then we either say yes, this sounds like what you need is what we offer. And then we go from there and deciding what it looks like.
Brian Charlesworth 27:51
Great. What's your thought on companies? Like Ylopo structurally those types of companies? And how important is it that I integrate those into the sales team or into the team? And then also, should an ISA get all inbound leads?
Anna Krueger 28:11
Oh, man, that's such a good question. I do not believe and I say she get all inbound leads. I think it's good to have a mixture of inbound and outbound. So I at one time was only inbound the first several years I was an ISA I was only inbound. Yet I was kind of at the mercy of the flow of the inbound right so when I got into real estate and started doing outbound I liked that, hey, if I'm doing outbound I have more control honestly of my leads, because I can make it happen. I'm not sitting here waiting for leads to pop up. So and then I've called only inbound I've called only outbound and I found a happy medium was both and ISA is that I know that have done this for years and years and years. They do both ones that only do outbound usually burnout, really quick ones to do only inbound, then they actually don't burn out quite as much. But I find that they don't, they're not usually as profitable, because that outbound can really produce some great leads that you're you're not actually paying for. So I think it's I think it's both.
Brian Charlesworth 29:06
Okay. Let me ask another extension of that question. So if I have an ISA team, I'm guessing my essays work way more on their scripts than my agents do. So should I. Now let's say I have three ISA team members. Should I route all incoming leads through those ISAs? Or should I still give some directly to agents?
Anna Krueger 29:31
I think depends on the size of the team actually. So for example, when I started at the Haro group, I was the only ISA And we had seven agents. There is no way that I personally could have handled all of those inbound leads and taking care of them the way they needed to be taken care of. So we had them going to the agents in the morning so I could outbound so it's kind of like while you're here. What's up, the agents worry about that three hours of the morning inbound. And I'm going to go chase outbound because I have coverage in Then when they left, everything came to me. Now as the team grows. And I know several teams that are very large, they have 15-20 ISAs, that ISA do everything, but they also have the capacity for them to do everything, there's enough of them that they can handle all those leads. So it's I think it's really going to depend on the size of the team. I do think as you build an ISA team, it makes sense for everything to go to the ISA, except to maybe agent sphere, yet I even know some teams that have ISAs workers, the agent sphere, so I think I think it depends.
Brian Charlesworth 30:33
Okay. Good. And what about the companies like why Lobo and structurally and some of those, do you have a lot of experience working with some of those, and how beneficial of using those?
Anna Krueger 30:44
I actually don't have a lot of teams that use those, that we talked about in our coaching calls. So I don't want to be asked to knock like, I know, tons and tons and I have all this experience that I can share on the call, it says something we don't talk about their systems very much on the coaching calls I'm a part of because we're mostly geared towards the conversation.
Brian Charlesworth 31:04
Okay. All right. So as far as being a team owner, and like, knowing how to make decisions off of this stuff, I know, Sisu is obviously focused on this, but like, what are some simple things that if people don't have Sisu that they can do to, to like, be able to keep track of some of this data so they can actually make decisions?
Anna Krueger 31:29
Yeah, when I think that is one of the great things about Sisu I knew you were showing me before we got on here, some of what it can do. If you don't have a system like that, you really, you need to have a tracker for it that you probably create or have someone create for you. For example, people that I coach that don't use that system, we often talk about the importance of tracking by lead source, partially so you can know what are you best at so you can really focus on those, I think most people should have their top five that they really focus on top five lead sources. I mean, if you're not tracking, how do you know what those are, right? So I tell people that don't have a system like what you provide that here's the tracker, and you need to have tabs for each lead source and track everything separately. And it's very tedious. Whereas if you have a system where it's integrated for you, that takes a lot of pressure off, and more people are likely to do it. So it's really manual tracking. If you don't have a system that does it for you, like you were saying
Brian Charlesworth 32:25
Great. Well, is there anything else you want to share? As far as I have a few other questions I'd like to ask, but kind of more on a personal note. Is there anything else you want to share this just really, really vital for people who have ISA teams or ISAs? That questions that I didn't ask that really should be answered?
Anna Krueger 32:46
Oh, gosh, it's a great question. I mean, I know and I think this kind of goes back to what you're asking me a little earlier. And I do believe in having them in-house. That is an in-house because a lot of people do ask about those types of systems where they are, you know, other companies doing it for you. But I just know as an ISA, in coaching ISAs sounds funny to say, but what you're selling is the ISA is the agent, because the agent will then sell working with us. Right? So if I know if I'm in house, which right now might be virtual, yeah, if I'm, I'm close locally to the team and allows me to get to know the agents. And then I can easily say, you would love working with Tim, he just won multiple offers against six people yesterday, he is the right guy to navigate you through today's market. Well, if I'm not locally close to the team, you know, in that capacity, I'm not going to know those things. So I find a lot of the top ISAs are local, they are in-house with the agents. They're there in the team meetings, they're documenting the success stories, because that's what we talk about on the phone to get people to want to meet with them. The other thing I would say is be okay with boring. And what I mean by that. I told one of my mentors, Tim Heyl, once I sent me and I'm just bored right now. And he's like, great. And I actually wanted him to kind of empathize with me and give me a little pity party. And know he did the right thing. He said, Anna, if you're bored, success, the actual process of success is usually boring. It's the habitual day in and day out. But that's what gives you success. Now the success reward is exciting. The success process is often monotonous. And he's like, Look, if you're bored, because you're scripting every day, great if you're bored, because you're regenerating consistently, great, you're doing the right things. And so that's one thing I would say is I that's my biggest thing from 2020 that I've learned is when I look back, this success has always come from the small, consistent behaviors. It's not the huge, big exciting things. It's small, consistent behaviors that lead to the success. And I don't know how much time you have left to actually have an analogy for that. But I'll you can tell me if we have time.
Brian Charlesworth 34:54
Yeah, we have time. Go ahead. Let's hear it. That's such great advice. So if you have more of that to give, let's share that
Anna Krueger 35:00
Well, and it's funny, I was telling Brian, before we started recording, the fire department literally just left my house before this call, I had a chimney fire this morning. And the analogy I always use anyway is a fire analogy. So it's kind of funny that that popped up today. But I used to be really good friends with the fire chief in Baltimore City where I used to live. And he was telling me that he actually has burns on his body from a flash fire. And we were talking about, you know, fires and he was just kind of explaining some of the science to me. And he said, you know, in a flash fire is big and bright and noticeable. And everybody's aware of it, because it's, it's, it's bright and obvious. And he said, however, it can cause damage, like he had physical challenges because of a flash fire he encountered. Yeah, he said, Those aren't usually the ones you need to worry about a flash fire very rarely will take down the house. The kind of fire you need to watch out for is the fire that's in the wall, slowly smoldering, maybe from an electrical fire or something, something that you're not aware it's there, and it's steadily growing and getting stronger and stronger. And by the time you notice it, the house is burning down, and it's so engulfed now that there's nothing you can do. And I thought, gosh, that's such a good analogy for life in general. Yes. And especially real estate is it's the big, bright, flashy stuff. It comes and then it goes, it doesn't usually last. It's the steady the quiet, it's unnoticeable. that's usually where you get most of your results from. And great analogy for today since I had a fire in my house today. So yeah,
Brian Charlesworth 36:34
Thanks for sharing that. It is a great analogy and something that I'll remember so thanks for sharing that. Um, so moving on to some personal things. What are some things that you like to do in your personal life? What are your hobbies?
Anna Krueger 36:48
Oh, man, I love to be outside. So I've got a truck I drive a Toyota Tundra. And I love to go camping. I have a tent that I put over the back of the truck. I love to go camping. I love to go kayaking. I would say if I had to pick one thing it would be being on the water. I am a water girl. So give me a notion. I went to Michigan this summer fell in love with the Great Lakes give me some water and put me in a boat put me in a kayak let me go swimming you that's when you'll find me at my happiest. So I love that
Brian Charlesworth 37:15
How cold is the water in the Great Lakes because I've always thought it'd be cool to go there? But that water's got to be cold.
Anna Krueger 37:22
Yeah, it is cold. I will say I did not go swimming in the Great Lakes this summer. I went the end of August and it was cold. I put my feet in and it was like, Nope, not doing that. So other people do go swimming there. But yeah, it's I love the water. I think it's a great place. And I love spending time with friends and family. I'm a huge relationship person. So I either want to be with friends and family or on the water. And if I can make both come together even better.
Brian Charlesworth 37:50
Nice. So in your personal time when you're on vacation. Where's your favorite place to go?
Anna Krueger 37:56
So Oh, man, I actually don't like to go to the same place twice. I love I'm an adventurer. And so I've been somewhere I've been before, I usually don't want to go back. So I will say most of the time. It's got a mountain element and a water element. So in January, right before, you know the world stopped traveling, I spent a month in Hawaii, which is really fantastic. And I would have to say that's probably my favorite place I've ever been is Hawaii.
Brian Charlesworth 38:22
Which islands were you on?
Anna Krueger 38:23
I was in Hawaii, Maui, and also a wahoo. Okay, and all three. So it was really great. A lot of great real estate agents out there that made me feel very welcome. Um, yeah. And then anywhere near the water. I mean, had a lot of fun up in Michigan. What's interesting, I had no idea how beautiful Michigan was. And I haven't just been to Hawaii in January when I was in Michigan. This is like an end of summer beginning of fall. The water looked the same to me. And I thought, am I crazy, but this looks like Hawaiian waters. It's so blue. So a friend of mine was with me has that has been to Hawaii and I said Am I romanticizing this or does Michigan look a lot like Hawaii as far as the water goes? And she's like, Yeah, it does. So if you haven't been to Michigan, the great lakes of Michigan are absolutely gorgeous and honestly one of the prettiest places I've ever been
Brian Charlesworth 39:16
Very exciting. Okay, well thanks so much for joining us today. Everybody. If you want to hit continue to have more great guests like Anna on here and helps us to be able to get them the more reviews you'll give us so please go give us a review. That would mean the world to me if you would do that. And the last thing and how do people get a hold of you? If they want to, you know pursue possibly talking to you about your platform consulting business?
Anna Krueger 39:45
Yeah, great question. So go to AnnasCoaching.com And that's the one landing spot and you can learn about consulting there. You can learn about the coaching programs through maps there. There's also a lot of freebies on there. So we have a spot that says free resources. I have a list of my favorite questions. There's a whole bunch of webinars on there that you can watch. I have some scripts uploaded for expireds and holidays. So AnnasCoaching.com is the one spot that will take you to all the other places you want to go.
Brian Charlesworth 40:13
Okay, awesome. Anna, thank you so much for joining us on the show today. It's been incredible. So thanks again. And everybody. We'll be back next week. Looking forward to having you join us again next week on the show. And if there are any topics, or any people that you would love to see us interview, please reach out and let us know. And we'll make sure to get them on here. So, Anna, thanks again, and really appreciate everything. It's great meeting you.
Anna Krueger 40:41
Yeah. Thanks for having me. Thanks for creating such a great product. You really haven't developed something special over there. From what I've seen. And we need minds like you. So thank you.
Brian Charlesworth 40:49
Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you.
