We’ve raved about how agents are extremely efficient and at the same time provides you with a cost-effective option. As with everything, agents aren’t created equal. Some are fresh graduates while others might be in the business for a long time.
This is the great thing about finding an agent: you get to choose from a multitude of people with drastically varying experiences and skills, along with different potentials of growth. This is where you, as an employer, should choose what kind of agents you need.
Do you want someone who’s a greenhorn but has an extremely high ceiling or a veteran but has little to no room for growth.
Each has their own strengths and weaknesses. To help you decide what type of agent you’re looking for, answer these questions:
1. What salary range are you willing to pay for your starting agent?
2. Are you willing to train your agent?
3. Are your tasks specific or general?
Let’s go through your answers!
For question 1:
$2 – $3.99: Greenhorn – Little to no experience with high potential for growth.
$4 – $5.99: Low Intermediate – 1 month to 1 year experience with room for growth.
$6 – $7.99: High Intermediate – 1 year to 3 years experience with established skills.
$8 – Higher: Expert – 3 years onwards experienced with established skills and has a track record in leading teams or systems
For question 2:
Yes – the best options for you are Greenhorn and Low Intermediate.
No – the best options for you are High Intermediate and Expert.
For question 3:
Specific – the best options for you are High Intermediate and Expert
General – the best options for you are Greenhorn and Low Intermediate.
In order to accurately qualify potential agents, you’ll need to make a checklist of hard and soft tasks in your business which will serve as a basis for a raise and will give you an easier way of monitoring their growth and the value that they add.
This method gives your agent an incentive for working hard as learning new skills or tasks will lead to more job security while also giving you a better understanding of your agent’s true worth.
In Content Factory these are some, not all, of the “hard” and “soft tasks”:
Hard Skills (tools-based) – for $1 an hour that you could develop and why they’re valuable.
• Infusionsoft: to clone Campaign Builder funnels for our courses and operational processes for agency clients.
• Facebook ads: to execute packages and general remarketing sequences to drive list building and revenue.
• Reporting tools (Tableau, Google Data Studio, Excel, MySQL): to do detailed brand analysis and create relevant charts/ presentations.
• Video editing tools (HitFilm, Premier, Camtasia, FCP): to produce speaker reels, course summaries, promotional videos, and other assets fit for publishing and promoting.
• Content editing tools (Word, PowerPoint): to produce articles worth publishing on our contributor channels, reflecting pro-level expertise.
Soft skills (not tools-based) – built into the 6 phase agent career path for:
• Team lead: Mastery of #DDD and #CID on your own projects.
• Manager: Show our senior team that you understand how to also train, encourage, discipline, hire, and fire, based on our Operations Process.
• Figurehead: Through your own well-documented examples, develop detailed checklists for other agents to follow, and have proof that hundreds of agents have been able to achieve the result from following your checklists in that skill area, with minimum support along the way.
Note: Let these stages serve only as a guide as each niche has different progression points in terms of hard and soft skills for agents.