This summer (like most summers), our company has an intern. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about how to build a great internship environment.
A lot of business owners don’t want to have anything to do with an intern. They see it as investing in somebody else’s future. They don’t expect it to bring value back into the company.
I completely disagree with that for multiple reasons.
Unfortunately, this bias against interns means many business owners aren’t prepared to create a job for the intern—giving them something to do that teaches the intern valuable skills while also freeing up other team members for tasks they’re uniquely qualified to do.
They see delegating those tasks to an intern as ultimately creating more work for themselves.
But an internship can really level up the people in your company. Let’s talk about why.
Having an intern forces you and your team to sharpen their skills
Whoever in your organization is responsible for the intern now has to not just go through the motions, but think about and articulate exactly what it is that they do.
They have to sharpen their skills in the moment because they’ve got two more eyeballs on them at all times.
Yes, it’s an intern—not their superior. But it is an audience. Someone who’s watching every move.
No real estate professional wants to look silly. They need to be able to showcase that their position, what they do every day, has importance—has credibility—and that they have a level of expertise in the position.
For just that one reason alone, internships are valuable because they get current members of the team to level up when completing daily tasks.
Interns approach tasks differently
If you know how to place people, there certainly can be an obvious return in both ways. But this year, the internship we’re doing has been really eye-opening for me.
We assigned the intern a set of tasks to perform. And his approach to sales calls, in particular, has made me realize something.
We put the intern on these sales calls and gave some training, but not as much as we normally would—the classic “throw the fish in the water and see if it can swim” approach.
Now, this is a high school intern. And what’s fascinating is that on his sales calls, he just naturally leads with curiosity, asking very engaging, curious questions about customers’ journeys.
That’s a great sales call. If you can ask questions, collect data, be curious, be engaging, that’s fantastic.
Sometimes, you listen to seasoned sales professionals making sales calls, and they don’t ask those types of questions. Sometimes they fumble around with the scripting. And a lot of times, when you really listen to a sales professional, they’re asking questions that are self-serving. You can hear it not just in the words they use but in their delivery; their whole approach is kind of woven into the fabric of—
- “Am I wasting my time here?”
- “Is there something in this for me?”
- “Are you really qualified to be talking to me?”
This isn’t all salespeople—just the ones that are bad on sales calls. They lead with their compensation. And therein lies the difference between their approach and that of our intern.
See, the intern doesn’t have any compensation.
Yes, he has a minimum wage salary, to comply with the state law. But the internship is designed for learning. It’s designed for young, aspiring real estate professionals to get their hands dirty. And there’s no compensation tied to whether a call goes well or not.
The call going well is just the natural outcome of genuine curiosity, empathy, and what you would do on these calls if you had no compensation tied to it.
If money wasn’t a factor, you would just ask people about their journeys, and naturally get to all the questions that are important.
When you flip it on the other side, there’s almost a fear that I might be investing too much in somebody who isn’t going to reward me with a check. And we’re seeing that the intern, who doesn’t have this fear, is able to make a lot of appointments naturally.
I mean, on his first day, he made an appointment. On his second day, he made two. And these are not days when he was spending all his time on the phone.
All that to say—lead with curiosity. Lead with engaging questions. If you’re working with salespeople, help them understand that it’s not about them.
- It’s about the customer journey.
- It’s about the client.
- It’s about the person who’s actually spending the money.
If you’re not aware of this during your phone conversations with consumers, I guarantee they can sense it. I guarantee they know when you care more about scoring a deal than helping them make the best use of their time and their money.
You would, too.
