4 Strategies to Adapt and Win in Real Estate Today

By David Brownell

From an agent who’s been in the industry for more than 25 years, mastering lead conversion is the key to setting ourselves apart from the competition and achieving remarkable success.

The recent settlement in the real estate commission lawsuits has left buyers’s agents wondering about their future compensation. We used to see news about the commission settlement, but now that the dust has settled on legal proceedings, confusion and uncertainty still linger. Questions like: How am I going to get paid if I’m a buyer’s agent? What’s my fee going to be? How do I share my value, and what is my value? When is any of this going to get settled?

I’ll be sharing four main points from the book “The Full Fee Agent” by Chris Voss, a former FBI lead kidnap negotiator, and Steve Shaw, an NFL football player, now a coach. Their insights helped me work through some commission issues, offering some strategies for buyer’s agents moving forward.

Point 1: Trust over value. Focus on building trust rather than only emphasizing your value proposition. While showing your value to your clients is important, they tend to commoditize realtors. Instead, build a strong relationship with your client. The best way to do that is through “tactical empathy” and trust. Understand your client’s behavior and mindset to use tactical empathy and get into a trusting relationship with them. For example, the best predictor of how someone’s going to act in the future is how they’ve acted in the past in a very similar or similar situation.

Point 2: Are you the favorite or the fool? In any consultation with a buyer or seller, you are either the favorite or the fool. Every client has their favorites, which they use to compare against everyone else. In the book, there are five questions you can ask your clients to determine whether you are the favorite or the fool. If you are not the favorite, then you either have to work to be one or give up on the opportunity. Some Realtors don’t go to appointments unless they know they’re the favorites.

“Understand your client’s behavior and mindset to use tactical empathy and get into a trusting relationship with them.”

Point 3: Know your role. Act as an adviser rather than a problem-solver. Your role is to help your clients identify problems and then look at different options. Let them make decisions themselves and solve their own problems. People want to be led, but ultimately, they want to feel like it’s their decision and their solution.

Point 4: Shift your mindset. Approach appointments as compatibility assessments, not job interviews. During appointments, evaluate whether you are a good fit for the client and vice versa to know early on if you should offer your time or whether it doesn’t make sense to continue.

By the end of the book, the authors touched upon commission disputes, good scripts around commissions, how to build trust, and showing clients your value to get them on board. The real estate landscape is facing challenges, but behind that are opportunities for buyer’s agents who are willing to adapt. Don’t let uncertainty hold you back. Focus instead on professional development and building trust with your next client interaction.

Do you have any questions? Feel free to call me at (702) 376-9789 or send me an email. I’m always open to talking with you.