'Winning' - [Find the Enemy]
I was in a funk. I didn’t know which direction I was going shortly after starting my company and I was being pulled in many different directions. Build a huge organization? Be a one-man (and SueMart) shop? Expand the Podcast? I had a bunch of questions and was looking for some clarity.
I called my good friend and one of my mentors, Teresa Kuhn, and she and I spent an hour on the phone talking about business. The good. The bad. And about halfway through our conversation she asked me a simple, yet profound question.
“If you could spend all day doing one specific aspect of real estate what would it be?”
Looking back on this now, what she was really trying to do was to get and keep me focused and center me. I was being pulled in many directions and Teresa wanted to center my thinking.
The first word out of my mouth: “Winning!”
Then I went on to expand… “I LOVE negotiating contract and winning for my clients!” There are 100 different ways to define ‘winning’ when negotiating a contract. If you are negotiating a sale vs a purchase, there are different strategies. If you are a purchase with multiple offers, then there are different strategies.
I find the negotiating process fascinating.
There is a Psychology that needs to be used and each situation is different! It is a subtle dance between the 2 parties and has to be handled different in each instance. You need to know who is on the other side and if you can find out their motivation, even just getting the slightest sliver of insight into the other party could sway the tide in negotiations.
So as we have grown the last 18 months (can’t believe it’s only been 18 months) the one thing that I try to teach my partners is this art of negotiating. And when to apply pressure, when to pull back.
As I was talking to one of my Partners yesterday and we were coming up with a strategy about how to counter an offer that was received on one of her listings. We had to come up with a way to frame a counter offer that would satisfy our clients but also wouldn’t scare away the buyer. And we also had to let our client know that we ‘had their back’ and our advice/strategy was the best for them.
In negotiations there is always one-party vs the other but then there are the tentacles that stretch out each agent has to keep a relationship with the other agent and also with their client. And sometimes it is a divorce situation and there are those relationships that have to be maintained through negotiations.
This delicate balance always has an ‘Us vs Them’ balance. And there is an ‘enemy’ in negotiations. Your client needs to know that you are ALWAYS on their side and that you are NOT the enemy. Negotiations shouldn’t be adversarial and should be a win-win by all parties. But you never want your client thinking that YOU are the enemy, they need to know that you are fighting tooth and nail for them even if they are unrealistic. You need to be able to get them to ‘see the light,’ if their home has been on the market for 9 months without an offer and they finally get a ‘low’ offer you need to be able to explain the scenario, explain the market, and BE REALISTIC and HONEST all the meanwhile letting them know that you have their back.
This balance is something that can be learned over time and is not always easy. Sometimes you explain the reasoning with facts and figures. Sometimes emotional logic. Sometimes tough love. But as long as your clients know that you CARE, then they will listen to your advice.
There are so many levels to negotiating that I could go on for hours as it is truly what I love doing, thanks Teresa for helping me figure come to that conclusion!