What NOT TO DO When Negotiating
Arlene starts off her book by discussing some of the things to watch out for when someone is pitching you on something, whatever it might be. By the same token, you should never be doing any of these things yourself when you are pitching someone on something.
Don’t Make Them Feel Inferior
“My rule of thumb is this: if I can’t understand what you’re talking about, I can’t trust you. Real expertise involves the ability to take a complex subject and distill it to the point where it’s accessible to everyone” – from Persuasion
Many real estate sales professionals (especially mortgage brokers) are guilty of using industry jargon without explaining it in layman’s terms, and usually without ever realizing it.
Many, especially veterans in the business for many years, also feel entitled to use the “trust me, I’m the expert” so-take-everything-I say-on-faith approach.
To persuade a prospect of your authority in real estate, have you ever told them “I’ve been in this business for X number of years” where (in your mind) X is a high enough number to warrant respect (eg. 10 years or more)? In trying to make yourself look authoritative you’re actually doing it by trying to make the other person look relatively stupid. That’s not going to win many hearts and minds. It’s obviously ok to mention how many years of experience you have at the outset of your listing presentations, but don’t do it when you’re trying to close the deal. It just comes off as pompous and demeaning.
Moreover, people know there are many people who have been in this business as long or longer than you whose expertise and performance over the years is pretty mediocre. Longevity in this business is by no means a strong indicator that you are better at what you do than your young, hungry, tech savvy competitors who have only been around for a few years.
Making people feel inferior about their real estate knowledge and having that tactic work may have worked in a bygone day when there was no internet and real estate professionals held all the cards in terms of real estate information. But today, with people readily having access to so much real estate information on the internet and elsewhere, this approach just isn’t worth even trying now.
