Cost is only a question in the absence of value.
How many times have you gotten to where the “rubber meets the road” in your listing appointment and had the seller balk at the price of the home you’re recommending, your commission or even signing the paperwork.
Sure, there are instances where you can’t make anyone happy and get them to agree with your pricing structure and signing your paperwork.
However, most of the time when people combat you on these parts of the listing process, it’s because you haven’t articulated properly the value you bring to the table.
And at the end of the day, value unarticulated is value unappreciated...period.
If you want to win listings, price homes to sell and negotiate a competitive fee for yourself, you must be able to articulate the value you bring to the table.
Failing to do that can keep you from maximizing your earning potential, or worse, from getting listings at all.
Here’s what you need to know about value and 3 ways you can articulate it to win listings.
Understanding Value at Deeper Level
When consumers are looking at the value of a product or service, they are typically weighing the perceived value of the product or service against the asking price.
The hard thing about value is that there’s really no concrete way to establish the true value of something.
Yes, you can determine the legitimate cost for something, but affixing value is a much more subjective, nebulous, and in general, tougher thing to nail down.
Eric Almquist from management consultant giant, Bain and Company, created a graphic that identifies 30 elements of value that people consider when making a buying decision.
He maintains that there are four types of needs that these elements of value meet: functional, emotional, life changing and social impact.
Overall, the more value elements your company’s product or service delivers, the greater customer loyalty you receive and the higher the sustained growth your company will enjoy.
Conversely, the fewer elements you provide, the less customers want to remain affiliated with you and the less revenue and growth your company will experience.
Take the time to review your listing presentation and see how you can layer in different elements of value from the different parts of the pyramid to ensure that you are offering as much value as you possibly can to your seller prospects.
Working through this process will help you set a great foundation for all your listing presentations going forward and put you in position to get more listings and negotiate better home prices and higher commissions for yourself.
3 Ways to Articulate Your Value to Win a Listing
Now that you’ve got an even better understanding of what value elements there are out there and what people are looking for that value to do, here’s a closer look at the ways you can articulate that value to help you win listings:
1. Get clear
You must be crystal clear about what you do and how and why you bring value to the listing process. When it comes time to defend your fee, you must have clearly and effectively answered the question: “What do I get for the X% commission you’re asking me to pay?”.
The key thing to remember here is that although you must be able to answer that question, it’s not just about the amount they pay, it’s about the value they receive for the amount they pay.
Are you able to clearly articulate what value a seller receives when they work with you?
If you fall short in any aspect of being able to do this, you should take the time to write out the value your clients receive and the process you use to deliver it.
Once you do that, read it aloud - to yourself and others - to make sure it’s on point.
Please note, this is a process and not an event. You must work on this on a consistent basis so you can constantly improve the value you deliver and then deliver even more value.
Something important to remember when doing this activity is that value is not derived from discussing features like marketing, advertising, signage, negotiation skills, having a team, etc.
It comes from you sharing the benefits associated with these features and tying them into the needs, wants and desires of your prospects and clients.
This is an important distinction you must be aware of if you’re truly going to add value at the highest level in all your sales and customer service efforts.
2. Don’t wing it
Using clarity as our guidepost, you must be sure that you’ve scripted out what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it to articulate value.
Many agents hate using scripts because they say it makes them feel robotic or inflexible in their delivery.
As a result of that belief, they end up winging it and getting poor results.
The fact of the matter is that they’re already using some form of script when they say the same thing - wrong or right - over and over again to someone. By writing out what needs to be said to deliver a value laden presentation and then internalizing it, every agent can deliver an authentic, seamless presentation that hammers value at every turn.
To make it even more impactful, your value should be delivered using stories of how people have benefitted from how you’ve helped them in the past.
As you’re layering in value throughout your listing presentation and reading it aloud for clarity and efficacy, you should ask yourself the following questions:
It may seem like a lot of work, but it’s worth it. When you confuse your prospects, you lose them. And when you lose them, it’s hard to get them back on track and win the listing.
Again, take the time write out your value-driven presentation and read it to yourself and others keeping the answers to the questions I’ve shared with you in mind along the way.
3. Ask great questions
A natural tendency a lot of salespeople have when they begin their listing presentation is to charge ahead and tell their prospects everything they know, whether it applies to their situation or not.
Selling is not telling. Selling is asking great questions, demonstrating mad value and then leading people to their own conclusion that you’re the right person for the job.
The more questions you ask and the better quality questions you ask, the more clear you’ll be on what your seller’s want.
And once you’re clear on what your sellers want, you can connect the appropriate value elements from your real estate business with the wants, needs and desires of your clients.
If you’re not asking questions from the first contact you make with your prospects, you’re missing out on golden opportunities to find out how, when and where to apply the value you deliver appropriately and effectively in your listing presentation.
Jay Abraham’s Strategy of Preeminence is probably the best philosophy on the process of delivering value to prospects and clients.
It’s not about telling someone how big you are, how much money you make or how great you are.
It’s about showing them that because of what you do and how you do it, you can deliver more value and do a better job for them than any other agent.
Make the decision today to reconstruct your listing presentation and make it as value driven as possible so you can win listings with regularity.