2014 Perfecting Your Presentation Part 7 – Your Negotiating Expertise
The Listing Presentation has included selling yourself, selling your company, agency quality marketing materials, analytics, strategic planning, and collaboration with others. The final part to perfecting the presentation is to point out your powerful negotiating skills. Negotiation skills are a direct result of expertise in a variety of areas. They include your expertise in:
- Crafting arguments that represent both sides of the transaction – Because there are usually 2 agents involved in a transaction, agents typically look at negotiations from only one perspective. They reason that the agent representing the other side is receiving roughly the same compensation, so they should be responsible for doing half the work. Yet most negotiations break down because of the lack of professionalism or skills on the part of one agent. Your strength is your ability to craft arguments for the agent on the other side of the negotiations. By taking this approach, you compensate for a lack of expertise on the part of the other agent and are more successful closing the sale.
- Salesmanship – Becoming a strong closer is a result of years of practice. As an example, weak agents will cut their commissions to get a listing. If an agent is that quick to give up their own money, how quickly do you think they will give up their clients’ money? You can prove your skills by referring back to the discussion you had when your sellers agreed to pay you a full commission.
- Price justification through analytics – Your deep understanding of market trends allows you to craft very powerful strategies. By sharing reports you have done in past negotiations, you can show how you track supply, demand, and consumption to justify value.
Testimonials are also a great source of documentation. You should have letters from several past clients that praise your success in making them the most money from the sale of their home. After all, isn’t that what the best representation is all about; getting the maximum amount for your sellers in a reasonable period of time, with minimal stress?