Law of Goal Getters: T.A.P. into Your Value
Excerpt from the new book, Resilient Real Estate Women.
As a scientist at heart in a REALTOR’s® body, I love to research, examine and discover why things work (or do not), especially for the agents that I coach. Furthermore, as a real estate coach and educator for over a decade, I have found one of the sure-fire ways for my sales agents to succeed in goal achievement is to be able to relentlessly not compromise on what they are worth.
Yes. I am referring to handling objections when it comes to your commission.
But no, I do not mean being a money bully or someone that gives off the slick, shyster, ‘used car salesmen’ vibes where you pull a fast one on a client, where she is left feeling like she just signed over her first-born. I also do not mean we handle objections like the half comical, half reprehensible 1990s pharmaceutical drug commercials that tout all of the benefits with bells and whistles but in your best fast talking auctioneer imitation, you breeze past all concerning conditions.
There is a far more authentic and powerful strategy that works every time it is put into action fully. How do I know? I have had agents from places like Omaha to Singapore to the Caribbeans to San Francisco tell me how this principle works so well that not only do their prospects not question their commission but the prospects profess that the agent deserves more. MORE!
Specifically and notably, I even had a rookie Dallas agent share with me how her boyfriend wanted her to discount her commission for him. (Are you rolling your eyes too because he should know better?) I am sure many of you that have been in real estate sales for at least a couple of years can relate to family and friends (heck, even ‘frenemies’) wanting a steal and a deal when it comes to working with you. This newer Dallas agent used my principle below and her boyfriend wholeheartedly apologized. Then, to her surprise, he did a one-hundred and eighty-degree turn and became her commission advocate with their other friends and family members who would become her clients.
Wow!
That needs to be recapped:
- + Agent used the principle below to quantify her value,
- + Boyfriend paid full commission and
- + Boyfriend became her pro bono marketer without being asked.
Because of these consistent results, I dare call this principle a law.
I call this law, ’T.A.P. into Your Value’ because again we are quantifying why we belong in real estate spaces without for even a second diminishing our worth.
As a caveat, if you are new to real estate sales (what I consider two years or less), then you may need help doing the exercises and that is okay. Searching the internet, connecting with your broker or another local agent that has time to help is welcomed so that you can complete all of the columns. Just anticipate that as you come into your own stride in the real estate industry, you will want to update this assignment so that it accurately reflects how you serve clients in real estate.
The ’T’ stands for task.
We are in an industry that has thirty-minute television shows sum up our work. ‘Yay’ for the exposure but ‘boo’ for the editing that cuts a process that may have taken weeks or months down to approximately twenty-two minutes. It is no wonder that those new to the real estate sales process give us as sales professionals the side-eye when the first day they contact us they do not miraculously get the keys to their new dream home.
Real estate shows can definitely poison prospects' minds but guess whose job it is to correct any misinformation? You got — it is ours. That is where the ’T’ of ’T.A.P. into Your Value’ principle kicks in to play. For this item, please list every single task that you do for your clients. This is our opportunity to set the record straight on our terms. I would recommend creating separate lists based on buyers, sellers, landlords, and/or tenants.
This list is not for the faint at heart because the top producers I work with (those with an annual sales volume of $20 Million or more) typically have a list of three hundred or more tasks they perform for clients. That probably sounds overwhelming and it is supposed to be. That is the power in this list because clients get to see that you actually do work overwhelmingly so, go figure. Newer agents, I want to challenge you to still create a list of at least fifty to one hundred tasks but the more the merrier here.
Keep in mind this is a one-and-done assignment. Once you have it, you simply update things here and there.
Be sure to list and not describe, which gives your ‘secret sauce’ away. For example, it is one thing to list: ‘Market on social media’. It’s another to give your full strategy on Facebook because then they will not need you since you gave away all the details.
Put this in one column (but you will have a total of three for each letter of the acronym ’T.A.P.’) and then total the number of tasks listed at the bottom.
The ‘A’ stands for agenda.
Or, you can think of this second column as the time it would take for someone to complete each of the tasks you just listed. This someone should not be a real estate professional like us, who has aids and resources to help. Instead, calculate the time it takes for ‘Joe Blow’ client, who does another profession for a living.
For instance, one task might be: ‘Acquire the property legal description’. For us as professionals, that may take all of five minutes to fire off an email to our preferred closing agent/attorney. Do not list that time. However, ‘Joe Blow’ who again does not do this for a living may take several hours searching online for a suitable, affordable closing attorney/title agent and sending out feelers. List that in this column. It may help to have a friend who is not a real estate professional try to do each of the tasks you already listed in column one to give you accurate estimates.
Total the number of hours for this column too. Again, the total number of hours should be jaw-dropping. You are quantifying in writing that all of your efforts do not amount to just twenty-two minutes like on TV.
The ‘P’ stands for price.
The client here gets to see the real cost of what you do if you do not (nor your company) have the vendor relationships and partnerships to default to using. Going back to our example with the task ‘Acquire the property legal description’, for you as a professional with a preferred list of closers, this is likely free. Do not list that. Instead, list the cost that ‘Joe Blow’ would pay without a professional connection — likely the closing attorney’s customary hourly rate, which could get into the hundreds, egad!
After you list the full prices for each task that non-professionals can expect and do pay, then total this column too. Many agents find that this equals more than their typical commission, which is when they are able to negotiate higher commission rates with the client in full agreement.
Now, take this finished document and give it some pizazz. The top producers I work with have these three columns professionally printed one time into a booklet. We do not give this book to clients to keep (remember, do not give away the secret sauce) but to solely review while in your presence. The details in the stylish printing make it less likely the client expects to keep it. If you have just a boring printout on regular white paper from your computer, prospects will probably accidentally stuff it in their purses because it just seems like an ordinary handout so jazz it up.
With the T.A.P. into Your Value principle, not only have I seen prospects understand an agent’s value but more importantly, the agent, stands taller and prouder, having this visual document to solidify and memorialize all of her hard work. Newer agents gain confidence and veteran agents no longer feel intimidation from someone trying to strong-arm them into not receiving what they are worth.
I challenge you to T.A.P. into Your Value this week (while this is still fresh and you have momentum). Take the time to complete each column and watch not only your resiliency grow but your place in the real estate arena expand. Here’s to your success!
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