A POWER AGENT® in our coaching call was about to lose a listing to a discount brokerage. The seller looked her in the eye and said, they do everything you do, for less money. This is one of the most common pressures we face as real estate professionals. It is also one of the easiest to handle, once you stop trying to win the argument on the seller’s terms and start talking real estate value.

Here is the thing nobody is telling you. The seller is right, and the seller is also wrong. Both at the same time.

The seller is right that two brokerages may use the same MLS, same lockbox, same photography vendor, same yard sign, etc. The tools are the tools. They are not secret. The seller is wrong that the tools are the work.

I want you to picture you want to install a driveway on your property. Imagine you got two estimates to install it. One contractor quotes you the going rate. The other quotes you a number that makes you smile because it’s less money. Both contractors say they will measure, set a border and pour the driveway. From your kitchen window, you would never know the difference.

Here is what you would not see. The base.

The base is the layer of gravel and stone underneath the driveway. It is the thing that determines whether your driveway looks great for three years or 30 years. You can do a shallow base or a deep one. You can use cheap fill or proper road quality base. You can compact it once or compact it three times. The end result you see is the same. The driveway you drive on for the next 20 winters is a completely different product.

A contractor who is willing to cut his price is telling you something important. He is telling you that he believes the work he does is worth less than what the other guy charges. He is telling you, before you sign, that he plans to make the math work somewhere you cannot see. That somewhere is the base.

The same is true in real estate. A brokerage that charges less is not absorbing the difference out of charity. The difference comes out of the part of the work that the seller cannot see from the kitchen window. The negotiation training. The pricing analysis. The hours spent qualifying buyers before they walk through the door. The phone calls that protect the deal at three o’clock on a Sunday afternoon.

That is the base.

Powerfact: Lower price always signals less quality. Higher price does not always signal more.

Here’s a second image to carry into the listing conversation

If you have ever watched one of those chef competitions on television, you know how they work. Two chefs walk in. They get the same fish. The same oil. The same herbs. The same knives, same pans, same stove and the same time on the clock. They have an identical kitchen.

When the timer hits zero, they hand the judges two completely different plates.

The tools were identical. The result was not even close.

That is the answer to the discount brokerage objection. The tools you use are the same tools every other agent in town has. The MLS is the MLS. The lockbox is the lockbox. The yard sign is the yard sign. What is different is how you use them. That is the part the seller is paying for.

“I am not the cheaper cook. I am the chef who knows what to do with the ingredients. If the seller wants a chef, they should hire one. If the seller wants someone who can technically use the tools, the discount brokerage will be fine for that. But the result on the kitchen table at the end will look like the result on the kitchen table at the end.”

This conversation lands so much better than a defensive script. You are not arguing with the seller. You are agreeing with the surface observation and then taking them underneath it. That’s not selling — it’s coaching. 

Selling vs. coaching

When the seller hears the driveway analogy, they don’t feel attacked. They feel like they just learned something. When they hear the chef story, they smile because they have seen those shows. They get it. The image is doing the persuasion. You are just delivering it.

That is what I mean when I say lean on metaphors over scripts. A script asks you to memorize words and hope you can deliver them under pressure. A metaphor asks you to remember a picture. You will remember a driveway and a chef for the rest of your career. You will forget a script before you finish the listing appointment.

Here is your work this week

Before your next listing presentation with a price-sensitive seller, sit at your kitchen table and tell yourself the driveway story out loud. Tell yourself the chef story out loud. Hear yourself say it. The words will come out a little different every time. That is fine. The point is the image. The image carries the message.

When you walk into that listing appointment, you will not feel like you are battling the seller’s objection. You will feel like you are helping them see something they had not seen before. That is the difference between selling and serving.

One more thing worth saying. If the seller hears both stories and still chooses the discount brokerage, let them. Some sellers will choose price. That is their right. You did your job, which was to give them the information they needed to make the choice with their eyes open.

Some of those sellers will call you back in ninety days. Some will not. Either way, your time is better spent walking into your next appointment than fighting the one you already lost.

Powerfact: Serve don’t sell, coach don’t close.

The discount brokerages are not your competition. The story you tell at the kitchen table is. Tell a better story.

Darryl Davis, CSP, is a speaker, coach, and bestselling author who has trained real estate professionals, and the leaders who build them, for more than 40 years. Read his whitepaper on private listings here. He is the founder of the POWER AGENT® Coaching Program and Darryl Davis Seminars. Learn more at darrylspeaks.com.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners.

To contact the editor responsible for this piece: [email protected]

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