How To Give Yourself A Raise On Listing Commissions In 2016

The jury is out and the vast majority of home buyers and sellers have spoken.  They say…

“Realtors suck, they’re lazy and overpaid. Their service blows and I don’t think they even deserve a 4% listing commission….”

Here’s the good news.  You do not have to be the status quo.

The Internet changed everything for us. It took away our biggest competitive advantage… the MLS.

Today, anyone can put their home online with a flat fee brokerage and implement the same marketing plan as 98% of the Realtors and brokerages…

Pop a sign in the yard and list it on the MLS.

A Realtor’s duties have become more customer service-oriented. We handle the facilitation of transactions and make sure once we get an offer that it closes.

But should we be doing more?

What are you doing to market a property other than popping a sign in the yard and listing it on the MLS?

Sellers expect us to implement marketing techniques to provide more exposure to their property so they can sell it faster and for more money.  The question is: what are you doing in your listing marketing systems to satisfy your clients?

Sellers understand that 98% of finding a buyer happens online now!

They will love you if you do more than the status quo.

Inman News came out with an article recently that listed the two largest threats to the real estate industry:

1. Low-quality agents: What makes a low-quality agent? My assumptions tells me that it’s an agent who sucks at their job. Their listing marketing plan involves the standard MLS listing plus popping a sign in the yard. Their service is mediocre at best and they basically answer phones, schedules showings that come off the MLS, and facilitate a transactions once they receive an offer.
2. Poor Consumer Experience: This one is pretty obvious. They thought working with you sucked and they were not impressed with how much money they had to pay you considering the services rendered.

This doesn’t happen to me.  And it’s not going to happen to you after you get done reading this article and sign up for my next bootcamp that shows you exactly how to make sellers love you!

How cool would it be if sellers never questioned paying a minimum of 5% commission? What if they signed up to pay a 6% commission without you having to sell them on anything?

No, I’m not bullshitting you. You can do this by changing the way you service your listings.

Here’s what happened…

I was in Denver at a marketing conference. During lunch one day, I met a group of marketing people and sat down to break bread.

The guy sitting next to me was pretty cool and we started talking about what he did for a living. Naturally, he asked me what I did next and I told him I train Realtors in marketing and running businesses.

He said, “No shit, I just sold my house and my Realtor was the worst. I wish you would have trained her”.

My eyes lit up because instantly I knew this was a great opportunity for some good market research.

I said, “Really? That doesn’t really surprise me, but why did you dislike her so much? Did she do anything specifically that pissed you off?”

I started taking notes.

He said, “When we met our Realtor, she came over to the house and was extremely nice. She went over some paperwork and we talked a little bit. She briefed us on the sales process, answered a few questions, had us sign some papers, and then took off. Once we went on the market, the house sold in about 2 days. I literally think all she did was list the house on the MLS and some other agent brought over a buyer and that was it. I was so pissed because this agent didn’t do a damn thing. She never went over what she was going to do to market our house or anything in detail. We literally did not know what we were paying a commission for.”

I said, “Really, so when you signed your listing agreement she didn’t outline what she was going to do to market your house and what the overall marketing strategy was?”

He said, “Nope, and that’s why I was so pissed. If she would have just listed out some things she was going to do to help sell the house, I think we would be fine with that. I could care less what her rate was as long as it was justified. It would have been nice to know what I was paying for regardless of how fast or slow the house took to sell.”

INSTANTLY a light bulb went off in my head. I realized that all he wanted was a choice. He wanted to be given options of different marketing plans and be able to choose between them. I asked him what he would think if he was presented two different marketing options. He thought it was a brilliant idea.

The used car industry did this with Car Max. Car Max gives consumers the ability to choose and make their own decisions. The car salesmen that work there do not try to sell you anything. They do the complete opposite. They try to help you choose and narrow down a selection of cars based on the type of vehicle that would suit your needs. They sell through education.

You can’t find a car on that lot? No problem. They search their nationwide database and find one in another state to have shipped to you.

You want to see if the car is a good deal or not? Great! All you have to do is look it up on Kelly’s Blue Book with one of the many computers they have to research your own value.

Car Max sells cars by not selling them at all. Their sales approach is to provide consumers with all the information they desire and let them CHOOSE.

So why couldn’t we do the same thing with the real estate industry?

We could and here’s how we do it.

The image below is directly from my listing presentation. I offer sellers two separate options or commission plans. I let them decide which one they want to have.

There are two ways to use this strategy:

First, if you are going for a 6% plus commission, then give them two options. Here’s what you get for 5% and here’s what you get for 6%. For an extra 1% you can get all of this additional marketing, which increases your overall exposure by x amount of views, clicks, likes etc..

The question you need to ask yourself, Mr. & Mrs. Seller, is that if you think the extra 1% is worth exposing your property to this many more potential buyers? Nine times out of ten it’s going to be.

Going about it this way allows a consumer to choose between the two and you really do not have to “sell” them anything. I hate selling someone something.

OR

You can use this strategy the way I use it.  I give all of my clients the 6% plan for 5% commission.  Presenting the marketing options in this way allows me to position my services in a way that’s perceived to give them a good deal.

A student of mine tried this for the first time on her best friend when she was listing their house. Before the listing appointment she was worried that her best friend was going to ask her to “give her a deal”.  She gave her the 6% plan for 5% and avoided the conversation of having to go below 5%. Sellers don’t have a problem paying us as long as our commission is justified.

This post is going to be part of a series I’m writing where I will break down the exact marketing systems I use to earn my commission!

What you think?

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Creating systems to keep business opportunities coming is very important to running a successful real estate business.

Would you be interested in learning more about adapting a cold marketing attraction plan in your business? Do you want to run a business instead of being run by one?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you may want to check this out…