The Real Reason Sellers Don't Say YES to You (It's Not Your Marketing)

This is a huge mistake that real estate agents make when it comes to getting listings. They think they need better marketing or fancier listing presentation, and it's absolutely not true. What you need is the ability to lead sellers to say yes, and it is an issue of seller psychology and leadership. And in this video clip from a recent masterclass I did, I'm gonna break it down for you and show you the leadership shift that changes everything in your ability to get listings. Enjoy the video. How do I get sellers to say yes? So the secret isn't getting listings. The secret is leading sellers to say yes to you. And this is why I called it The Book of Yes. I didn't call it The Book of Getting Listings. I call it The Book of Yes. If I get sellers to say yes, guess what? I get the listing, I get the sale, I make money, I get to have a life, and I get to help people, right? Because I help them get what they want. So John Maxwell, who is one of the— considered a leadership guru and has written over 20 bestselling books on leadership, like, you've heard of him. He defines leadership this way. What is leadership? Well, leadership is being the boss. No, it's not. Leadership isn't about position. It's not about authority. Leadership is about influence. Can I influence somebody to take a certain action or make a certain decision? That, my friends, is leadership. So I just want you to think about how good am I at influencing a seller to do the right things to get the right results? And this is the shift. Okay, the big shift is, is going from this idea of you just need to brand yourself, brand yourself, put yourself out there, post on social media, you know, make— put yourself out there. And it's like, this is no glamour shots, you know, back from the 1900s in real estate. On every business card, every real estate agent had this glamour shot that was fuzzy and didn't even look like them. Today it's AI, right? It's creating the AI image of myself to make me look 20 years younger. And then you show up and they're going like, Um, where's your daughter? Where's your son? The person in the picture, where are they? Right? It's like, guys, you're not going to win by branding your beauty, okay? If you got it, flaunt it. I'm good with that. But understand that if you want to win, the shift has got to be from this idea of branding myself to being the best. It's not about branding, it's about being, being the best at what you do. Because sellers, when you show up at a seller's house, they don't want a fancy— they don't They don't care about fancy marketing. They really don't. What they care about is they want leadership of knowing that you can lead me from owning this house to the promised land of results, of getting the most money for my house, getting it sold so I can move on with my life. That's what they want. So understanding that it's all about seller psychology and leading more than anything else. Now you may be going like, how do I do that? How do I get sellers to say to follow me. Like, sellers are resistant. They want to do it their own way. They want to tell me how to do it. They want to tell me the price. They want to— like, they want to be in control of everything, right? It's like, I don't even know how to get sellers to meet with me, right? I know I can sell their house. I know I'm— but how do I get them to meet with me? I can't even get them to talk to me. So here are the 3 leadership keys. Sellers follow leadership. So here are the 3 keys to leadership that you got to master. Number 1 is you got to master seller psychology. Okay, seller psychology. I have to understand them and understand how to lead them with, with proper psychology, which is I've got to understand what are their hopes and dreams and desires and fears. What are their pain points? What do they want? What do they not want? Right? Because when I understand that and I can get on their side, now I'm not, I'm not pushing them to get what I want. I'm leading them to help them get what they want. Okay, guys, it's very, very important. Think— I want you to think through this process. When I first started real estate, I get a listing appointment, and what was my goal? I'm gonna go get a listing, get a listing, get a listing. How many of you are excited when somebody comes to you and they know that the one thing you want more than anything else is to get something from you? How excited are you? Like, yeah, you want to get something from me. That makes us go like, whoa, stay away from me, dude. I don't trust you. I don't even like you because you're just here. I know what you're here— you're just here to get a listing. So when our perspective is, I'm here to get something from you, you're going to resist. Sellers are going to resist. So I've got to— instead of being there to get a listing, I'm there to help them get what they want. You guys understand what I'm saying? So I've got to connect with their their desires, their motivation, their fears. What are they afraid of? They're afraid that I'm going to take the listing and then disappear, that I'm going to stick a sign in the yard, stick it on the MLS, and never talk to them again and not do anything. But you got to understand that. And when you can understand that, then you can lead them based on letting them know that you care about what's important to them, and I know how to get the results that they want, which ultimately will get you the results that you want. So number one, the number one leadership key is understanding seller psychology. I've got to lead them from where they are to where they want to be, not from where I, where I am to where I want to be. Number two is absolute certainty. If you want to lead, people are not going to follow you if they sense that you don't know where you're going. Okay, you guys understand? Like, if you're nervous, if you're nervous and you're scared and you're like, I don't know, I'm I hope I know what to do. And you're kind of coming in, you're trying to please them and trying to impress them and all this, but they don't feel certainty that you know how to get their home sold for the most money. They don't trust you. They, they need certainty. And the only way they're going to get certainty is when you walk into their home and you know exactly what to do to help them get what they want. Absolute certainty. And behind your certainty is they've got to see and know that you have a failproof system. Okay, what gets the seller to hire you is not a listing agreement that they sign a contract for 6 months that they're stuck with you, right? It's like, we want to know that you know how to get us the results that we want. Do you have a fail-proof system? And those are the keys of leadership. These are the keys that make them want to follow you. So here's the secret: when you understand seller psychology, you understand their hopes, their fears, their desires, okay, and how to influence them based on what they want, they not only will they meet with you, they will sign on the dotted line at the listing appointment without resistance. But what happens because we don't know how to lead them, that we get stuck into the overpriced trap. We take the listing overpriced. Okay, now why do agents take overpriced listings? Is it because we don't want to sell it? I really just love taking listings. I like to have a lot of listings on the market. They don't sell, I'm good. You know, long days on the market, great for me, 'cause it gets my sign out there. No, you don't make any money, right? So why don't we take it? Why don't we take overpriced listings? Well, number one, we're afraid we're gonna not get the listing. That if we don't list it at the price they want, then they're gonna list with somebody else. And so what we end up doing is we try to buy the listing by telling 'em what they want to hear rather than leading them to make the right decision. Chuck, you get this, right, bro? This is like, this, but we, this is like, we make this mistake all the time. And then we hope that either the market adjusts, which is not doing today, did back in COVID, you know, back in 2020, everything was just after the shutdown, everything just took off and you can list it, anything, and list it any price and it was gonna sell. It ain't happening today, right? The market, we hope the market adjusts or we hope the sellers will finally wake up and reduce the price. But by then, here's what's happened, okay? By then we paid a price. It kills your authority, it kills your confidence, it creates stress and conflict, upset sellers, frustrated sellers. You're frustrated, at least longer days on the market, lower offers, I'm not getting paid, and it damages your brand and your credibility. And that, my friend, is the price of taking— the, the cost of taking overpriced listings. You see, there is a difference between leadership and being right. Like, well, I told them the right price, I knew the right price, right? But knowing the right price, being right, and leading them to make the right decision is not the same thing. And a lot of times, you know, this going in, you know, that what they want to price it at is overpriced. But it's not— but the problem is not a data issue. It's not they don't have the information. It's not that you didn't give them the information or tell them the truth. It is a psychology issue, okay? And the psychology issue is they're afraid of losing money. See, they think if they price it where you say, which is what the market is saying, that they're going to lose money. What you've got to do in your job is to help them understand that when they overprice it, they lose money or they don't sell at all. So when their fear of overpricing it is greater than their fear of losing money, they'll do the right price. See, they think if their house is worth $2 million, the way to get the most money is to list it for $2.3 million, right? $2.2 million, that's going to get it. No, no, no, the way to get more money if you got a $2 million house is list it for $1.9 million. Because now you're gonna have 7 offers and they're gonna all be fighting over it, and they're going to negotiate the price up because everybody knows what the house is actually worth. But now they not only want the house, they also have this FOMO, fear of missing out. They're in this competitive state of like, I'm gonna get this house. And so they not only make the best price offers, but they also give the best terms. And this is how you get your sellers better results. And how do you— so how do you make that happen? You have to learn how to lead them to understand that and get them to know I want the most money. So how do I get the most money? By doing what Victoria says, doing what Chuck says. I trust him, right? That, my friend, is leadership. So here's the listing presentation truth. It's not a brag session. It's not a marketing performance. It's not a resume dump. Going in and talking about yourself and how great you are is not what gets people to say yes. It is a guided decision architecture, meaning my job is not to impress them. My job is to lead them to a decision to hire the right agent— me— list it at the right price, and do the right things will actually get it sold. You guys understand this? Like, this is a guided decision architecture, not a fancy presentation. So the more pop, the more, you know, it's like the fancier my graphics and all— you don't even need graphics, my friend. What you need is certainty and a process. Okay, so your job is not to show and tell. Remember show and tell when we were kids? Go to school, show and tell is like we're showing off our best stuff. That's not your job. Your job is to lead and deliver result. This is why they hire you. And when that happens, we create what we call the inevitability framework. And here it is. This is how I make listings inevitable. When you extract their motivation and I'm clear on their fears, their desires, their pain, their motivation, And I extract that motivation. I align expectations so they know what to expect and I know what to expect, and I can lead them. Then I present the truth clearly in a way that makes them understand it and want to follow it. I control the sequence because I'm the expert, not them. Then objections disappear and the listing becomes inevitable. If you want to master the game of seller psychology and influence and persuasion to get sellers to say yes to you, Join me at my upcoming live event, Listing Domination Live. The link is in the description. Click on it, check it out, and I look forward to seeing you there. Also, if you like this video clip and you want to see another video clip on how to get more listings, click right here. Or if you want to see some more clips from the webinar, click right here.