Don’t Articulate Your Value—Do This Instead

With all the uncertainty around commissions and buyer agreements, there’s been a flood of training for agents on how to get paid what you’re worth.

It all revolves around one thing: articulating your value. 

All these coaches and experts are telling you to get better at explaining what you do and why it’s important. They insist that’s how you’ll get people to hire you and pay your fee.

That’s where we disagree.

Articulating your value turns you into a commodity. When you talk about your value in terms of what you do, you set the client up to compare what you promise against what other agents promise.

And guess what? There’s ALWAYS someone who will promise to do more for less…which puts you in a race to the bottom.

So no, you shouldn't articulate your value.

You should articulate what the CLIENT is thinking and feeling.

In other words, practice Tactical Empathy. Make them feel understood.

To do that, you have to be LISTENING for what they’re thinking and feeling—and you can’t be listening if you’re talking about your value.

How can you listen…if your intent is to sell yourself first?

This is a completely different approach to the conversation. It’s turning the attention from yourself and what you offer to the client and what they need.

Every client has hopes, dreams, fears, and concerns about buying or selling their home. 

Whether they hire and pay you isn’t really about the bullet points of what you’ll do for them. It’s about whether they TRUST you with those hopes and fears—whether they believe you’ll put their interests first and protect them.

And what’s the best way to start building that trust?

LISTEN. Instead of making the consultation a sales pitch, make it an opportunity for them to fully express their hopes and fears. Use the tools of Tactical Empathy to get the full story and show that you understand their situation and perspective.

The goal is to empower the client to do what’s best for them, not to get them to do business with you.

You have to be okay whether they choose you or not. If you want them to trust you, first you have to trust them to make the right choice for themselves—which may or may not be you.

If you can’t adopt this mindset, you’ll always approach the conversation from a place of need. You’ll feel compelled to articulate your value because you won’t trust that the client will see it for themselves.

But when you’re explaining, you’re losing. 

You’re focused on yourself instead of the client, AND you’re painting yourself as desperate—both of which make the client less likely to trust you.

On the other hand, when you focus on making the client feel understood, you show up from a place of service. You demonstrate your competence, honesty, and trustworthiness without having to explain or prove it at all.

Ultimately, it comes down to one thing: walkaway power.

When you believe in your value and trust the client to choose for themselves, you have the power to walk away from any business that isn’t a good fit for you.

And the truth is, people want what they can’t have. When clients sense that you’re willing to walk away (and they will sense it), they will be that much more inclined to believe in your value, too. 

If you’re selling anything, it’s confidence. People want to know they’re dealing with someone who knows what they’re doing. 

You can’t prove that by talking about it—you have to demonstrate it.

The irony is that articulating your value feels like the natural thing to do. When you meet with a potential client, your first instinct is to explain what you do and convince them to work with you.

It takes consistent coaching and training to change that self-destructive habit.

You might have already started by reading The Full Fee Agent, which teaches the basics of Tactical Empathy in real estate. If you haven’t, that’s the perfect place to begin.