If you’re not negotiating, you’re not doing your job (Accurate)

I’m writing this the morning after the night before – 12 or so hours after the announcement of the proposed European Super League. The idea is that a select band of the biggest clubs in Europe, including 6 English teams, will form a separate competition where they set the rules and break away from UEFA’s Champions League.

If it does go ahead, there will be massive implications for the world’s most popular sport and its millions of supporters.

But is it all it seems?

It could well be, as mentioned by sports reporters, a negotiation tactic from the breakaway clubs. This is because UEFA was set to announce its plans for a new look Champions League format. Are the likes of Barcelona, Manchester City / United and Juventus attempting to call UEFA’s bluff and negotiate more power, and of course money, for their respective clubs?

As a negotiation tactic, it would be playing the hardest of hardball.

Whatever you think about this, it does raise a significant question if you are an estate agent.
Do you negotiate hard enough on your clients’ behalf? And by clients, I mean sellers, not buyers.

The number of times I’ve heard in the past stories of agents saying, ‘I think the seller would accept …….’ which is often accompanied by a figure lesser than the asking price. This is anti-agency work.

I always saw my role as an estate agent was to get the most money for my sellers.

We have an excellent track record at EweMove of getting our clients the best possible prices.

And it’s no accident.

We have extensive training in place dedicated to negotiation skills. It has benefited hundreds of our franchisees, including agents with more than 20 years plus experience. We look at negotiating a deal very differently from many other agencies.

For us, it starts way before any offer is made. It begins at the initial inquiry stage when we take time to qualify any prospective buyers properly. This means we know how serious they are and what financial position they are in to make offers.

One of the main reasons our franchisees accompany 99 percent of viewings is it’s the ideal time to gauge interest and subtly begin negotiations.

For example - if the prospective buyer makes an offer of £290,000 on a £300,000 home, we’d informally suggest that the seller wouldn’t accept that (because it’s the first offer).

And taking the time to negotiate properly and get your client the best deal is a great strategy to win more business in the long term.

Here’s why – by achieving outstanding results for your clients, it gives you more recommendations and more substantial evidence to support why you should be the agent of choice and why you are worth your commission.

Quite frankly, if you fail to negotiate hard on your clients’ behalf, you are lazy and not doing your job correctly.

I’ve condensed our thinking down in this article, but we go into much more depth during our training and ongoing support.

But it gives you plenty of food for thought.

And on that note, I’d love to know your thoughts on this subject and the proposals that put football’s future in the balance.

Thanks for reading.

Nick

Learn more about Nick Neill here