As a real estate agent coach, one of the first things people say to me is that if they want to increase their listings, they have to reduce their fees.

Stop thinking that. Increase your fees! Increase your fees!

The first thing you should do to win more hearts and minds from customers in the field is charge more. But you'll never get more than you believe in yourself.

So this is the challenge for you. What are you worth? Let's start there. I'm looking at you, right? I want you to write down answers to these questions:

- Why are you much better than the other agents in your marketplace? Tell me what that is. Tell yourself what it is.

- What's the tangible value that you bring to your marketplace?

- For the clients that come with you, that use you, what is the difference that you actually offer?

If you can’t answer these questions, you need my course. I'll help you to figure that stuff out – but you can start by watching “How to Raise Your Fees 101”.

To help you understand what value you, and only you, offer your clients, think about it from their perspective. If you were selling your home or property, who would you want? What kind of person, what kind of agent? What would be your expectations?

Start to invest in that mindset, reverse engineer what you're looking to do. Start with your client's mind and heart. What they’re expecting is probably what you’d be expecting if you were in their situation.

Think about this through the whole customer journey. When you first go through the door of valuation, do you treat it like just another appointment, or like an experience? I think sometimes one of the biggest challenges we have as estate agents doing regular appointments is that it does become just an appointment. So think about that. Think about what experience your clients want instead and how you can provide it.

Prepare for your valuation appointments so you can build trust during that process. Remember that when you're showing up to someone's home, where they live 24/7, you're a stranger unless you’ve spoken to them before the appointment.

I've done a survey of estate agents and asked who actually talks to people before they go out for valuations? If the appointment has been booked by a colleague, how many actually go to valuation without having spoken to the client that they're going to meet at their home?

If you’re one of the ones who don’t bother to talk to the client before the meeting, think about it. How’s it going to feel to the client for you to rock up at 3 o’clock on a Thursday as a complete and utter stranger?

Now compare that jarring experience to what I teach in my course.

Here’s how I’d prepare a client, we’ll call him Ed, for a valuation – think about how different Ed’s experience would be after this phone call versus if I’d just rocked up as a stranger:

Me: Hi Ed, how are you doing?

Ed: Fine thanks, you?

Me: I'm really good, thanks. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow at three o'clock. So I just wanted to first of all make sure that we're still on, is that okay?

Ed: Yes.

Me: Fantastic. All of the clients that I serve and work with love to understand what is a valuation, what does it actually look like? And I'm just going to prepare you for tomorrow, is that okay?

Ed: Of course.

Me: This will take you less than a minute, so don't panic, we're not going to go into loads of detail. But the actual appointment's got a bit of structure.

First of all, we're going to talk about your needs, your goals, your desires. What are you looking for from the process of moving?

The second thing is I'm going to show you how our organisation, my team, will get you to your goal. Because it's okay saying it, I want you to see it.

Then I want you to tell me what you see in the housing market. What do you think the market's like? Give me an idea of the whole market. What's your perception? I'm so interested in understanding from customers what their views of the housing market are.

And the last thing we're going start to talk about pricing strategies. What's the best way you should go to the market based on your timeframes and your needs? How does that sound?

Ed: Amazing.

Me: Oh, I can't wait to see you tomorrow. I'll see you then.

So, now you’ve seen my approach to preparing for a valuation. Now you may go, ‘Oh, I don't wanna do that.’ Okay, you don't want to do it, it's fine.

Carry on getting the same results, but you're here reading this for a reason. You're here because you probably want to get better results.

For me, I think we all tend to do what estate agents do, which is we put ourselves first. Yeah, we put on a suit, some of us wear a waistcoat, a nice big tie, we get ready, we go out there, and we go and meet people for the first time. We kind of go around the house, maybe pay the client a few compliments, tell them what they want to hear.

Then eventually we'll come up with a price, and say something like, “So I think the valuation is £425,000.” I'll look at the client’s eyes, see what their reaction is. If they look pissed off, I'll go, “That's the absolute bottom line.” If they look really happy and a little bit surprised, I'll be saying, “That is absolutely the very top that you could go to.”

See, this is what happens in a profession that can be often unprofessional.

The best value that you can reach is with the client. And actually walking with the client around their house, looking at the house as if you were a buyer rather than the seller. Looking at why they bought the house. Asking what was it that they found enough, interesting enough, emotive enough for them to make the decision to actually buy it?

This is the information you need because success leaves clues. Finding out why they bought the house in the first place helps you to understand how to find the next buyer. It helps you to build that profile, so you can go out there and find the future buyer who's also going to value the same things that they did when they originally bought it.

So for me, you’ve got to think about these principles if you're going to improve your results.

Now, I've just touched on a few of the skills and a bit of training I offer in more depth in the course where I teach you the methods I’ve used to help clients to double their listings in just eight weeks. I've helped clients to double their fees in the same period of time.

I'm telling you right now, you can do exactly the same. But if you're not prepared to invest in yourself, then you're not prepared to believe in yourself. And if you don't believe in yourself, why should the client believe in you?

Let me ask you a question, how much time do you invest in making activities and actions work for you so you’re consistently moving forward? If I were to work with you today, I'd be saying to you, show me what you've been doing to create, to prospect, to be in the market that you want to work with.

This is what I’d be asking you:

- What have you done in the last seven days to create, to prospect, and to be in the market that you want to work in?

- How much time have you given to people over the phone?

- How much time have you spent in front of the camera?

- How much time have you given people face to face?

- How much advice? How much relevant information, useful information, solutions that are going to help people to get to
their needs have you spent giving?

- What are you prepared to invest going forward?

Then I’d want to know what kind of agent you want to be known as. Just someone who just rocks up without talking to the client? Someone who just hopes they get the business when they're there? Someone who thinks they're just going to cut the other agents’ fees and half to win the business or go and put the highest valuation on the property and hope that the vendors are stupid enough to think that that's the right strategy?

Or are you going to invest in being the kind of agent who gives value and attracts higher fees?

It all comes back to your values, to the vision you have of yourself and your organisation. It all comes back to your belief. If you lack in all of those areas, guys, you're going to lack the listings to go and sell this year.

But believe me, we're in the people industry. We're in the emotion industry. You've got to put some emotion into this in order to get the results that you deserve.

If you’re ready to invest in yourself, How to Double Your Listings in Eight Weeks is for you.

This course will give you tens of thousands in increased fees. It's going to help you to go out there with more belief, more certainty in terms of a conversion rate, to help more clients, to get the best results and outcome for those customers. All of that will give you the ability to get the best results and outcomes for you and your business.

So go, have a look, check it out. You know what to expect. There's going to be downloadable guides, there's going to be easy to follow instructions. Come with me on that journey, I promise you, you won't regret it