Do you really know what is going on for your clients underneath the surface? When your vendors and buyers begin holding back and making excuses to move forward, it is often the case not for the reasons they initially tell you. By asking the right questions you will be able to dig deeper to find the root cause of the problem. Only then will you be able to gain clarity and continue progressing towards your clients desired results.

Click to watch the video (or simply read the transcript) below to learn more.


Here is another Coaching on the Go Moment from real estate coach Caroline Bolderston.

I had an interesting conversation with an agent that I’m working with and it highlighted something I want to share with you, which is the ‘issue’ is almost always not the issue.

What I mean by this is as agents, we hear the surface message. My client’s experience with this was because their vendor was putting up roadblocks and resisting open homes and the people inspecting due to the concern around COVID. When I spoke to my agent, I asked, What do you think is really going on underneath the surface? Do you believe that this particular client has accepted that they need to sell? It’s a divorce situation. When I posed that to the agent, the response was, they had never really spoken to her about that.

If you are hearing objectives, avoidance strategies or there are other issues being raised by either the vendor or buyer, you need to dig a little deeper.

An example of this for a buyer came up with a client I spoke to last week. Their buyer was stalling and kept saying they needed more time. On the surface, the agent interpreted that as they must be getting finances together. However, when I raised the message of the ‘issue’ not being the real issue, it became apparent that it probably wasn’t about that. There was something else going on. The agent reached out to the buyer and asked the probing question, what is it that you need time for? A simple question like that is so powerful. The issue ended up not about finance. It was the fact that they didn’t see value in the price being quoted and they were putting an offer forward on something else. That was the real issue, the price.

Understand that what you hear on the surface is usually not what’s going on underneath.

Delve deep, ask better questions, really hear what they’re saying and ask yourself, what are they not saying? What do I need to know? You go there, you’re going to change the whole conversation. You’re going to move people forward, both buyers and vendors. I love this message. I hope you do too.

If you have a genuine desire to serve your clients, work hard and become the best you can be – contact me via the section below to discuss how coaching can work for you.

Tags: ConversationsCOVIDDig deeperfinding the issuesurface messageWhat's underneath

Caroline Bolderston

With over 17 years of industry experience Caroline has a track record of personal high performance and exceptional results. Taking her passion for Real Estate sales and her genuine interest in sharing her expertise to develop others, she was the creator of the Belle Property Academy which has delivered many $1M agents and high performing sales teams.