We Are Selling with Lee Woodward

Mastering the Price Alignment Discussion with Tom Panos

• Lee Woodward • Episode 5

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We break down why great agents don’t avoid uncomfortable conversations—they master them. From price alignment to withdrawn buyer interest, this episode delivers practical, real-world techniques to help agents perform in changing market conditions and protect their clients from costly mistakes.

• why technology supports conversations but never replaces them
• closing with courage instead of hiding behind “pretty proposals”
• starting price alignment at the listing, not weeks later
• the power of significant price reductions vs token drops
• why low offers help and no offers hurt
• reporting withdrawn interest honestly using video messages
• separating emotion from professionalism with vendors
• telling clients the truth they need, not the comfort they want







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Lee Woodward:

Hello and welcome back to the program We Are Selling. Selling is a transference of feelings, and already in our previous episodes, we've covered so many great, passionate points of deep technique. And I'm gonna say that as I think podcasting's become a little light, yet in these shows, we're getting right to the heart of the matter and giving you that detail. And my incredible co-host in the last few weeks is definitely causing a stir out of the marketplace. He rejoins us again, Mr. Tom Panos. Tom, welcome back. Great to be back again this week, Lee. Tom, we're getting some uh big reports. The UK, the states, they love the Australian agents and they can't believe the content level that's been produced.

Tom Panos:

Well, they are. Looks, I mean, Lee, you know, we're biased, we're from this country, but I have to tell you, anecdotally, the feedback's coming from agents in those countries themselves. I mean, we have got the greatest real estate practitioners in the world, in Australia, and to a great degree in New Zealand. Strong, effective business units, uh, big businesses, great marketing-based business, highly skilled professionals. The earnings per agent is much higher than what you'll see in most parts of the world. So it's great to have this international audience that are tuning in and being able to go backstage with what you're doing, Lee, to find out what are the hacks, what are the conversations the best of the best are doing, because what me and you are are curators of information. We go off and, you know, we rip off and duplicate content that we've heard, and you know, we fine-tune it, we edit it, and we make it better, and we share it to a larger audience of people, and that's what trainers do.

Lee Woodward:

Yeah, and you know, sometimes you've got to bring the past into the future. I was going through uh an audio of John McGrath in Sawdust, and it was just John doing objections. And I was listening to myself, going, no one today is at that level. Like you listen to John, and that was 10 years ago that that was recorded, but he was still selling, and you think, wow, you've got to bring that into the future. People have forgotten the uh the five minutes of courage, which is about closing at the end of the presentation, versus oh, I've already presented, I'm now gonna do my pretty proposal. Why would you want to do a pretty proposal if you could sign it? Now, if you can't sign it, plan B is the pretty proposal, but if you can get it, get it. Uh, that's still the skill of a sales professional is to seize that moment and get that decision.

Tom Panos:

We do live in a world that's become high tech, but the great technology that is out there that's been fast tracked because of COVID-19 over the last two years, these are things that are making agents become more efficient, be able to write more money with less staff often. You know, you're getting some great stories of single agents writing great incomes even without assistance. But it's very important that your audience understands, Lee, that technology is not substituting an agent, it's complementing an agent. As John McGrath did in those old podcasts that you're talking about, you still need to have a conversation with a vendor in 2022 for them to sign an authority. You still need to have a conversation with a vendor to actually say, yes, let's let's invest in six grand marketing. You still need to have a conversation with a vendor to say, I want to reduce my price guide from 1.3 to 1.2. Nothing happens without a conversation. And often it's a crucial conversation. It's an uncomfortable conversation. And in 2022, as we move into a market where vendors are not necessarily going to get their hope to get price anymore, you've got to get good at that conversation, Lee.

Lee Woodward:

Mastering uncomfortable conversations is what we're talking about, and not running away. There's a time to step up and do your role because you can hurt an owner if you do not give them the advice that they need to hear. I think a lot of people think, oh, I don't want to upset them, they're really nice. Well, tell them the truth that we've had these amounts of people through. This is what they're saying, and this is what we need to do. Oh no, but they'll be upset. They're going to be upset in six weeks' time and they've just sold for 50 grand less than they could have got now because that buyer's been removed and we're taking the next worst. So are you prepared to do it? Or will I send a real agent in to have that conversation so the owner doesn't get hurt? I was taught this in a bizarre way, Tom. I I was 22 when I first came into real estate. The boom had just ended, so it wasn't hard to get a job. But things weren't selling like they were, things would be on the market, and our listener will be shocked at this. If something was on the market for six months, that was actually a good result. We had stuff sitting there that was permanently signwritten on the board. Like it just, you know, I remember painter's parade, it was like it was in the first half of my career, it just never left until one day it sold. But everything sells, but price reductions or price education was a very important skill. Anyway, my incredible leader, Rod Jones, came in one morning and said, Right, uh, we're doing a hit parade. I said, What's that? He goes, Lee, shut up. I said, Okay, I'm 22, I'm here with all the seniors, I'll I'll I'll sit through this little uh session. And they got the whiteboard, put a line down the middle, and there was two headings, saleable, non-saleable. And what they would do, Tom, they would bring up your listing, and if you were the listener, you weren't allowed to talk, and everybody else would say what the price had to be. And it was brutal. And if you didn't agree you could get it, they would take it off you, and another agent would take it over and go up, reduce it, and sell it. So one of mine came up and they said, Who's is this? I said, It's mine. Lee, don't talk again. What should it be? It was only on for $580, and back then that was massive. And they go, Oh, look, probably $500, maybe $490, and I'm there crying in the background because I love the owners. And uh Rod said, Lee, can you get it down to $490? I said, No, Rod, I can't. He goes, You're off it, Anthony, it's yours. And I lost the listing on the spot. I said, How does that work? He said, Lee, I pay your salary. Uh, you're on uh debit and credit round here, and let's look at the numbers right now. Uh, you owe me a lot. If you don't have the skills to do it, I will send a real agent in to do it. Oh, Tom, I'm still not over it. But it it's how I learned to have real conversations.

Tom Panos:

Lee, I love those sorts of guys. I don't get me wrong, real estate has progressed. It's become a very marketing, sophisticated industry, and it's, you know, agents making more money now than what they did back then. But Lee, they were true sales professionals. And often a lot of these guys, they got straight to the point, you know. I love that. And the the time that you were talking about, I've, you know, probably what are we talking about, Lee? Early 90s? Yep, 92. Yeah, 92, 92. Okay, I remember 92, 92 was a tough year. I remember, I remember being in real estate Lee after that 88-89 boom, and I sat at an open for inspection on Victoria Road Punch Bowl for 16 weeks, and not one car, not one group of people came through. And then on the 16th week, I'm sitting out the front, Victoria Road Punch Bowl. I'm sitting out the front, and a car pulled up, Lee, and it pulled up slowly, and I thought, wow, wow, it was a surprise because imagine sitting through 16 weeks in a row. They put the window down and they said, Excuse me, do you know where Roseland Shopping Centre is? So this is this is this is the sort of market we're talking about. Off the top of my head, Lee interest rates were around 17, 16, 17, 18% back then, right? There was there was no buyers. But this is an important conversation because it's not like that in 2022, that we've got a gap. We've got to make up the gap. In 2020, 2021, man, the vendor wanted one million, the buyer paid a million. But the marketplace that we're moving in now, there's a gap, and a good real estate agent brings that gap together. I love the fact that I think he said Rod Rod was his name. Rod uh what was his name? Rod Jones. Rod Jones. I love the fact that Rod was sort of saying, mate, listen, if you don't have the skill and ability to do it, man, don't think you're entitled to that. It's a privilege for you to be working on that, people. Let's get let's let's get our A-grade team onto it. And you need to be an A-grader at the moment, Lee, in this marketplace. I mean, I left Teslan's office at two o'clock today, and we're talking about it. We've got vendors there that want 1.4 for properties that are going to get 1.2. Like we've gone from nuts to normal. And, you know, you've got to get really comfortable being uncomfortable telling owners what they need to hear, not what they like to hear, Lee.

Lee Woodward:

Well, Tom, what I learned most from that brutal exercise was Anthony Parker went in and reduced it. So I was the problem. The owners weren't sold because of my lack of skill. The owners were being protected by me because I thought they were lovely, but all that happened was I wasn't good enough at having those conversations. And then I was very fortunate, Rob was a great coach, and said, Lee, you've got to learn to be beautifully cold. These people need a move, and you're stopping and moving. So you either go in and have those conversations or let somebody else do it. And I didn't want to see that happen again. So I thought I'm going to lose it anyway. So I may as well go in and get good at these conversations. But then I started to see the consumers say, Okay, Lee, what do we need to do? And I was like, wow, hang on a minute. Totally the opposite reaction that I thought I was going to get. And then Rod did one other thing on me one day, which was uh a Spanish mess house that I was trying to sell. Nobody wanted it. And I came in the office and he had the contract and the keys on the front desk. I said, What's that one? He goes, It's one of yours. I said, What do you want me to do? He goes, I'll just drop it back to the owners and let them know we can't help them anymore at this price. I said, What do you mean? He goes, Yeah, just give it them back, mate. It needs to come down a good hundred. Uh and I was just like, But if I if I get it down, he goes, Oh no, you can bring it back in then. He was he was so clever at saying, Yeah, that's not saleable. We're not an antique store here. We move things. And I was taught that early in a very tough market, but but it was the best thing that ever happened that you got really good at these conversations because if you don't, you can only ever work in a hot market, and then that's not a full career.

Tom Panos:

Yeah, and I love the term SPR, significant price reductions, you know. You know, having having a property or a guide on a property at 1.4 when it's only going to achieve 1.2 and getting a price reduction from 1.4 to 1,380,000 is not moving the dial. To all the listeners, listen to this. When you adjust the price, the magical buyer always appears lead. It doesn't matter what the property's like or what the market's like. There's only two reasons why properties don't sell. Either you screwed the marketing piece or the price of the property is not in line with what the market is saying. And as far as I'm concerned, your job in this market is to get comfortable getting offers, even if they're lower than what the vendor wants, because there's another great saying, low offers they blame the market, no offers they blame the agent. Get offers out of the market and get into the habit of having price alignment conversations, Lee. They're critical. They're critical. They actually, you know, they they shouldn't, they shouldn't be, they shouldn't be starting six weeks after you've listed the property. They actually you've got to be starting when you're listing the property. You've got to be setting it up there and then, Lee.

Lee Woodward:

Yeah, and Tom, one other great technique that you can now use, you go to hit text on your phone. Instead of typing, you actually swipe over and hit video. And you click on video straight down the barrel of it. So it's going to be a video embedded in the text message straight away. And it says, Hi, Tom, just letting you know, Robin Woodward came through the property this morning, showed interest, has requested a contract, just called me back, has bought another property down the road for 50,000 less. She is now withdrawn interest, just want to keep you up to date. We'll speak to you soon. And that video message of that person came through, found something else, but the term is withdrawn interest. Because if they think there's all this interest on my house and everyone loves it, no, no, they did love it, but they've just bought another house for 50,000 less, so it's now withdrawn interest. And reporting on withdrawn interest is so important.

Tom Panos:

And Lee, by the way, thanks for that that hack because I've got to tell you, a video message is more powerful than a non-video message. Um but let me just say this, Lee. When there's something to be said, if you don't say it, if you're silent, you're a liar. I'm gonna say that again. I've got to be brutal. When something needs to be said and you have the information, if you don't share it with your client, you're a liar. Your clients don't deserve a liar, they deserve the truth. And I think a great thing that you can say to an owner, and you can say it to them at the time of listing, you might even be able to get away with saying this. Mr. and Mrs. Vendor, I've got to tell you, I might upset you with the truth, but I'll never comfort you with a lie.

unknown:

Right?

Lee Woodward:

And people want you to level with them. Tom, final point of our little short, sharp, incredible segment here. This is a thrill seeking exercise, but one I've lived through myself. Tom, have you ever noticed how everyone's a thrill seeker with somebody else's owner?

Tom Panos:

Yes.

unknown:

Yes.

Lee Woodward:

So for example, let's say you and I work in the same agency, right?

Tom Panos:

Yeah.

Lee Woodward:

And you say, Oh, I've got to go away for two weeks. Can you look after my owners? And I go, Yeah, yeah, no worries, Tom. I'll look after them. As soon as you're out the door, I ring them up and I go, Helen, it's Lee. Look, Tom's away. I've taken over the property. I need to pop over and see you and discuss with you our next price. What do you mean we're not dropping it? We told Tom we're not dropping it. Yeah, I'm actually glad Tom's away. I think he's fallen in love with it. I know what we need to do to get it sold. Do you want to sell it? And they go, Yeah, yeah, we do. Well, I'm coming over. And I go in and reduce it 40 grand. You come back and go, What did you do? It was easy. Now I'm going to go away for two weeks, you go and see mine. But there is an amazing power that you're a thrill seeker with somebody else's owner.

Tom Panos:

Yeah, look, Lee, and I see that happening all the time. The reason why it happens is the original listing agent gets emotionally involved, gets carried away, thrill seeking as you say. But the medical profession teaches us a lot about vendor management. If you notice what doctors do, you know, you go in and see a Dr. Lee. The doctor, what he does is he pulls out the x-ray. He'd sent you off to go get some x-rays. He opens them up, puts them up on his light wall, and he says, There's the break, there's the fracture. You've broken your ankle. The patient says, Oh no, doctor, don't tell me that. Yeah, you've got a broken ankle. Have a look at it. It's right there. What doctors do very good is they work hard on the problem, but soft on the people. And real estate agents need to do the same. But, you know, they just they just get they they they think that they've got to be the vendor rescuer. I mean, Lee, they're not looking for a next best friend. They're looking for someone to get them from stuck to unstuck. That's what they're looking for. And that's why the agent that goes in is actually addressing the issue and getting them from stuck to unstuck by facing and confronting the issue, and that is realigning the value of the property by a small percentage so you can actually be in the game and sell it than actually have no offers. So yeah, on that note, maybe you need to take more holidays if you're listening out there. If you've got a lot of overpriced stock, take a few more holidays and come back and have your properties primed for a sale. I love it.

Lee Woodward:

Tom Panos, thank you for joining us again. We look forward to you joining us in the future. And uh, this sequence you've just done for us has been outstanding. Thank you, Tom.

Tom Panos:

Thank you so much, Lee. It's been an absolute pleasure.

Lee Woodward:

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