Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!
About two weeks ago, my daughters started playing rock paper scissors. ✊
Jade is 4 (almost 5). Ruby just turned 3. And the last few days have been pretty intense. Every disagreement between them, who gets the blue cup, who goes first, whose turn it is to pick the tv show, has been settled with two fists pumping in the air and a lot of enthusiastic mistiming.
Sometimes they ask me to play too, which means I get a front-row seat to how toddlers think about winning. Jade's current strategy is to watch what I threw last round and throw the thing that would have beaten it. It doesn't always work, because I'm not that predictable, but the instinct is right: don't just make a move, read the last one first. Try to find the pattern before your opponent does. And I can already tell Ruby is a true hustler by the way she waits at the last second to make her move.
I've been doing a version of that lately with a homeowner I've been talking to about listing their home.
It's been a slow back-and-forth, some hesitation about timing. Each conversation, I tried to decipher what they were actually worried about underneath what they were saying, and answer that instead of the apparent objection. Classic rock-paper-scissors: don't counter the move they showed you, counter the move they're about to make.
But here's where the game and the job stop looking alike, and it's the most important part to me. In rock paper scissors, the whole point is that only one of us wins. The second I win their listing, though, everything has to flip. My job stops being "win the negotiation" and becomes "make sure they win the sale." The switch happens instantly, the day the paperwork is signed. Then we become teammates because we want the same thing. Not that we were ever opponents.
The takeaway, if you're on the other side of a conversation like this one: it's fair to treat everything as a negotiation. But pay attention to what happens the moment they say yes.
A great agent's stance should change once they've won your business, from negotiating with you to negotiating for you. If it doesn't change, that's worth noticing. 🙏
One small thing before you go: If something's been on your mind about buying, selling, or just making sense of this market, hit reply. I read all my emails. 😉
Take care, Matt!
Jade is 4 (almost 5). Ruby just turned 3. And the last few days have been pretty intense. Every disagreement between them, who gets the blue cup, who goes first, whose turn it is to pick the tv show, has been settled with two fists pumping in the air and a lot of enthusiastic mistiming.
Sometimes they ask me to play too, which means I get a front-row seat to how toddlers think about winning. Jade's current strategy is to watch what I threw last round and throw the thing that would have beaten it. It doesn't always work, because I'm not that predictable, but the instinct is right: don't just make a move, read the last one first. Try to find the pattern before your opponent does. And I can already tell Ruby is a true hustler by the way she waits at the last second to make her move.
I've been doing a version of that lately with a homeowner I've been talking to about listing their home.
It's been a slow back-and-forth, some hesitation about timing. Each conversation, I tried to decipher what they were actually worried about underneath what they were saying, and answer that instead of the apparent objection. Classic rock-paper-scissors: don't counter the move they showed you, counter the move they're about to make.
But here's where the game and the job stop looking alike, and it's the most important part to me. In rock paper scissors, the whole point is that only one of us wins. The second I win their listing, though, everything has to flip. My job stops being "win the negotiation" and becomes "make sure they win the sale." The switch happens instantly, the day the paperwork is signed. Then we become teammates because we want the same thing. Not that we were ever opponents.
The takeaway, if you're on the other side of a conversation like this one: it's fair to treat everything as a negotiation. But pay attention to what happens the moment they say yes.
A great agent's stance should change once they've won your business, from negotiating with you to negotiating for you. If it doesn't change, that's worth noticing. 🙏
One small thing before you go: If something's been on your mind about buying, selling, or just making sense of this market, hit reply. I read all my emails. 😉
Take care, Matt!
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