Great negotiators hone their skills

Jackie Leavenworth

The types of negotiation skills needed for real estate transactions have changed, particularly between generations.

Real estate expert Jackie Leavenworth says, “Realtors® are predominately baby boomers and their clients are younger and often they feel they aren’t being heard because of the ways different generations communicate.

“Studies of neurolinguistic programming show that 55 percent of our message is received through our body language and 35 percent is received by tonality – that’s 93 percent. That leaves just seven percent for the words we choose so when we negotiate in emails, texts and faxes, people put their own tonality and body language in it. And it’s critical for Realtors® to understand that,” she explains.

Leavenworth quoted Albert Einstein who said, “I fear the day the technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.

“He was talking about the telephone. Technology, while critical to today’s real estate practice, can compromise our ability to communicate effectively,” Leavenworth notes. “It’s important then to cultivate our skills to work with the four basic behaviors in negotiating.”

Most people fall into one of four categories:

• Accommodator
• Competitor
• Collaborator
• Avoider

“We should know our own type because we default to our natural style,” Leavenworth says. “But our own style may not work in every situation. We can become skilled in other styles and systems and then prepare to negotiate in a different style when the situation calls for it.

“Many times great negotiation skills are counter intuitive. It’s not always what comes natural to you,” she adds. “Great negotiators aren’t born, they learn these skills. And the best people ground themselves in fairness. When we learn to let clients make their own decisions and ask questions to help them make these decisions, it doesn’t matter which generation we’re working with.”

Leavenworth will be presenting three programs at the Triple Play Realtors® Convention in Atlantic City, December 8-11. Her programs include: “CRS201 – Listing Strategies,” “Negotiations: Gender, Generations & Genetics,” and “Real Estate Zumba: Shape Your Success.”