VALUERS/LISTERS – How to Close a Free Val into a Listing Every time
Estate Agents – What Is the Best Way to Trial Close A Free Valuation?
No matter how you dress it up, trial closing and nailing the listing is so 1990’s and its a spurious kind of sales technique at best and manipulation at worst
Those Valuers that go to every free val… assuming it’s going to be a listing are firmly in the 20th Century when it comes to their mindset. I think it’s phony and it’s no wonder the profession has the bad name it does
Your job as an estate agency Valuer is really quite simple.
Go to the house and have a conversation with the house seller and work out if you are fit or not for them to sell their property?
No more .. no less
… and how do you do that?
If you recall a few days ago, I said in a post that as a Valuer on a listing … you create the emotional need first then .. then show them the logical reason afterwards
In that article, I said 90% of listers start the sales pitch with the logical reason first .. then try and get an emotional buy in afterwards (eg ‘this is how we do it’ [logic]and ‘this is why you need it’ [emotion]) …
[Link here the article – and make sure you read all the comments as a few people challenged me on it and I came back with additional thoughts https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6384457854736302080/ ]
Its just doing it that way round [logic then emotion] means you start with yourself first .. which means it is not customer centric .. its agent centric …. Which means you arent getting buy in from the start and this is the main reason listers/valuers are either losing the listing to the cheaper agent or even having proved they are worth more … are still having to cut their fees
Instead, what I am suggesting is you just do it the other way around.
You start with ‘why they need it’ [emotion] and then finish with ‘how it works’ [logic]
I know it sounds very subtle .. it is – but experience shows it makes a huge difference .. emotional need first – logical buy in second.
Next, how do you deliver your payload of awesomeness?
Let’s say you have three or four main points that will show you are the best agent for the needs of the client (don’t do anymore .. even four might be too many )
Your three or four main points that will show you are the only agent that can fit their needs… the one thing you shouldn’t do is dump your three/four main points on the house seller in one go in a carpet bombing styleee … no matter how awesome they are.. that is a big no no ..
The way you do it is to do one main point at a time (using the method explained above – emotion first and logic second), then ask the magic two questions before you go to the next main point
- Am I making sense so far?
- Are you happy with everything I have said so far?
Repeat that loop as many times you have main points .. always ending with these two magic questions before moving on to the final golden question
So, once you have done that with the three/four main points in your armory always ending on the magic questions … you ask them the final golden question ..
“Tell me, with what I have said about your situation, where do you think we should go from here?”
By doing this, you aren’t pushing anyone into the listing or trial closing .. in fact you are not pushing anyone into anything.
Looking at the facts, the reverse is the truth. The ball is 100% in their court.
Trust me .. the vendor will tell you to get it on the market at the fee you deserve … because you have got emotional buy in .. and 95% of human buying decisions are made emotionally .. not logically (as I discussed recently in another post)
And when you do all that, let me tell you what happens … You don’t look so needful, you lose that tattoo on your forehead that says ‘desperate’, you lose that underdog vibe that you have been giving off and you become more attractive to prospective house sellers and you sign up more listings.
You May Also Enjoy
Housing Insight Report October 2025
9 luxury property features to impress Christmas guests
No acceleration in rental EPC improvements despite policy push
London renters making it onto the ladder without a deposit
Prime London Sees Post-Budget Surge in £2m+ Listings
