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Some luxury agents are known for the remarkable properties they’ve represented throughout their careers.
What’s their secret to getting those amazing listings? Gary Gold of Coldwell Banker, Ivan Sher of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and Stacy Gottula of Coldwell Banker shared with panel moderator Katie Kossev their secrets to success in wining trophy listings at Luxury Connect on Tuesday.
Gary Gold | Coldwell Banker
“Everyone who’s in this room has or will have an opportunity to get a listing that will change their career,” Gold told the Connect audience.
Gold said it’s important to come up with a strategy for how to win their desired listing, have confidence in themselves and then actually perform when it comes time for the listing appointment.
“We’re in a performance business,” Gold explained. “It’s not like if you’re the greatest agent in the business you’re going to win … Kobe could have a bad day. LeBron could have a bad day.”
When the manager of the Playboy Mansion initially starting talking with Gold about his interest in selling the property, Gold didn’t think he had a chance at the listing. But as he started speaking more with this potential client, and became his informal advisor of sorts, he quickly changed his mindset.
“I went from ‘Maybe I could get the listing’ to, ‘I’m getting that fucking listing,'” Gold said.
He went on to send the client a spreadsheet of how many $20 million-plus properties his competitor’s company sold and how many his company sold. In the end he was chosen to co-list the property.
Sher stressed that authenticity was crucial to meeting with a potential client about representing their property.
Ivan Sher | The Ivan Sher Group
“So many times people feel that they need to present a certain way, that you need to take on a look, or a flash, or be someone other than you are,” Sher said. “It’s the authenticity that will get you the listing every day.”
Gottula said that connecting with other successful agents in the upper echelon of the market has been immensely helpful to her own success in winning trophy listings.
She started out in the business as an assistant to luxury titan Joyce Rey for a year-and-a-half.
“And through that, I saw what it took to become a top broker,” Gottula said.
In 2015 without even knowing it, she became the listing agent on the priciest home in the U.S. at the time.
“I think teaming up with top people who know the top echelon of the tier are people you need to connect with,” she added.
Forging relationships is another crucial part to winning the best listings in the market, the speakers agreed.
“It can happen hundreds of different ways, there’s a lot of ways to have that relationship,” Gold says.
One of Gold’s mantras that he adopted after becoming sober over 30 years ago is “be of service” and now applies that mantra to everything in his life. One time he listed a property and donated the commission to a charity. Through the process, he ended up connecting with an architect who helped him get a future listing.
“We all get that opportunity — be aware of it,” Gold said. “We all have those moments and you will get them if you’re out there.”
Sher said he won a listing just a few weeks ago by being extremely prepared, looking his best and being personable with the sellers during their meeting.
“I was there for two hours,” Sher said. “I was their best friend, I was their advisor, I was all of it. And at the end, I got the listing.”
Stacy Gottula | Coldwell Banker
Gottula said that once she forms those relationships, they tend to feed off of one another.
“For me, it’s a snowball effect, because one client you work with, and then they refer, and they refer,” she said.
Despite how intense the competition for a listing may be, Gottula said she never speaks ill of other agents she might be competing with.
“I think it just doesn’t look good,” Gottula said. “Because I don’t think it takes any of that — it just shows character.”
Across the board, the three speakers stressed how important it is to ask sellers for feedback on why they didn’t get the listing.
“It’s super important for me to understand why I didn’t get the listing,” Sher said. If the sellers try to push him off and say something non-committal, he’ll really press them and ask, “But if you did have an opinion, what would it be?”
At the end of the day, the speakers said an agent can bring a lot of flash to a listing, which may not be needed.
“I spend $5,000 on presentations, but if I don’t need it when the conversation is going on, I don’t use it,” Gold said. “I don’t care how much I spent.”
“I bring some flash,” Sher agreed, “but sometimes I don’t bring it out. So I’ll bring it, I’ll set it aside, and we’ll have a conversation.”
