What is the Best Way To Handle Difficult Clients With Unrealistic Expectations?

 

What is the Best Way To Handle Difficult Clients With Unrealistic Expectations?

In A Nutshell:


Managing clients with unreasonable expectations demands empathy, clear communication, and teamwork. This approach aligns goals, offers options, and steers clients toward achievable outcomes while delivering top-notch service and building lasting relationships.

 
 

Grasping the Psychology of Challenging Clients

Clients with unreasonable expectations often crave control.

Despite our extensive experience, arguing is counterproductive.

Barry wisely notes, "Even if you win, you lose. It's kind of like being married."

To effectively handle these situations, we must understand the underlying psychology.

Buying or selling a home is a major financial decision, often triggering intense emotions.

Clients may become irrational or cling to unrealistic expectations as a coping mechanism during this stressful process.

Recognizing these motivations allows real estate agents to approach difficult clients with understanding and compassion.

Instead of arguing, the goal should be to guide clients towards more realistic expectations while ensuring they feel valued and heard.

The "Choose Your Own Adventure" Strategy

Barry proposes an innovative tactic for difficult clients: the "choose your own adventure" method.

Similar to the classic book series where readers' decisions shape the story's outcome, this technique involves presenting clients with various options and their potential consequences.

For example, if a client insists on requesting an unreasonable amount for home improvements, a realtor could say:

"If you do that, XYZ might happen. If you do that, another option or another thing that could happen is this. Now if you choose to ask for $5,000, you might have this option and you literally just tell them the implications of their decision. And then you say to them, if it were me, I would choose option one or two. Here are the reasons why. But ultimately it's up to you."

Offering clients clear choices and their potential outcomes facilitates more informed decisions.

This approach appeals to logic, shifting focus from winning arguments to practical problem-solving.

Clients feel empowered while still benefiting from the realtor's expertise and guidance.

Aligning Interests for Effective Communication

Another crucial strategy for managing difficult clients involves aligning your interests with theirs.

"If you can help align your interests with their interests, what you're going to find is they're going to be more apt to listen to you."

Consider the common scenario of a client wanting to sell their home for more than its worth.

Instead of immediately dismissing their expectations, a realtor could say:

"Mr. Smith, no one has ever sold their home for this much in your neighborhood. Let's say that's what the data says. It's never happened before. If I was to sell your home for that much, let me tell you the first thing I would do. I literally would knock on all your neighbors doors. I would have a big sign that says you're welcome. I just rose property values in your neighborhood. I would be a superstar in your neighborhood. So I'm not mad if you do that."

Framing the situation in terms of shared interests - your success and the client's neighborhood property values - makes the conversation more collaborative.

You can then demonstrate you're on the client's side and would be thrilled to achieve such a high sale price.

However, you then follow up with the potential negative consequences of overpricing:

"But here are the things that could happen if you don't sell your home because you listed it too high."

Presenting both positive and negative implications helps the client understand the risks of unrealistic expectations without appearing combative or dismissive.

This balanced approach is more likely to resonate with difficult clients and encourage them to reassess their position.

Parting Thoughts

Handling difficult clients with unrealistic expectations is a common challenge in real estate, but the right strategies and mindset can overcome it.

Acting as a sounding board, presenting options and consequences, aligning interests, leveraging data, and utilizing technology allows realtors to guide clients towards more realistic expectations while maintaining exceptional service.

As Barry Jenkins' insights show, the essential approach is to tackle these situations with empathy, understanding, and a focus on problem-solving.

Mastering these techniques and continuously adapting to industry trends and specific market needs enables real estate professionals to transform even the most challenging clients into satisfied, long-term relationships.

 

  • As discussed earlier, managing client expectations is a crucial skill for real estate professionals.

    Building on the foundation laid out above, let's explore additional strategies and insights to enhance your client management abilities.

    Discovering the Sources of Unrealistic Expectations

    Beyond factors like lack of industry knowledge and emotional investment, other underlying reasons can contribute to clients developing unrealistic expectations:

    Media influence: TV shows, movies, and social media often portray glamorized or oversimplified versions of real estate processes, skewing clients' perceptions and expectations.

    Market dynamics: During housing booms, clients may feel rushed to make decisions or overlook important details, leading to unrealistic expectations about the process or outcomes.

    Personal biases: Clients may bring their own preconceived notions, past experiences, or biases, coloring their expectations and making them more challenging to manage effectively.

    Recognizing these additional factors helps real estate professionals better understand their clients' mindset and tailor their approach accordingly.

    Advanced Tactics for Managing Difficult Clients

    Building on earlier strategies, here are additional techniques for managing difficult clients and their unrealistic expectations:

    Establish clear communication protocols: Set early expectations about communication methods, response times, and update frequency.

    A structured communication plan can prevent misunderstandings and manage expectations.

    Use relatable analogies: When explaining complex real estate concepts, consider using familiar analogies to make information more accessible and memorable, reducing the likelihood of unrealistic expectations stemming from lack of knowledge.

    Propose alternative solutions: When clients have unrealistic expectations, explain why their desired outcome may not be feasible and provide alternative solutions.

    This demonstrates your expertise and commitment to finding workable solutions.

    Involve other experts: Sometimes, involving professionals like home inspectors, appraisers, or attorneys can provide objective insights and manage client expectations.

    These third-party experts can offer unbiased opinions and help clients understand the realities of their situation.

    Remember, managing difficult clients requires a blend of empathy, assertiveness, and adaptability to handle each unique situation successfully.

    Advanced Communication Techniques

    Consider these techniques to further enhance your ability to manage client expectations:

    Practice active listening: Give clients your full attention and focus on understanding their concerns.

    Use nonverbal cues to show engagement and attentiveness.

    Ask probing questions: When clients express expectations or concerns, ask follow-up questions to ensure you fully grasp their perspective.

    This demonstrates genuine interest in their needs.

    Use "I" statements: When addressing unrealistic expectations, express your professional opinion without placing blame or appearing confrontational.

    For example, instead of saying, "You're being unrealistic," try, "I understand your perspective, but based on my experience, I believe a different approach may be more effective."

    Provide written summaries: After important conversations or meetings, provide clients with a written summary of key points discussed, including agreed-upon action items or next steps.

    This ensures everyone is aligned and reduces the risk of misunderstandings.

    Establishing Client Boundaries

    Here are additional strategies for establishing and maintaining healthy boundaries with clients:

    Communicate boundaries upfront: During initial meetings, clearly communicate your professional boundaries, such as working hours, response times, and service scope.

    This sets the tone for the relationship and helps prevent unrealistic expectations from the outset.

    Consistently enforce boundaries: Once established, consistently enforce your boundaries.

    Making exceptions can lead to difficulties in managing expectations later.

    Use positive reinforcement: When clients respect your boundaries and work within established parameters, acknowledge and appreciate their cooperation.

    This encourages continued adherence to boundaries and fosters a more collaborative relationship.

    Have a clear escalation process: For situations where a client repeatedly crosses boundaries or becomes unreasonable, have a clear escalation process in place.

    This may involve bringing in a supervisor or manager to address the situation or, in extreme cases, terminating the relationship if the client's behavior becomes untenable.

    Setting and maintaining boundaries creates a framework for a mutually respectful and productive working relationship.

  • BARRY:

    "Handling difficult clients and those that have unrealistic expectations is unfortunately pretty common in the real estate space.

    One of the main things that tends to motivate these people is they want to be in control.

    And as professionals that kind of goes against that's offensive.

    Like I'm the you know, I'm the professional I've been doing this X amount of years.

    Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    And then you get into this debate where you lose.

    Basically, you never win.

    Even if you win, you lose.

    It's kind of like being married.

    So you know, the thing that I'll tell you that works every single time is similar to those old school choose your own adventure books, right?

    You read the chapter and then the book changes based on what options.

    So if you go through option one, you'll get this option two, you'll get this and option three, you'll get this right.

    And so what you have to do is you have to be a sounding board to the client.

    You have to say to them, look, I hear you that you want to ask for $10,000 for new flooring.

    I got it.

    I understand.

    Here are your options.

    If you do that, XYZ might happen.

    If you do that, if you do that, another option or another thing that could happen is this.

    Now if you choose to ask for $5,000, you might have this option and you literally just tell them the implications of their decision.

    And then you say to them, if it were me, I would choose option one or two.

    Here are the reasons why.

    But ultimately it's up to you.

    What this does is about half of the time the person uses the logical side of their brain.

    They're not focused on winning an argument with you.

    They look at it pragmatically.

    It's very valuable.

    This is one of the largest financial transactions of someone's life and people tend to be irrational.

    So that the fact that you can be that sounding board to them, it's really key to helping empower them to get the job done.

    The other thing I would say is shared interests.

    So if you can help align your interests with their interests, what you're going to find is they're going to be more apt to listen to you.

    A great example of this is if they want to sell the home for more than it's worth.

    Right.

    The first thing I tell my agents to say is, Mr. Smith, no one has ever sold their home for this much.

    What you want to do in your neighborhood.

    Let's say that's what the data says.

    It's never happened before.

    If I was to sell your home for that much, let me tell you the first thing I would do.

    I literally would knock on all your neighbors doors.

    I would have a big sign that says you're welcome.

    I just rose property values in your neighborhood.

    I would be a superstar in your neighborhood.

    So I'm not mad if you do that.

    But here are the things that could happen if you don't sell your home because you listed it too high.

    And then I would list the several negative impacts that happen when you overprice your home.

    So I started with I'm going to win either way.

    And now that we've aligned our interests, that's when they tend to listen to you a little bit more."

 

Barry Jenkins

Realtor, Speaker, Coach, Trainer, Author, and Head Realtor in Residence at Ylopo