Turn Stale Listings Into Sold Signs - Christian Bartley

The market cools, and long days on market expose the real reason many listings stall: weak vendor communication and unstructured vendor reviews. We share a practical system to lead sellers with facts, authority, and a clear Plan B so more listings move from listed to sold.
• vendor reviews starting at the appraisal by locking in motivation, timing and consequences
• running an early review meeting focused on feedback and buyer response rather than price
• shifting language from “I think” to “my advice is” to build authority
• treating vendor reviews as structured presentations with stats and evidence
• simplifying competition into a tight comparable set, sellers can understand
• explaining buyer decision order and the 0–4 week urgency window
• using a Plan B to adjust campaign settings and put choices back to the seller
• documenting meetings with visuals, written summaries and buyer feedback
• using “10 seconds of courage” to deliver hard truths and then stay silent

Real Mentor 

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Transcript

Why The Market Shift Hurts Listings

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello and welcome back to the podcast We Are Selling. My name is Lee Woodward, your coach and host, and the author of the Complete Sales Person course. Today's programme is brought to you by the Agency Portal, Australia's first listed to settled execution platform. This incredible digital platform allows us to use Agency Sign, Agency AML, the sale funding process, commission funder, agency supplier pay, and agency settlements. Agency settlements is the Pixar partner that allows the real estate digital transaction to exist. Let's get started with today's podcast. And joining us now is Mr. Christian Bartley. Christian, welcome to the program. Thank you, Lee. Now, Christian, since we last had you on air, you've started My Real Mentor, you're out there helping people. You even appeared at the complete salesperson course yesterday, and I'm still at the hotel as I've been recording here. But what I'd like to discuss with you today, the market's cooling. The top end is silent crickets. Everyone thought this would never ever happen. And suddenly, and and don't let world events change anything, we've got a different situation, and you're out there helping people that haven't actually had to do this before. And it's very easy in vendor management to get into a rabbit hole because you used one word incorrectly that gave an owner a feeling. So take us into your vendor management communication. What are you teaching out there at the moment?

Systems Missing Between Listed And Sold

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yeah, so I have been going through lead generation with a couple of the companies, but um also began having some conversations with agencies that are in a position where the properties are on the market and they have been on the market for four, eight, twenty, forty weeks, whatever it is. Having that conversation because getting listings hasn't been too difficult for a number of agencies. It's now about converting them from listed to sold. And it's that period in between, from when it's listed to when it's sold, that is starting to stretch out a long way. And a lot of people I've the discussions that I've had with the owners and the agents is they don't have the perfect system and process in place to follow. Having the conversation with a number of the companies is is quite helpful. And I've seen the eyebrows rise when I have a talk because they're hearing new things and a different approach. I'm actually really enjoying having these conversations with agents that then go back into their office and put it in place, and it's a fresh approach and they get a different outcome.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

So, Christian, it'd be fair to say, and I can say this to you because I've known you for so long and you've been in training and coaching all your life, you didn't realise just how well you did it in Bellarine property compared to what goes on out in the open world.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Yeah, and look, um, and no disrespect to any of the agencies out there, but I just see a probably a huge potential where I actually really get excited about uh helping agents and agent owners and businesses where they're all elites at what they do, but I've realized the systems running their processes, they're not elite and it's a bit of a chaos mess. From me in my career, I set up my business the way my brain talked to me. I couldn't sit still and I had an idea and I'd want to put it in place and I'd make it happen. Then I also had to be quite down to worth about it that how would another agent coming into my business adapt and do that process as well? So I wanted to have everyone inside my business function like an agent, for example. I wanted them to have every tool that there was available so they could just go and appraise, list service vendors, service buyers, get it sold, and then follow through with the buyers and the vendors who you've sold for afterwards and complete that perfect process. But every single step that I developed, I put into place and ran with it in our company. And I just thought, you know, oh, I'm doing this, everyone else is doing that as well. And it's not until now that I have these conversations that have you got this in place, have you got that in place? Do you do this? Do you do that? And then I'm really realizing that, geez, Bellerim property was set up beautifully and running well. And whilst I knew we had a good business and successful, I probably didn't, I underestimated how good it really is.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Yeah. Or you underestimated how good the execution was of the project that you completed. And for anyone listening to this program, how many things have you got unfinished and did you go too wide? And do you need to strip it back to five things you are passionate about that you want to get right? And in today's topic, this is a great place to now place it. Christian, take us into five vendor management tips that you did as an agent that allowed the owner to progress to getting to that yes and understanding where they were financially. And it can be in the words, it could be in the facts and evidence. What was number one?

Tip One Start At The Appraisal

Tip Two Early Review Without Price

Tip Three Advisor Language That Leads

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Right now across Australia, Lee, honestly, across all the markets, has properties sitting on the market way longer than they should be. Yeah, whether it's four weeks, eight weeks, twenty, or forty weeks. And the truth is most of most of them don't have a marketing problem. They don't have a photo problem or a video problem, they don't have a bad market problem, they have a vendor communication problem. And that's what's occurring out in the market. So because the quality of your vendor reviews will will directly determine whether the property sells or sits. And the foundation starts at an appraisal. Vendor reviews don't start when the property hits the market, they start at the appraisal. And if you didn't clearly understand why they're selling, when they need to sell, what happens if they don't sell, then you've got no anchor point when things get tough. Because when you're sitting across from a vendor in four or six weeks, logic won't make them move. Motivation will. But you can either do one to two weeks or two to three or four to five. But here's the key. I wouldn't talk about price in that first meeting. Why? Because if you jump to price too early, you lose credibility. And that first review is about feedback, positioning, buyer response, setting expectations. You're building the case and not closing it. So it was about the shift from moving from a nice day, nice agent to trusted advisor. And a lot of agents can unfortunately fall down. They stay in nice mode. And they say things like, I think, I reckon, maybe we should. That language kills authority. You've got to really shift to my advice is I'm advising you, based on the data, this is what we need to do. Because the vendor hasn't employed you to agree with them, they've employed you to lead them. Vindor reviews are really presentations, not conversations. A proper vendor review is not a casual chat, it's a structured presentation. And you should be walking in with clear data on how many days there've been on the market versus the average, the number of inquiries versus what you would expect by now.

Tip Four Present Stats And Competition

SPEAKER_00 7:24

You are such a powerful little trainer there. You've done the first three. One, that set up to sell meeting with an expectations was one. Two, early review meeting that doesn't focus on price, just feedback from the market, build that credibility. Number three, language. And I loved how you just said when you're saying it that way, it's very different to I advise based on the data. Let's go into number four. What's the next part?

Plan B Changes That Create Momentum

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yeah, so the vendor review presentations. I'm, as you know, I'm a stats and facts person, and that's what I would present. And people enjoy that because it's not my opinion. I'm presenting the clear facts and stats on the response from the marketplace on the amount of inquiry that is coming on their property. If you don't get inquiry, you don't get inspection. If you don't have inspections, then the rest doesn't happen. So you've got the ability with the Ignite Reports on RealEstate.com. You've got the ability to assess how many buyers have come through open for inspections, how many people have asked for a contract or had offers on it. They're the facts. Then you need to advise them of what you've got to do. But what you've also mainly got to do, and this is the answer here, Lee, is one of the most powerful things is you can do a vendor review is simplify the competition. So in your marketplace, if you've got 250 homes in the market, that means nothing. Instead, you should be saying you've got 37 competitors right now that have the same amount of bedrooms, bathrooms, car spacins in the same location bracket. Now it becomes real because buyers aren't comparing 250 homes, they're only comparing a short list, and that's how they can filter and sort it out on the website portals. So here's something vendors need to understand, and the agents need to explain better. Buyers make decisions in this order. Photos, does it grab attention? Location, do I like it where it is? Price, can I afford it? Now, the interesting part, if a buyer loves the photos and the location, they'll often still inspect a property even if it's slightly above their budget. But if inquiry is low, it's usually because the price is too far removed from the market. There's a window in every campaign, and the most important one is that first zero to four weeks, which is why the auction method can work so well. And that's when your listing is fresh, buyer interest is the highest, and urgency exists. But if you don't have strong inquiry inspections and early offers, and ideally offers in that window, you need to have a serious conversation. And I used to always bring in at an appraisal that I would give the, I'd be optimistic, but I would also have what is called a plan B, right? Just simple. Because the human who I'm speaking to, being the owner of the house, understands what plan B is because plan A hasn't worked. And if plan A hasn't worked in the first zero to four weeks, I'm not going to be your agent who just sits there and waits for it to happen. I'm going to be advising you a plan because you're employing me to sell your house. And they want to be advised. They just don't say it like that. And that could be adjusting open times, moving from morning to afternoon, or vice versa. It could be refreshing the photos or the hero photo. It could be changing the headline that's on the internet or on the ad copy saying vendor keen to sell, motivated seller, updating the copy, relaunching on your socials, changing the method of sale and going from private to auction or to expressions of interest. But at least what you are doing as an agent is representing them, giving them suggestions and choices, taking the monkey off your back and putting it onto them. Now, if they are a vendor who chooses to say, no, I don't want to do any of that, and no, I don't want to change the price, then I probably put them in the unmotivated column, especially if their property is not saleable after you've been listing the property. So then how you move through the marketplace with that particular vendor, they can change. But or you can just keep that property on your portfolio and keep opening and keep doing inspections, but you've put the onus back onto them because they are the ones either saying yes and they're motivated and they're willing to hear you, or they've said no and you put them into another column, which means unmotivated and unsaleable. But your focus then should be energy, it should be all with the motivated sellers and the saleable properties.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Christian, what I loved about that part of the content you just delivered there so well was number four was lock down the competition. It's not 250, there's 38 competing properties. Now, as you know, on the Ignite app, you can look at the audience of what other properties they looked at when they looked at yours. So they looked at 15 High Street, but they also, and it shows you at the bottom, they looked at that one, that one, and that one. That's the competing properties. And you and I were discussing discussing this off-air, Christian, of how important it is that when you're on the phones in your buyer management day, usually a Wednesday, someone says to you, Oh, look, thanks for all your help, Lee, but we bought something. Where did you buy? And people don't understand how important it is to go back to the owner and say, because the owner's just driven past the competitor signboard with a soul sticker on it, and they go, My house is heaps better than that. I'm gonna sack Lee today because he hasn't sold mine. Yet to go up to someone and report with drawn interest. I showed through Sally Williams two weeks ago, loved your home. She's the one who bought that. So it's not that that company is a better agency. We had the same opportunity, but she saw the value in that property, which was below yours in value. And that's that facts and evidence, and then you just nailed it with the plan B. No one talks about having a plan B cushion, but for you it was a natural thing, and it was also brought up early in the conversation.

Written Follow Up And Visual Proof

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Appraisal. And vendor reviews are where listings are either saved or lost. It's not in the market, not in the brochure, and it's not in the open home. It's in the conversation. If you can understand their motivation, present facts, speak with authority, and guide decisions, you won't just list more, you'll actually sell it. It just comes down to understanding and talking to them in real language. Buyers aren't just looking at one home, they're looking at the multiple ones, and they're going to be comparing value and they will buy what they see is representing more value. Simple as that. So let's position yours on the market because currently you're off market. And the other thing, Lee, is I used to always use the analogy that let's just say you're on the market at 1.5 million. And I used to say this all the time, and watching their faces after I'd say it would be the one of the funniest things because they thought I was serious. But I even though I said the words, I'm going to be, I'm going to say to you something that's sarcastic and hypothetical. You're on the market at$1.5 million. We've been on the market for eight weeks. We haven't had any offers on it, and we're getting a few people through the property. Now, if we changed online today and we put$555,000 on your house and change the price, their face would drop. And they're like, I said, I'm not suggesting we do it, but if we did, we would have a line from your front door out to the street. Okay, because people would be seeing value. I'm not suggesting to drop it to that price, but as you can see, they're not seeing value at 1.5. And we need to adjust it to a range that improves their reaction from the marketplace and captures more inquiry, so then I can bring you an offer. I'm advising that's the approach that we should be doing.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

Absolutely love it. And that falls in line with one of our teachings from the complete salesperson, which is to discuss the three prices. Price one is the buyer engagement level. For every home in the world, there is a price where people are interested and not, and we need to find that engagement level. And with your analogy there, uh, Christian, you know, from low to high, it's like a moving needle, but when it's too low, everybody's interested. So what's that median in between and the buyer engagement level that we can report upon? The second number is the owner's expectation. And owners have a change in expectation each week based upon the feedback they're receiving. Then the third number is you as the agent, what do you think it's going to sell for? If you were setting the reserve in the next minute, what would it be? And if those three numbers can be discussed, it makes such a difference to the owner's chance to understand its value. And Christian, answer this question. Why does an owner feel they're losing money when an improvement of price is achieved when really we just found out what it was worth?

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Yeah, good point. It's it being the expectations that's been presented to them.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Mr. Christian Bartley, what written communications backing up your review meetings worked really well for you?

Ten Seconds Of Courage Conversations

SPEAKER_01 16:07

I documented uh often what vendor what were statements buyers said. So in a vendor reporting system, I would print off and provide that to vendors. But the most powerful document was the stats and facts for me. How many buyers had come through your property that had gone on to buy other properties, days on market, how many offers there have been, how much inquiry that we've had. So I would go through all of the stats and facts and deliver it to them. Then if I was able to print off those, I wouldn't print off, say, for example, use an example of 38 properties on the market for sale that are competitive to you, but I would highlight how many properties there are on the market. They can then visually see that online if they wanted to filter it down. And if they were in person, I would actually bring up that on a computer and show them all their competition. So it was just using visuals, then just following through with a summary of that meeting via a letter or an email. But I would be attempting to get engagement at that particular vendor meeting and an instruction put in place there and then rather than having to follow up with any further documentation.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

What advice have you got for agents who feel incredibly uncomfortable having uncomfortable conversations?

SPEAKER_01 17:21

One of the best things that alleviated me from having that uncomfortable feeling because, yeah, I agree and I understand. If you're presenting facts and stats about what the market is saying, and take that 10 seconds of courage, say it and be silent. You just got to remember it's not your opinion, but you've also got to remember having plagued you to represent them and be their advisor. And if you can step into that mindset and deliver the honest truth, which is what the stats and facts deliver, and then use the dialogue. My advice is my suggestion is we do this right now. It's a lot more powerful than coming up with your opinion and using different dialogue. Stepping into that 10 seconds of courage and delivering it and being quiet, found I found really, really powerful. But just got to remember they've employed you. And it might be really hard and you may not have a great reaction on their face, but you've got to say to them, I'm here to give you the honest opinion. I could sit here and do nothing, and that's easy. And a lot of agents could end up doing that. But you've employed me to get you a result. But the one of the greatest moments is that we still actually haven't even got you a result. You will just want a price. I need to deliver you an outcome so you can say yes or no or accept it. We haven't even got a price yet. So you don't even know what your home is worth. But I'm providing you the steps to put in place so we can get to a level where we eventually get an offer on the property and then you can decide to negotiate or dismiss it or accept it.

Complete Leader Plug And Close

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Mr. Christian Bartley, a wonderful power tip here on the We Are Selling podcast. But before you go, you did a great presentation at the Complete Salesperson course yesterday, and you and I are at the side of the stage there for a moment, looking at all these agents learning and doing their two-day course. And I said to you, I wonder if the principals are doing the same learning and they've got an opportunity this year. You are going to be at the complete leader conference. What are you talking about at Complete Leader?

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Yeah, we're going to go through the lead generation system and what I'd ideally love to see what's implemented into um all their businesses. So, you know, the appraisals statistics go through the roof, and then they're making more money, and the agents are making more money. And uh there's just a few simple tweaks that people can do. And it's like I said to someone, I think I was your nephew yesterday, Rick. Uh I said, Lee's the presenter on the implementer.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

I absolutely love it. Well, Christian Bartley, we're going to have you at Complete Leader, but thank you for appearing today. And we look forward to speaking to you again soon. Thanks, Lee.