December 27, 2024Kendall Bonner shares her journey from real estate agent and attorney to Vice President of Industry Relations at eXp Realty, where she now leads their business solutions division. She offers deep insights into how agents can leverage technology while maintaining authenticity, emphasizing the importance of strategic implementation over overwhelming adoption. The conversation takes an unexpected turn when Kendall challenges the traditional view of real estate as a sales profession, making a powerful case for negotiation as the core skill agents need to master. Through practical examples and real-world scenarios, she demonstrates how every aspect of the business, from lead conversion to closing, is fundamentally a negotiation rather than a sale.
Chapters:
- 00:00:00 – Introduction to Cash Offers as a Competitive Edge
- 00:00:36 – Welcome to the Reside Platform Podcast
- 00:00:47 – From Attorney to EXP Executive: Meet Kendall Bonner
- 00:01:11 – The Power of Real-World Industry Connections
- 00:02:49 – Behind the Scenes: VP of Industry Relations at EXP
- 00:06:34 – Strategic Tech Tools That Actually Drive Results
- 00:09:00 – Building a Tech Stack for Your Business
- 00:12:00 – Express Offers: Adding Value Through Cash Offers
- 00:16:00 – Balancing Multiple Tech Solutions
- 00:19:00 – Creating a One-Stop Shop vs One-Trick Pony
- 00:21:00 – The Future of Real Estate Technology
- 00:23:31 – Why Negotiation is Your Most Valuable Skill
- 00:28:04 – Connect with Kendall and Next Steps
Links and Resources:
- Reside Platform
- Reside Platform Website
- Kendall Bonner on LinkedIn
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Episode breakdown: negotiation as the core agent skill
Kendall Bonner is an attorney and former agent, broker and team leader who co-founded the Kendall Bonner Team in Tampa, Florida. She is now vice president of industry relations at eXp Realty, where she leads the company’s business solutions program, vetting and negotiating the technology offered to agents. She talks with Suneet Agarwal about how agents should adopt technology without drowning in it, and why she thinks negotiation, not sales, is the skill that matters most.
Treat every step of the deal as a negotiation
Asked for the single most important skill for agents, Kendall doesn’t hesitate. Getting a prospect to book an appointment is a negotiation. Getting them to sign your agreement is a negotiation. From contract to closing, agents negotiate the inspection, the appraisal and sometimes the financing.
Most agents think their main skill is sales, but it’s not. It’s negotiations.
Kendall Bonner
Her reasoning is that agents can’t make anyone buy or sell a house. People don’t window shop homes and decide on a whim. By the time they talk to an agent, the move is going to happen either way. The only open question is whether it happens with you, and that comes down to how well you negotiate them into hiring you.
The decision to buy or sell a house was made long before they ever spoke to you.
Kendall Bonner
Learn two or three negotiation strategies and use them daily
Kendall met her husband in a law school negotiation class, but she doesn’t think agents need a degree to get good at this. She recommends Chris Voss, with one caution. People hear “hostage negotiation” and miss the point, so look for the content where he applies his ideas to real estate. Then search YouTube and Google for negotiation strategies and pick two or three to go deep on for months.
The practice ground is everywhere. You negotiate with your children and your spouse every day. Kendall’s view is that skills transfer, and that recognizing a skill and carrying it into the next role is how she became a strong agent and, later, an executive.
Walk into the listing appointment with every option
When Kendall was a listing agent, her pitch started from a simple contrast. Most agents give a seller two options, list with me or don’t. She would lay out every option she knew of: the open market, an office exclusive, a cash offer or instant sale, help with buying before selling, concierge and renovation services, staging, and auction.
The point isn’t that every seller takes a cash offer. Most won’t. The point is that the agent has a solution for whatever problem the seller has, whether it’s timing, money or not wanting to put more into the house. That pitch only works if the agent has the tools and relationships to back it up.
Add technology one or two tools at a time, where the need is deepest
Kendall’s approach to tech starts with where it fits in the agent’s process: lead generation, conversion or retention. When she considers a new vendor for agents, that is her first question. Her coaching advice follows the same logic.
I can give you 25 different things that you could do to your business to overhaul it, but that’s not fair or realistic or likely.
Kendall Bonner
Instead, find your deepest need, whether that’s lead generation, technology, systems or leverage. Pick one or two solutions, get them integrated, and only then move to the next thing. For most agents, Suneet adds, the first need is simply a CRM.
Make the agent the hub and let the tools talk to each other
Asked what the perfect tech tool would be, Kendall separates the agent from the software. She’s skeptical of companies that try to do everything, because people attach to one piece and not another, and it’s hard to stay ahead on every feature when technology moves this fast. Her ideal is software that does one thing very well and integrates with everything else, with the agent at the center. She points to Follow Up Boss as an example. It stayed a CRM and focused on integrating with other tools.
She has lived the other side of that. She still pays for three CRMs, and she intentionally paired Sierra Interactive with Follow Up Boss, something she says a lot of teams have done.
Key takeaways for team leaders
- Train negotiation as a core skill, from booking the appointment through inspection, appraisal and closing.
- Have agents pick two or three negotiation techniques and practice them for months, including outside of work.
- Build a listing presentation that offers every option you can actually deliver, not just “list with me.”
- Before adding a tool, decide whether it serves lead generation, conversion or retention, and where it fits in the process.
- Roll out one or two tools at a time and get them integrated before adding more.
