To answer that question, I should probably start with a different one.

Why do customers pick the agent that they do?

Cutting the to the thrust of the first session of my Flexible Fees Mastery course (in Leeds and London on the 9th and 10th December), it’s about if they like and trust you.

My suggestion is that it is the brand that gets you through the door, but the individual who wins or loses the instruction.

So why shouldn’t we discount?

Well, this is your first real test of trust (and competence). Imagine that the agents tells the customer that the fee is 2%+VAT. They then reduce their fee to 1.5%+VAT during a ‘negotiation’. Well of course it’s not a negotiation as most agents, simply agree to do the same thing for less.

What is the impact on trust?

My view is that it tells a customer that you were trying it on at 2% +VAT. You were always prepared to do it for less, but you were trying it on. They may walk away feeling that if they had pushed harder that you would have gone to 1.25% or less.

A couple of weeks ago I started a podcast where my goal is to get the perspectives of past and present leaders within our industry. If you would like to listen to the two interviews I have done so far they are here. I don’t think Peter could have been clearer about his view on discounting.

What is the alternative?

Many years ago, I was introduced at a Leaders Inc event to a speaker who spoke about tradables as an alternative to discounting.

I love this strategy and it is the strategy that now underpins Flexible Fees. It says that I can charge less if the specification changes. Imagine buying a top specification Range Rover. If you wanted to have the car for less, one option would be to reduce the specification of the car. The engine, the trim, the cream leather could all go to reduce the cost.

In our world the biggest issue is one of risk. The risk that the seller changes their mind, the risk that the property takes longer to sell than we imagined or the risk that the market changes and the seller isn’t prepared to adjust their expectations on price.

We can give the customers choice about how and when they pay. We can give them a choice about how much risk they want to take in the process.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the past 18 months working with agents to train them and also to provide them with tools like Greenhouse OS to help them present their fees.

We’ve made some amazing upgrades recently to help agents show how they can give clients choice to create win / win partnerships.

In the video below you can see a mobile fee calculator that allows the customer to choose between paying something, nothing or everything as a marketing fee.

They can share that with the customer via a link that expires after a set period of time and then the customer can instruct the agent, who is notified by a text message.

You can find more information here.

Final Thoughts

I’ve now seen independents, corporates and self employed models all look and many cases adopt this new way of presenting fees. The average upside is a 23% increase in revenue.

If you are making plans for 2026 I would encourage you to take a close look a this.