Exactly What to Say: Scripts That Close Deals

Exactly What to Say for Real Estate Agents by Phil Jones puts language under a microscope — and a group of KW New Orleans agents spent a session testing every word against real deals they’ve almost lost.

Why It Matters

Most agents think they lost the deal on price. The harder truth — the one this book keeps circling back to — is they probably lost it in the conversation. A client who feels talked into something will find a reason to walk, whether that’s a last-minute financing issue or a sudden change of heart on the price.

This is the conversation that unfolded inside a recent KW New Orleans book club session centered on Exactly What to Say for Real Estate Agents by Phil Jones. Agents from across the office — some with decades of experience, some newer to the business — came with dog-eared copies and stories of the deals where the right phrase at the right moment would have changed everything.

The State of Play

The core argument of Exactly What to Say for Real Estate Agents is that language isn’t decoration — it’s architecture. The words you choose either build a path to yes or quietly close it off. Several themes surfaced repeatedly in the group’s discussion.

The Power of “Just Imagine”

One two-word phrase generated more discussion than almost anything else in the book. Just imagine works because every conscious decision gets made at least twice: first in the mind, then in reality. An agent who prompts that mental rehearsal is doing something much more sophisticated than pitching features.

The group walked through real examples. Just imagine the look on your kids’ faces when they see this backyard. Just imagine losing this property to a higher bidder. Just imagine this house sitting on the market another six months. Each version pulls the client into a specific emotional future and lets them feel the outcome before they decide. One agent in the session described using the prompt with a buyer whose mother wasn’t ready to downsize — and the answer that came back was no. Which was the right answer. The deal that doesn’t close in that moment is better than the deal that falls apart at the closing table.

This also reframes what “losing” an appointment actually means. If the prompt surfaces genuine reluctance, that reluctance was always going to show up somewhere. Better at the kitchen table than after contracts are signed.

“I’m Not Sure It’s for You”

Of all the phrases the group tested, this one produced the most visceral reaction. It sounds like disqualification. What it actually does is remove pressure — and pressure is exactly what makes people resist.

One agent described using it consistently at open houses: after a few questions establishing what a buyer wants, the pivot becomes something like, I’m not sure it’s for you, but a lot of buyers I work with find the most helpful first step is sitting down with a professional to zero in on what they actually need. The response, reliably, is: No, that is for me. The psychology is simple — telling someone something might not be for them triggers the instinct to prove otherwise. Used honestly, it’s not manipulation. It’s removing the sales pressure that was blocking the client’s own reasoning.

Listing Appointments: Control the Room

The conversation shifted hard into listing appointment strategy, and here the group got specific and occasionally argumentative — in the best way.

One thread centered on where to have the pricing conversation. Meeting sellers at your office, rather than in their home, gives you a structural advantage: you’re on neutral ground, you control the clock, and you’re not sitting in their living room surrounded by forty years of memories they want to narrate. But another voice in the room pushed back — if you’re one of three agents being interviewed, making a seller come to your office before you’ve built enough trust is a gap your competitors will exploit. The consensus that emerged: know the situation before you decide the venue. There is no universal rule, only better and worse reads of who holds the leverage.

The net sheet came up as a powerful tool for deflecting commission conversations. When a seller asks what you charge, the instinct is to defend the number. The better move is to shift to the net sheet — what lands in their pocket after everything closes. That reframes the agent as a fiduciary focused on the client’s financial outcome, not a vendor haggling over price. One caveat the group noted: you rarely get all the inputs for a clean net sheet on a first visit. Sellers don’t volunteer second mortgages or liens upfront. You have to earn the information before you can use it effectively.

One practical scheduling technique surfaced that the group responded to immediately: instead of asking “Can I come back tomorrow?” — which invites negotiation — try “If we set another meeting for three o’clock tomorrow, is that too late for you?” The client answers a specific question. They’ve agreed to a time. The next step is already scheduled.

The Practice Problem

Every agent in the room agreed that preparation is essential. Most of them, by their own admission, don’t do enough of it.

The comparison made was direct: a team pitching a major account will rehearse their presentation dozens of times. Real estate agents walk into listing appointments — where the financial stakes are entirely personal — without having said their key phrases out loud once. The book club format itself is one answer to this. Script practice partners are another, though scheduling makes consistency hard. Several agents mentioned AI roleplay tools as a useful supplement: available on demand, and reportedly quite demanding.

One agent described a workflow that’s easier to start with: before sending a difficult text or email — a pushback on an offer, a tense exchange with another agent — run the draft through a Phil Jones-style lens. What’s the emotional outcome you want? What question could open the door instead of closing it? The written word gives you editing time that a live conversation doesn’t. Use it.

For agents newer to the business, the group offered something concrete: even memorizing the opening structure of a call — a fact, a question, a clear next step — takes most of the fear out of cold outreach. You don’t sound nervous when you already know your first three moves.

Agent-to-Agent Language Matters Too

One of the sharper observations in the session came from an agent who pointed out that Phil Jones’s framework doesn’t stop at the client relationship. It applies to every conversation — including the ones with other agents.

She described getting off a call with a listing agent on a Saturday feeling like she’d done her best work — and then being asked if she could email a summary of the conversation so the sellers could review it. The language she’d used had been clear and persuasive enough that the agent wanted to pass it upstream. That’s the standard. When you’re advocating for a buyer in a competitive situation, you’re selling twice: once to the agent, once to the seller behind them. The agent who understands that treats every call as a positioning opportunity.

About this series. KW New Orleans hosts regular conversations with the leaders shaping our city — developers, architects, investors, and operators building the New Orleans of tomorrow. These are the conversations that happen in the rooms most people don’t get invited into. Recent conversations: Why Human Connection Wins in the AI Era.