Three agents walk into a listing presentation. They’ve all got the same portal options, the same slide deck with the logo swapped out.
Two of them talk about themselves for an hour. One of them already knows the vendor is an analyst who wants data first, hates small talk, and is secretly worried about being ghosted mid-campaign.
Guess who wins.
In Week 2 of the AI Sprint, Elite Agent’s Samantha McLean moves from who’s buying (last week’s buyer personas) to who’s selling – and how understanding your vendor’s personality type can completely change the way you pitch, present, and follow up.
Watch the full episode:
The recap: start with WHO, not how
Week 1 was about redesigning the factory. Instead of bolting AI onto the same old listing presentation, Samantha walked through a process for identifying buyer personas before the appraisal – so you walk in with targeted copy and a tailored marketing strategy instead of a generic proposal.
Your mission from Week 1: make every seller feel like you’ve built a campaign just for them. Because you did.
Week 2 builds on that foundation with a different question: how do you communicate with the vendor in the way they want to be communicated with?
Bird watching: the framework that’s older than the internet
Before Crystal Knows, before ChatGPT, before any of this – there was bird watching.
Samantha shared a framework from her days in telecommunications sales at British Telecom and Optus, where the team renamed the four DISC styles after birds to make them easier to remember in the field.
Eagles are your drivers. Results-oriented, unemotional, willing to take calculated risks. Give them options and focus on ROI. Don’t waste their time.
Peacocks are your expressives. Big picture thinkers, extroverted, spontaneous. They act on feelings rather than facts. Appeal to them emotionally, show them something new, and bring your best testimonials.
Doves are your amiables. They want to be your friend. Sympathetic, warm, diplomatic – but they hesitate to make firm decisions. De-risk the process for them. Your guarantee isn’t about price; it’s about presence. “You can call me any time of the day or night, and I will be there.”
Owls are your analysts. Process-oriented, precise, thorough researchers who can be a little nitpicky. Lead with data. Then more data. Then a spreadsheet.
The power move? If you don’t know which bird you’re dealing with, include all four elements: two options (for the eagle), testimonials (for the peacock), a guarantee (for the dove), and data (for the owl). But once you do know, lead with what matters to them.
“It’s just one more prompt,” Samantha said.
“The next time you ask ChatGPT to fix an email so it sounds more like you – just add a line saying, ‘Can you please fix this email to appeal to an analyst?’ Because then it’s not about you. It’s about them.”
Crystal Knows: powerful but pricey
Samantha demonstrated Crystal Knows, a tool that’s been mining online data since 2014 to build personality profiles of essentially everyone. Blog posts, social media, public content – Crystal triangulates it all into DISC-style profiles with dos and don’ts for communication.
The live demo showed Samantha’s own profile (a motivator who’s “occasionally late” but “will likely bring a lively, colorful story”), her husband Mark’s profile, and others – then asked ChatGPT to determine which teammate would be the better fit for a listing presentation with a hypothetical client.
ChatGPT’s verdict: Mark. His more direct, decisive style was a better starting match for the clients analytical CD profile than Samantha’s expressive, relationship-led approach. It even generated a full playbook for Mark, including an opening script, a suggested agenda, and guidance on avoiding blind spots.
The catch? Crystal now costs USD $588 per year, paid up front. No monthly option.
The alternative that costs a fraction
This is where Insiders comes in. Samantha has built a client profiler directly into Elite Agent’s Ailsa tool that takes a different approach: instead of mining public data, it works from your own observations and communications.
The profiler runs through a guided questionnaire – questions like “When this vendor needs to make a decision about pricing, what’s their approach?” and “When things don’t go to plan, how do they react?” – and generates a DISC profile based on how you, the agent who’s actually met this person, describe their behaviour.
Samantha profiled Mark live on the session. The result: a CD profile with reasonable confidence. Analytical, data-driven, needs proof, wants to feel informed and in control. Frustrated by vague information and inefficiency. Prefers written communication that’s concise and data-rich.
“One of our insiders kicked the tyres on this pretty hard,” Samantha said, “and said it’s more accurate than Crystal – because it comes from your own observations and your own communications.”
The profiler also generates communication tips, strategy recommendations, and compatibility notes tailored to the vendor’s sales stage. You can upload transcripts, paste in emails, and add observations over time to sharpen the profile further.
The “Before We Meet” survey: favourite or fool?
The session’s biggest reveal was a pre-meeting survey designed to do three things at once: gather intel for buyer personas, surface DISC signals from how the vendor answers (not just what they say), and determine whether you’re the favourite or the fool.
The concept comes from Steve Schull and Chris Voss’s book The Full Fee Agent. Their core insight: when a seller calls you in, they’ve usually already decided who they want to work with – or they’re leaning strongly. Most agents spend hours preparing a presentation without ever knowing whether they’re the real contender or just the comparison quote.
Samantha’s survey is framed as a positive: “Before we meet, I like to do my homework so we don’t waste time on things that don’t matter to you. I’ve got a short questionnaire – it takes about five minutes and helps me come prepared with a strategy that fits you, rather than a generic pitch.”
The questions cover timing, property attachment, selling motivation, biggest worries, what a great agent experience looks like, whether they’ve met other agents, and their dream-versus-nightmare scenario for the sale. The final question asks for consent to use AI to analyse responses and prepare a tailored strategy.
When Mark completed the survey live, the tool instantly generated a DISC assessment (S with secondary C, high confidence), a favourite-or-fool verdict (“possible fool – his ‘why us’ response is concerningly weak”), a price reality check, a fear map, and ad copy gold pulled directly from his answers.
“He’s actually telling you what he wants,” Samantha said. “And then the real power is – once you’ve worked out who, you think about what you do with that information to be more customer-focused.”
The one-prompt version
Not ready for the full workflow? Samantha’s minimum viable approach is a single addition to prompts you’re already writing.
Next time you ask ChatGPT to draft an email, a vendor report, or a follow-up message, add one line: “The recipient is a [DISC type]. Please tailor this accordingly.”
If you’re sending a vendor report to an analyst, lead with the data. If you’re pitching to a dove, lead with the guarantee. If you’re presenting to a driver, give them two options and let them choose.
“What a time to be alive,” Samantha said. “You know, I can’t believe I survived university without ChatGPT either. But here we are.”
The bigger picture
The technique does more than save time. It shifts the entire listing presentation from being about the agent to being about the vendor.
“The best AI for a customer is the AI they don’t see,” Samantha said.
“You show them the human and leave the AI in the back office – so you can provide them with a better experience.”
Crystal Knows costs USD $588 a year. Elite Agent Insiders – which includes the DISC profiler, buyer personas, listing copy generation, and tools Samantha will reveal in coming weeks – is $297 a year. Plus, anyone who signs up for an annual plan gets a half-hour one-on-one with Samantha.
The AI Sprint continues over the next two weeks, covering objection handling, pitch rehearsal, and more. Week 1 is also available to watch.
Sign up for the remaining AI Sprint sessions https://aisprint.eliteagent.com
Sign up for Elite Agent Insiders https://join.eliteagent.com
The AI Edit is a weekly series from Elite Agent exploring practical AI applications for real estate professionals.