Kinga Korpacz is a broker/owner with EXIT Realty Redefined in Rolling Meadows

“C” personalities are accurate, precise and detail-oriented. “D” personality are direct and decisive. And “S” personalities are steady and stable.

Those are three tenets of the famous DISC Personality Styles, which play an integral role in the real estate business of Kinga Korpacz, a broker/owner with EXIT Realty Redefined in Rolling Meadows who has been using DISC for years.

“Every single agent should take the DISC course – it should be mandatory,” says Korpacz, who has internalized the personality types of DISC and refers to it when meeting with clients and negotiating with her fellow agents.

Hand shakes, emails, phone calls

DISC traces its history back to 1928, when William Moulton Marston – a brilliant psychologist who created not only the Polygraph Machine, but also the comic book heroine Wonder Woman – developed the personality system for his trailblazing book Emotions of Normal People.

Now, DISC is a fixture in the business world, and after learning about it at a business conference early in her career, Korpacz applies its metrics to all the individuals she encounters – no matter the method of communication.

“With every agent who contacts me to present an offer or ask a question, I respond to them how they want me to respond,” Korpacz explains. “When I meet with someone, the way they shake my hand tells me what personality they are. Or, if an buyer’s agent calls me and presents an offer, I can figure out who their clients are and how to present the counteroffer, based on the way the agent talks. If they are a ‘D’ personality, I will just text or say one word with the numbers, and they will get back to me with that.”

Email composition is also game.

“If I have an agent who sends me a long email, they are an ’S’ personality. I know that I will have to respond in a similarly detailed way and say nice things about the house, such as how beautiful it is and how my client will take care of it. I want to be exactly on their side.”

The importance of positivity

Along with tailoring her business approach to her colleagues’ personalities, Korpacz has one prevailing principle – be positive.

“It’s amazing, the positive things you say – to agents, to banks, to the people you’re working with – and how effective they are in the negotiation,” she explains. “When agents present an offer, I’ll say to them, ‘Thank you so much for the offer. I love working with you. You’re amazing.’”

By being positive, Korpacz immediately connects with her fellow agents, and once she builds that personal bond, the negotiation flows from there.

“Once they know you personally,” she says, “it is much easier to negotiate with them.”