A Real Estate Career At Keller Williams Realty
Keller Williams Realty is the fastest growing real estate company in the country. We are now the fourth largest, and we project that by the year 2010, we will be the number one company in the country. It’s really just a matter of time.
There are two reasons why this company is growing so quickly. The first reason is simple…..we are the only profit sharing real estate company in the countytry. Keller Williams Realty shared over $52 million dollars with the agents in 2006!!
The profit sharing money is icing on the cake. it’s really the effects of profit sharing that is most important aspect of affiliating with our company. Everything in this company revolves around one goal the company has: ‘To help the agents build wealth and quality of life.’
It’s not just about making money. It has to do with making money, but it also has to do with enjoying what you do, who you work with, having the time and flexibility to spend with your family, to travel, etc… The way that anybody achieves a high level of quality of life, is that they have to create passive income, money you make without doing anything. You can create passive income from personal investments like investing in real estate or stocks, or you can make passive income through something like profit sharing. Profit sharing is just a form of passive income. So, you better believe that the top agents in our offices are the ones teaching the training classes, sharing their ideas, secrets and models with other agents. Because, by sharing ideas, all of our businesses will go to a higher level…thus making the office/company more profitable, creating more profit sharing for the agents, and better quality of life for all of us.
Now…are we competing with each other? Sure we are…we are all independent contractors, but the fact is, that we are all vested in a common goal, make the office that we work in as profitable as it can be, and that is why we share ideas, and that is really what gives us an advantage over agents at traditional companies, where historically, an agents greatest competition, is the agent sitting next to them. We are the only profit sharing company; everybody else is what I call a traditional company. Now, the other reason that we are growing so quickly, is the philosophy that we have on how agents should run their business, and how agents should market their business.
If you take anything from this blog, it needs to be this point: Agents are the reason they do business…not the company that they work for. A National Association of Realtors survey of consumers determined that 86% chose a real estate firm for no other reason than because of an individual agent. This fact is proven time and time again. Whenever an agent switches from one brokerage to the next, ‘their’ clients follow. YOU are the reason people do business with you and you should build your career on this fact!
When I left Coldwell Banker to join KW four years ago, you better believe that I took all of my clients with me. I went to college with many of them, had long term relationship with them, and they would have followed me any where. The bottom line , is that you are the reason you are going to do business…not the company that you work for. You are the product…not the houses that you will be selling, and as long as you affiliate with a reputable company, your clients will not care which one you work with. So your mindset needs to be: ‘Where is the best place for me to take my business and my relationships?’
To really understand the difference in our philosophy on this subject, I would like to quickly talk about how it has always been in this industry, before KW came along. Historically, if someone wanted to be a real estate agent, a company would hold their license, and they would have the right to market that company’s brand. And the companies that historically have been the most successful have really been the companies that have just done the best job marketing their brand to the consumers. There is a reason that all of these other companies spend millions of dollars a year marketing their brand to the consumers. They run commercials on TV, they sponsor sporting events, run ads in the paper, etc… The bottom line, is that these traditional companies have always seen their greatest asset as their brand recognition, not their agents.
It really comes down to one basic principle in this industry, and that is, loyalty has never really been apart of the real estate industry. Agents realize that they are the reason they do business, not the company they work for, so if there is another company where they can get better training, support, make a higher percentage of their commission, and just net more money….they are going to go there, and take their clients with them. Traditional companies have always known this, so instead of spending money and resources on things like training and support for the agents, they spend their money marketing their company’s brand to the consumers.
These companies are also forced to go after new agents, because new agents don’t know any better. So, many of these companies run licensing schools, and they offer the agents a reimbursement on the licensing course if they join their company. Then of course, they take half of their commission, don’t offer them much training, teach them to market their company, and if they make it…great; if they don’t….well, at least they got some free marketing out of the agent. This is not about those companies are evil, and we are good…it’s just the way I think it’s always been.
Now let’s shift gears, and come back to KW. We are not just different because we are a profit sharing company. We are different, because we think exactly the opposite of the traditional company. We believe that the agent is the reason they do business…not KW. We do not want you out their marketing KW. We are the fastest growing real estate company in the country, and the majority of our growth, is from experienced agents from other companies coming here…and staying here. We do not lose agents, and our marketing, is our signs going up in seller’s yards. If you are looking for any kind of sign of the trends of this industry, I think this is a great indicator: Keller Williams Realty is the fastest growing real estate company in the country, we are presently the fourth largest company and will be number one by the year 2010…yet we do not spend any money marketing our company to the consumers. So…why is KW growing so quickly? The bottom line, is that all we have to be, is the best place for the agents to run their business, and as an effect of their success, and more importantly, their loyalty, the KW brand continues to grow.
I want to give you a real vision for where we see your business two-three years from now. Hopefully, by conveying to you this vision, I will give you a much better idea of who we are as a company. There is no secret to what makes a successful agent successful. They consider themselves, first and foremost, a lead generator…and secondly, a real estate agent. If you do not have clients, you are not a real estate agent. So, the foundation of your business, has got to be systematic lead generation. I am talking about database management, and touching people on a consistent and frequent basis. This is what is going to separate you from all of the other people out there that are ‘playing real estate agent’. You are going to run your business like a business, and that is what is going to secure your future in this industry. One of the greatest aspects of our company, is that since we are a profit sharing company, that means, that everything is based on modeling. You do not have to reinvent the wheel here. Just model your business after the agents in your office that are doing business at a high level.
I think a big problem that many new agents face, is that they are forced to rely on their creativity first, because no one is really showing them what to do. At this company, you follow the model, and then when you hit your ceiling, that is when creativity comes in. If the top agents in our company are willing to share with you their lead generation model, budget model, marketing material, listing presentation….it might make sense to listen to them first. Once again, I can not stress enough to you, that it is the culture of this company, hand’s down, that is going to have the greatest impact on your business. Remember, there is a real incentive for our agents to share ideas, and that is due to our profit sharing model. TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More!
Systematic lead generation is going to be the foundation of your business. Now, I mentioned before, that we do not want you out their marketing KW. What we actually want you to do, is to brand your business, and market that brand as your primary brand. When we talk about branding, we want the agent to create their own logo. We want them to create their own tag line. We want your brand to be on all of your signs, flyers and business cards. Now, KW will be all of over that stuff is well, but we want your brand to be the primary brand. Below are examples of how our agents brand their businesses:
Let’s say that you branded your business The Smith Team @ Keller Williams. You can call yourself ‘Team’, ‘Group’ & ‘Associates’ from day one. You have staff that is working for you in the office. I want you to focus more on the vision, then to get caught up in the name of your business, but we are going to use The Smith Team as an example.
So, you are lead generating systematically, and you are branding The Smith Team as your primary brand. What should happen, is that in the very near future, you are going to find yourself at a point, where you are going to have more leads then you can handle. That is where you want to be as a real estate agent. Because, you can make a great living in real estate just referring leads to other agents and make a 25%-50% referral fee. He or she that controls the business, they have what we call leverage, and that is the key word of this whole conversation. Imagine if you were dependent on your company for business, or you are just not generating enough leads systematically. I will tell you, if that is the case, you are probably going to work on every lead that comes across your desk. And when you find yourself having to work with buyers that are not qualified, and you spend a lot of your time showing them houses that they never ended up buying, or you are forced to work with sellers who are not willing to price their house right, and all you do is spend your money and time trying to market house that will never sell, I promise you, you will realize the value of having a say on who you work with.If you are the one generating the leads, then you are the one who is deciding who you are going to work with. You work with the clients that you want to work with, and you refer the other leads to other agents…and maybe a month or two from now, you will receive a referral check. But remember, this about your quality of life, so you want to be the one that is controlling your business. There is a great saying that I heard once, ‘ Do you want a company that hands you the fish, or do you want a company that teaches you how to fish?’ That is the difference between having a job in real estate and running a business in real estate.Now, at some point in your second year, you should find yourself at a point where you are doing a lot of business, but maybe your overall quality of life is starting to dip, because you do not have the time to spend with your family or do other activities that you want to do. It’s really at that point, that we want you to consider bringing on your first assistant. So, let’s say that you bring on your first assistant, and you just pay this person on an hourly basis to do all of the ‘grunt’ work for you…stocking flyer boxes, sending out your marketing material, doing your paperwork, etc…We want you out there writing contracts, closing your deals, and doing what we call ‘revenue-producing’ activities. Almost all of our models are based off the 80/20 principle. In this business, what that means, is that we want the agent focusing on the 20% of the activities that generate 80% of the business, and the 80% of the activities that generate 20% of the business, we want you to delegate to other people. Once again, the ability for you to delegate that 80%, is coming from the leverage that is created by systematically generating a lot of leads.
So, you business at that time, should go to the next level. You are being more efficient. You are focusing on your 20% that you should be focusing on, and you are delegating the 80% of the activities that you should not be doing. You are continuing to brand The Smith Team, and you are continuing to lead generate systematically…and here is the vision that we have for your business.
What should happen, is that customers will start calling off of The Smith Team’s flyers or signs, and they will never need to talk to you…they will talk to your assistants. And what should happen, is that five, ten, twenty years from now, when you decide to walk away from your business, that The Smith Team should still close transactions without you. It really comes down to one main principle in this industry, and that is customers are loyal to standards of service. Even though you might have a personal relationship with someone, if you are not delivering exceptional service, they are not going to be loyal to you for much longer. So, if you can bring on quality talent, and train them to uphold your standards, i.e., duplicate you…I’m telling you, The Smith Team should be able to generate revenue for you long after you have sold your last house. KW doesn’t just have models and systems for lead generation, we even have it modeled out to the extent of, this is the personality test you give your first assistant, and if their personality graph does not look like this graph, then you do not want to hire them. If it does, these are their responsibilities; this is what we suggest you pay them, your next hire, etc…
KW has is it modeled out from A-Z. ‘A’ is your education, training, lead generation systems. ‘Z’ is your exit strategy out of this business. None of us want to be 90 year old real estate agents! So, when we talk about building wealth and quality of life for the agents, we are not just talking about creating passive income from profit sharing. We are also talking about creating passive income from building your own business, branding that business, and then ultimately, leveraging other people to run it for you.
The concept is, that you are the brand of recognition and KW is the brand of reputation. How does this concept fit with the information that you have gathered so far, and compare to what you are trying to achieve in your real estate career? Does this sound like a good fit?
Let’s also put all of this into context. Let’s say that you affiliated with a traditional company, and I will use Coldwell Banker as an example, because that is where I started my real estate career. If you are marketing Coldwell Banker for 10/15 years as your primary brand, what have you created of value when you are ready to step away from this business? Nothing…you have been marketing that company for 10/15 years. Another way to look at this, is that if everyone at a traditional company is being trained to market that company, you better believe that the person sitting next to you is your greatest competition…they are marketing the same brand as you. So, if you are a seller, and you are interviewing agents for your listing, and you have two Coldwell Banker agents and two KW agents that want to interview. You are not going to interview both Coldwell Banker agents that are marketing the same brand, but it is likely, that you will interview both KW agents that are marketing their own brand/team.
So, traditional companies are not profit sharing companies. The agents there see you as direct competition. Do you really think the top agents in those companies are sharing their ideas and secrets with other agents? It’s not happening. I can not stress enough to you, that it is the culture of KW, hands down, that is the biggest benefit of affiliating with our company.
There will be no substitute for you checking out the training calendar, facilities and technology that we offer the agents. If you are simply judging which company to come to based on training, education and support…there is no question which company you will affiliate. That is our focus as a company. If our agents are not providing value, we are not going to be profitable. Even though we offer the most training and education, what really takes it to the next level, is the fact that the top agents in that office and market are the ones teaching the classes. To me, that is what makes our training so amazing.
In summary, if you are understand the ‘Why’s’ of real estate companies…the ‘What’s’ will make a lot more sense. The biggest ‘Why’ of them all, is the ‘Why’ of LOYALTY!
When you do not have to worry about your agents leaving, it changes everything. Now you do not have to hire everybody that walks in the door with a real estate license, like every other company out there. You can put a maximum cap on commissions that agents pay to the office, because now all you have to do is attract a higher number of quality agents to be more profitable. You can teach the agents to build a business around themselves(their brand), which I think makes it a lot easier for them to leave KW, because they are not tied to our brand. But, they are not going anywhere. This is the best company for them to run their business at. And since we do not have to spend millions of dollars a year marketing KW to the consumers, we spend that money on training, education, and support for the agents. If you just ask yourself one defining question before affiliating with a company, I think the answer to this question will be definitive. Here is the question: ‘Is your company supporting your business…or are you supporting their business?’
‘The greatest transfer of wealth and opportunity are in down cycles not up cycles. What you feel about your market is one thing. How you deal with it is another.’
-Gary Keller;Founder, Chairman of the Board
