Maintaining Constant Focus on Gaining Referrals

With Gary Keller as moderator, Christi Cannon kicked off a Mega Camp panel by declaring that her business strategy is to have a constant focus on gaining referrals.

Prior to working with many of her clients, Cannon had already begun building a relationship with the assistance of her database management program. This database enables her team to become a systematic referral machine capable of generating a high volume of leads.

The importance that Cannon places on referrals has led her to create more than two dozen different action plans, each tailored to a specific type of client and need. Cannon personalizes each of her messages to convey her team’s focus on providing exceptional “5-star” customer service.

Although these systems are a tool for providing great customer service, Cannon stresses the importance of always acknowledging the individual on the receiving end of her communications. “They can’t just be an address, or a number in your system,” she said. “They see right through it.” Agents must create their touches with this very important fact in mind and aim to provide points of value. Those who do will find that their contacts respect them and refer them.

How to Initiate a System

1. Find a database management program that meets your needs and stick with it.
2. Enter everyone you can possibly imagine into the database.
3. Put these contacts on a tailored action plan. Do not underestimate the power of a “personal touch” or a unique spin in order to be memorable.
4. Keep the touch campaign continually active and offer points of value.

How to Grow a Drip Campaign

1. Put your clients in a specific, highly-tailored campaign.
2. Create customized messages and actions.
3. Have a personal touch.
4. Be consistent.

Kenny Klaus of the Kenny Klaus Team in Mesa Arizona, also spoke with Keller on the panel. Klaus spoke about his “ONE Thing”- farming.

Klaus describes farming (i.e., cultivating a territory) as a consistent, systematic touch tool that is authentic and adds value to a network. Whereas Cannon’s database is people-driven in context, Klaus’ database is location-centric.

Farming is an approach that is hyper-local in focus and requires “giving in order to receive.” It is a long-term mentality. “Over the next 2, 3, 10 years, I’ll know every house, every business, every community leader,” Klaus explained. By connecting with his community and leading with a servant’s heart, he knows that he will eventually be rewarded.

A prime example of this approach was when the local market shifted and Klaus’ team used their expert knowledge to offer classes on the topic of how to avoid foreclosure. Klaus built trust and goodwill among his neighbors and this brought the team business once market conditions became more favorable.

Building a large audience (in Klaus’ case, a reach of 20,000 individuals monthly) is something that is built over time. Klaus sees this as an investment. While referencing National Association of REALTORS® statistics, Klaus stated that consumers want to hire local people with local market knowledge. With this fact in mind, Klaus has built his reputation and branded himself as a go-to agent in his community.

Before closing the conversation, Klaus noted that by following the basic principles outlined above he went from simply having a job in real estate to owning a real estate business. To which Keller replied, “You build a big business one step at a time. That’s never where you start.”

Moving on to the third and final panelist, Keller asked Michael Perna of the Perna Team, “How do you pick a farm?”

Perna replied with the practical advice to look for neighborhoods with 300+ homes. Do your due diligence and be certain that no other agent has 30 percent or more of the market share in the neighborhood already. If this is the case, Perna advises you to move on in order to avoid the costs associated with trying to push another agent out. Keller concurred: “Go to a place that you can own. Don’t go to battle!”

Perna provided 4 tips for being successful in building your farm:

1. Know the farm inside and out including the builders, floor plans, local schools, parks, points of interest, etc.
2. Set up a web page for each specific neighborhood that includes hyper local information.
3. Door knock and hold open houses.
4. Write thank you notes.

Keller was especially interested in tip number 3. “Real estate is a contact sport,” Perna explained. “People do not buy or sell without real estate agents. Most important, they want to know and trust the person they are buying or selling through.”

Keller agreed wholeheartedly. “Not only is ¾ of the world’s wealth tied up in it, but it is the most expensive asset that over 90 percent of the people in the U.S. and Canada own.” Where a person lives “determines their lifestyle more than anything else. It drives everything from where the kids go to school, to where the family shops, to who your neighbors are”.

Perna and his team go to great effort to perform door knocks 2-3 days prior to their open houses. They invite neighbors to attend the open house for refreshments and to meet the team. Next, Perna’s inside sales agent calls the neighborhood and those nearby to ask what drew them to the neighborhood where they purchased. This is quickly followed by a question about their intention to buy or sell within the next 24 months. Any favorable responses are added to the database and the potential client is immediately placed on a touch campaign.

How do you get to the success level Perna has achieved?

1. Start small and lead with revenue.
2. Commit to a plan for a minimum of 12 months.
3. Reinvest back in to the farm.
4. Despite changing market conditions, remain committed to your systems.

To learn more about Perna and his team, check out this Q&A on the KW Blog.

Nikki Ubaldini Talks with REAL Trends About Her Path to Real Estate

REAL Trends interviewed Keller Williams associate Nikki Ubaldini of Florida about her successful husband-and-wife real estate team and her path to real estate. Ubaldini is a broker with more than 500 sales associates and three offices. She shares how she got hooked on real estate and how Keller Williams has helped her along the way.

REAL Trends: Tell us about your path into real estate.

Ubaldini: We got into real estate because we had purchased homes in Florida and Canada.
When we moved to Florida, we sold our Canadian home and had to come to closing with a check for $10,000! We felt we had been mislead by our real estate agent, so we thought, if we want to continue buying real estate, we should get our own licenses. We were in entertainment at night and saw an ad from a real estate company saying they would pay for our licenses if we hung them there for one year. We didn’t plan to sell real estate, just invest. We went to an office meeting, and they challenged us to start lead generating. We started getting listings! In fact, we got three listings from one of our first appointments. We were hooked.

We continued in our entertainment jobs by night for the first five years of our real estate careers. For years I was a salesperson. It wasn’t until I found Keller Williams did I decide to venture into brokerage. Along with my husband, Gary, I run a 10-person team, specializing in residential real estate. We’ve done that since 1986. I grew up in the Tampa Bay area. Our team and our brokerage have one main goal: to create raving fans of our clients. I’m also a Keller Williams trainer.

REAL Trends:  Tell me one lesson learned when building your brokerage.

Ubaldini: I learned that you must choose the correct real estate model. I didn’t do that right out of the gate. I made the mistake of going with a model that didn’t allow me to find influential agents so we struggled growing that brokerage. Finally, I chose a franchise that was profit centric versus franchise centric. When you do that you focus more around the influencers to help you build it. Once we did that, the brokerage thrived.

REAL Trends: What was the biggest challenge you faced professionally when building your brokerage?

Ubaldini: I believe my greatest challenge was navigating the learning curve. For so many years, I was a salesperson and then I moved into leadership. It’s a big learning curve and requires you to find the other leaders who can help you grow and run the offices. It requires a new set of skills.

REAL Trends: Based on your experience, what is the one thing you did with your brokerage that changed the trajectory of your business? What was the turning point from success to major success?

Ubaldini: You must have consistency and focus. We look at growth and productivity. If an activity doesn’t fit with our goals, then we don’t do it. It’s too easy to have squirrels running around. We have a clear goal, and if something does not fit with our focus, then we don’t do It.

This interview was originally published in REAL Trends. View it here.

Expansion Model Is the Next Avenue to Growth and Profitability

An advance guard of Keller Williams mega agents are changing the real estate industry by expanding their businesses into new locations. These locations don’t have to be in the same city, or even the same state. There are two key pieces for successful expansion: administrative systems and lead generation systems. To expand to another location, you must master and develop these systems. Expansion will expose any holes in your current business, which allows you to strengthen your business for further expansion.

Why would you want to expand? It’s simple: profit. Expanding allows you to increase profits, attract and retain better talent and provide better opportunities for your team members and their families. In the end, you are deepening your bench, allowing you to fill needs with strong talent and grow beyond your reach. How and when do you expand? You expand when your systems and people are right; you expand where the right people are.

Expansion is not something that happens quickly, Gary mentioned Keller Williams as a good example. It takes 2-5 years to develop the 2^nd location, then another 1 to 2 years after to add a third. Over the course of these years you will discover what is and is not working and be able to perfect it. Exponential growth starts to happen after 3, 4 and 5 locations.

Gary Keller welcomed a panel of successful expansion business owners to talk about why they chose to expand and how it is working. The first panelist, Ashley Wilson, felt that her first expansion from Raleigh, N.C., into Charlotte was just a natural extension of her existing business. The two cities are only 150 miles apart and generate a lot of crossover referral business. Expanding allowed Wilson to make her business’ systems bulletproof. “I want to be able to go into any city within 100 miles and duplicate it,” she said.

The next panelist, Ben Kinney of Bellingham, Wash., said his expansion was all about building the right talent. As he expanded south (the business is constrained geographically by Canada to the north, water to the west and mountains to the east), Kinney realized that the farther away from the hub, the more problems they had to deal with. He knew he needed to have the right talent in the right place so that they could succeed together. Panelist Tim Heyl of Austin, Tex., reinforced this view and discussed his ability to uncover untapped resources within his own business that could be better utilized. “It’s not two businesses,” Heyl said. “It’s growing the business we already have!”

Kristan Cole, who serves as Vice President of Mega Agent Expansion for Keller Williams, launched her team’s expansion in her home state of Alaska when she saw opportunity in the larger Anchorage market. She subsequently expanded into Arizona and Utah as well. Cole models her business on her first hub in Wasilla. This hub does transaction management for the Anchorage office, allowing for a higher level of efficiency. This is where expansion systems succeed, just like economies of scale.

Jason Abrams of the HGTV show Scoring the Deal, has carved out a successful expansion business catering to professional athletes looking for homes as they move to another sports team. “It all spawned from filling a need,” Abrams said.

The most important part of expanding and also the biggest challenge is finding talent. It’s all about finding the right people at the right time in their life. How do you fund this talent? Kinney summed up his talent acquisition in three words: “Always be looking. Look for those young people who want to build a career and a life. The opportunity is to teach and perfect that.”

If you are interested in learning more about the expansion model, Cole is teaching Expansion Systems Orientation October 16-17 or December 4-5 at the Keller Williams Learning Center in Austin. “Even if you don’t expand you will leave there and your business will be better,” Cole said.

Keller Williams Profit Share Program Rewards Growth

Dan Harker of the Harker Five Star Team in Dallas shared with Mega Camp participants how he and his family are seizing the benefits of the Keller Williams Profit Share program. Harker pointed out that the Pareto principle seems to apply to Profit Share, as only 20 to 30 percent of KW associates receive a Profit Share or Growth Share check. (Growth Share is the worldwide companion to Profit Share.) Harker, with more than $1.5 million in Profit Share to date, is definitely part of the 20 percent.

In keeping with the philosophy that agents are partners and stakeholders in the success of the business, Keller Williams created a distinct profit sharing program through which approximately 50 percent of profitable market center’s profits each month are returned to those who have contributed to a market center’s growth by attracting productive associates to the office. The Keller Williams Profit Share program has surpassed half a billion dollars in distributions to associates since the program’s inception in 1989 and with $69 million in distributions so far this year it’s on pace for a record year.

“We are fierce advocates for real estate agents,” Gary Keller said. Profit Share was ridiculed in the early 1980′s because people didn’t understand it. The program is a covenant relationship to make each other’s lives better by maximizing the financial potential of individuals.

If you go out and sponsor one person every year it will mathematically earn you more than a listing will.  “Who can I go talk to about real estate?” Harker asked.  ”This is a conversation I have with myself every day.  He is always on the lookout for talent that would make a great real estate agent because it is an opportunity to help another person change their life while also helping your own family.

“Family takes care of family,” Harker said. “Even if I have a bad month in real estate, I can always count on Profit Share.”

Do You Have the Best Marketing in Your Market?

Gary Keller and Tony DiCello sat down with Ryan Zook of Dwellus and Brett Tanner at Mega Camp to discuss how to have the best marketing in your market by focusing on your strengths and leveraging them.

The example campaign discussed used an elegant combination of direct mail, internet and phone to drive leads. Starting with a direct mail campaign, “Just Sold” cards have proven to be quite successful.  Take a listing and market to the 250 – 500 surrounding houses that are comparable properties and don’t put the price on card, just a percent of asking price to pique their curiosity and drive them online for pricing. When the customer is online request their contact information in order for them to access detailed information and they follow up their website visit with a phone call.

How to get the most out of direct mail campaigns:

• The headline is everything! You have 4 seconds to get their attention. Customers care about time and money (ex. sold fast and over asking).
• Neighborhood market report cards are effective.
• Include days on market and percentage of price list, but do not include price.
• Use 8 ½ x 11 size as it is more noticeable than smaller sizes.
• Stick with similar comparably priced homes as the listing you feature.
• Include a unique key code to target each specific address and a map will change for each card, highlighting that individual’s home (companies like Corefact.com offer this service).
• Drive your audience to a non-branded website to collect their information and have the site track their engagement (a branded and non-branded landing page was split tested and the non-branded site drove more actions).
• Test and fail and adjust accordingly.

More ways to boost your marketing:

• Offer a live chat feature on your website.
• Use 2D and 3D floor plans for all listings online (programs are available for $100).
• Photography and aerial photography (using drones and GoPros).
• Luxury branding.
• Use a mascot like Captain Dwellus.
• Style videos with a themed marketing campaign like “The Gatsby House” by the Dwellus Group.

To build on using a mascot at the end of the talk, Keller advised strategic giving and briefly read from the book Give and Take and then suggested making your mascot a charity, which will make you feel good and maximize and grow your business (like TOMS shoes.) “Capitalism works best when we have a charitable heart,” Keller said.

The key to a good marketing platform is to know your value proposition (have an elevator pitch), script it (know what to say), deliver it in a way that makes the phone ring and find a way to share it. By using all of the suggestions above, you will be able to effectively play the marketing warfare game, making you one of the best marketers in your market.

Balanced Market Update

Gary Keller and Jay Papasan kicked off day one of Mega Agent Camp with an update on the US housing market. The mid-year numbers for home prices, inventory, mortgage rates, GDP, employment and inflation paint a stable picture with little variance. Keller reminded the audience that agents are the local economist for their clients. It is imperative that when talking to buyers and sellers they make sure to have the most current information available to help clients understand the national picture and make the most informed decision possible.

Home sales were off to a slow start,  but have picked up. Looking at sales year over year, sales are only .02 percent below where they were at the same time last year. What is important is that the trend is rising, not falling.

Home prices  dipped a little more than most were comfortable with, but have come back up. Looking at the year over year change from 2013 to 2014, we see that home prices are up almost 5 percent which is a healthy gain.

Inventory is currently at a 5.5 month supply of inventory. We are currently in a balanced market which is defined as the existence of a balance of supply and demand. This essentially means that  50 percent of the homes listed are selling. When the trend shifts above 50 percent it becomes a buyers market and when the trend shifts below 50 percent it is a sellers market.

 

Mortgage rates should be around 5.5 percent, but they have fallen slightly to 4.1 percent.  If everything  stays the way it currently is and international issues stabilize a bit more, we could see rates reach 5-6 percent in the near future.

 

GDP wasn’t as robust in the first quarter as expected. It is suspected severe winter weather was a factor. Nevertheless, it bounced back quickly.

 

Unemployment  rates are phenomenally healthy as we are heading close to 5 percent. The government estimates that unemployable people only make up .5 percent  of the total. In fact, there are more people employed today than there were before the recession.

 

Inflation is healthy at 1.76 percent even though it is below the 2 percent target rate.

Keller also discussed a few special areas that are currently impacting the housing industry.

Home affordability is more important than home price and mortgage rates. The ultimate question is, “can they afford this home?” Slower year-over-year price growth and persistently low rates have helped to slow the decline in affordability, but have not stopped it. Affordability is currently at 153.4 percent of the median priced home. To draw comparison, when the market was performing extremely poorly, affordability was at  183 percent.

Student loan debt is a serious issue and has a direct impact on the market. With current student loan debt at 1.3 trillion dollars, many would-be first time home buyers simply don;t have the ability to save or afford to buy a home.

Individual income for 80 percent of the population has remained virtually unchanged from 1989. As prices increase, income does not which creates a gap in affordability.

New home construction can be an economic condition indicator because when the market is good more homes are being built. In contrast, when the market is bad, fewer homes are being built. The market is considered healthy when 1.5 million new homes are built each year.

Click here to download the full presentation from myKW :http://mykw.kw.com/kwintranet/image/2014_Mega_Camp_Market_Update1.pdf?id=17746

Break the Code on Entrepreneurial Thinking in the Real Estate Industry

During the first annual Global Property Specialist (GPS) Retreat, over a dozen specialists including Tony Giordano, Tamara Tyrbousla, Bill Hunt, The Battista Team, and Dr. Linda Gerber shared insights about the opportunities the international market provides for Keller Williams associates. The GPS program is dedicated to connecting members to international clientele and leveraging the fast-growing global network to sell listings, and the presenters offered unique perspectives about turning this dream into reality.

Motivational speaker and author Clifton Taulbert

Motivational speaker and author Clifton Taulbert focused his keynote address on his “7 Key Strategies for Entrepreneurial Thinking,” bringing his distinctive outlook on entrepreneurial strategy to the increasingly global world of real estate.

 Taulbert focused on how associates, by shifting their thinking, could change the course of their careers. He stated, “Time changes quickly and circumstances change even quicker. How can we bring entrepreneurial thinking into the real estate market?”

Taulbert outlined the differences between a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset; if you want something different, do something different. “Your actions follow your thoughts,” he said.

By being diligent and altering his thinking during pivotal life moments, Taulbert’s actions led him to where he is today. “Leaders don’t hold the patent on entrepreneurial thinking,” he said. “Globalization and marketplace competitiveness demand a shift in thinking,”

Taulbert’s seven strategies are vital for every GPS member to follow if they want to “Break the Code” on entrepreneurial thinking.

1. Choose your mindset – Choose to hold a growth mindset, not a fixed one. Anyone can alter their life by altering the way they think. No one can choose your mindset for you.
2. Be determined – Develop a vision and put in the hard work to accomplish it. “Hard work looks the same in Austin as it does anywhere else in the world.”
3. Build a solid relationship bridge – People matter! It takes three things to build a relationship bridge: respect, affirmation, and inclusion. Focus on these to create real connections.
4. Slow down to lead – Take the time to know what it takes to do a job well and find out information before making decisions.
5. Know your business’s “health” metrics – Knowing metrics facilitates accountability. Always measure and understand the numbers to stay on top of the details—and encourage this behavior in others.
6. Be prepared to swim upstream; easy isn’t guaranteed – Always approach issues with a mindset of “when something happens, I’ll tackle it.” Don’t allow fear from keeping you from accomplishing the vision you’ve developed.
7. Resolve to succeed – Count the small wins! Small wins dictate who you really are and aid in the ability to understand yourself and predict what you can really do.

Taulbert concluded the session with these parting words: “Entrepreneurial thinking can change your life! Have a great life and embrace these codes!”

Patrick Lencioni Explains How to Gain Competitive Advantage

In his keynote speech at Mega Leadership, Patrick Lencioni, bestselling author of The Advantage and founder of The Table Group, presented a strong case that organizational strategy “will surpass all other disciplines in business as the greatest opportunity for improvement and competitive advantage.”

While too many leaders are still limiting their search for advantage to conventional and largely exhausted areas like marketing, strategy and technology, Lencioni sees an untapped gold mine sitting right beneath them. Instead of trying to become smarter, he believes that leaders and organizations need to shift their focus to becoming healthier, allowing them to tap into the more-than-sufficient intelligence and expertise they already have. So how exactly does one build a cohesive team? “Start with yourself,” Lencioni says.

There are two requirements for business success:

1. Be Smart: strategy, marketing, finance, technology
2. Be Healthy: minimal politics, minimal confusion, high morale, high productivity, low turnover

Being smart is the easy part. However, the single greatest competitive advantage is being healthy. Every business has enough smarts to be successful, but what most lack is cultural health. Lencioni explained that organizational health is about making a company function effectively by building a cohesive leadership team, establishing real clarity among those leaders, communicating that clarity to everyone within the organization and putting in place just enough structure to reinforce that clarity going forward.  “Culture is the way in which we get work done, but oftentimes there is dysfunction inhibiting success,” Lencioni said.

Here are his five tips to overcome the five dysfunctions of a team and pave the path for uncharted success.

Trust: Teams need to be founded on trust. Be honest about who they are, faults and all. “This sounds simple, but this is a fundamental character trait that can be engrained in a person from childhood. It is the most difficult and the most important element.” To function, a team needs to be united and have trust. It is never about the individual, it is always about the team. Trust begins with being capable of being vulnerable. It starts with the leader. If the leader can’t be vulnerable, no one on the team can be either. Lencioni challenged the leaders in the audience to send the message that they will admit their faults and allow members on their team to admit theirs. Competence doesn’t mean being perfect. Gain credibility and you can gain trust.

Conflict: Teams can overcome conflict once trust is built. When there is trust people feel comfortable expressing ideas and opinions. A little disagreement and conflict is healthy as it fosters the exchange of ideas resulting in the best possible answer. Teams don’t want people holding back. An effective team is one where people feel comfortable to disagree on important issues as that is how they arrive at the best resolution. Great relationships are based on your ability to disagree and recover from that disagreement.

Commitment:  People don’t buy into a decision if they don’t have the opportunity to weigh in. Teams do not necessarily need to come to a consensus, but they do need to offer everyone the opportunity to voice their opinion.

Accountability: The more a leader is willing to hold someone accountable, the less likely they will have to actually hold them accountable. Leaders need to be able to deliver bad news along with the good so there can be opportunity to improve.  “Behavior always precedes results,” Lencioni said. “The greatest leaders are the ones who are not afraid to hold people accountable. If you love the people you work with, then you have to give them feedback. You have to hold them accountable. Tell them the truth so they can get better and the team can get better. That is the sacrifice a leader makes.”

Results:  Without accountability, commitment, conflict and trust, teams won’t get results.

“If we love each other enough we can focus and work on the collective good,” Lencioni said in closing. “There is no better competitive advantage.”

Keller Williams Announces Record Growth, Productivity and Profitability Gains

During its annual gathering of top-producing real estate agents from around the world, Keller Williams reported record agent count, productivity and profitability gains. Over the past year, the company has extended its lead as the largest real estate franchise by agent count in North America, growing at approximately four times the rate of membership in the National Association of REALTORS®. Since January 2014, Keller Williams has added 12,000 net associates, bringing its overall associate count above 107,000.

Keller Williams CEO Mark Willis delivers the midyear State of the Company presentation.

“Our associates’ drive, passion and energy are what set Keller Williams apart,” CEO Mark Willis said. “We’re going to keep pushing. We’re going to keep driving. And we’re going to stay on the leading edge both as a company and in each of our local markets.”

Vice President of Growth John Davis announced that the company’s associates had extended their historic gains in agent count, transactions and sales volume. In the past year:

• Transactions increased 10 percent
• Closed volume increased 15 percent
• Commissions earned increased 16 percent

Vice President of Growth John Davis

The productivity gains are driving profitability for franchise owners as well as Profit Share distributions to associates. Owner profit has increased 17 percent, with 96 percent of market centers profitable for the year. The company’s Profit Share program, which rewards stakeholders who help the company grow, has now surpassed half a billion dollars in distributions since the program’s inception.

“All of this growth, all of this success starts at the local level,” Davis said. “It’s what you’re doing in your market, sharing the Keller Williams story and ensuring that every associate is using Keller Williams training and tools to grow their business.”

During an update on the company’s global expansion, Keller Williams Worldwide President Chris Heller announced plans to open Keller Williams offices in Mexico. He also welcomed guests from more than two dozen countries and reported on the growth of Keller Williams regions like KW Turkey, which has opened 7 offices since launching this year, and KW Southern Africa, which has opened 22 offices in its first two years of operations.

Keller Williams Worldwide President Chris Heller

“It’s a big world and we have big expansion plans,” Heller said. “We’re expanding into new markets and becoming the leading force in international real estate. Our systems and models are helping our regions grow. We’re in business with leaders who are committed to building their teams through training. But the main area that sets Keller Williams apart is our culture.”

Keller Williams President Mary Tennant shared that the company’s charitable foundation, KW Cares, had in the past year awarded more than $2.8 million in grants to Keller Williams associates and family members struggling through unexpected hardships – from health issues to natural disasters.

“At the heart of everything we do is giving back – to our communities, to our families and to ourselves,” Tennant said. “We are blessed to be in business with leaders who exemplify our culture of giving.”

Keller Williams President Mary Tennant accepts the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to suppport “KW Kid” Pete Frates.

Willis implored attendees to think big, aim high and act bold: “That’s the way of thinking that led us to create an education-based, technology-driven, consumer-focused company – an organization that has disrupted the real estate industry and become the real estate company of choice.”

“Real estate is a local business and what you do in your market fuels all our success,” Davis said. “Let’s finish the year strong and build momentum for the best year the real estate industry has ever seen.”