Keller williams lead generation pdf

HRM: Keller Williams - Learning Helps Make The Sale

Human Resources Management assignment:

Please read the attached document and answer the following question:

How might the training Keller Williams provides help to meet the vision of the company of choice for agents, franchisees, and customers?

ASSIGNMENT W5 1

Learning Helps Make the Sale at Keller Williams

At Keller Williams, the largest real estate franchise in North America, the vision is to be the real estate company of choice for agents, franchisees, and customers. Keller Williams strives to train its agents better than any other company in the world so they can delight customers, build their business, and have financial success. Just as location is a key factor in attracting buyers to purchase a home or commercial property, training is a reason for Keller Williams’ ability to reach its business goals, which include adding 8,000 agents, increasing agents’ commissions by 20%, and ensuring that over 90% of its franchise offices are profitable. Keller Williams’ CEO believes that training is critical for the company to attract new agents because it helps them quickly become productive, resulting in sales and commissions. Training involves both online and classroom instruction where learning occurs through interacting with instructors and coaching and opportunities for agents to collaborate, which helps them learn from each other by sharing knowledge and practices. Keller Williams’ commitment to training and its role in the success of the business was recognized by the top ranking it received in back-to-back years in Training magazine’s Top 125. The company earned the distinction of being ranked #1 in 2015 and #2 in 2014.

Keller Williams has several different training programs that support agents and the business. Business Objective: A Life By Design (BOLD) is a seven-week training program during which agents are taught mindset exercises and language techniques, and in which they participate in lead generation activities. The course focuses on personal well-being as well as business skills. During some classes in the program agents engage in “real play,” calling customers with instructors providing guidance and support. This allows the agents to generate business while learning. BOLD graduates have increased sales volumes by 80%, closed sales by 86%, and increased commissions by 118% compared to agents who haven’t taken the program.

Mega Agent Expansion (MAE) helps top-performing agents understand how and when to expand into new markets. MAE includes instructor-led classes, webinars, expert interviews, productivity resources, and coaching. The program helps participants understand all aspects of expanding their business including how to centralize lead generation and administration and develop a workable business plan. They have access to a social media network for learning and sharing as well as monthly opportunities to ask questions of Keller Williams’ top expansion agents. Growth Initiative (GI) is a distant learning and consulting program that trains managers how to effectively recruit and retain agents. The program includes weekly one-hour seminars, requires managers to make two recruiting appointments each day, five days a week, and helps managers share best practices through an online community and a dedicated Facebook page. In addition to its training programs Keller Williams invested in building a training and education center at its corporate headquarters in Austin, Texas. The center manages all aspects of learning and develops new courses, learning tools, and videos. Recently, the center developed apps that provide short training opportunities that agents can access anytime and anywhere through their smartphone, laptop, or notebooks.

Keller Williams doesn’t just invest time and money into training, it also takes steps to ensure its effectiveness. To keep training standards high and improve learning every trainer and instructor must take several “Train the Trainer” courses before they can teach any courses. Different types of evaluation data are collected and shared with agents and managers. Because all of training is voluntary, one measure of its value is participation. This includes tracking how much time employees spend in training (82 average per-person hours of formal, planned training) and the number of employees and franchisees trained each year in instructor-led courses (100,000) and online courses (26,000). The return on investment (ROI) of many courses is calculated. For example, BOLD costs $799 per student but the average agent who participated in the course earned an additional $55,000 for the year. Keller Williams also tracks metrics such as the average days a property is on the market. The average days on the market is lower than their competitors, providing evidence that training is helping agents close deals quicker and provide better service.

SOURCES: L. Freifeld, “Keller Williams Is at Home at No. 1,”Training, January/February 2015, pp. 28–34; L. Freifeld, “Keller Williams Is on the Move,”Training, January/February 2014, pp. 40–42.