BREAKTHROUGHS! - Keller Williams Realty

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To the top Persistent talent search sparks turnaround By Steve Tufts, operating principal, Jacksonville Beach market center This is a success story that includes ALC commitment, mega recruiting, two mergers, and just working on the “blocking and tackling” as a market center. It is about the Keller Williams models and culture at its best. The Jacksonville Beach market center was opened in May 2006, a challenging Steve Tufts time to be starting a real estate business in Florida. After struggling through 2006 and 2007, and experiencing sizeable losses, things began to change in early 2008. At the end of 2007, Jacksonville-area agents were looking for answers to the issues of the shifting market and not finding them at the local, full-service or discount firms. All over our market, brokerages were eliminating services and increasing fees to agents. At the same time, our new Jacksonville Beach market center had quietly grown from No. 19 in the market to No. 7. Two things happened in the first few months of 2008 that changed this market center: First, one of our ALC members happened upon an icon agent, Phil Pierce, in a restaurant. Phil was on our “top 50” prospect list and had been talking with us for years. He was becoming frustrated with his current brokerage. He agreed to meet with us again, and after several interviews, Phil joined us in January 2008. In the next few months, he became our biggest fan and told everyone how happy he was at Keller Williams Realty. By year's end, his Level 1 profit share tree had five megas in it. Our estimate is that his presence in our market center was responsible for at least 10 recruits that year, and another 10 or so who are still in the pipeline. A similar thing happened again that April. Margi Petitt, another icon in our market ran into one of our ALC members. We had been in dialogue with Margi for several years. She mentioned that the future of her current real estate office was uncertain, and she agreed to meet with us the following week. She joined us a few days later. The next day, her managing broker, Connie Grubbs, called to arrange an exploratory meeting. After a few meetings, she agreed to introduce me to the owner of the office in the hope that a merger could be accomplished. Before the meeting ever occurred, most of the top producers in the office had already decided to join forces with our market center. At the request of the remaining agents, we held a group orientation meeting that was attended by 14 of them. By the time we met with the owner, the “foldin” was essentially completed. The only thing left to decide was what to do with pending contracts and Jacksonville Beach profit share earners celebrate their first check 18 outfront Sept./Oct. 2009 • Vol. 6 No. 5 Keller Williams Realty
Steve Tufts on how the Jacksonville Beach market center went from No. 19 to No. 1 • We were patient - yet - persistent in building relationships with the top talent in the marketplace. • We embraced the Keller Williams models and the concepts taught in Profit Camp. • We taught from SHIFT and The Millionaire Real Estate Agent constantly. We retaught the MREA models that most of our new agents and some of the veterans had never learned. • To provide motivation, we talked about the law of equilibrium regularly, emphasizing the approaching period of growth and the importance of lead generating for “mind share” during the slow times. • We created an army of “local economists of choice” in our community by regularly distributing a collection of reports, statistics and relevant news to our agents. • We were aggressive with pricing listings and scrutinizing expenses. • We taught classes on handling REO property and short sales. • We held group accountability classes focused on lead generation and time blocking. • We created an atmosphere of being on the leading edge of market survival techniques. how to announce the “merger.” Connie became our productivity coach and new agent mentor. This fold-in brought another 20 agents to our market center. Again, they raved in the marketplace about our culture, our training and the quality of Nancy Freeman, our MCA, and Pat Sarver, our director of first impressions. In the following few months, at least 10 other agents joined us on the news that Keller Williams Realty was the “place to be” for producing agents. Among them: another icon, Mark Werner, a local developer and broker. He closed his office and folded his operations into our market center. Although there were only four people involved in the fold-in, the news was very big, and we ended up with a large Keller Williams billboard in front of a high-profile condo complex. By the end of 2008, we had netted approximately 30 engaged producers while eliminating two competitive offices that had been in the top 10 in recent years. In February 2009, Mark Dilworth, another local icon who had been talking with us for almost three years, joined our market center as team leader. His presence gained the enthusiastic approval of our existing agents and the attention of the local market. He further added to the sense of calm confidence of our associates. He immediately recruited Neil Esfahani, one of the most well- Mark Dilworth known commercial land agents in the area, and our commercial division was born. Like the others, Neil had been in dialogue with us for several years. The change in our financial results has been noteworthy. We’ve been profitable for 13 of the past 14 months. By year-end 2008, we had grown our listing volume by 48 percent, our closed volume was up by 30 percent, our GCI by 26 percent, our company dollar by 25 percent, and we made a $73,000 improvement in our profitability. We ended 2008 ranked No. 3 in our local market in units and No. 4 in volume. At the same time, we’ve hit our goals for KW Cares donations and have devoted countless hours to local charities. We are known in the community for having an optimistic, upbeat, positive culture. In the first six months of 2009, we cleared our loss carry forward and profit shared for the first time in July. Our local newspaper covered the story. As of August 2009, the Jacksonville Beach market center is tied for No. 1 in market share among the five Jacksonville Beach MLS territories. We are also the No. 2 office in the entire Jacksonville-area MLS by volume. What we’ve come to learn is that any day, any associate might run into someone casually or receive a phone call that will materially change the market center. The challenge is to get up every day and lead by example. We need to focus on positive outcomes for our businesses, despite short-term challenges. Having been with our market center for nearly a year and a half, Phil Pierce’s recent comment sums up the Keller Williams opportunity. “This place is unreal. I wish I had listened to you when you first called me three years ago. I wish you had come over to my house and grabbed me by the collar and dragged me over here and made me listen to you. My life would have been better and my wallet would be a lot thicker.” kw Keller Williams Realty Sept./Oct. 2009 • Vol. 6 No. 5 outfront 19
Page 1 and 2: MEGA MIGRATION: TOP INDUSTRY PLAYER
Page 3 and 4: Dear Associates, We’ve entered in
Page 5 and 6: You've done it again! J.D. Power an
Page 7 and 8: igration By Jennifer LeClaire Kelle
Page 9 and 10: MEGA MIGRATION ENTREPRENEURIAL EDGE
Page 11 and 12: LUXURY AGENTS BRIEFED ON “MADISON
Page 13 and 14: MEGA MOMENTUM Cary Sylvester Named
Page 15 and 16: “Affordable Health Insurance is F
Page 17: Shayla Sharp Kathy Corjasso Judy Cl
Page 21 and 22: OUR MAIN EVENT FEBRUARY 20 - 24 •
Page 23 and 24: epresentation and office property s
Page 25 and 26: Top 10 Stakeholders!** ** Top 10 ag
Page 27 and 28: Events Calendar Unless otherwise no
Page 29 and 30: REFERRAL RESOURCES Keller Williams
Page 31 and 32: REFERRAL RESOURCES BECOME A FAN of
Page 33 and 34: KW CARES "$3,000 In 30" many times
Page 35 and 36: My Dear Friends, MoMentum Corner Fr

BREAKTHROUGHS! - Keller Williams Realty

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