Everyone knows that Keller Williams Realty has become the best real estate company in the world. Agents dream to work under Keller Williams for the benefits it offers for the agents. Today, Keller Williams is a successful company because of the Keller Williams business model focusing on the agents.
The KW business model is preferred by people, especially by the agents because of the interdependent system. It ensures that the agents and the brokers work as partners for the KW. The model worked wonderfully for getting maximum profits for the agents and the company.
In this article, I am going to talk about the reasons why I prefer the Keller Williams Business Model over the traditional business model of other companies. Before that, you may like to know a little bit about KW’s history.
A Brief History of Keller Williams Realty
If you know about the history of Keller Williams Realty, you will understand why the company is agent-centric. Although the company started as a traditional real estate company, eventually changed its business plan. This change brought huge success for the company.
Gary Keller had the experience of working with other real estate companies but did not like their business strategy. Therefore, he decided to start his own business with Joe Williams.
In 1983, Gary Keller and Joe Williams started a small real estate company, The Keller Williams Realty. They bought a small office in Austin. The office had some chairs and desks for its very few numbers of agents.
The company started to grow and in only two years, it recruited about 70 associates. Thus, it turned into the largest single office company in Austin. Moreover, it became one of the top-ranked real estate companies in the market at that time.
Everything was going fine, but in 1986, the market collapsed. Similar to other companies in the market, KW faced financial crises. As a result, the company started to lose agents. Later on, the company again lost many agents to new companies in the market which offered great benefits to the agents.
So, Gary Keller had to rethink his business model. He always believed that the agents are the source of a company’s success. He realized it was time to give the power to the agents. Accordingly, he called all his agents for a meeting.
To understand how the company should operate, the founders took interviews with the agents. They tried to understand what the agents thought to be the best way to restart the business and what they expected from the company.
Interestingly, the agents had a lot to share and the founders gained a lot of ideas about running the company. Then, they started to rebuild the company.
The Keller Williams Realty Franchise Model Today
With these new insights and inspirations, the company created a business model that led the company to success. KW still has its headquarters in Austin, Texas. The company has developed a unique commission structure and environment for the agents. Here, every agent is allowed to grow their career and become a part of the Keller Williams family.
How many agents does Keller Williams Have?
Therefore, every year many agents join the company. Now, there are 180,000 agents in more than 900 offices of Keller William Realty all over the world. In early 2020, KW launched an app known as The KW App to create a network of agents and customers. With this app, it has become easier to buy and sell real estate properties.
Reasons why Keller Williams Business Model is The Best
The aim of developing the KW business model is to gain maximum productivity rate and profit. Most of the traditional companies’ target is to make a profit for the company and the agents are the means of achieving that profit. But at KW the business plan is for the best of both company and the agents.
Here are the reasons why people praise the business model of Keller William Realty and how it is different:
1. Interdependence between Company and Agents
Keller Williams Business model is an interdependent business model. This means the agents and the brokers of the company depend on each other. KW believes in team work and considers the agents as valuable team members. Instead of making profits only for the brokers, the company focuses on building the careers and lives of the agents.
KW values its agents because it understands that it is impossible to run a profitable real estate business without satisfying the agents first. It is the agents who bring the clients to the company. Without them, the company will have no existence.
Similarly, the agents depend on the company. KW gives them the platform to start their career and gives all kinds of support to the agents. The training and support given by the company enable the agents to become experts in the real estate business.
To keep the brokers and the agents on the same track, the company has created a set of rules which are part of KW culture. The written rule of the company must be followed by the brokers and the agents in order to achieve the goals of the company.
These rules are known as the MVVBP of Keller Williams Realty. MVVBP stands for Mission, Vision, Value, Belief, and Perspective of KW.
The MVVBP of Keller Williams clearly shows how much importance the company gives to its agents. The mission statement of KW repeatedly emphasizes developing the careers and lives of the company associates. Besides the vision of the company is to become a company which agents are happy to work with and customers trust.
As both the company and agents follow these roles together, they can work side by side as a sole entity. Thus, KW has managed to become a great company depending on the agents.
2. Agent-Centric Culture
KW does not exist only to do real estate business. The company also aims to change lives. It has created a culture in the company where agents can feel at home and operate their business. The culture of KW is also referred to as the agent-centric culture. You will understand why after reading the next part.
- The Difference between KW and Traditional Companies
The traditional real estate companies lure agents promising them a good career but they actually use the agents only to get clients. The agents are often treated as common employees. The companies do not have any connection with the agents apart from doing business. These companies are just working places for the agents and nothing else.
Fortunately, at KW things are different in a positive way. KW has created an atmosphere or a culture that inspires the agents. The culture encourages the agents to help each other to grow in their business.
So, you can see that it is not only the company’s responsibility to support the agents; the agents are also responsible to make others feel welcome in the company. The agents can work together as teams. The senior agents train the new agents, give advice, and share personal experiences among themselves.
- Programs and Organizations to Support the Agents
To create a better bonding among the associates, KW has been arranging programs and events. The agents participate in these programs and work together to create a better relationship between themselves and local community people. Here are some programs and events arranged by Keller Williams Realty for its agents:
KW Red Day: KW has been annually celebrating Red Day since 2009 on every second Thursday of May. On this day, agents get the opportunity to work as teams to serve their local communities. Hundreds of agents spend thousands of hours helping the community in various ways like cleaning parks, beaches, rebuilding houses, serving food, and so on.
KW Cares: KW wants to develop the lives of its agents. For that, it has founded an organization named KW Cares. This organization provides support to the agents and their families in case they need any help. The organization assists the agents to solve their problems.
KW Wellness Program: Both the mental and physical wellbeing of the company associates are important for the company. So, KW formed the KW Wellness Program which informs the agents about the best insurance they can get. The company believes wellness brings success. That is why it encourages the associates to get proper health coverage plans.
Agent Leadership Council: the associates of Keller Williams can directly share their opinion and thoughts with the company through their Agent Leadership Council. The market centers of KW are mostly run by the agent council and not the brokers. KW truly meant when it said the company is operated by the agents and not by the brokers.
3. Training for Agents
Most of the agents of Keller William Realty say that one of the best parts of joining the company was the special training program offered by the company for the agents. In fact, they believe it is the best training program offered in the real estate business world.
There are different programs and courses for training the agents of Keller Williams.
These programs are designed to prepare agents for the business world. The programs are:
KW Ignite: This is a training program that aims to educate agents about the current real estate business world. This is a four-week program. The program teaches the agents how to start their business properly. Getting sellers and buyers, finding properties, negotiation tactics, customer service, and more are taught in this program.
KW Connect: It is an online real estate education program. Agents of KW learn useful real estate information and skills from this program. From lead generation techniques to creating personal online blogs, the program covers a lot of information. The agents upload their information in the program so that others can use the information.
Keller Williams University: Keller Williams University offers an industry-based curriculum. Like KW Connect, this program also teaches the agents skills related to the real estate business. Multimedia courses and different tools are offered so that the agents can get prepared for earning from the beginning of their careers.
KW MAPS: Keller Williams Mega Achievement Productivity Systemis coaching for the agents. It focuses on developing the individual skills of the agents. The coaches of the MAP are the best experts of the company. They guide the agents and make sure that the agents are following the right track. This way the agents can know better about the business.
4. Profit-Share
Another reason why people prefer the business model of Keller Williams Realty is its profit-sharing system. The agents of Keller Williams can earn a lot. They have a great commission split from the company. So, before you know about the profit share system you have to know about the commission split system of KW.
- Commission Split System
The Company treats every agent equally. So, it has a 70/30 commission for every agent. The agents will get 100% of the commission if they reach their annual cap.
According to the commission system of the company, the agents get 70 percent of the commission which they get from the customers and the company takes 30 percent of the commission. This commission goes to the market center.
The market center uses the commission percentages of the agents to run the offices and then keeps the rest of the money as profit.
- The Profit Share System
Now, how is the commission system related to the profit share system? It is quite simple. Remember the commission paid by the agents to their market centers? The profit comes from that money. This is how it works:
Suppose, you have been working with Keller Williams for quite a long time now, or you can be a fairly new agent of the company. The company will allow you to recruit new agents. It is not mandatory for you to recruit new agents, but it can be a way of passive income for you.
The new agents that you will recruit will be given a form. In that form, he has to write a name as his or her sponsor agent. This means the person who influenced the new agent to join Keller Williams. When the new agent write-downs your name, you become a sponsoring agent.
So, when the agents you recruit, pay 30 % commission to their market centers, the market centers share a percentage of their profit with you, who are the sponsors of the agents. Furthermore, the sponsor agents continue to get the money even after they retire from KW. Later on, their heir will continue to get the profit.
KW started the profit share system in 1997. Since then, it has shared more than $1.2 billion money with the associates because they helped Keller Williams Realty grow so much.
5. The Use of Technology
Keller Williams Realty has changed and evolved a lot since 1983. It is one of the leading real estate companies which are supported by modern technology and apps. The use of technology in their business model is unmatchable. Here are some of the technologies that KW uses to expand its business.
- The KW Command
The KW Command system is an artificial intelligent CRM-Plus Solution system. The 180,000+ agents can access this system to get information that can help their business. It is directly connected with the company cloud, which is the data information storehouse.
All the agents of KW are requested to update their information regarding any real estate business. Every agent has a login ID and Password so that they can access the system whenever they need any information about clients or properties.
- The KW APP
KW is a modern real estate company that keeps up with the use of modern technology. To keep the agents updated and lessen their paperwork, it has created an app for them. It is known as the KW App.
Agents and customers both can use this app to make their business deal swift and easy. An agent can customize this personal app and design it the way he or she likes.
The customers can use the KW app to browse houses from any part of the country and contact the agents. This app helps to create a network among clients and agents.
The app is also connected with the Command System of KW. So, the agents can track down what the customers are doing with the apps. As soon as the customers select houses from the apps, the agents get notified.
The app has a Market Snapshot feature. It shows various information about the nearby locality, rating of restaurants, schools, and other public places. The information influences whether customers will buy or sell properties. On the other hand, the agents understand how they should convince the customers to find a suitable house in the area.
Conclusion
So, these are the reasons why the Keller Williams business model is preferred by so many people in the real estate business. Agents get the best opportunities to build their business when they work with Keller Williams Realty. KW proved that an agent-centric business model makes a company successful and makes the agents loyal to the company.