Ever since
day one as a real estate agent, I have upheld the belief that the most
successful people possess these four basic tenets of service – knowledge,
honesty, loyalty, and trust. Every member of my team and I operate by these
principles daily, and we believe it’s one of the main driving forces that has
landed us in the 1% for overall sales volume in our markets, Sarasota and
Manatee Counties, year after year. Yet, we still face the same issues most
agents face: cluttered databases, high overhead cost, and the constant race to
gain market share.

So, when Keller Williams released Command, I saw a single solution to these numerous challenges and jumped in immediately. I’ve been utilizing the system since its release in February, and I can confidently say it has helped me serve more people with less stress. 

From Clutter to Command

As my team
celebrated increased success year after year and our database grew to 10,000 mets,
we saw an increased need for more organized, streamlined database management. Sure,
it’s great growing your database, but if you can’t manage it, then it becomes a
collection of missed opportunities.  

Command
has helped meet the need for a streamlined database through: 

• Contacts – A function that allows me to organize my database into segments through customized tags and add an infinite amount of detail.
• SmartPlans – A workflow management tool that ensures my contacts receive consistent touches from me and my team.
• Neighborhood Landing Pages – A feature that gives my contacts access to the latest market data on neighborhoods they care about through personalized landing pages. When a client views/interacts with the page, Command updates their contact record in real time.

All of
these functions combined help me connect with my database on a higher level
while working in one system. 

Keeping an Eye on Neighborhoods

Neighborhood landing pages are my favorite feature of Command. They help me and my team stand out as hyperlocal experts that can offer more value to our clients than our competitors. My clients can add their current neighborhood to keep watch along with multiple others they are considering. Real-time data is knowledge, and knowledge is empowering.

Purchasing a home is the single largest purchase most people will ever make in their lifetime and it’s no place for buyer’s remorse. Having all the information upfront puts joy and confidence in the transaction. It’s amazing to see how Command helps me keep my clients informed in ways that were previously not possible. Thanks to the precise assistance of Neighborhoods. I am able to provide my clients with data they care about and can interact with. 

Increased Net Profit, Lower Costs

With
prices for everything on the rise, it’s nice to have a solution that is
actually saving me money. By utilizing Command and consolidating our database
and marketing platforms into one, we can eliminate other database management expenses
and increase our net profit. By using Command, I have been able to save thousands
of dollars on tech costs and reinvest them back into my business.

It’s amazing to see how Command helps me keep my clients informed in ways that were previously not possible.

Further,
Command is making life easier with a single sign-on. As part of the Labs
process, agents are the intelligence behind Command. Designed by agents, it is
exactly what we want and need. And, as new features are released, my team and I
will be first to jump onboard because our business potential knows no
limitations.

Ever since day one as a real estate agent, I have upheld the belief that the most successful people possess these four basic tenets of service – knowledge, honesty, loyalty, and trust. Every member of my team and I operate by these principles daily, and we believe it’s one of the main driving forces that […]

Bookstore
shelves and online articles abound with click-bait titles featuring shortcuts
for “fixing” our perceived weaknesses. Yet, what’s the use in spending time and
effort working on improving things you’ll never be really great at? In this
life, we will only truly excel at a few things, so why not double-down on those
strengths and forget about the weaknesses the self-help industry would rather
us focus on?

Sticking to your strengths sets you apart from the pack and helps you build a reputation while also leading the field as an expert. In other words, focusing on our strengths is the only way to beat competitors and reach our true potential. It also creates the opportunity for a much more joyful life.

Focusing on your strengths creates the opportunity for a much more joyful life.

I
know, since I spent the earlier parts of my real estate and leadership career
focusing on what I wasn’t good at – documentation and details. Whenever I
submitted my paperwork to compliance, it was promptly sent back. It was
exhausting, but I kept taking the job back because I didn’t have the self-awareness
to recognize I wasn’t good at it. My mind began to shift once I surrounded
myself with people who were working on their strengths. And, my life began to
change as I steadily started firing myself from my weaknesses.

Like all good things, this was a step-by-step process that took: 

Training – A lot of it

I had to read The Millionaire Real Estate Agent eight times and attend KW classes over and over to understand the value of staying in my lane. My ego kept telling me that no one was going to do paperwork better than me. That’s why I was reluctant for so long to hire an admin; I didn’t want anyone to see that weakness. But, after taking BOLD, Career Visioning, Quantum Leap, and many other classes, I embraced the power of leverage.

I began with a simple calculation:  

If the average transaction commission is $8,000 and the average transaction takes around 40 hours, that breaks down to $200 an hour. With this, I asked myself if leveraging out my biggest weakness (paperwork/documentation) for $15 per hour was worth it if I could spend the hour building relationships that would build my business. The answer was clear: it was a net win. I might be giving up a few hundred dollars, but those hours I spent relationship-building could produce 100% profit. It’s busywork versus being productive.

Support

Once I hired my admin, my energy dial began to tick upward again. I quickly realized that I would need to enlist more support if I wanted to maintain my strengths-based mindset. I leaned on my team leader and KW MAPS Coach. They helped keep my goals top-of-mind and reminded me that in order to accomplish them, I couldn’t spend my time bogged down in the details.

Emotional Intelligence

When I began living in my strengths, my
attitude improved, and my relationships flourished; I finally had the energy to
focus on being my best self. Before, I struggled to understand how my
weaknesses were impacting others around me. Reading the book Emotional
Intelligence 2.0 was a much-needed wakeup call and guide to help me grow in
self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship management. It was an
important reminder that my life is NOT just about me. The person I was five
years ago and now is entirely different.

When I began living in my strengths, my attitude improved, and my relationships flourished.

Today, I’m proud to say I’m living in my strengths and am passionate about helping others do the same. I operate the Keller Williams offices in Naperville, Glen Ellyn, Geneva, Downers Grove, Plainfield, and Aurora, Illinois, with my business partner Pete Economos. Together, we lead 1,000 agents and will be opening two more locations soon. I also enjoy coaching in-person and on-air through my podcast, “Messy Empire.” We all have the opportunity to shift out of what’s wrong and into what’s right. Own your strengths, because your time and energy is finite. Be happy and make it count.

About Caryn Prall

Caryn Prall has been a real estate agent for 20 years and
has been in the business even longer than that as the daughter and
granddaughter of real estate agents. Her grandmother was one of the first
female broker/owners in the country, and her mom was licensed in 1976, while
Caryn, the youngest of five daughters, was 3 years old.

After attending Ohio State University, Caryn relocated to
Ohio, joined a brokerage, and soon after became part of a team of Keller
Williams agents in Columbus. She was named Rookie of the Year, and in 2006, she
moved to Denver, and later Amarillo, Texas.

Keller Williams drew her because she wanted ownership opportunity, so four years ago, she made another move to the Chicago area and met OP Pete Economos. Today, Caryn is the team leader for 490 agents, and, with Pete, she co-owns six KW offices that serve more than 1,000 agents.

Bookstore shelves and online articles abound with click-bait titles featuring shortcuts for “fixing” our perceived weaknesses. Yet, what’s the use in spending time and effort working on improving things you’ll never be really great at? In this life, we will only truly excel at a few things, so why not double-down on those strengths and […]

In June, Keller Williams launched Designs – an application in Command that gives agents the ability to create graphics using a suite of professionally designed templates for both print (fliers, door hangers, postcards, brochures, business cards) and web (email signatures, profile banners, social media graphics, and more). 

Since launch, over 750 design templates have been uploaded to the library and made their way into the world through marketing materials and digital graphics. For agents like Thomas Calvert, the ability to create a fully cohesive suite of images with their unique brand has been a game-changer.

“Designs has allowed me to create beautiful graphics on the fly and take our social media presence to the next level,” says Calvert. “I’ve created basic social media campaigns using images made in Designs and picked up several leads without much effort.”

Now, a powerful new feature has been added to the design studio – Neighborhood Snaps. 

Neighborhood Snaps are hyperlocal market insights generated from data being pumped into the Keller Cloud from the KWLS and MLS.

With a simple search and select, Neighborhood Snaps can be added to over 60 fully customizable marketing materials. No more manual entry. Just real-time neighborhood insights auto-populated into every piece. This addition further enhances an agent’s ability to provide clients with the information they need while solidifying their stance as a local expert.

“Neighborhood Snaps gives us the opportunity to be more targeted and effective in our daily lead generation,” shares Calvert.

“Having the ability to create door hangers with the latest market information or social media posts with neighborhood-specific data in areas we’re farming will help us stand out as local experts. Neighborhood Snaps will be a powerful business partner.”

In June, Keller Williams launched Designs – an application in Command that gives agents the ability to create graphics using a suite of professionally designed templates for both print (fliers, door hangers, postcards, brochures, business cards) and web (email signatures, profile banners, social media graphics, and more).  Since launch, over 750 design templates have been […]

Command, Keller Williams’ end-to-end operational system, made its debut in early 2019 and has matured at lightning speed. Over the last seven months, several features have rolled out to KW agents to assist with graphic design, marketing, contact management, workflow automation and transaction management.

The technology has arrived at another exciting phase of its evolution – its expansion to small teams. This advancement allows teams to take control of their database, business and future.    

Capitalize on your strongest asset.

In his award-winning book, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, chairman, co-founder and CEO Gary Keller outlines what sets high-performing real estate businesses apart from others – a strong database chock-full of qualified buyer and seller leads.

“Nothing is more important than prospective buyers and sellers,” Keller writes. “To have a viable business, you simply must have the client leads. To have a business that pays you a lot of money, you will need a lot of leads. Funny, but some real estate agents miss this not-too-subtle point and end up spending their time on other less financially rewarding activities.”

This can only be achieved through time, dedication and targeted lead generation activities. Identifying these activities has been an uphill battle for teams grappling with disjointed technologies and traditional CRMs.

Command solves for this by allowing teams to run intuitive, user-friendly reports to get a holistic look at their business. These reports help them understand where to invest their time and lead generation dollars. With one login, team leads can:

• Review exactly where leads are coming from
• Review individual activities to understand how often and how recently, percentage-wise, the team is reaching out to each lead
• Compare the database health of the team against agents in their market center, their state, and in Command
• View conversion rates and “probable vs. potential” income estimates for each deal

Command helps teams make data-driven decisions so they can capitalize on their strongest asset and convert at the highest level.

Collaborate with ease.

“When you know the right numbers, hitting the mark becomes the entire focus of the team.” – Gary Keller

In agent labs, collaboration was identified as one of the largest challenges for teams. Delivering high-quality service is difficult without a central hub to manage transactions. Command helps teams overcome this hurdle through Opportunities – an application that allows the collective to manage offers, documents and communication in one convenient location.

To begin, team members add an opportunity to their pipeline that will serve as a record where everything related to the transaction is tracked.  From there, several team members can be added to the opportunity, checklists can be created, and tasks can be assigned-out with specific due dates. Team members will be notified via Kelle – their AI-powered virtual assistant – when their tasks must be completed. This helps team members hold each other accountable and collaborate with ease.

Additionally, team members have full access to view the listings, appointments, contracts, closed deals, and forecasted GCI in real time, allowing for transparency that was previously not possible.

Achieve incredible impact for a fraction of the cost.

Rising technology costs have made it challenging for teams to build scalable, profitable businesses. CRMs can cost anywhere from $35-$200 per user, per month – not including additional fees for integration software. Compounded over time, these costs can be severe hindrances to growth.

To help agents and teams remain productive and profitable, Keller Williams has made Command available at no additional cost. By driving down operational expenses, teams are able to reinvest their dollars into building their business and delivering an exceptional consumer experience.

Command, Keller Williams’ end-to-end operational system, made its debut in early 2019 and has matured at lightning speed. Over the last seven months, several features have rolled out to KW agents to assist with graphic design, marketing, contact management, workflow automation and transaction management. The technology has arrived at another exciting phase of its evolution […]

When Mark Yamamoto – a serial entrepreneur and successful business owner – was approached by a trusted acquaintance with the opportunity to lead KW’s expansion to Japan, he passed.

“I did my research on Keller Williams and was impressed. The opportunity seemed very interesting, but I didn’t think it was for me.”

Determined, Yamamoto’s friend delivered a copy of the Franchise Systems Orientation manual to him with an ask to reconsider.

“As I began reading, I started seeing the reasons why Keller Williams had achieved the status of world’s largest real estate franchise. I finished the book overnight and called my colleague the next day, asking him to grab the next flight to Austin, Texas, with me. I had to see it for myself.” 

By the end of August 2018, Yamamoto had attended two training events and accepted the role of regional operating principal for KW Japan.  

“Keller Williams is everything a company should be. The idea of shared goals and success isn’t a concept; it’s a reality. When I look around, I see people energized, empowered, and transformed by KW’s agent-centric model; the impact it will bring to the people of Japan is extraordinary.”

Creating Careers Worth Having

Keller Williams’ presence in Japan goes further than impacting the real estate market, Yamamoto explains – it presents a unique opportunity to shift the paradigm of employment.  

“The core real estate industry is $450 billion – $225 billion being brokerage and $124 billion residential, but agents don’t see much of that because companies operate on a salary-based compensation structure versus a reward and production-based structure. As a result, very successful agents leave to open their own real estate businesses, but not everyone has the courage or skills to do so. That’s where Keller Williams comes in.”

In addition to independent real estate agents, Yamamoto believes mothers and employees on the brink of retirement will reap the greatest rewards with the launch of KW Japan.

“Highly skilled and educated women are struggling to rejoin our country’s workforce because of large gaps in their résumés. Japan also has a mandatory retirement age while carrying the status of the country with the world’s highest life expectancy at 83 years old as of 2016.  Depending on the company, someone may be required to retire at 65-67, when they have nearly two decades of passionate living to do. There is a lot of context to change people’s lives here.”

With Yamamoto at the helm, KW Japan is initializing operations and expects to open its first market center in Q4 ’19.

“We’ll be delivering an agent-driven consumer experience built upon the high expectations that surround the KW brand. To that end, our team is using the systems, tools, and models, along with all of KW’s regional resources, to customize an offering to what consumers need in Japan.”

As of July 31, Keller Williams has 50 market centers and 1,648 agents across Asia. Japan is the 10th addition to an impressive lineup of nine regions including Cambodia; Dubai, UAE; Greater Shanghai, China; Indonesia; Israel; Malaysia; the Philippines; Turkey; and Vietnam.

“The team in Japan understands that Keller Williams’ model is highly disruptive and unique for their local agents,” said William E. Soteroff, president of Keller Williams Worldwide (KWW), the international division of Keller Williams. “We are excited to have a remarkable new leader in Asia who understands this massive opportunity and has a clear vision for the future.”

Interested in expanding your referral network or joining KW Japan’s elite team?

Connect with KW Japan

Global Growth

As of July 31, Keller Williams Worldwide has: 

• Over 200 market centers (outside of U.S. and Canada) across 39 regions
• 8,464 agents collectively operating outside the U.S. and Canada, up 23.8% since the end of July 2018.

Outside of the U.S. and Canada, KWW regions include Argentina; Belgium; Belize; Bermuda; Cambodia; Chile; Colombia; Costa Rica; Czech Republic; Dubai, UAE; France; Greater Shanghai, China; Greece; Indonesia; Ireland; Israel; Italy; Jamaica; Japan; Luxembourg; Malaysia; Mexico; Monaco; Morocco; Nicaragua; Northern Cyprus; Panama; Philippines; Poland; Portugal; Puerto Rico; Romania; Southern Africa; Southern Cyprus; Spain; Trinidad and Tobago; Turkey; United Kingdom; and Vietnam.

The division is exploring further expansion opportunities across Africa, Central and South America, Central and Eastern Europe, and throughout Asia.

Core criteria for new licensees start with having a qualified leadership team grounded in the Keller Williams culture; the company also strives for government, banking, and judicial system stability and a higher maturity level for a real estate market.

When Mark Yamamoto – a serial entrepreneur and successful business owner – was approached by a trusted acquaintance with the opportunity to lead KW’s expansion to Japan, he passed. “I did my research on Keller Williams and was impressed. The opportunity seemed very interesting, but I didn’t think it was for me.” Determined, Yamamoto’s friend […]

When he met with Gary Keller, Dave Jenks, and Mo Anderson
back in the late ’90s
to discuss opening a Keller Williams franchise, mega agent Rich Toepper in
Crystal Lake, Illinois, wasn’t quite ready. But a seed was planted and it has
been germinating for two decades.

While he was racking up nearly 2,000 sales over his 30-year career, he was reading and practicing the tenets of The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, SHIFT, and The ONE Thing. He often referred to the seven-level wall chart he’d purchased in Austin that was prominently displayed in his office. He was consistent and used 33 Touches to build a massive database and a strong pool of referrals.

As one of the perennial top agents in McHenry County, Illinois, Toepper began his career with a lot of energy and a strong desire to master the profession. He saw how the business attracts a lot of part-time and low-producing agents, which leads to mistakes at the expense of clients. The need for systems and processes to minimize client problems was evident, and Toepper spent years developing and implementing them on his own, yet there were shortfalls in his ability to get to the next level. He offers, “For the last four years, we’ve been consistently selling about 90 homes annually at RE/MAX. It’s good, but I know we can do so much better.”

That’s
why he was “blown away” when he attended this year’s Family Reunion. To see the
pageant of tried-and-true systems, tools, processes, and innovative tech
offerings really impressed him. As a veteran of the industry, he was looking
for ways to “reinvent himself” and “finish strong.”

“For the last four years, we’ve been consistently selling about 90 homes annually. It’s good, but I know we can do so much better.”

What
really stood out for Toepper was the way the company respected and made
provisions for producers and teams to grow exponentially. “When I got to Family
Reunion, I saw that there was a significant focus on profitability and that people who had put
together teams were also profitable. So that was a change of mindset; not to do more deals, but
to do more deals profitably. When I realized that the company has a system of
coaching that follows the MREA book, and all I needed to do was plug into the
system, I immediately connected.”  

“When I realized that the company has a system of coaching that follows the MREA book, and all I needed to do was plug into the system, I immediately connected.”  

Toepper
saw the potential to triple or quadruple his volume and develop a well-oiled
machine that eventually operates independently of his efforts. He and his team
are now Keller Williams Success Realty in Crystal Lake, Illinois, and are already thriving in their new
environment. Team Leader Natalie
Hartman adds, “Rich is a perfect fit for the Keller Williams team. We are
extremely proud to call him family!”

When he met with Gary Keller, Dave Jenks, and Mo Anderson back in the late ’90s to discuss opening a Keller Williams franchise, mega agent Rich Toepper in Crystal Lake, Illinois, wasn’t quite ready. But a seed was planted and it has been germinating for two decades. While he was racking up nearly 2,000 sales […]