Solving
A Riddle
Gary
Keller and Joe Williams established KELLER WILLIAMS in 1983
as a traditional real estate company. The firm had grown to
over 30 associates by 1986. Due to the pressures from 100%
concepts, they found themselves faced with the commission-profitability
paradox. Their interdependent approach was a creative and
team-oriented response to this riddle.
No
Compromise Approach
Gary
and Joe invited their associates to a meeting where they outlined
the commission-profitability squeeze paradox; however, both
broker and associate determined that neither was willing to
compromise their earning potential. The resulting unanimous
solution combined the best of all worlds with a progressive
approach. Rather than "compromise" associate and
broker goals the "team" incorporated the two. The
result—the office grew to over 100 associates in less than
five months. Few would argue that the inventive KELLER WILLIAMS
programs they designed are some of the past decade’s biggest
advances in broker-associate relationships and income opportunities.
Combining
the Incompatible
The
desire to engineer a truly win-win company with no limits
on associate career and income opportunities led the reasons
for the change. The KELLER WILLIAMS Team discovered a way
to champion the highest possible commission structure within
a full support environment, with expansive profit potentials
for the broker and associate. By doing so they created a method
for combining the incompatible—achieving both associate and
broker career and income goals. They then went one step further
by advocating the concept that a commission program would
be just one form of compensation associates would have—not
the only one.
Unexpected
Demand
The
KELLER WILLIAMS System became triumphant. KELLER WILLIAMS
associates asked the firm to expand their opportunities by
offering the system to brokers in other cities. In fact, the
first affiliate broker was brought in by an associate. The
San Antonio Market Center was so successful its first year
they received their Chamber’s "Pride In Progress"
award for being the area’s fastest growing new business.
The
resulting demand for the KELLER WILLIAMS System was unexpected,
and as a result, KELLER WILLIAMS did not emerge overnight.
The entire company is the result of a massive commitment from
a highly successful group of real estate agents and brokers.
And
it was commitment of time—the time to develop the best, to
reject any shortcoming and to rethink, redo and continuously
perfect a system, policy or program until it was right for
KELLER WILLIAMS and its associates.
After
this extensive benchmarking and trending development experience,
KELLER WILLIAMS created a new level of real estate company.
Your company!
