At the time, I thought it was going to take about 60,000 people, and when I told him that, he drew an organizational chart that showed me how I could make it happen with the right 14 people who would hire and empower their own teams of people and so on. He was right, and he’s still a consultant for us.

This was more than a pivotal lesson in hiring. It was the conversation that sparked our company’s whole philosophy of succeeding through others, as well as our understanding that the people we surround ourselves with, make all the difference in our success or failure. Without exception, I find that the most successful people in real estate and in life are those who are very intentional about seeking out and surrounding themselves with the very best.

I often think back to that turning point in our company’s history during conversations with mega achievers, so it’s no surprise that it came up when I had the pleasure of visiting with Greg Harrelson, founder of The Century 21 Harrelson Group in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

In 2010, The Harrelson Group’s 18-person team closed more than 700 deals. Even though Greg says he now functions as more of a coach for his team than as a real estate agent, he personally closed more than 100 of those deals. At the age of 40, he’s clearly doing a lot of things right and has been very focused on surrounding himself with the right people. His passion at this point in his career is simply to fuel the success of those in his inner circle.

Here are some of the highlights of our conversation:

On standing on the shoulders of giants

At the age of 27, after four years of working for his Dad’s real estate team, which was doing about 120 deals a year, Greg says “The ego was kicking in and I started seeing that there was a lot of upside in me becoming the No. 1 decision-maker on the team. My Dad agreed and the next thing you know, we are doing 160 deals a year, 180 deals a year, 240 deals a year, 300 deals a year, 330 deals, all the way up to 484, which is the number of deals we closed in 2004, the year my Dad retired.  And that was my mission – a secure retirement for him and my Mom. I recognized that he brought me into this business and he guided me and trusted me and supported me when I was going in all of these different directions. He was my No. 1 team man and we did it together to 484 deals. My next goal was to build a team with the highest per-person production in our market.”

On leverage

“Tony DiCello was my coach when he was with The Mike Ferry Organization and one day we divided my day into income-generating activities and income-servicing activities. Once I looked that list I declared that I would never do income servicing activities again, and that concept now carries through my entire team. Income generators do nothing but generate and income services do nothing but service. Our current teams consists of eight listing agents, six buyers agents, a closing coordinator who takes over once the contract is signed, a listing coordinator who is currently handling 550 active listings, a broker/manager, and an executive assistant.  ”

On lead generation

“Cold calling FSBOs and expireds represents about 10 percent of our business. We’ve built a huge data base over the years and the goal is to turn cold calls into warm calls, warm calls into a sphere of influence, and the sphere of influence into advocates. I’m doing that by communicating a lot and serving as a resource for information. We’re really concentrate on giving value to our database.  One example: a few weeks ago we sent out a letter to our entire database concerning our county’s five-year reassessment of property values, letting them know that our staff was on hand to mail the appeal form to them if they needed it, as well as a list of the previous year’s closed sales out of the MLS. That spread virally through our market. People were forwarding it and we got a lot of calls from outside of the database – which expanded our sphere.”

On talent

“I look for someone who has a strong desire to succeed, someone who has a systematic approach to doing business, and someone who is coachable – willing to do whatever it takes. If those three things are there, I invite them to ‘test drive’ in our training center. We have a large room where everyone prospects together – no individual offices. If they show up a second day, that’s a good thing and then we talk about whether they feel comfortable in the environment. If they want to keep going, I hand them all of our scripts and before they can go to work, they need demonstrate that they know the scripts. No one starts working without being script certified.”

On growth

My intention is no longer to grow my personal business. I’m really focused on helping my people to grow their businesses. When I was coaching with Tony DiCello, we had two years in a row when we did 300 deals and when we looked at what went wrong, why we hadn’t grown, we decided that I needed to stop setting monetary goals and needed to start setting goals of how many people we were going to help. We took money out of the equation and started to focus on making a difference and serving people. That was the point at which we broke through.

For most entrepreneurs and independent business owners, fourth quarter is a time of reflection on the past year’s successes and an opportunity to put together a solid business plan for the next 12 months.

As you might imagine, Gary Keller, co-founder and chairman, Keller Williams Realty, Inc.  goes through a rigorous planning process. Below is an email exchange between him and Todd Butzer, regional director, North Central on creating the “Master Plan.”

-----Original Message-----

From: Todd Butzer

To: Gary Keller

Subject: planning question

Gary –

I am pretty sure you go through a specific planning ritual this time of year.

Wonder if you would mind sharing any part of it?

T

Todd Butzer

Regional Director

North Central Region

-----Original Message-----

From: Gary Keller

To: Todd Butzer

Subject: RE: planning question

hey !

i work from a simple concept:

1.   i start with the end in mind:  i envision my life at the end of it and ask myself what i want to have done.  i then mock up a simple 5 year look (in

kind of a grid form with the years to the left and along the top the categories – like health, giving, john, mary, mom, business, writing,etc…) at what i should be doing to be on track and then i look at the first year.

that creates my goals for the year.

2.   i then take each goal and ask one question:  what is the one thing i can do that by doing it everything else that could also be done to accomplish this would either be easier or unnecessary?

3.   last, i go to my calendar with that answer for each goal and i time block out the year to make sure those things get done.  first, i time block all my time off – vacations, days off, short days, etc.,  so that i make sure they don’t get left out.  if i intend to work hard then i’ll need this time to renew.  next is, my meetings with the people who report to me. next, i make sure i have my time to plan out every week. (i’ve done this so long on a sunday night that i don’t even block it anymore), usually an hour a week on a sunday.  then it’s all about work.  so, for example, if lead generation is your number one business action then you time block it for 5-6 days a week for 3 -4 hours a day before noon.   for me it’s writing so my goal is to just make sure that gets done – then i’m open to the possibilities of everything else.

my motto is “until my number one priority on my list is done each day all else

is a distraction”!  ALL ELSE!  as such, i guard my time when i’m on a priority task fiercely and without apologies.  it’s my life and i answer to no one as to my time. doesn’t always make me highly visible or highly social, but that isn’t the goal when i’m doing what i want my life to be about.

hope this helps.  feel free to share.

onward……

garykeller

To get where you want to go, you’ll need to surround yourself with people who have the capacity, drive, energy, skills and desire to be their best. Ultimately, that’s what the journey of the Millionaire Real Estate Agent is all about. Enjoy the video and let us know what you think!

Leverage is ultimately about focus. You hire talent to keep you focused on your most dollar-productive activities and they focus on everything else. After entrusting your admin and marketing chores to another person, you look for help on the buyer sales side of the business. Successfully showing homes can be extremely time intensive and help here should keep you focused on leads and listings. So who do you hire?

In the past, research pointed us to a licensed buyer specialist paid on a 50/50 commission split. Today, some successful agents are first hiring an unlicensed Showing Assistant to keep their costs of sale low and their productivity high.

A Showing Assistant can literally jump into the driver’s seat with your buyers while keeping you in the driver’s seat when it comes to converting buyer leads, getting signed agreements, identifying wants and needs and eventually writing and negotiating contracts. A good one should be able to successfully show homes to around three to four buyers a month while earning bonuses based on 25 percent of each deal. Based on a $5,000 average commission, a good Showing Assistant could earn $60,000 a year. This is a terrific opportunity for someone. Better yet, you get to stay focused and 75 percent of the buy-side income stays on your side of the ledger.

You are still looking for someone who has the ability to grow into your Lead Buyer Specialist. So when you have someone with the ambition and proven ability to succeed with a high volume of buyers over time, your Showing Assistant earns the right to be promoted to a licensed Buyer Specialist. Your Buyer Specialist would then handle buyers from the appointment to closing and now earn 50 percent of the commissions. Again, a good one should be able to handle three to four buyer sales a month without burning out.

Burnout is a key word. Once you have identified a great Buyer Specialist, you don’t want to lose them! When they burn out and walk out, guess who gets their job? You do. And you’ve already got a job.

When your business is generating enough leads on a consistent basis to push a great Buyer Specialist past their ability to successful manage them all, the Showing Assistant concept reenters the picture. Now your Buyer Specialist has the opportunity to hire a Showing Assistant of their own. The Showing Assistant is still paid on a 25 percent bonus; however, that money comes out of the Lead Buyer Specialist’s half of each commission. Effectively, you continue to earn 50 percent of each buyer transaction, while the Buyer Specialist earns 25 percent and the Showing Assistant earns the final 25 percent as a bonus. Any buyer transactions your Buyer Specialist closes without the help of a Showing Assistant would still be on a 50/50 split.

Now your Buyer Specialist might successfully help four buyers on their own and another four with the help of a Showing Assistant. That’s now eight closed buy-side transactions each month. And with an average commission of $5,000, your Buyer Specialist has the ability to gross as much as $180,000 a year while just personally showing three or four buyers a month!

Showing Assistants may come and go—each auditioning for a shot at being your Lead Buyer Specialist. But once you find one, hiring and managing Showing Assistants moves from your plate to theirs. You have found your leader for working with buyers. Any additional help needed to keep your buyer transactions on track becomes their issue and opportunity.

Showing Assistants can save you money on the frontend, reduce turnover on the backend, all the while providing the best possible service to your buyers.

Click here for a video highlighting The Organizational Model and MREA.

(with Jay Papasan)