Business Innovators Radio - Interview with David Morse, CEO of Keller Williams Arizona Realty

Episode Date: January 5, 2024

David Morse is the CEO of Keller Williams Arizona Realty and General Manager of Keller Williams Elite and Keller Williams Southern Arizona, a network of real estate brokerages producing nearly $6 billion in transactions annually. These firms are home to 1,100 agents and were recently ranked by REAL Trends as a top 100 firm by volume and units. He also is a host of REAL Talk with David, a top 100 entrepreneurship podcast on Apple.His mission is to unleash others’ potential so they can live big, joy-filled lives. And the way he has chosen to do that is by impacting others on their leadership journeys, specifically in real estate. He is a believer that the answer is always in the room and that the company is only as strong as the team. And that leadership is the single greatest privilege in all spheres of life.Learn More:https://kwarizona.com/ | https://www.instagram.com/daviddmorse/Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/elite-real-estate-leaders-podcastSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-david-morse-ceo-of-keller-williams-arizona-realty

Welcome to the Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcast, brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group, bringing you interviews with the best real estate and mortgage professionals, empowering you to understand the current trends in the housing market so that you make the American dream your reality. Enjoy today's episode. Welcome to the Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcast. Today we have with this David Morris, who's the CEO of Keller Williams, Arizona, Realty. David, welcome to the program. And thanks so much, Mike.

I appreciate being here. Hey, I'm excited to talk with you because it's always neat to hear people's perspectives on the area and what industry trends that you're seeing. And I know being the CEO of this region of Keller Williams here, you're going to have some unique insights. But before we dive into that, give us a little bit of your story and your background and how you got into the real estate industry. Yeah, sure thing. So the 30,000 foot overview is that real estate was really not something on my radar. until my mid-20s when I was actually in the insurance business for six or seven years. And I began reading about how wealth was built for so many families across our country and really

across the world. And when I was a few years into my insurance business, owning an office and agency in the Midwest, I started to invest in real estate. I always thought it would be a piece of my portfolio, but not something that I was, you know, jumping into full time. But, you know, the universe sometimes has different plans. So I got into the real estate business in the state of Maine. I got into business with Keller Williams, got my license, started diving in. And, you know, about seven years later, and now being in Arizona, we operate about 14 offices across the entire state. We have about 1,100 agents across all of our offices. And we get to serve around 6,000. and families moving into homes across the state. So it's been a fantastic journey and one that I'm very lucky to be a part of.

You know, I love how you framed that up. And one thing that I did not hear that I want to really put a spotlight on is you didn't say we have 11 offices and this many agents and our annual revenue is this and we're hitting all the records and we're number one because no, you said we serve our clients. We serve our buyers and our sellers and our community. And that's the mark of a true professional that's got it priorities put in the right place. So talk a little bit about that approach. Yes, you need numbers to pay the bills and keep the lights on. But your approach to serving and giving value first, that probably carried over from when you were working in the insurance industry and seeing how things weren't done right there. And then you polished it up, came to real estate.

So what are some of those similarities? And then what is that approach that you take to teach, educate, and serve your clients and community? You know, I think when I, you know, consider that question, I think about being a child of really the generation that watched Amazon grow up. And I frequently relate it when I'm having conversations about business to, you know, the reason why Amazon wins is they are the most consumer-centric logistics company. on the planet, offering up every product from a consumer-centric standpoint. And so whether it be insurance or real estate or any business, my thought in leading teams and leading agents is how can we be the most consumer-centric real estate brokerage on the planet?

And I believe that we accomplish that as leaders in the real estate industry by being the most agent-centric brokerages that we possibly can be. And so I wake up every single day, eat, sleep, and breathe, this idea with our leadership team of how can we serve our consumer, which is a real estate agent, better? How can we keep them at the center of the transaction? because I believe if I can be the most leadership team-centric executive, it frees them to be the most agent-centric brokerage leaders, which frees my agents to be the most consumer-centric. And that's where I feel like you really can create sustainability and win while keeping service at the center.

And so that's really what we try and do here at Keller Williams, Arizona Realty, across our offices. We don't always get it right. That's definitely our vision or our mission. You know, from the top down kind of trickle-down effect funnel, however you want to think of it, what you just said there, there's a couple thoughts that I thought I would shine the light on, too. If you don't treat your agents the right way, how can they be expected to serve your buyers and sellers the right way? You know, if you're just cracking the whip going, get more sales and get more business, but then they aren't treated correctly internally, even an out-a-boy, att-a-girl, or bonuses,

or a nice work environment, they're not incentivized, internally motivated to go out and be the best they can be for their buyers and sellers. So I love how you realize that when you get it right internally, it's so natural to have those buyers and sellers feel that and have it overflow to them. You know, I frequently say that the politics of our company are engagement and performance in that order. I seek to attract agents who will engage. with the value tools and offerings that we provide as a company at the highest level, because I've never seen someone engage at a high level and not perform at a high level as well. On the flip side, I've seen it be converse.

Someone comes in, they perform at a high level for a given period of time, but they're not high engagement. Well, that's not a win-win in my mind because it's not a culture of interdependence, and that's the culture that we seek to foster. So I agree with exactly how you just summarize that. It's a two-way street of engage at a high level, and I can pretty much guarantee you're going to perform at a high level as well. Because the alternative is just skimming off the top or low-hanging fruit and just get the business in, and then you're just being really formulaic.

And it's like the commodity versus our relationship. And one of these days I want to hear about a real estate company that has in their slogan, we don't do closings. We do openings. We open relationships, you know, and, obviously tongue and cheek because you go to a real estate closing. But in reality, that is an opening of a relationship because this is not the last time you're going to hear from us if you're doing it the right way. If you're focusing on that value, because it shouldn't be next, next, next. And that's what I'm here that you guys are doing the right way.

That's awesome. Well, I think it's telling that it's something like 82% from a National Association of Realtors study, 82% of consumers say that they would use the same agent, again, on a next transaction. But on the sell side and the buy side, it's slightly differs. But it's something like, you know, there's a blended reuse rate of only like 20 to 25%. Well, the challenge lies in that gap. And what you just mentioned makes me think of the lifetime value of a client. And whether you're in real estate or any other profession, really the relationship and the lifetime value is solidified in what happens between the first and the next transaction.

That's where you're going to determine the longevity and sustainability and ultimately the profitability of your business over a long period of time. And so a lot of what we have been focusing on in the last 24 months with my agents has been education around. once the deal has closed, the real work begins because now you have to figure out how do you maintain a high level of value until the consumer is ready to transact real estate again. Gone are the days where you can just do the deal and then expect deals to continue to flow. New business is much, much harder to obtain than repeat and referral business if you are cultivating that relationship. You know, I will even, I'll see your comment and raise you this comment, right?

We're having a good time with some strategy brainstorming. I will even say you don't even need to generate that relationship so that you can transact another deal with that same client again. Yes, that should happen and it will happen if you do it right. But that might be three to five years down the road statistically. So what if you really treated them the right way and develop that relationship? Well, the reticular activator section of our brain is like once someone becomes aware of something, it becomes top of mind and it's all you talk about. So now during the transaction and recently after the transaction, when they're doing their, you know, parties with their friends and housewarming, how many of their friends are realizing, oh, you guys just moved or bought a, yeah, we need to or we're getting ready to. The referrals can come way sooner than when that one client is going to transact.

act again. And that should happen and can happen. But I feel like when agents can realize, wow, I'm going to do all of this for something that could happen even sooner. I think that really helps to close that gap as well. I definitely agree. And the math formula, because I'm a big believer that the past is always in the math. And the equation that I give to my agents is right now, based on all the data that we have across Keller Williams, right, is the largest real estate company in the world, we know that roughly 65% of your database, the contacts that are in there, will buy, sell, or refer a piece of business in a given year. Okay. And when that occurs, we say 65%, those are the appointments that you're going to get. So if you want to do a quick

little study, maybe you set your goal at 40 units that you want to close this year. What I want you to do is I want you to take the number of contacts in your database. I define a contact as having four key pieces of information, name, phone number, email address, and physical address. And I need the plus oneness with a communication plan. Okay. How many contacts do you have that fit that criteria that are on a communication plan? Okay.

Multiply that by 0.65. That's the number of appointments that you're going to generate in 2024. And you have to decide is that enough. appointments to hit your revenue goal, your income goal for the year or not. If it's not, you have to figure out how am I going to generate additional contacts? If it is, you have to do nothing but work on your conversion through practice and role play. And practice and role play is having that heart of a teacher, educator, giving value, serving that whole vibe coming through and how you're doing it because it certainly is not, let's get those 65% to have an appointment

and say, when did you want to move again? So it's all of that. It's honing your skills of relationship building and things like that. I think that is spectacular because, yeah, the path is in the math. And if you don't have a big enough database, adopt one or go out and network to get more in there to do all the things that you're talking about that communication plan. I think that is spectacular. So I'm certain that you guys as Killer Williams, Arizona, Realty, have some tools that you provide to your AD. to help them close that gap?

What are some of those things that you help provide to help them succeed? We're really fortunate. I believe I have the best leadership team in the business, composed of people who are experts and specialists in marketing and production and video and audio. And so one of the benefits of being the largest KW office in the entire Southwest region of the country, is that I have the largest team of specialists of any KW office that can serve my clients,

my clients, which are my agents. And so my agents get access to free business consulting with coaches at various levels. We have a full service studio with a full service audio and video production engineer, director of marketing, as well as, you know, the support staff that you would, you know, come to know in any brokerage environment that you're in. So those are some of the, when I think about tools and resources and value, it's all driven through the people and I have the best people for sure. It sounds like the old saying success leaves clues and you and your leadership team have

found those clues and you're providing the pathway for the ages to say, hey, it's up to you. Plug in and we can show you that path to success. You got to do the work. but at least you're going to know the next step and the next step and the next step, and that's really powerful. Yeah, and when you have a team around you that can help by providing that pathway to the agents, it frees me up truly to wake up, like I said, and think every single day,

how do I provide more opportunity? Because I do believe that in the current industry landscape, we're embarking on a really interesting chapter where the brokerage can become far more than just an avenue to an agent to make an income on a day-to-day basis as a salesperson, but truly treat them as stakeholders in the overall business. And so going out there and finding additional opportunities where our agents can build wealth through not only real estate, but also all of the ancillary businesses that they get to touch and help build along the way with us. Yeah. So, In addition to these tools and coaching and the pathway to success, are there any specialty programs

that you guys are known for or focus on in serving your buyers and sellers? I think one of the things that is most unique for our buyers and sellers is the constant coaching and consultation that we give to our agents on how to make sure that we're negotiating on their to have. I really feel like negotiation skills are the reason why buyers and sellers hire any of us as professionals. And so I believe in the data would show it too if we dove into it that consumers who work with our agents tend to net the most money in their home sales and on the converse get into homes at the most affordable rates. I think that's really interesting because when you hear negotiation skills.

It's not you saying we teach the agents how to close that new business. No, once you develop the relationship with that client and they become the client, now you're teaching your agents how to be a pit bull on the client's behalf and get those negotiation skills to really serve them at a higher level. Exactly. I think that's our really the only job that we have once we're a fiduciary for our client. Yeah. Yeah.

you don't hear fiduciary much in the real estate industry. It's typically in financial services, but I love the carryover because when the fiduciary, the definition is, I do everything in my power to serve you and make decisions for your benefit, not mine, not my back pocket. So I think that's a huge mindset shift that when the prospects are interacting with your agents, they don't even need to say those words. It just comes through. I believe if more agents adopted that type of mindset, it would really level up the professionalism in our industry. And not just the professionalism, but the trust factor in general. We are all in business to create trust among the consumer. And I don't have to, you know, mince words.

Real estate is not always the profession that is seen as most trustworthy in the consumer is eye. And so if you really want to make a value differentiation, have a competitive advantage, if you will, it really revolves around this idea of building trust with the consumer and the public. You know, it used to be that your hottest, most aggressive competitor was just around the corner, just down the street, or in the next town, or whatever. Now they're one clicked away. So, yeah, what you said is huge. Developing that trust, that credibility, having your reputation precede you online, in person, things like that. That's key.

And when you can be building on that foundation, all of a sudden, then all the cylinders are firing in the right direction. I think that's just spectacular. So let's kind of wrap up with this thought here. What are you seeing trend-wise in your area? What's looking good in the industry? I think one of the things that I have my agents most focused on right now is actually developing the relationships that they have with.

is both buyers and sellers, but also real estate professionals in Canada. Phoenix right now is a top five market for money migration from Canada into the U.S. And so I definitely am directing a bunch of my time and energy in cultivating those relationships and encouraging my agents and agents in this market to do the same. We continue to be a top 20 destination in terms of growth. We have you know, a myriad of business that's continuing to be built out here from Taiwan semiconductor through many, many other industries. And so, you know, I see Phoenix being one of the markets in the country that does have a positive push in terms of an upward trajectory in terms of units sold. And so I think it's a fantastic opportunity for agents who weathered 2020.

to really make a mark on this industry and serve a lot of people at a high level. I love it. And I think that's exactly what we want to hear is I just love the vision and mission and ethos that you are building. So, David, thank you for being on. If someone is interested in learning more about your team and the opportunity there, what's the best way that they can do that and reach out and connect with you? For anyone interested in getting into business with us as an agent or as a buyer or seller, you can find all that information on our website at kWarizona.com.

If you're interested in learning more about any of the content that I put out personally, from a consulting standpoint, it's really geared towards real estate professionals. You can find that on my Instagram at David D. Morse. That's David D. Morse, like Morse code. and I love connecting with people across the country. Well, David, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you today. You as well.

Thanks so much. Thank you for listening to the Elite Real Estate Leaders podcast. Brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group. To learn more about the topics mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.org.org.