Newswire - Monday February 17, 2003

Over 3,000 to Attend Conference From February 16-19

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Keller Williams(R) Realty International is holding its 2003 convention at Bally's Las Vegas from February 16-19 under the theme "Family Reunion." Highlights will include the release of Gary Keller's new book, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent; rollout of a unique internal consulting program designed to assist franchise owners, managers and agents in maximizing performance; and introduction of a new web- based Keller Williams Market Center Scorecard that will enable company offices and consultants to instantly compare the performance of different offices for business improvement purposes.

The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, subtitled "It's Not About the Money," is a step-by-step road map to a million-dollar real estate career, based on Keller's own experiences as well as those of millionaire agents associated with Keller Williams and other companies. The book includes never-before- published economic, budgetary, organizational, and lead generation models that boil much of the advice down to useful formulas. The Economic Model, for example, spells out the number of buyer and seller listing appointments and other business activity that agents must generate to reach million-dollar status.

The new Keller Williams internal consulting program involves a dedicated team of in-house business consultants who will work one-on-one with franchisees and managers to increase their productivity and profitability. Typically including two 30-minute consulting sessions per month, the program will be offered free of charge to new franchisees for the first year and at nominal fees to existing offices. Agent consulting will be added later this year. Because no other real estate company offers this capability except at much higher fees from third-party providers, Keller Williams officials expect the program to serve as a recruiting tool for new franchisees and associates as well as a vehicle for growing existing market centers.

The new Keller Williams Market Center Scorecard will assist franchisees in evaluating their business performance by comparing and ranking market centers on a variety of measurements such production volume, recruitment success, training, certification levels, and continuing agent education. Separate rankings will be provided for offices in different stages of maturity for apples-to-apples comparison. This new technology tool will help owners and regional directors identify areas needing improvement. It will also complement the new internal consulting program by supplying metrics to assist Keller Williams consultants in their guidance efforts.

Several sessions at the convention will also be devoted to the Keller Williams Electronic Agent Consortium (EagentC), a unique agent focused technology initiative that provides comprehensive agent websites, electronic marketing, Keller Williams branded email, market center intranets, and a wide range of other technology support to agents for a low $10-a-month fee. The agent websites alone are already used by nearly a third of all Keller Williams associates, producing 50 million hits and 1.5 million unique visitors last year.

Outside speakers at the convention will include Howard Brinton of StarPower Systems, who will address strategies for creating customers for life; Brian Buffini of Providence Systems, who will discuss ways of building referral business; Pat Zaby, who will cover marketing and e-marketing; and Rhonda Britten, founder of the Fearless Living Institute, who will speak on "Fearless Leadership."

For more information on the book or any of these programs, contact Katie Eakins, at katie@sspr.com or (858) 549-0581.

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