Keller Williams’ Michael Ward on shifting the pendulum on lead generation

On today’s episode of RealTrending, we feature Michael Ward, the director of Teamerage for Keller Williams. Ward talks through the teamerage model, Keller Williams’ investment in developing and attracting high transaction volume teams, and why he thinks more brands should be leveraging the team model. 

Michael discusses different ways to overcome difficult market conditions, including reducing the use of aggregators and utilizing AI tools to boost lead generation.

Here is a small preview of today’s interview. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Tracey Velt: What are you finding are the top challenges teamerage leaders are having and what are you doing to help solve those challenges?

Michael Ward: Not to sound like a broken record, but a lot of teamerages that put all of their lead volume into that aggregator bucket are hitting up against the wall right now. When I talked to a majority of these market centers and asked them what percentage their lead volume is coming from an aggregator ecosystem, they would often tell me 90%. That means that 90% of their lead volume has a 35-40% price tag on it at the closing table. 

Where we’ve been shifting that pendulum is that 80% of their lead volume should come from self-source lead aggregation, right? Your database should be 80% of your lead volume. It’s fine to have 20% living there, but don’t let an outside ecosystem control the opportunity and the revenue you can bring. And so that’s what we’ve been coaching through for a lot of these market centers.

The RealTrending podcast features the brightest minds in real estate. Every week, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts share their success secrets, trends, and lessons learned navigating this ever-changing industry. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by Elissa Branch.