KW Bold Training Program??

[Margo6786]

Are any of you familiar with Keller Williams' BOLD training program?  It's coming to my area and my mentor is encouraging me to sign up, but I'm afraid it will make my head explode. 

Anyone know the good, bad, and ugly??

[John Perkins, San Jose-CA]

Well on the good side is KW is a "Family Oriented" business. Therefore, you should be able to meet some very nice people. I haven't seen their full blown trainings but have been to many of their recruitment meetings that includeded the info and I have seen "the books". They are huge and there are several of them. They say they work but then the local RE/MAX was beating them to the listings left and right causing them frustration.

Best,
John

[josephBoston]

Margo,

I went to the bold program graduation.  I was only there for the last day, I started as a new agent after the program had started. 

Your head may explode.  I think the program does push people out of their comfort zone in a big way.  Part of the program seems to be geared to understanding what holds you back from performing what is the foundation of our business, prospecting.  There's accountability, loud music, high energy, donations to KW cares if you say some negative words(ie no "buts"), the last is actually fun. So while my ears were ringing a bit walking out of there, I'll be signing up next time it's back to the Boston area. 

I just finished Sell with Soul.  BOLD is going to propose you do some things out of your comfort zone.  The big thing I came away from a tiny sampling of it was everything is done purposefully.  If it's not in your calendar it doesn't exist, time blocking, blocking for prospecting, and scripts are all big parts of the program.  There's nothing there that says this can't be done soulfully.   

--Joe

[erikh]

My team leader: "Have you heard of BOLD?"
Me: "Yes, but I really dont have the funds to pay for that right now. Maybe next year."
Team leader: "Well, most agents find that after attending BOLD their production goes up by almost 35%!!!! Wouldn't that be nice? I tell you what, since you are really a special new agent, our office is willing to reimburse you 50% of the fee for attending BOLD! How does that sound?"
Me: "Well, how bout this. Since my sales are going to be increased by roughly 35%, why don't you just take the fee for BOLD out of your share of the increased Broker fees you'll be getting?"
Team leader: "..........."

[Jennifer Allan]

Show Me the Money! I LOVE It!

I have some issues with the program from what I've heard about it, but obviously I haven't attended, so I won't elaborate... unless someone convinces me to...

[Margo6786]

Well, since the topic has come up and I did attend the Bold program, I guess I'll chime in.

First, I want to say that I really like being with KW. I like the win/win philosophy and the help the agents in my office are willing to give each other.

That said, I was very uncomfortable with the Bold program. There were parts of it I could take away and use - positive thinking, goal setting, personality types, etc. BUT, it is all about prospecting and scripts. The scripts were very condescending. I could never use them.  The author of the program is a very aggressive, driver-type personality.

Her son happened to be the instructor for our class. My "team" won a 1-hour phone consultation with him. Towards the end of the hour, he asked us our opinion of Bold. I told him very politely that I could not use the scripts - that they were written by and for someone with a totally different style personality from mine. He didn't really have an answer for me except to say that sometimes we have to become a different person in our professional life than in our personal life.

Sell With Soul proves him wrong.

[Jennifer Allan]

Margo - that's what I've heard, too. KW has some pretty awful scripts - and I'm not sure they're written for a "different personality" - I think they're just bad. No acknowledgement of human nature or insight into true persuasion - just flat out push push push. It's hard to imagine that anyone responds positively to that, regardless of who says it.

And to say that we need to become a different person professionally? Nope. WRONG. If that's the case, we need a new profession. Crazy crazy.

The other issue I have with BOLD (this is hearsay, so I could be wrong) is that it celebrates production without the accompanying customer service. In fact, it was a BOLD agent who inspired my two recent AR blogs about going after more business than you can reasonably handle.

[Jennifer Allan]

Margo - do you have any examples of the scripts?

[erikh]

It is good to see that my gut instincts were dead on about BOLD. If I want scripts, I can get them for free online. What I have heard about BOLD is that the real benefit is that they fire you up to go out and make millions. But to hear someone come right out and say "sometimes we have to become a different person in our professional life than in our personal life." makes me cringe. To what extent do we allow ourselves to become different people? What lines are we willing to cross for the sake of financial success? One of my favorite movie lines ever sums up nicely that kind of philosophy:

"Well, it's no trick to make a lot of money... if all you want to do is make a lot of money."
-Citizen Kane