Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Vendor Tech: Get off the floor!

It’s trade show season again, so that means many of us have been on the road. I still do a little booth duty now and then and thought I’d share something with everyone.

Does this look familiar?

Yup that dreaded rat’s nest of cables on the floor, just to the side of the table cloth at your 6 foot table. Sometimes your charging cables are too short to reach your phone on the table, and it just looks like shit.

But today I have the solution for you. The Accell Powramid! These bad boys are awesome for trade tables and regular conference tables.

Sure they take up a bit of table space, but no bending over, no rat’s nest of cables, they fit all types of power bricks and they come with 6 outlets and two USB charging ports. Love ’em.

You can buy them at Amazon, here’s the link. => Accell Powramid

Take my advice, order twice as many as you think you’ll need because once you start using them you are gonna to find other places to put them.

You’re welcome.

Pro Tip: How not to be a Harvey

The Rock Test: A Hack for Men Who Don’t Want To Be Accused of Sexual Harassment

“Are you a man confused on how to treat the women you work with? Do you feel like if you can’t say or do *anything* you don’t know what to say or do at all? Well stress no more! This life hack will have you treating women like people in no time.

You’re welcome.

Pro Tip: Soapbox by Wistia

We are a big believer in video at W+R Studios and have used it effectively in our support and marketing efforts. Due to this we are also a big fan of Wistia, a video hosting company out of Massachusetts. They have a really wonderful company culture and their website if chock full of tip and tricks. I’ve attended their last few conferences (WistiaFest) and at this last one they introduced a great new tool called Soapbox. Basically it’s a quick and easy way to make screencasts just using Chrome. It’s free and so easy to use, you really have to try it to appreciate it.

I did one this morning so you could have an idea of how it works. You can also check out this page for more information.

Soapbox – Cloud Streams Product Update Sept 17

Pro Tip: Save your sales literature for your suite.

I love swag, but hate sales literature at a booth. By sales literature, I mean the one pager flyers or brochures that list the features and benefits of your product.

Why?

Swag attracts people to your booth.

A sales flyer is an excuse for a prospect NOT to talk to a sales person.

I’m not saying sales literature isn’t helpful is some circumstances. I might keep a sales literature at a booth, but hidden for special circumstances. Handing out sales literature in your suite is a good idea when your client has to go back to the office and hand out something to their committee members. Well done sales literature is a great way of promoting your brand and value proposition and should be treated as a supplement to your website.

But handing out sales brochures at a booth is just plain lazy. Sales people should be selling, not passing out pieces of paper.

And while we are on the topic of selling. Only have counter height tables at a booth and remove the any chairs at your booth. I always say, “Closers never sit”. And its easier to view a computer screen, or fill out an order from when standing.

You’re welcome.

See you at T3!

Looking forward to seeing many of you at the T3 Summit this week. Looks like Stefan and company have put together another great event.

Katie and I arrive on Wednesday afternoon. Rob Hahn and I will be doing live recordings of our podcast “Industry Relations” so I hope to include a few of you in those conversations as well.

And remember what Tio Greg says, “Never go big on the first night!”

Halftime

Like many of you we started off the year with a plan. We made some goals, both product-wise and financial. We hired, we fired and made tweaks to our org chart to help steer our company towards those goals. One of the best things I’ve done in the past few years is having monthly meetings and go over our how we preformed in comparison to our goals month over month. Every month those metrics are tracked and we can see the progress over time. Looking back at those slides tells a story.

And now, quickly enough, its June. It’s Halftime.

Time to look at what went well, what didn’t go so well, ponder on any surprises and to see what (if any ) of our assumptions were wrong or right.

Whether you run a big company, an association, MLS or hustling for some sales, now is a good time to reflect. I’ve been doing that for the past couple weeks. You should try it.

Pro Tip: How to get your press release or announcement on Vendor Alley

I’m always willing to help other vendors, especially new ones, get the word about their products and services. I also like to get the word out on new initiatives that existing vendors want to announce to the industry. But I’m super busy, so I don’t always get to all the requests I get. So I thought I would lay out a few guidelines that will give you a better shot of me posting something about you.

1. If its a press release please give me a link to where the press release is on your site (preferably) or somewhere on the internet. I hate not having somewhere for a reader to go, while reading my comments, to read your news. This is probably the number one reason I won’t post your story.

2. If you want me to include an image, please send it to me 550 px wide.

3. Also, if I get the news before anyone else than I’m 100% more likely to post.

One other pro tip. I know many companies like to make announcements around bigger events (NAR Annual, Midyear, Inman Connect, CMLS Conference, etc.) I can tell you from looking at the numbers that my site traffic goes WAY down DURING these events. So it might be best to announce your news a week before the event (if you can). I’m also open to “leaking” the news before the official press release/news comes out during the event.

This has been a public service announcement from the publisher of Vendor Alley.

Pro Tip: Get Vendor Alley in your inbox

Did you know that you can get all Vendor Alley post delivered right to your inbox?

Here’s how:

Just scroll down on this page. On the right hand side of the page, just after the Blog Roll, you’ll see this.

email form

va inbox

You’re welcome.

Vendor Pro Tip: AAA Battery Caddy

I love my BOSE QuietComfort® 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones, especially on log plane flights, but they eat AAA batteries like a motherf*cker. Usually it’s because I forget to turn them off. So I got accustom to carrying a lot of AAA batteries in my laptop bag. I carried them loose in an outside pocket in my bag and they were always hard to find. Not any longer.

Storacell by Powerpax Slim Line “AAA” Battery Caddy

aaa caddy

This holds 6 AAA batteries. It’s also orange so its easy to find in my bag.

You’re welcome.

#ProTip

Vendor Pro Tip: Check Your Bag before TSA does

A TSA agent dons rubber gloves at Washington Reagan National AirportHave you ever gone to the airport put your laptop bag/backpack through the x-ray scanner and then the TSA agent says they need to search your bag? And at that exact moment you forgot about the pocket knife you had in your bag? Of course, they find the knife, then ask if you want to take it back to your car or they will confiscate it.

That happen to me a couple times, and I never had enough time to go back to my car so I end up losing a pocket knife I spent $30 to $40 dollars on.

Not anymore.

On an iPhone you can set reminders that are geo-fenced. Meaning “Hey Siri, remind me to buy milk when I leave the office.” These reminders are set on location, not a time or date.

So here’s how you solve your knife problem:

“Hey Siri, remind me to look in my bag at John Wayne Airport”.

Problem solved.

And yes I understand that many of you will substitute the word “weed” for “knife”. You’re welcome too.

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