Dan and I will be attending Inman Connect SF starting tomorrow, until Friday. I will be on stage at 4:40PM Tuesday on the “New Kids On The Block” panel (don’t ask) making a special announcement about Cloud CMA. We are super pumped about this announcement and think its one of the most innovative things we’ve done….ever. So stay tuned, and see you is SF!
Did KW just say FU to vendors?
At the recent Keller Williams’ Family Reunion convention, Gary Keller during his keynote declared “We are not a real estate company anymore” and had a slide talking about vendors that were “not safe”.
Chief Innovation Officer, Josh Team also announced, on stage, that the company would no longer deal with “bolt on” technology. Team defined “bolt on” as…
“Bolt-on technology is anytime you use another company’s technology product that you didn’t build and own,”
How fucked up is that? Imagine how the vendors on the exhibit floor felt after spending good money, on their booths, hotels, airfare and thousands of hours of time and energy to exhibit at an event where the CEO and the senior staff who put on that event insult them as “bolt on” and/or “not safe”.
To put it lightly, that was a pretty dumbass thing for KW to do to those vendors, and shows a remarkable lack of couth.
While I’m told the pitch my Mr. Keller was as masterful as ever, it’s really a shame to see a great company like Keller Williams stoop to this level. By spreading this FUD to their agents I believe they are risking their company’s best asset, culture.
Entrepreneurial, highly trained, independent, system focused, scrappy, motivated. Those are the terms I would describe KW agents.
While it seems that “tech enabled brokerages” are all the rage right now. This pendulum swings back and forth.
So while Mr. Keller’s head may be in the clouds right now, I would encourage him not to burn any boats anytime soon and that the two letters he should double down on are KW, not AI.
Inman Connect NYC – Need your help
Looking forward to seeing everyone in New York for the Inman Connect Conference. I’m heading out there tomorrow.
I’ll be participating on a panel on the “Data Track“, which has a ton of great content BTW!
The panel is “Live Problem Solving”, I’ll be joined with Chris Bennett, VP of CoreLogic and Suzanne Mueller, SVP of Move/Realtor.com, David Charron will be moderating. It’s at 2:55PM on Thursday, Westside Ballroom, Salon 2.
The premise of the panel is that audience members can ask us questions and we will do our best, based on our experience, of answering those questions. Here are some examples…
“How did you come up with pricing for your product?”
“How to you manage MLS permissioning”
“What trade/shows and events are worth participating in?”
So, here’s where I need the help. If you have any questions that you would like to ask myself or any of the other panel participants please leave them in the comments. If we have a lull in the questions we will bring yours up!
See you soon! And remember Never Go Big On The First Night!
#NGBOTFN
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.
MREDPalooza 2017
MREDPalooza has got to be one my favorite events. Too bad its only once every 2 years. The attendance was great, we had a huge number of signups. But I have to take my hat off to Rebecca Jensen and the MRED staff. They made the event so much fun! Lynn was hilarious as Austin Powers, and Jeff Lasky wins the award for “who’s afro was the roundest”.
And speaking of Rebecca, today’s her birthday! So Happy Birthday Rebecca!
Clareity’s 2017 REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo Report
Matt Cohen does a great service to all of us for recapping some of the highlights of recent the N.A.R. Midyear meetings. You should check it out here.
I totally have to agree with this observation about the trade show.
” With all of the jewelry and other gear on the floor, one software vendor told us they thought it felt like a “flea market” down there.”
And our team at W+R Studios totally appreciates the recognition of Cloud MLX.
“Clareity has never included an MLS “front end” in this section of our report before, but we think W+R’s Cloud MLX deserves a shout-out here. There are now over 35 MLSs, covering over 200,000 agents on the platform.
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!”
NARlando 2016
Many of you are already in Orlando, personally I don’t arrive till tomorrow afternoon. Which means I’ve got a jammed pack weekend! Here are some of things that we have going on.
W+R Studios booth!
Stop by and see our newly redesigned booth. Our booth number is 1185. No ping pong this year, but sit in on a demo and get a free t-shirt!
MLS Association Executives Session
November 4, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. (that’s this Friday)
Hyatt Regency, Windermere Ballroom Z
Brian Donnellan has asked me to moderate a panel with Mike Wurzer, Matt Cohen and Chad Curry on the future of real estate technology. We are going to geek out on future tech and what it means for real estate. (I’m just glad not to talk about Upstream)
AMP Presentation
November 5, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. (Saturday)
Katie and I will be demoing our Cloud Agent Suite (Cloud CMA, Cloud Streams and Cloud MLX) and highlighting recent integrations we’ve done with the AMP API.
ListHub Party
November 5, 2016 5PM-9PM
ICEBAR – 8967 International Drive, Orlando FL
W+R Studios is co-sponsoring the ListHub party. We will have a cool photo booth set up for attendees.
Corelogic Party
November 5, 2016 8PM-11PM
B.B. King’s Blues Club – 9101 International Dr. #2230, Orlando, FL
W+R Studios is also co-sponsoring the Corelogic party as well (what can I say, we like to party!)
Come by our Suite!
Katie and I will be in our Suite at the Rosen Centre giving private demos. We have a few slots open so reach out to Katie if you like to talk about adding the Cloud Agent Suite to your MLS or brokerage.
Other than that I’ll most likely be at the lobby bar (but you already knew that.)
Just remember, DON’T GO BIG ON THE FIRST NIGHT!
See you soon!
P.S. We are going to miss you Skinny!
Weekend Update Script from CMLS 2016
Update (9.23.16 at 9:45pm)
I’ve added the images of the slides and a video to this post.
I thought I would post my script from my “weekend update” session at CMLS 2016. Sorry for any typos…
“Hi, I’m Greg Robertson, and here’s your WEEKEND MLS UPDATE
1. Upstream announced today two key hires to help with implementation and operations.
Upstream CEO, Alex Lange in a statement said, “We think with the help of Penn & Teller we really might get this thing to work.”
2. Speaking of Upstream.
I have no real joke here, just the logo.
3. RPR announced today they found the one REALTOR using RPR to create reports.
It turned out to be the 2 year old son of Joe Lightman, a REALTOR in Spokane Washington, who had somehow managed to get at Daddy’s keyboard.
4. In other related AMP news, Marty Frame announced that in tandem with the release of AMP they will also launch a new API that will replace MLS executives.
In a statement, Mr. Frame said “It was actually a pretty easy thing to do, since no MLS execs follow business rules.”
5. This morning it was announced that Adrese Roundtree will replace Daniel Craig as the new James Bond.
It might be the only time in the film’s franchise history that the new Bond will get less ass than the actor that plays him.
6. Donald Trump threw his hat in the ring to be the next CEO of the national association of realtors.
In a statement Mr. Trump said that if he loses the general election this year, he will run to become NAR CEO.
When asked why he would like to take NAR’s top spot, Mr. Trump exclaimed “I thought the salary was fantastic!”
7. Right on the heels of Zillow’s announcement that Diverse Solutions would be sold to MarketLeader, Zillow today announced it would also be selling DotLoop to Market Leader as well.
No money was exchanged, Zillow said in a statement that the only terms of the deal was that Market Leader had to take Austin Alision and his Twitter account with him.
8. Hey did you hear that thanks to the MLS industry the people at Oxford Dictionaries announced earlier this week that they have added a new phrase?
In 2017 “Industry Relations” will be added to the Oxford Dictionary
9. CMLS CEO, Denee Evans, today announced another major partnership. This is right after CMLS announced a deal with NAR.
The Prince of Darkness. That’s right, the devil himself. Because, at this point, what’s the difference?
10. Also, after the stunning success of showing a video of alcoholics in recovery at the CMLS Gala Wednesday night CMLS announced that next year they will be adding videos showing lap band surgery and the dangers of STDs.
This way nobody will want to drink, eat or fuck at a CMLS conference ever again.
11. Hey, did you hear about the minor crisis at the SW Steakhouse at the Wynn last night?
From what I hear the famed steakhouse ran out of Silver Oak! But don’t worry the HAR staff was quickly relocated to Nobu across the street where the evening when on as planned.
12. Matrix today announced that they have changed the name of their new MLS software product.
Formally known as Matrix 360, they have changed the name to Matrix 2060 to correlate with their new release date.
13. Anyone have any idea of what this number means?
This is how many days its been since the realty alliance said the MLS industry had 10 days left.
Thank for everyone being such a good sport. Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow!
Also Freddy Sarabia (who also shot a video of my MLS Rap earlier this year) was in the audience and got a lot of my session on video. Enjoy!
The CMLS conference is next week???
I don’t know about you guys but its hard to believe CMLS conference is next week. The agenda is looking good, but I find myself wondering about other stuff like….
What lobby bar is everyone going to hang at?
Should I crash the legal seminar dressed as Elvis?
Do I hit on a soft 16, when the dealer has a 9 showing?
How many people will actually make the sessions?
Is “Sunshine” her real name?
What’s the number of a good bail bondsman?
Who’s holding?
How many days does the MLS industry actually have left? I think its less than 10.
I’m actually on the agenda this year, 8:45am Friday morning.
Start the day with a laugh when Greg Robertson, publisher of VendorAlley.com, gives a “Weekend Update” style segment of industry news, rumors, gossip and lobby bar talk.
Speaker: Greg Robertson – Co-Founder, W+R Studios
Location: Celebrity Ballroom (1-4)
So if you are still alive by then, please join me, should be fun.
Looking forward to seeing everyone next week!
