Archive for the ‘A Train’ tag
When in doubt, take the “A” train
For those of my readers who may not be into Jazz or are younger than I (that would be the majority), “Take the ‘A’ Train” is a jazz standard by Billy Strayhorn that was the signature tune of the Duke Ellington orchestra and is arguably the most famous of the many compositions to emerge from the collaboration of Ellington and Strayhorn. Composed in 1933, after Ellington offered Strayhorn a job in his organization and gave him money to travel from Pittsburgh to New York City, Ellington wrote directions for Strayhorn to get to his house by subway, beginning “Take the A Train.” Interestingly, NASA honored the composition with the creation of the A-Train satellite formation which placed 5 satellites in sequential orbit, providing scientists with different sets of nearly simultaneous observations so they were able to improve their study of climate change.
There was an interesting article posted today on Reuters.com with the headline “Homeowner confidence fell in second quarter: Zillow”. The story went on to state that “Homeowners were less confident about the value of their homes in the second quarter, with one-third believing home prices had not yet reached a bottom…Nevertheless, a significant number of homeowners said they planned to put their home up for sale in the next six months if they saw signs of a real estate market turnaround.”
I was sitting in a community sales office today waiting for the sales team to finish their morning chores. This community is well conceived and professionally marketed and continues to maintain a healthy sales pace and profitability for the developer and the homebuilders. When the sales team and I got together I started our discussion by sharing this article with them and asking their opinion. Universally, the immediate response was negative, ranging from “that’s why we are having trouble selling Windstone (a move up village)” to “it seems that this bad market will never end”.
My immediate thought was “we need a new sales team”. But after a moment’s reflection and recognition of the reality of the marketplace today, that thought changed to “we need more sales training”. Read the rest of this entry »
