Winning a Beauty Contest... Do you enjoy preparing sales presentations? Probably not too much. Remember my recent Dispatches on "bake-offs" -- Who Likes Competing in "Beauty Contests"? (Feb 1) and Presentation Performance: Are You Good at Improv? (Feb 3)?

But Joseph Pollaci, a young member of NAI DG Hart's Corporate Services team in New York City, isn't complaining. He recently used NAISiteRight to quickly assemble a range of demographic, mapping and aerial photo data for a presentation to market the old 1,200-acre U.S. Steel plant in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania. His team won.

Of course, having two twenty-year veterans, Gerard McHugh and Craig Nardi, leading the team probably helped, I'm guessing (and smiling). But isn't it true that good technology has become critical to winning corporate assignments?

(NAISiteRight uses SRC's DemographicsNow service with NAI Global members accessing basic demographic data for free and paying extra for add-on data like aerial photos.)

"It's different than five years ago. The fear has gone. Brokers realize today that technology can be a tool to win business. It can reduce cycle times and provide a higher level of service, effectively locking out competitors." That's Finn Johnson, Vice President of e-Business at NAI Global.

As Johnson explains his role, the first priority is business development and the second priority is training and support. "Sometimes I think that my title should be 'Chief Adoption Officer.'" ... Who is your company's "CAO"? Tell me your story.

--Peter Pike