nQueryTelecom tweeted the following: \"Virtual PBX VoIP Phone – Reduced Telecom Expenses: Virtual PBX VoIP phone systems ensure reduced telecom expense.\"  You can see my reply on the left. Basically, I'm tired of our industry selling on price. It is not helping. It is driving revenue down while debt keeps increasing. It is NOT sustainable.

With over 1000 companies offering VoIP services in the US, do you really want to sell on price? I think MagicJack and Vonage have that locked up solid. (I won't get into how this kind of actions reflect poorly on the whole Industry. That's a rant for another day.)

Is it really selling if you just sell on price? Not really. It's order taking.

\"Oh, you have voice service? DUH! You called my on MY phone. Well, let me shave 20% off what you pay now to move to us, okay? No thanks!\"

Studies show that it takes approximately a 20% discount to get many business owners to move. One reason: the pain of moving phone numbers. If the business owner has ever moved phone numbers before, he knows it is anything but fun.

The other thing that bugs me about this approach is that you don't show any Value. The coolest thing about VoIP is NOT that it saves you money. It saves you time and makes you money!

The Integrated T1 was the penultimate fall from value. There was no way to differentiate for CLEC's because they depended on the ILEC so much. So it became a price war. What customer has not received numerous cold calls saying \"I'll save you money\"? Do you not think that they are jaded at this point?

I get selling DSL or T1 on price. There isn't much there but a pipe - unless you want to talk about network congestion and management, which can be a differentiator.

But selling VoIP on price in 2011 is just plain lazy. What's next coupons?