agents

How Come VoIP isn't Killing It?

September 28, 2008

Jon Arnold makes a point: "Voice is a double-edged sword for service providers - most of their businesses are built around it, but with the advent of VoIP, it's become a commodity, and in many cases, a race to zero."

One point I make is that voice is just one app that we sell. Voice and email together are the key killer apps. But why isn't VoIP making more inroads?

I talk to many VoIP Providers and few are anywhere near where they want their numbers to be. And they are in a quandary to figure out how to increase sales.

One reason is that their isn't really a problem to fix for some people.

Posted in agents, bellsouth agent, cableco, channel, telecommunications, voip

The Rotten Apple in the Channel

November 4, 2008

In its latest financial filing AT&T claims that they sold 6.9M iPhones and added 1M new cellular customers in the quarter due to the iPhone 3G. (Apple says that 39% of quarterly revenues were due to pushing out 200M iPhones so far.) Here's the funny part: Agents can't sell the iPhone. Agents can sell Blackberries and other phones but not the iPhone.

Once again AT&T spends money to create a "Solution Provider" Alliance Channel that demonstrates preferences to AT&T sales employees over its Channel agents. On its Alliance website, AT&T writes "Targeted customer sets to minimize channel conflicts" That's some messaging there.

Speaking to the Channel Champions, more than one is worried about what the new year will bring.

Posted in agents, bellsouth agent, cellular, channel, telecommunications

Typical Situation

November 19, 2008

Typical Sales Situation: So I meet a prospective buyer. We exchange cards. A couple weeks later, he has a circuit need to be quoted. We have a conversation. It gets complicated.

Posted in agents, sales and selling, telco

Doing Extra Business

November 21, 2008

Most people that know me know I am a Follower of Seth Godin. No one else that I read regularly makes me re-think how I view business and the world more often as Godin. IN his post, How to make money from the Internet, he writes:

Connect organizations spending money with ways to save money.
During the last recession, plenty of entrepreneurs scored by selling businesses on doing a phone bill audit.

Posted in Internet, agents

Qwest Referral Changes in 2009

November 24, 2008

QWEST REFERRAL DESK - Effective January 1, 2009 there will be significant changes to the Referral Desk Program. Qwest will no longer be paying up fronts for any sales. Also Agents can sign up new customers to Qwest and only re-term their own existing customers. Lastly there has been a slight modification to commissions when teaming with Direct Reps. We know these changes can dramatically effect how you sell Qwest. Qwest is making these changes so that they can remain fiscally responsible.

Posted in agents

Follow up to a Typical Situation

November 29, 2008

I wrote about a typical telecom sales situation about a week ago. Khali Henderson, editor of Phone+ magazine, has an editorial that talks about this type of scenario in the Channel. The conclusion of the story happened yesterday when the client called me to ask me to meet the direct AE's rate and send him a contract. My best Indirect rate is $1500 per month higher than the direct rate.

Posted in agents, sales and selling, telecommunications

Is there any value left to Telecom?

December 1, 2008

Let's examine today's telecommunications sales landscape:

Case 1: If the pricing starts discounted at $9000, but ends up being sold at $2700, is there value in Telecom?

Case 2: If Carrier A sells a 1GB Private line for $17K between two lit buildings, how can Carrier B offer the same for $6800?

Case 3: If BellSouth used to charge a company $680 for their service and now presents a "Winback" offer of $320, what's the deal?

Where's the value? Or is there none and it's just a matter of putting revenue on the books, any revenue?

Posted in agents, channel, duopoly, telco, telecommunications

The VoIP Channel

December 8, 2008

Why doesn't it get easier? Why is it so difficult to get agents to sell your stuff?

Over the years I have worked with many VoIP Providers. A good chunk of my consulting is on The Channel, Referral Systems, and Sales Compensation.

There are a number of landmines that can destroy a relationship with an independent sales agent.

Posted in agents, channel, sales and selling, voip

Microcorp Insite is Insightful Now

December 8, 2008

December 8, 2008 - In its annual twelve day count down of hot telecom and data services that their members should watch in the next year, Telecom Association ("TA") choose MicroCorp's telecom inventory management tool "Insite" on the first day.

"In 2009, because of the economy, business owners and managers will focus on getting more out of the telecom and data services they already have", stated TA Founder Dan Baldwin.

MicroCorp's Insite is a contract and carrier agnostic telecom inventory management tool that helps telecom consultants, agents, and their business clients answer the obvious question, "What are the telecom and data services I already have?"

Posted in TEM, agents, channel, technology, telecommunications

On a Qwest for Less Comp

December 18, 2008

Qwest decreased the compensation to its channel program by about 10%, which one master agent said was "bad, but it could have been a lot worse." The big kicker is the provision that agents can no longer get paid for renewing contracts, unless they were the original agent. That destroys some call center based agents, who will now be looking to flip that database to other carriers. Meanwhile, SkyWi sues Qwest for racketeering.

Posted in agents, commissions

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