channel

Creating Telecom Union

September 5, 2008

A handful of telecom agents got together in Vegas in Feb. at the Channel Partner Expo to discuss the formation of an association by and for agents. Little did we know the trouble we would cause. You see, there are already three agent associations. All of the For-Profit.

Posted in channel, organizations, telecommunications

Dialogic Partner event

September 25, 2008

Jeff Dworkin, Enterprise Segment Manager at Dialogic, sat down with me at IT Expo West to talk about Dialogic's re-focus on the channel. There are two groups that Dialogic is reaching out to: the system integrators and the development community.

Dialogic is launching a new Reseller Program in January 2009, which they will build a community around (in the social media sense with blogs). I guess you could say that the partner event on Oct. 20-21, 2008 at The Hotel Coronado near San Diego will be the start of the launch.

Posted in PBX, channel

Keynoting for ADTRAN & XO

September 25, 2008

I'll be in Ft. Lauderdale on Oct. 21 Oct. 23 to keynote a partner luncheon for ADTRAN and XO. The content is based on where the indirect channel is heading in the next couple of years and what the value proposition is for both kinds of resellers - telecom agents and hardware VAR's. How many times will I say Converged? XO is giving every attendee a copy of my book, SELLECOM.

Posted in channel, expo, xo

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

Where Does AT&T Get the Money?

November 10, 2008

Fresh off of buying Wayport for global wi-fi expansion, AT&T buys Centennial Wireless - $944M for 1.1 million cell subs. AT&T is either at the point that they have to keep buying to keep the growth going or they have Monopoly Madness.

Posted in channel, mergers, telco

ISPCON this week

November 10, 2008

I'm at ISPCON in San Jose all week so the updates will be few and far between. Jack Brandt and I will be doing The Marketing Spotlight - Q&A from the audience on how to market your services. (Differentiate and Delivery). Then I am moderating a panel with Google, Optenet and IKANO about How to Build Successful Channel Partnerships.
If you are in San Jose, let's grab some coffee. Susan Bowen at DIDX is having a blogger's breakfast tomorrow at 8 AM. See you there!

Posted in Marketing, channel, conferences

Distributing

November 29, 2008

One thing that the VoIP Providers seem to want is Distribution. How does a VoIP Provider get his device into the hands of the consumer?

Vonage spends millions on advertising and has deals with retail outlets like Amazon and Circuit City. Skype has devices on Amazon and other outlets. (It seems like Amazon has an affinity for VoIP providers, including Magic Jack and Ooma.)

Now Ooma is a strange deal. There has been a lot written about Ooma (here and here and here) Sharing a PSTN line seems like no way to save money.

Posted in channel, voip

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

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