Peter : On Rad's Radar?
Peter
| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

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Good News from CenturyLink Channel

July 10, 2012



Sat in on the CenturyLink Channel Alliance - Get back in the Game Roadshow in Tampa this morning. It was nice to see Stacy Conrad from Microcorp; Josh Anderson and his co-workers from Telephony Partners; Dale Tucker from CCA; and put a face to an old Qwest SE, William Hobbs, now a CCA Emerging Sales Technology Consultant (ETSC) for Florida. Hobbs did a nice job on Why VPDC and The Benefit of Cloud over Colo. The roadshow had 3 parts (Hobbs did part 2):

  • New Savvis-CenturyLink Phase II Rules of Engagment overview;
  • Cloud/Hosting Solutions portfolio;
  • Third Party Data Center Updates/E-Line;

Dale Tucker went over the Rules of Engagement, You definitely need charts and glossaries to follow along the categories and acronymns.

All About Low Price

July 4, 2012

I write about Low Price a lot.

While reading a trade journal, it got me thinking again about why this industry sells on price.

My thoughts:

You go low price because you either don't want to take the effort to sell or you suck at sales.

The Sales SWAT Team

July 3, 2012

Zayo Group announced the formation of a dedicated team focused on Small Cell and Fiber to the Tower (FTT) initiative (in this press release). That's a good idea. In fact, when RAD-INFO INC is consulting on mergers between TDM companies and cloud companies, this is one approach that we have used.

There are different types of salespeople.

Agent Exclusivity

June 26, 2012

There is a lot of talk in the Channel about Agent exclusivity to Master Agencies. Most of the talk is from Masters.

Telecom is an industry of short memory. We forget everything.

We forget that MCI left many agents high and dry when they filed the largest BK in history (up to that time).

We forget that telecom companies have a history of BK - Cogent, Above.Net, MCI, XO, Integra, Williams, Global Crossing, Birch, MacLeod, Winstar, Adelphia, Covad and the other DLEC's (see here and here and here).





8x8: The Channel View

June 25, 2012

I spoke with a sub-agent of 8x8, Tom Palmer, President of Adrena Speed Solutions. Palmer has been selling 8x8 services for a while. He told me about the time (around 2006) when Packet8 was the service brand of 8x8 that had just switched from a residential service to a small business offering. Palmer says it has come a long way since then.

Talking with the CMO of 8x8

June 25, 2012

8x8 has hit $100 million in annual revenue, making them one of the top 3 Hosted VoIP providers in the US. I had a chance to interview Debbie Jo Severin, Chief Marketing Officer of 8x8 this week.

My first question was about what kinds of marketing 8x8 does. (I didn't know that the Packet8 brand was no longer in use.)

The New Channel Myth

June 21, 2012

The new myth about the Channel that everyone is spouting is doom and gloom. In Larry Walsh's latest, he talks about VAR's closing, vendors selling direct and other woes.

Here's some news for you: the Channel has ALWAYS competed with Direct for sales - VAR's and Agents. And we always will.

Can some of this stuff be sold via a website?



So Much Stuff I Can't Get To

June 4, 2012

So many things to write about but just not enough time.

Leap Wireless gets the iPhone 4S under its Cricket brand to sell without subsidy for $500! Let's see how that works. It does come with No Contract though.

Top 5 Reasons to Work With an Agent

June 4, 2012

One thing you may have to answer as an Agent is "Why should someone buy from you?" They could call the carrier directly. Here are the top 5 reasons a business customer should work with an Agent.

Number 1: Saves time! Instead of calling around to collect quotes, the agent can do that more efficiently.

Is it Cloud versus Agents?

May 2, 2012

Is it Cloud versus Agents?

As an Agent, I sell bandwidth and transport almost exclusively. I am learning that the Channel does not want that business. The carriers do, but on the wholesale/carrier side.

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