commissions

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

Commission Dinging

February 19, 2009

Should an agent's commission get dinged when the carrier issues a credit over an outage or SLA issue? I have two cases of this happening right now.

In good faith, I sold a circuit that the carrier gave me permission to sell. But on a performance issue - months post-sale - the carriers ding my commission when they have to issue a credit for SLA violations.

Do they do this to their direct people?

Posted in agents, channel, commissions, telecommunications

Embarq Changes Recurring Conditions

March 3, 2009

Starting in April, any accounts that fall out of contract will no longer receive a commission from Embarq. So you will need to stay on top of your contract re-casting.

It's a PITA because not every carrier pays for re-casts. But ILEC's are funny and this one will be CenturyTel soon, so who knows what that will lead to.

You should be using CRM any way to track your sales activity as well as when contracts renew. (I have gotten really lax at this myself).

Want a free CRM? Zoho has up to 3 users free, plus Zoho Business is free too. Let me know if you are giving it a shot.

Posted in agents, commissions

When the Agent Contract is Broken

March 9, 2009

At the Channel Partners Expo in Vegas last week, I helped man the booth for the newly formed Technology Channel Association, a non-profit agent association that was formed to create a community for best practices, a code of ethics, and solid training of the indirect channel.

Regrettably, the TCA received two separate pleas for help from agents. Both agents were no longer receiving commissions from a carrier.

In one case, the agent was wearing a shirt to advertise the lost commissions. The word I heard was that he had failed to meet quota for a few months.

Posted in TCA, agents, channel, commissions

Times They are Re-Channeling

March 16, 2009

At the Channel Partners Expo, on individual calls with agents, and on a conference call with a bunch of agents today, I noticed something big: the Channel is shifting.

I have known for a while that VAR's would replace the traditional telecom dialing-for-dollars, save-you-10% agents. It's coming because sales cycles are longer; the product set is very different; and it's all about IP and Apps. (Net-head versus Bell-head).

There's another shift happening: agents are banding together every way they can to get leverage against the carriers, who hold too much power. It started bubbling in 2007 with my post called What's a Partner Worth?

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

Could They Make It Any More Difficult

August 23, 2009

A client who ordered a 2xT1 MIS in March wants a stand alone Internet T1 at the same location to segment some traffic. Trying to pull a simple contract for this customer is a bear. Why?

DUNS number given to me by the carrier in March. Not found.

Posted in Add category, agents, bellsouth agent, channel, commissions

Contract Law and Bad Advertising

September 4, 2009

Being a telecom agent usually means that you will have commission challenges with your vendors (the carriers).

I have been on the receiving end of a big dent in my pay a couple of times. (Netting sucks). But it is the nature of the beast.

I would like to point out that time and again when agents bring their commission issues to me (because I am a blogger and a founding member of the TCA, a non-profit association for the betterment of the agent channel), the dispute is a Contract dispute. Your agent agreement is a contract.

Posted in agents, commissions

VoIP Providers in the Channel

October 14, 2009

Bandwidth.com just disbanded their agent channel. Other VoIP providers have done that as well. And I hear some complaints about the cable company indirect channel programs.

The problem isn't the Agent Channel. The problem is the Channel Program design.

You have to design a program that will work, folks. You have to train your agents on the benefits, how it works, how it will be implemented, and how to sell it. You have to have a USP or marketing message that the salesperson can grasp and re-use.

You can blame the agents, but most times companies don't spell out who the target prospect is and how that prospect will benefit.

Posted in agents, channel, commissions, voip

Microcorp Announces Commission Insurance

October 30, 2009

Atlanta based Telecom Master Agency announced at their Annual One-on-One event that they would be providing Commission Insurance. The details are coming (Brad Miehl said in November), but it looks like Evergreen may get a new look. Is this more Master Agency 2.0 innovation? Looking out for the agent more than ever.

Posted in agents, channel, commissions

Telecom Takeover Tuesday

November 4, 2009

Yesterday was a big day for The Channel. Two separate acquisitions occurred with both takeover companies expressing interest in the Channel of the company being bought.

First, we have GTT buying WBS Connect. WBSC is just a reseller of Transit and Transport with about $28M in revenue. It was bought for about $1.8M in cash and notes plus $600K in stock.

Posted in agents, channel, commissions, economy, mergers, telecommunications, wireline

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