agents tag
25 result(s) displayed for agents (101 - 125 of 215):
How Important is Retention?
For service providers who understand the cost of customer acquisition, retention is an important metric. In fact, Wall Street calls it churn. It has to remain under 2% to be considered under control. For agents, retention is just as important. While...
A Revolutionary Agent
An interview (12 minutes) with Yvonne Fry of the telecom agency, Lines of Communications, who recently launched Revolutionary Strategies. Fry is an example of an agent who is making the shift and adapting to the current changes happening in telecom. Here's...
Level3 Channel Update
Yesterday on its partner call, Level3 rolled out Level 3 Business Partner University. Most carriers that I have spoken with understand that educating the Channel is the key to revenue growth. “This training platform was designed to make these self-service...
Agent Podcast: Evan Gillman
A 22 minute conversation with my fellow agent, Evan Gillman of TransitBroker in NYC. We talk about the TCA's certification program (CTP), the value of the agent, carrier consolidation, energy brokerage, and Cogent. I know that it is a long...
Agent Open Call
I am a Certified Telecom Professional now. On the TCA Open Agent call this Friday at 4 PM, we will be talking about CTP, tips and tricks, and trends that will affect Agent revenue. Register today here. This is the...
2011 Will Be Tough
Several Carriers have notified agents that in 2011, they will be "managing to their contracts". "Some Carriers are having monthly reviews with their Contract Divisions to see which Agents are not meeting their obligations. While most Carriers were open to...
Congrats to AT&T Partners
AT&T announced the 2011 AT&T Business Solution Provider Champions. There are only 3 Gold winners: Cydcor, Presidio and Spearhead. One of the Bronze winners, JBS of Orlando, I have known for quite a few years. Congratulations to these companies because working...
Verizon Changes Commissions
Shockingly, Verizon has dramatically changed their commission structure for 2011. The changes are effective for all orders issued into Verizon's legacy system after 1/1/2011. Commissions have moved from a Residual and Acquisition structure, to an all Acquisition (up-front) structure. Commissions...
Changes in Customers, Changes in Attitude
In an article by Gary Kim, Matt Bramson, Inphonex chief marketing officer, sais some interesting things about telecom sales to SMB.Bramson suggests that “People also increasingly are comfortable configuring their own solutions and are used to getting support from user...
TCA Announces Agent Education Series
The TCA (Technology Channel Association) is a trade association for the Indirect Channel. It's prime mission is education. The TCA has been holding monthly peer-to-peer webinars, allowing members to teach members about various topics and services (since April of...
The Customer Comes First
My interview with fellow agent, David Goodwin of ATC, about the changes in the Agent business in the last 10 years. We talk about Total Telecom Spend, Lifetime Value of the Customer and One Throat to Choke as business terms...
The Winds of Change on The Channel
The last six months has seen many channels at the Channel Chief level at XO, Level3, MegaPath, and other carriers. Also, the M&A has resulted in a tumulus time for The Channel. Qwest and CentruyLink. Embarq and CenturyTel. New Edge...
A Brief Talk with XO's Tom Gorey
Here's the last interview of 2010 with Tom Gorey, Vice President Channel Strategy & Development at XO Communications. Gorey is an active member of TCA. He and I have had a few chats this year about educating the Channel...
Contract Termination Class
A mandatory webinar on ETF, Contract Termination and Shortfall Charges today. The ILEC starts out by blaming tariffs for the clunky processes that require Agents to spend so much time and effort every single move, add, change and even upgrade....
What to Do With a Certified Agent?
On the Board call for the TCA (Technology Channel Association) discussing the the next step in the evolution of the Certified Telecom Professional (CTP). The exam (and certification) is just $199 for member agents (and member VAR's) of TCA. Employees...
Sub-Agent Basics
I received an early morning call from the West Coast today from a woman who is a sub-agent selling Sprint mobile services. She’s not having a good day. Here’s a few reasons why: She isn’t getting paid from her master...
Why You Should Get Certified
The TCA's Certified Telecom Professional Program has officially launched. (See here). It costs $199 to take the exam. Why should you?One reason: Differentiation.Why do people take any certification? Mainly to differentiate their knowledge from the hundreds of others running around in...
The Certified Agent is a Go!
The only non-profit trade association for telecom agents and VAR's, the Technology Channel Association (TCA) has launched a new and voluntary Certified Telecommunications Professional (CTP) program! This program will advance Agent business relationships and energize the indirect sales channel by: Providing...
8 Questions for Cloud Providers
I've done a couple of webinars lately for VAR's and Agents about the Cloud. I think that between SAAS and Cloud, vendors are forgetting that they are selling applications. I think the disconnect right now is that Agents aren't comfortable...
Renewals and Retention
As an Agent are you actively working to retain your customers? Are you working on renewals for contracts ending? If not, commissions will end and the account will be taken over by a corporate salesperson.“When a MetTel account falls into...
My Take on Stocks
So “BroadSoft Inc.(BSFT) shares climbed 43% after the voice-enabling software company reported third-quarter earnings that exceeded estimates,” according to MarketWatch. Total revenue increased 22% year-to-year to $22.3 million; up 13% from the second quarter of 2010. License revenue increased 27%...
TCA Certified Agent in Beta
<p>The Technology Channel Association has launched the beta testing of the Certified Telecom Professional program. This month (on November 16th) TCA will be hosting an informational webinar about the CTP Program. Ping info at tcasite.org for more info.UPDATE: The certification...
The Cloud is For Agents, too
Khali Henderson of Phone+ and I are doing a webinar tomorrow for agents at TCA on The Cloud. One of the TCA Board Members, Emmet Tydings, President of AB&T Telecom, sent me this response:“Voice is just another application in an...
What's New to Sell?
Besides thinking Cloud, which is really just applications, there have been a few interesting product offerings from carriers. Here are some of them:Both AboveNet and FiberLight have some new fiber miles to sell.XO has almost 100 route miles of new...
Indirect versus Direct: the Financials
At Microcorp agent show today, one regional GM was explaining that the corporate mentality is that it is more expensive to sell via indirect than direct. I was flabbergasted.The reasoning is that on year 2 and 3, when the carrier...
