On Rad's Radar? - TMC Archives

2 Data Center Deals and some links

2012-01-03T16:45:34Z

Yesterday I mentioned that Gladstone is the new landlord for one of Expedient's data centers. Today, zColo (of the Zayo Group) "acquired MarquisNet's data-center business in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 28,000 square foot data center, located at 7185 Pollock Drive, will be the twelfth zColo Colocation facility," according to the release .

And the Channel dumping InterNAP buys Voxel for $30M. "Internap, the leader in intelligent IT Infrastructure solutions, has joined with Voxel, the "go to" partner for scaling demanding web applications to provide you significantly enhanced IT Infrastructure." It just adds some virtualization and apps to the mix, along with some revenue. InterNAP needs the revenue, since it canned its Channel last year.

I have been reading some good stuff that I want to share.

Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC, writes about Apple hardware versus the rest of the computer/tablet business. Kindle sold 4M units in December alone. The Amazon Kindle Fire is based on Android. It adds to the Android family. Rich points out that Apple products are still expensive, but competitors are selling units due to price points.

Another post is by Dan Rayburn about the Akamai deal to buy Cotendo, but the interesting stuff was his take on AT&T and CDN.

It amazes me wonder why there is always so much speculation about AT&T but very little about VZ. sure, recently we have the "Will VZ buy Netflix?" but with AT&T it's always something - cell, wireline divestiture, CDN, International, cloud - maybe its because AT&T moves so slow. Perhaps if the company wasn't a labyrinth of silos of legacy business - SBC, LD, Ameritech, BST, etc. - it could do business more efficiently and not piss off so many people. Then again, probably not.

Generating Leads Versus Branding

2011-09-28T15:57:49Z

In the telecom space, since the dawn of integrated T1's, carriers have neglected value and branding. All companies want sales and the sales team want leads, so the marketing department has to generate leads. With a limited budget, all the money gets spent on making sales. Rich Tehrani writes, "To succeed, they generally need to be consistent, reliable and trustworthy in the eyes of buyers." Trust is important in sales.

"Forrester survey reveals that B2B marketing budgets are on the rise after years of cuts. The average 6.7% increase is led by 17% increases from tech-service companies...... Lead generation was the second-leading area of investment - a focus for 15.7% of respondents... Branding was the third top investment area." [source]

"At its most basic level, lead generation provides an advertiser with a ready-made pipeline of prospective customers that should be primed to interact with their brand...... For a branded lead generation campaign there often has to be a fairly obvious "quid pro quo" to entice the consumer to submit their details, such as free sim cards, prize draws, giveaways etc. and this will of course affect the performance of a campaign," according to the e-consultancy.

A Leadformix article continues that thread with this: "If you want to do away with this disparity in expectations and results - You should define the end objective of your marketing plan, at the start of your marketing activities. ... It is important because, if your objective is Lead Generation, you must realize that a small piece of information about your solution in a very industry specific publication is going to get you more relevant leads than a mention in one of the top publications with a more generic readership profile.... The reason is simple - the source of information people trust varies to match their different needs."

It comes back to your marketing strategy, the story you are telling to your marketplace (Value), repetition and consistency to build awareness and Trust, which ultimately makes sales. On that note, listen to the podcast with TMC's Rich Tehrani that we recorded this morning about this topic.

Get even more about info about building your Brand and getting Sales: Lead Generation and Advertising Tactics For Online Communities on Monday, Oct. 17, at 2:00 PM Eastern time. Register now!

The Banker Speaks

2011-09-16T15:56:21Z

At Cloud Communications Summit at ITEXPO this week in Austin, Q Advisors a luncheon keynote. Q Advisors has been involved in quite a few M&A transactions this year with Cloud Comm companies. Micheal Quinn was the speaker. He said a lot of stuff that I have been saying (so I naturally liked the guy, even though he is a banker.)

Key factor for bankers: Size Matters! So does ARPU (average revenue per customer.)

Wireline consolidation is coming because there is no organic growth in our industry. The CLEC's haven't had organic growth in a while. Most buckets are flat or declining for wireline, so it's buy stuff to move the needle.

Best quote I agree with: "Paetec got tired." Back when Paetec bought Allworx, I made a comment that Paetec being public was going to be really tough - too challenging perhaps.

The multiples being paid out are 4-6x. CLEC's trade at 7x, but fiber trades at 9x. Paetec bought for 1.1x. One Comm for 0.6x

Who's buying? CLEC's and ILEC's since "Acquisitions are just about features right now." But Dell and HP might buy a UC shop."

Quinn said that UC matters. International is untouched - Asia and LATAM specifically.

"No shop in the UC game is at $100M"

Most UC sales are still under 25 users." at 33% of all UC sales. 25-50 seats is at 29% of sales.

Quinn said, "Under 25 will lose to cable." I say, Definitely. They own the network. They can give away the bandwidth. Deeper pockets. Brand recognition. "CLEC's are in trouble by cable giving away bandwidth," especially since this was the sweet spot for many CLEC's - 10-25 employees.

Also, under 25 can be bought online via packet8, Speakeasy, FreedomVoice, RingCentral. Makes a CFO wonder if a sales force is needed. (A sales force IS needed - an effective one, bringing in big ARPU).

The UC sale should be about "cutting staff", according to Quinn. (Typical banker.)

"Cbeyond has not moved the needle with cloud.... Packet8 has more market cap." Those are interesting statements.

"Other CLEC's have no strategy for cloud!"

"Organic growth is non existent!"

Valuation Drivers:

ARPU under $1000 is nothing.
M5 is all one year contracts, but buyers want multi-year contracts to lessen churn.
Size of customers. Multi-location. CAPEX. Churn. ARPU. Customer Acquisition costs.
Service offerings. Customized?
CPE? How sold and booked.
Back office and Management.
Sales channel
Ability to offer network.
Integration options

Most interesting factor: Ink to bill cycle, which relates to pre-install churn.

A very fact filled talk. You can poo-poo it if you want, but bankers have a different view. If you don't need money and don't want to sell (or buy), you can ignore this. If you want financing or want to sell, these ducks need to be in order.

The 1st CMO Summit

2011-09-14T06:49:42Z

I hope you were one of the hundred people in the room at the 1st CMO Summit at ITEXPO! Rich Tehrani kicked off this TMC special event at Fago da Chau with some opening remarks and introductions of the two speakers: Shawna Vercher and Brad VanAucken, who spoke about branding and online marketing strategy. A big hand to the speakers, the awesome team at TMC that managed every detail, the sponsors - CRE Group, RAD-INFO INC and Marketo - and the marketing heads that attended.

Integrating new media

View more presentations from RAD-INFO, Inc..

The Blake Project slides on Branding.

Building brand leadership

View more presentations from RAD-INFO, Inc..

Why Attend ITEXPO?

2011-09-14T06:10:21Z

So at most ITEXPO's, we try to put together a dinner where we invite everyone to come have dinner and meet someone new. (It is a dutch treat sometimes, but TMC's Anthony Graffeo picked up the tab Monday night.) Great connections have been made here. Nothing like sharing a meal and conversation with someone new.

Great presenters and content going on all the time. (Yes, some presenters could prepare better and get rid of the PowerPoint crutch, but overall.)

Pictures tell the story. See a bunch more here:

What To Do in Austin Next Week

2011-09-06T17:19:38Z

Next week is the first time the ITEXPO West will be in Austin, TX. It's my first time in Austin (or Texas for that matter).

Once again, ITEXPO will be the home to a lot of great content. This time I am moderating two panels under the Social CRM Expo. Top 10 Tips for Online Marketing on Wed. at 2 PM with Shawan Vercher, Kyle Flaherty and Rusty Shelton. Then at 3 PM, Does Your Business have a Social Media Strategy? with Ronan Keane, Mike Langford, Simon Salt and Sanjay Popli. Following those 2 must attend sessions is the networking reception followed by Startup Camp from EMBRACE, where Robert Metcalfe will be the keynote address. Awesome! (I hope you registered for it already!)

There are many sessions going on at the same time all week. Check your program carefully or you will miss some good content and speakers.

The emphasis this year was to bring in more C-level presenters as well as some experts from outside telecom (like on my panels for instance). The CMO Summit on Tuesday night is for C-level execs to learn about branding and online marketing while mingling with their peers. (Be warned: no substitutes - CEO, CMO, President or VP of Marketing only!)

Another C-level networking opportunity is the Cloud Communications Summit, where EMBRASE has assembled a C-level cast of speakers plus a Social Networking Lunch & M&A Keynote.

The Channel Vision Expo will be happening on the show floor - a good place to learn how to sell this cloudy stuff. (Build it and they will come is a broken myth; you have to sell this stuff.)

Besides selling Cloud Comm, you have to on-board the customer properly. Katie Butcher at B-Lynk will be moderating an all-female panel of experts on on-boarding Hosted PBX customers.

If you can only make one day, make it Wed. Startup Camp, my sessions and the party!

Looking for the Gathering Over a Meal? That's Monday night. Looking to have a coffee and talk about the Industry, social media or your business? Email me or find me in the press room. See you in Austin!

ITEXPO in Austin Will Be Hot

2011-08-04T22:04:52Z

Taking a cue from Jon Arnold, here's what I have going on at ITEXPO West 2011 in Austin (a move from Los Angeles in previous years):

While I will miss the chance to hit Manhattan Beach for some beach volleyball, this will be my first time in Austin.

It's also the first time that there will be a CMO Summit at ITEXPO. My company and my pal's company, CR8 Group, in conjunction with a great team at TMC - Dave, Anna and Mike - are bringing in 2 speakers to discuss Online Branding. Rich Tehrani wrote about it today. CMO, CEO, President or VP of Marketing only. 75 execs in charge of marketing to network and learn. Apply for a ticket now!

I usually have a panel for Reseller Day or under the ITEXPO banner for VoIP, but this year I am moderating 2 panels for the Social CRM Expo. Keeping with the CMO theme of online marketing, my panels run from 2-3:45. At 2, Top 10 Tips for Online Marketing with Shawna vercher on the panel. At 3, Does Your Business Have a Social Media Strategy? Both should be pretty informative. (Wait until you see the panelists!)

Then over on the show floor, the Channel Vision Expo will be happening. Get ready for a Channel Manager Round Table!

Startup Camp is at 5PM on the 14th! That is a don't miss session.

If you will be in town, let me know - I woould love to have coffee, a drink, dinner or interview you for the blog. Email me for a time!

Big Q: How Do I ...

2011-03-02T14:35:06Z

So a big question I get from service providers is How Do I Sell Online? This question comes in many forms, such as (1) How Can I Sell This on my Website?; (2) How Can I be like RingCentral?; (3) How do I sell more on the web?; (4) What's that SEO thing?

Let's tackle the SEO thing first. (You can hear Rich Tehrani and I talk about SEO here). Search engine optimization is about helping your website show up during one of the 31B searches done every month. But really SEO is about determining your best target audience and how they search for you and optimizing your online presence (website, blog, presss releases, etc.) to capture THAT keyword on page 1. There's a some marketing that needs to go into this. It's not all black magic.

First of all, you have to know your target market. Then you have to figure out what keyword or key words they would use while searching Google for your product or services. Considering the garbage pail names and vague press releases in our industry, just doing these first two steps will put you ahead of the game. (Just becuase everyone is saying Cloud Comm, doesn't mean you have to also. And if you do: how about defining it in your marketing!)

So you have a target and your key words, now you want to create content around that. Blogs, press release, and working with TMC.

Next, let's look at your website. What is it designed for? Who does it talk to? What is it saying?

If you want a website that sells your services, you have to design it for that. Online brochures, pretty flash objects, and all the bells and whistles don't help sell stuff. Don't believe me? Look at Amazon or Buy.com as an example of site designed to sell.

All marketing is marketing. Meaning you have to use the basics: call to action, an offer, a headline, a slogan or elevator pitch, clear language, create interest, etc. Just because it is online instead of offline doesn't mean that marketing is different.

I think it's funny that companies want more ROI and metrics for online but have been buying yellow page ads, billboards, print ads, radio and TV commercials for years without any real measurement. But all the sudden you need REAL metrics.

Yesterday, one marketing director was talking about how he had to design a system to take leads from his online marketing sites; his webinars; and his conference booths to track them and show ROI. I understand why this is important. But think about all the business cards that have been collected in the last three years that were never tracked.

Page views and biz cards are not the metric. They are A metric - a place to start. You need page views and biz cards to get your message out. Then you need the prospects to take an action, ask questions, etc. You also need the info so your sales team can do its thing - qualify prospect and needs analysis.

Back to the website sales. You need traffic to your website. This can come from a variety of tactics: a PPC (pay-per-click like Google Adwords) campaign; SEO; email marketing; twitter; LinkedIn (but not Facebook since those folks don't like to leave their AOL-like island).

Next is the Landing page. You can have a landing page for each campaign. You can have more than one to segment and test your landing page. But that landing page has about 8 seconds to grab the visitor's attention and tell them a story that they want to hear.

After the story, you want to give them an offer and call them into action. Somehow you want to capture their contact info so that you can put them in your funnel for sales follow up, unless your website is designed to close them, which most are not.

The art of the website close is ease of use. If there is a hurdle or a jump off point or something loads slow or it something looks untrustworthy, they are gone. Ask web marketers about bounce rates and shopping cart abandonment rates.

So there are a lot of components that go into selling online. Maybe a little more than goes into selling IRL (in real life, offline). Face-to-face can build trust easier than a website. The basics of marketing are about the same. The thing is: online metrics are better than offline, so you find out fast how bad your offer is, your slogan is, your website is, your content is, your sales system is. Be Prepared for that.

Today, if you design an email marketing piece or a direct mail piece, your response rate is less than 1% (a Facebook ad is less than 1/10th of 1%). You expect that. No imagine that you get 2000 unique visitors in a month (a good number in our industry, btw) and only 1% respond. That's still better than the direct response, but somehow it just upsets marketers.

Just some stuff to thing about.

ITEXPO Dinner Plans

2011-02-03T15:52:18Z

So last night was the dinner gathering where I invite everyone to come have a Dutch treat meal with some great conversation. Last night was no different. Maybe this show should be known as the end to end communications solution show because when you are here you meet everyone who touches the space.

End users looking for deployment and install answers. Maybe they need that one key answer to put a solution together.

Developers are here learning about what companies like Voxeo, ifbyphone and Twilio are doing. Startups are here for Larry Lissers Startup Camp today at 4 PM.

If you are a service provider, all the components are here. From the BSS (like GCS) to SBC (like Ingate) to hardware (like Dialogic) to add-ons (like Call Recording) to data centers to trunking carriers (like VoIP Innovations and Paetec - I rep both) to supply chain (like VoIP Supply) to product training (like B-Lynk) to marketing (like TMC with their online communities and lead generation programs).

The Channel is here with CVX Expo, where I will be speaking today at 3:15 on Net-Head.

Soup to nuts. Smart Grid. Wireless. M2M. So much more. (And the Miami Beach weather). Can't believe you're not here.

Nine Minutes About SEO

2011-01-21T18:54:22Z

TMC's Rich Tehrani joins me for a short discussion about Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

For me, the significant components of SEO are picking the right keyword (as Rich explains in the podcast) and great content that is kept current. An example of that would be a webpage with a headline (and proper URL) for a popular question like What is the difference between PAAS and IAAS? (The URL should be the headline, btw). Some people ask that in the search engines. It's highly relevant with keywords and hopefully a well written answer.

We didn't get into Lead Generation too much or landing pages or blogging or online marketing strategy or online-offline integration or even social CRM. But for the nine minutes we do explain that if your business wants help with Branding or Lead Gen, TMC's online communities can certainly be effective, as I have seen with clients who have used them.

Top 3 Ways Not To Interact with a Blogger

2010-10-21T17:11:11Z

I get email from public relations firms all the time. Every time I think I'm off a list, I get added to a new one. I already get a steady stream of email from clients, vendors, peers and friends in the Industry. (Keep those tips coming!) Add in social media noise and most of my day is fielding news, questions, etc. So then I get your press release as an email...

That's the first No-No. With Google Alerts, newswire, and, umm, I write for TMC which publishes all your press releases, do you really think I need you to send me a copy? (For the dense, the answer is No).

At ITEXPO East and West, Todd Keefe of FIRPR and Erik Linask of TMC work very hard to collect the requests for interviews and to schedule them with TMC's writing corps. There are usually way more requests for interviews than there are slots available. Yet every Expo we get no-shows. It happened again in LA. No word from the company as usual. This is No-No number 2. You just took a time slot from someone else. Show some respect. Do you think this disrespect will go unnoticed?

I kind of have a rule that if you piss me off, I won't ever mention your company. Unless you discover the cure for cancer.

This is an extension: don't say yes to an interview and then not do the interview.

Most PR firms have probably not read my stuff. Not even the masthead that says Icover Telecom, cable, data centers, hosting and the CLEC World. I mainly cover anything that affects the Indirect Channel. Since I started in telecom in 1999 as a telecom agent, the Channel is how I view most things. You need to know that because if the story doesn't have a CLEC or a Channel bent, I'm not that interested.

Mobile VoIP? Nope. I think it is a niche play with too many players. There's these things called unlimited plans. They are getting cheaper all the time. Why would I want to use a convoluted app to dial especially with these things called metered data plans. I'll give you if I call International a lot or if I could get HD Voice calling, but even then, ho hum. There are plenty of bloggers that write about mobile VoIP, who actually think its cool. BTW, I own a Blackberry and am not a Apple fanboy, so keep that in mind. These things are just tools to get my job done.

So know what I write about so you can tell me the angle or hook.

Often I do not know the company I am interviewing. This telecommunications industry is huge with companies merging, opening, closing. I try to keep up, but I just can't. (That's also why I just stick to my knitting; it's challenging enough to know everything in just my microcosm). It would be helpful if you could actually tell me what it is you do. A company that blew off our interview today met with me about 2 years ago. The CMO, CEO and CTO. For 30 minutes I tried to wrap my head around what they do to no avail. I'm not an idiot - depsite what some off-line commenters suggest - so if I can't grasp it in 30 minutes, how in the world will anyone else? I will say that the following year they changed their pitch to make it easier to understand but it was still vague. People need concrete. Writers and readers (and prospective customers) do not have time to figure out what you do and how it will benefit them, unless you tell them in clear, concise terms. Want an example? Hatteras Networks. See the blog post today. What do they do? Allow facilities based CLEC's to offer symmetric Ethernet to customers over copper. Pretty clear.

A cloud based provider of a voice platform for service providers is vague.

To summarize the Top 3 Way Not to Interact with a Blogger: send me press releases; be a No-Show; and be vague and have no idea what I write about.

BTW, I like interviewing company execs, even recording the interviews for podcasts, so ping me to talk telecom.

PSS: I am still trying to catch up on the interviews I did in LA, so bear with me. I was in Atlanta this week and in Phoenix next week, so November.

Where Can You Find Me?

2010-10-12T20:06:38Z

Last week was a whirlwind, Tampa to Los Angeles to Ontario ($125 cab ride???) to New Orleans to Orlando to Tampa. ITEXPO, StartupCamp and CVX Expo were great. Over 200 booths at the show. ITEXPO gave away a Mustang convertible and Nimsoft had a contest for a Tesla! (TWC had cupcakes).

So many sessions. So much content. So many people. (That's why I go.) A big hand to the whole TMC team along with Larry Lisser and the Channel Vision team!

After ITEXPO, I hit an ISP/CLEC show in New Orleans to hang out with some clients. It's always good to see and talk to clients face-to-face.

Next up is a master agent show in Stone Mountain, GA, where I will be discussing the opportunities for agents in The Cloud with my panel at Microcorp's One-on-One.

Then off to Broadsoft Connections in Phoenix to Ignite some Progress in Hosted PBX.

There is a possibility that I will be at The Broadband Expo in Dallas on Nov. 1-3 just to hear Charlie from DISH speak and to hear Rich speak.

Then I think I'll take a breath since by then my Lit Building Sales Plan book will be launched!

Over 50 Ideas This Week

2010-08-15T18:52:51Z

Last week I was traveling for family and to stop into the new TMC offices. It was a beehive of activity as over 40 companies stopped in to tell their stories to bloggers, editors, writers and the video camera. I'll be writing up that stuff in a couple of weeks because this week I am in KY at a client site.

One topic I will be presenting is 50 Ideas. Jack Brandt and I used to do this session at ISPCON called 50 Ideas in 50 Minutes. Just nuggets of collected wisdom on strategy, sales, marketing and plain old business advice. I'm sharing it here. Have a great week!

iEXPO

2010-01-29T14:47:05Z

With all the iHype about the new Apple iPad - and all the disappointment with the new gadget - and all the jokes and subsequent lawsuit about the name - I think it might be time to rename ITEXPO, TMC's iEXPO.

If you saw all the attendees staring at their iPhone (mainly wondering why they couldn't get a signal!). And I think half the booth giveaways were an Apple i-gagdget. So I propose that we call it the iEXPO.

Noted: Moshe Maeir says we just need to call it the iTEXPO.

How to Leverage Social Media for a Marketing Campaign

2010-01-20T20:15:09Z

At TMC's ITEXPO, I moderated a panel after lunch titled How to Leverage Social Media for a Successful Marketing Campaign. Both panelists - Isaac Hazard, Director of Strategic Consulting, Mzinga; and Suzanne Bowen, VP Marketing & Business Development, Super Technologies, Inc. & DIDX - delivered case studies.

What was the goal?
How was it executed?
What was the results/metrics/ROI?

How to Think about Social Media

You need to think about social media platforms as additional tools for the marketing toolbox. You still need a concise message. You still need to target a suitable audience with a relevant message. It's social so you have to interact, too. People do broadcast on twitter, but they let that be known from the beginning.

To start on any platform, Listen first. Learn best practices. Then Engage. Above all be authentic. Transparency counts. It's the Internet. Everything is permanent, searchable, and will be found out.

A couple of hints about LinkedIn from Suzanne: utilize the recommendations and questions/answers.

It is all about giving value back. (As Seth Godin says be generous). It is an avenue to becoming an expert, an authority.