It seems like so many folks that maintain IT positions in mainstream corporate America feel that they know it all (or close to it) and that any telecom agent/consultant/professional that might enter their doors is treading on their turf or invading their territory. They fear we might expose any poor decisions they have made in the past; create more work for them even as we help them do their jobs; and (God forbid) ask them to make a change to another provider that will improve upon the one they have today, what they are spending today and how they are doing things today.
Treating the aforementioned as fact, cold calling, telemarketing, direct mailing, e-mailing and faxing these IT decision makers or their bosses will (and do) offer very low rates of return. These somewhat boring approaches don’t put you in touch with anyone new and teach you very little. All of these methods of prospecting serve as great supplements, but need to be just that -- supplements.
Seminars, conferences, expos, trade shows, local chamber events, awards ceremonies, your kids’ activities, hotels, airplanes and crown rooms are better approaches. They are all more fun, more comfortable and relaxed atmospheres for meeting these impenetrable folks as well as their bosses. Additionally, referrals easily can be obtained from customers, colleagues and/or strategic alliances at breakfasts, lunches, dinners, over drinks or a round of golf. Many of these people are very busy people that often introduce you to other busy people who would never have seen you, or met you, any other way.
In the last couple of years, I have sold, learned, met more people and had more fun than ever before. Every company needs the services a telecom agent offers -- get out there and meet someone new, and have fun doing it!
David Goodwin co-founded Advanced Technology Consulting Inc. (ATC) in 1999 to introduce a new approach to selecting, managing and optimizing telecommunications services. He leveraged more than a decade of experience at Cable & Wireless where he learned all aspects of the telecom industry and earned national awards for his performance. Goodwin also is a member of the PHONE+/Channel Partners Conference & Expo Advisory Board.
By Charles Cary, vice president of small business services, XO Communications
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse spoke last Thursday at the Potomac Officers Club meeting at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, Va. POC is a Washington, D.C., area networking organization of senior executives, heavily weighted toward telecom and high-tech.
Hesse's presentation was interesting and entertaining. He shared insights on managerial skills and technology. For example, on the former, he said when he ran AT&T Wireless, he wanted to protect its scrappy, entrepreneurial culture from the much different culture of the wireline business that had been influenced from years of operating in a quasi-monopolistic, rate-of-return regulatory framework. He said he recognized the different cultures, and the importance of preserving qualities necessary for future success.
This background should serve Hesse nicely in his new role at Sprint. In particular, it has been reported that the merger with Nextel has similar issues. Sprint's culture was similar to that of the wireline side of the old Bell system. Nextel's was similar to that attributed to McCaw's. At AT&T Wireless, Hesse wanted to keep one culture apart from the other. At Sprint, he is more likely to want to meld the cultures, perhaps leaning more toward Nextel's aggressive scrappiness.
On the technical side, Hesse talked about the next generations of wireless data services: WiMAX and LTE (Long Term Evolution). WiMax is being championed by Sprint and its recently announced consortium of Clearwire (Craig McCaw), Comcast, Time Warner Cable, etc. AT&T and Verizon are champions for LTE. While Hesse’s venture will be at a scale disadvantage to these companies, it will have about a two-year time-to-market advantage. In addition, Hesse stresses the openness of the system in cultivating relationships with third-party developers with the goal of having a robust portfolio of complementary services by the time AT&T and Verizon enter the market.
Besides the Sprint versus Nextel cultural issue he still must be facing, Hesse also has to deal with optimizing the relationship between Sprint's technology and the very different iDen technology that Nextel's platform uses.
Fortunately for Sprint, Hesse certainly has experience dealing with the kinds of challenges he's facing. Not exactly deja vu, but given his capabilities and background, he has a fighting chance.
Charles Cary is vice president of small business services at XO Communications and a member of the PHONE+/Channel Partners Conference & Expo Advisory Board. In addition to running marketing organizations, Cary has significant finance, sales, and general management experience. Previously, he worked for Nortel Networks, AT&T Inc., PSINet, and CGI AMS. He has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan.
By David Strauss, vice president of marketing, Optimum Lightpath.
This week marks the 35th anniversary of the day Ethernet’s founding father, Bob Metcalfe of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, delivered a memo outlining how to connect the think tank's new personal computers to a shared printer. The memo put forth the basic properties of -- and named -- Ethernet. What started as a memo and a rough schematic has evolved into a proven industry standard and opened the doors for an entirely new breed of network – carrier-class Ethernet.
Enterprises' reliance on bandwidth-hungry ERP, CRM, BI, video conferencing, VoIP, e-mail and messaging applications is growing exponentially. The need for network security, speed and storage has never been greater. This is where Carrier Ethernet comes in. Carrier Ethernet can handle bandwidth speeds of 10mbps through 10gbps, ensuring the network can handle whatever bandwidth needs enterprises can throw at it -- now and in the future.
Additionally, carrier-class Ethernet networks, such as our Intelligent Enterprise Network, are turning capacity and security headaches into predictability and business value. An added layer of intelligence provides packet prioritization to a self-healing architecture to business applications that provide real business value versus commodity pipes.
So we say, Happy Birthday Ethernet, and thank you Mr. Metcalfe for establishing the foundation for what is rapidly becoming the intelligent choice and ideal technology for enterprise networks.
David Strauss is vice president of marketing at Optimum Lightpath, a provider of metro Ethernet services in the Northeast United States. Previously, he was worldwide program director of partner marketing for IBM's systems and technology group, and has held senior marketing positions at Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless services and American Express.
I think that some companies just don't get the channel value. And they never will. (You all know who I am talking about). There have been some changes lately in a few channel programs that have not been to the benefit of agents. (Shocked, right?) But as I am reading PAETEC's 10-K, I see that some companies DO understand the importance of a body of independent business people who market and sell their services.
If PAETEC does not retain its senior management and continue to attract and retain qualified personnel and independent sales agents, PAETEC might not be able to execute its business plan.
As we head into the "recession", it will be agents who experience the most scrutiny in credit apps. (Personally, I have seen how AE's have much more leeway in getting past credit checks.)
As companies cut staff, the channel will be the hunters. Most account teams are in place to nurture the big relationships. Everyone fights for Fortune 500, multilocation enterprise, and government accounts. Medium (100 to 250 employees) and small business (under 100) are the bread and butter of channel agents. (Not just for telecom either; VAR's sell IT into this space as well.)
With the Co-Lo Agent Consortium announcement, it might be the right time to form an agent association. Who promotes agents? Who advocates for agents? Where do we get research that agents bring in X per cent of the business or that we reduce churn? What do you think?
BTW, Microsoft and Cisco have a huge channel. All those certified folks pushing product for the two big boys, who will now be pushing services against our channel. (But that's a session for Boston.)
6. XOHM, WiMax, and the VC money to build it from Intel, et al.
On the other hand, how does T-Mobile gain by buying a CDMA and iDen mixed signaling company? The systems aren't compatible - and that is why Sprint is crippled. Handsets don't come with chipsets for more than one signaling code.
Big reason not to: Sprint just lost its largest cellular customer - Qwest.
Why would DT want this mess? Sprint just lost an appeal of an FCC order to move off the spectrum that Nextel shares with public safety by mid-June.
There were rumors months ago that DT wanted to sell T-Mobile. I guess it was a case of go-big or go-home. (The only other GSM carrier in the United States is AT&T - and DT won't be buying that.)
I'm surprised that the cable coalition (Pivot, maybe) has not thrown the money in to buy Sprint. It would give them a wireless component, VoIP patents and a voice termination network. It would also give cable a Top 10 IP network. I guess cable is saving its pennies for that DOCSIS 3.0 upgrade that analysts expect to cost another $100 billion. (It cost about that to upgrade to DOCSIS 2.)
Verizon Wireless can't buy Sprint because even this crazy FCC and those fine folks at Anti-Trust would have a hard time right now passing that merger.
That leaves Alltel, a fellow CDMA carrier that went private last year. I doubt they could scrounge the money up.
My last guess would be Craig McCaw. If anyone could raise the capital to buy Sprint, he could. But we all know that he would just be flipping it. Paint it. Plant some flowers. Then re-sell it. That wouldn't be good for the employees, the channel or the customers.
Agents would probably benefit since Sprint and T-Mobile are the most agent friendly of the cellcos.
One last point is that Sprint isn't the only company in our space that is messed up. (Some just hide it from the press better than others.) It seems to be a sign of the times. Or it could just be greed. If you just focus on the customers, everything else is details.
It’s sad to say, but I have told my father on more than one occasion the only difference between telecom and the car business is we wear nicer suits. It wasn’t always that way. I recall a time when someone said they would do something for you ... it happened. When you gave a gift to someone they said ... thank you. When a channel manager or VP left one carrier they called and stayed in touch instead of trying to steal client and agent lists.
When you have been doing this for more than 20 years, I can honestly say I have seen it all happen more than once and it never ceases to amaze me. The only silver lining is you can almost always count on:
A) They’ll be fired soon or leave their current employer
B) They’ll end up in jail
C) They’ll set up accounts on the side and then leave the carrier to become an agent
D) They leave the industry
E) They’ll call on you again with a new program which is ALWAYS better than what they were selling before
The people we are the most successful with today (vendors and agents) are the ones we have strong personal relationships with that have been built on mutual respect and trust. This comes from doing the common things uncommonly well:
A) Returning calls in a timely manner
B) Responding to e-mail
C) Being professional
D) Showing concern for you and your business
E) Going the extra mile to help regardless of the time of day
F) Showing appreciation for your business
G) Being creative to resolve issues
H) Creating win-win scenarios
I) Paying us in a timely manner (had to throw that one in!)
The entire industry has been stretched very thin. Everyone works on tight schedules, tight budgets and struggles managing their workload. However, if you just remember to embrace some of the endearing qualities our parents hopefully taught us ... your income, quotas, job satisfaction, blood pressure and happiness will take care of itself.
Slow down and call someone to say “thank you.” Return that call you’ve been putting off. Respond to that e-mail in your inbox you’ve ignored. Help someone solve a problem.
You can’t place a value on doing this. It doesn’t cost you anything but your time and as MasterCard likes to put it’s “priceless.”
Ted Schuman is founder and CEO of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based PlanetOne Communications. PlanetOne currently represents more than 20 providers and supports more than 1,000 agents with three offices around the nation. Schuman has more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the telecom industry and more than 15 years experience in indirect channel management.
Last month, Sprint hosted its 2008 partner convention at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn. This was the largest Spring indirect meeting to date.
The event kicked off with an introduction by Dan Hesse, Sprint’s newly appointed CEO. Dan lived up to his reputation as being a straight shooter by candidly addressing some of the challenges the company faced in 2007 along with the key components Sprint will be focusing on in 2008. He outlined his plan, which was focused on improving the customer experience as it relates to care issues and network performance. Dan is reviewing overall strategies and assessing how to the increase the value of Sprint Nextel, Based on his experience, the consensus is that he’s the right man for the job.
As you would have guessed, much of the conference was focused on Wireless. There were many different break-out sessions focusing on topics from retail store products to the new cutting edge Xohm technology. Xohm is the branding behind Sprint’s wireless broadband strategy. Xohm is going to offer incredible speeds through WiMAX in most of the major cities. Sprint did not share a roll-out time frame or any details on how their BSP’s were going to particpate in this technology.
This year, Sprint’s exhibition hall was filled with more sponsors than ever, a positive indication of the growth in this segment. Some of the big names included Motorola, Samsung, Sanyo, Palm, RIM, Microsoft, Panasonic, Sierra Wireless and many others ...
The Sprint BSP kickoff session was hosted by Steve Rowley, channel vice president. Steve reinforced the importance of the channel to Sprint’s success. He shared his 2008 strategy, focusing on a closer alignment of the channel to the overall business. Steve believes the channel’s ability to be flexible is a key attribute, allowing Sprint to provide true valued-added solutions to the end-customers. He also highlighted the channel’s low churn numbers and how important this will be in 2008. Steve closed by commending the channel on its incredible growth and pledged to support his partners in achieving the same success this year.
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse opened the meeting.
Sprint’s director of indirect channels, Steve Rowley, adresses the gathering.
Sprint’s vice president of distribution channels, Mark Krantz.
Agents spin the wheel of fortune in the exhibit hall.
);)
