Channel Partners: Learn How to Land Call Center Customers

The call center opportunity is not one to be overlooked and today’s session, “Get a Piece of the Call Center Pie,” will help point you in the right direction.

Geoffrey Shepstone, president of master agency Telecom Brokerage Inc. (TBI) will lead the discussion. The other slated participants are Matt Morris, a sales director with service provider TMC Communications; Daniel Lonstein, COO of service provider AireSpring Inc.; and Rick Morris, COO of TouchStar, a hosted call center systems provider.

Each panelist will focus on different aspects of how to be an indirect channel partner competing for call center customers. For example, Lonstein will talk about how many call centers are transitioning to VoIPbased services, and what challenges emerge from the migration. Most VoIP equipment was built for residential services, not for high-volume traffic coming into and going out of the likes of a call center, he said.

That means partners must be aware of the VoIP switches they use and make sure carriers don’t restrict the number of calls a center can make per second. “We learned the hard way,” he said.

For Matt Morris’ part, it’s important that agents get a sense of call center trends so they can get their feet in the door. “I’ll share tricks of the trade as far as call centers are concerned,” he said. Remember, most call centers don’t switch telecom centers every day. They’re looking for long-term providers and need features such as disaster recovery and when agents position themselves as consultants, “they become an invaluable part of the call center’s telecom” strategy, he said.

“Call centers might not be the bread and butter, but if you get one or two it can be a huge commission, a huge cash cow,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rich Morris of TouchStar will talk about call center software and equipment, both of which fall in line with TouchStar’s expertise.