|
Voice, Data & Internet
|
 |
|
|
It is summertime again. We need to remember that this was a rough winter for everyone in the Midwest. Prospects are more likely to be leaving earlier on Fridays to start their weekend.
One suggestion is to call early in the morning and do clerical work in the afternoon. I know as salespeople we despise the clerical but it needs to be done.
I have an issue that is really burning my ass lately. I just don’t understand how this whole surcharge (which have been made to look like taxes on phone bills) thing has gotten as out of control as it has. I review customer’s phone bills every day, and every day I want to pull out what is left of my hair.
It is very simple. The price of a PRI has dropped significantly over the last few years. What we used to sell for about $500.00 now can be purchased for as low as $299.00. At first glance you mark it up to a PRI becoming a commodity or competition in the marketplace. I am here to tell you it is neither. By the time you get done your bill is still going to be close to the $500.00 mark.
There are two reasons this chaps my ass. The first is the consumer is getting hosed! The second is that agents only get paid on the base price. Consumer bills are filled with what I like to call “bullshit charges.” These charges are made to look like taxes and have some very funny names like “Regulatory Recovery Fee” and “Universal Service Fund Surcharge.” The government let’s telcos get away with this. My question is why?
As simple way to look at this is your average cell phone bill. You think you pay $49 for that package but your bill is $75. Sure some of it is actual taxes, but some of it is also bullshit.
I just signed up a new customer here in Chicago and I took a vendor in to explain all of these charges to that customer. He told me that he bought from us because he knew he was getting screwed, but we were the only ones who were honest about it and took the time to walk him through all of it. So what happened to this poor guy? He gets his first bill and there is a new surcharge on it for “Network Maintenance.” He said to me, “Didn’t they know they were going to have to do maintenance on their network?”
We were honest and told him everything, and then some suit decides he can get another $10 of pure profit out of all their customers. Why? Because the government told him he could. How can we put a stop to this (or at least get paid on it since it is profit to the telcos)?
I know that many shady salespeople don’t even talk about these fees. I try, but it is obvious that I can’t even keep up with it and I deal with it every day. Something must be done, and I am looking to everyone reading this post for help. Please let me know your thoughts!
As salespeople we work incredibly hard to create a positive impression with our prospective clients and our existing base. We listen to people’s stories, learn about their organizations, ask about their families, and remember their birthdays. We are working hard to create a good impression, and a strong personal bond, and we often ruin all of this hard work with the failure to say two words- “you’re welcome”.
Consider how often you go to a restaurant, a retail store, a party, you hold a door open for somebody, you give your child a few dollars…How often do you say “thank you” to somebody and they either don’t respond, or they offer you a cursory “yup”, or some version thereof. How often does somebody thank you, and you fail to say “you’re welcome”?
I asked my 18 year old daughter’s boyfriend to help me move some furniture around the living room the other day-a room that he spends plenty of time eating my food and watching my television in. Not much work was involved, but it took time away from this teenager’s pressing television viewing time, so I thanked him once the job was done. This young man, whom I happen to think highly of, responded with “yup” to my “thank you”.
This response dissapointed me. It gave me the impression that the only effort he wanted to put forth was in the actual moving of furniture, that in his eyes doing the job was enough, he did not understand that this situation provided him the possibility of building a tighter bond with me. It appeared that he felt that the act of fulfilling my request to move the furniture eliminated the need for him to acknowledge my appreciation. He failed to see that if he responded by saying “you’re welcome”, that by making the effort to say these two words, my respect for him would have been raised an extra notch. Instead, he chose to respond, “yup”, which reduced my respect for him.
As you spend your day interacting in the world, keep your eyes and ears open. Pay attention to how often you hold the door for somebody, or someone does the same for you. Did either of you say “thank you”, or “you’re welcome”? If so, how did it make you feel-if not, did that dissapoint you. When you paid your bill at lunch and left a tip for the waitstaff, did he/she say “thank you”? did you say “you’re welcome”? Or, did one of you say “thank you” and the other say “yup” in return? How did you feel in each instance-what was your internal conversation after each verbal exchange?
Believe me, I understand that in the overall scheme of things, the need to hear or say the words “you’re welcome” uttered in response to the phrase “thank you” is miniscule in its importance compared to the other manners in which our appreciation for something can be conveyed. Yet, they are the most important words you may ever say.
If the front door is closed why not try the side door or even the back door? As we all know these are extremely difficult times for everyone so how can you distinguish yourself from others? Let’s be honest and most decision makers/IT managers do know want to get a phone call about LD and local service. How can you peak their interest these days? How about talking about network redundancy or Internet security? All companies are relying on the Internet more than ever and backup solutions are extremely critical to have in place along with a secure network. This way you may get an appointment to discuss different network options and now you have an in to sell the standard services as well. I believe this will also bring you more value when you finally meet with the customer because you are looking out for their entire network. What are some of the rest of you doing to get in the door these days?
Has anyone else noticed that customers are looking for more and more ways out of a contract? They all want a 3 year price with a month to month contract. This is how Wikipedia defines contract:
A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do, or refrain from doing, an act, which resulting contract is enforceable in a court of law. It is a binding legal agreement. [1] That is to say, a contract is an exchange of promises for the breach of which the law will provide a remedy.
I recently had a customer that wanted to buy an Internet T1. He liked my price of $299.00 with a router but said that he was concerned about the contract. So, I gave him a one year price. He thought that was too high. So, I went back to the vendor and got him a business downturn clause, another addendum with an out for poor service, and a 90 day trial period. He still balked at everything. This is a three hundred dollar a month deal with as many outs as I could give him and he still was not happy. He wanted a clause that basically said he could take his ball and leave at any time. I finally told the gentleman to quit wasting my time and hung up on him.
This is not the first time this has happened to me recently. If you sign a 3 year lease on a car can you take it back halfway through the lease? I don’t think so. So, why should you be able to get out of your telecommunications contracts? I deal with a lot of traders who only do one year deals and spend the extra money so that they have this flexiblity. Why don’t others see it this way?
I do however have a solution. SBC/Ameritech used to do it this way. You sign a 3 year deal and if you leave after one year you pay the difference in what the one year vs the three year contract was. If anyone knows of a vendor that handles things this way, I would love to work with them, and would appreciate you letting me know about them…..Thoughts?
I recently had an opportunity to participate in a sales workshop. We worked on our elevator pitch. I know what you are thinking “waste of time” but it wasn’t. It was good to review and to practice the pitch. We all get a little lazy and it was good to go back to the basics.
I thought this was pretty good…
There was a man who lived by the side of the road, and he sold hot dogs. He was hard of hearing, so he had not radio. He had trouble with his eyes, so he read no newspapers. But he sold good hot dogs. He put signs up on the highway telling how good they were. He stood by the sid of the road and cried, “Buy a hot dog, mister?” and people bought. He increased his meat and bun order. He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade. His business was good and growing daily. Finally it became so big that he called his son home from college to help him. But then something happened! His son said, “Father, haven’t you been listening to the radio? Haven’t you been reading the newspapers? There’s a big depression on! The European situation is terrible. The domestic situation is worse. Everything’s going to pot.” Whereupon the father thought, “Well, my son’s been to college. he reads the newspapers and listens to the radio, and he ought to know.” So the father cut down on this meat and bun orders, took down his advertising signs, and no longer bothered to stand on the highway to sell his hot dogs. And his hot dog sales fell almost overnight. “Your right son,” the father said to the boy. We’re right in the middle of a great recession.
It has always been a good idea to work a vertical market. In today’s market it is vital to success. I have had recent luck with car dealerships. The ones who are still selling cars are great candidate for MPLS. They generally have multiple locations and high usage at each. Add a couple remote repair facilities and you are Golden. What other Verticals have people been having success selling?
Guest Blog: Mike Saxby, Group Publisher, PHONE+ & Channel Partners
If you look around, you can’t help but notice that there is a social disease spreading at a pretty good clip. No need to alert the CDC or anything – this spreading addiction to social media is a good sickness to have in the world of relationship building.
Over at PHONE+, we have been working over the past few years to continue to build our online presence and e-newsletters. We have embraced social media in various forms, including the launch of the Channel Partners Network group on LinkedIn, where we now have more than 700 members, many of whom are active in the discussions on a regular basis. And when I see even more people taking the social networking bull by the horns, I am continually encouraged that we are all doing the right thing. For instance, Bill’s blog has seen great success on the PHONE+ Web site, and I have no doubt he will continue to garner a following with this new forum.
So, if the Internet has seen widespread public use for almost two decades, why is there so much talk about utilizing social media for business purposes now?
It’s almost as if personal applications and business applications have been on a path toward each other for quite some time, and now they’ve started to mingle a bit with each other on the bridge to the other side. People went from using the new-fangled chat function long into the night to keep up with friends on the other side of the country; and now, we use instant messaging every day in the workplace for quick communication across the hall or across the world. Twenty years ago, business advisers were encouraging entrepreneurs and enterprises to start a Web site and to be sure to put their e-mail addresses on their business cards. Today, a business might be advised to start a LinkedIn group, a Facebook or Twitter account, or even to utilize YouTube to dispense a message. And with huge companies like Google continuing to make a paradigm shift from consumer apps to business functionality – and using the channel to do so – the lines defining which Web tools are personal and which are business-related are blurring more each day.
The growing acceptance of social networking in the workplace also is no doubt influenced by the current state of the nation, and for that matter, the world. America’s recession-like economy has inspired innovation in many lines of business … marketing not excluded. Reaching a target audience via social media can be very effective, not to mention free of charge or relatively inexpensive.
And we can’t deny the effects of the environmentalism movement either. Companies are saving money AND reducing their carbon footprints by utilizing Web communication tools in business. Furthermore, social media is eco-friendly in that it doesn’t use the staggering amounts of paper and materials that, say, a direct marketing campaign would use.
Whatever the reason, it’s clear the time for social media is now. The networking aspects inherent in this phenomenon are very attractive to channel partners; and therefore, I expect the use of social media to be ubiquitous for successful partners in the next year or two. One thing the CDC would indeed say about social networking and social media – the conditions are now optimal for it to spread at a rapid pace.
I heard this famous Led Zeppelin song recently and it made me think about what is going on in our business and in our society in general. Lately it seems to me that everyone has forgotten how to communicate. I think this just might be one more thing we can blame on the economy right now.
It sure seems that almost everyone is scared of losing their jobs these days, customers are scared of making the wrong decision, and people are leery of long term contracts. However, all this really does is make things more difficult in the “real world.”
If you don’t know me already, you will find that I am someone that hits people right between the eyes with the truth. I have been told in the past that I need to filter it a little. But, lately I say the hell with that, let’s all just remove our damn filters. If we say we are going to do something by a certain time or date, let’s get it done by that time/date. Whatever happened to under committing and over performing? I have been noticing a trend in almost every aspect of our daily lives that people will just tell you what they think you want to hear – the hell with the truth. All this accomplishes is very short term highs followed by massive lows and disappointments. This is a trend we all need to break out of ourselves, or help people break out of by calling them out.
In the case of vendors – when you commit to delivering a quote of information, don’t commit to the date I want, commit to the date you can actually get me that information. For Agents – quit making promises to vendors you can’t control, and certainly don’t make promises to customers you can’t back up. For customers, if you need help internally don’t be afraid to ask for it – and show your value by standing out and making changes that are good for the company.
Why does it have to be so difficult? I think we should make the next week, National Be Honest and Follow Up On Your Commitments Week. I would like to have everyone make a special effort each day this week to be brutally honest with someone every day. Think of it as a kind of Pay It Forward kind of thing. Throw caution to the wind and remove your filter. I think you will like it and in the end I am confident almost everyone around you will appreciate it.
To make this whole thing entertaining – come back to the blog and post a comment regarding your ‘Pay It Forward’ moments – I am sure everyone will like to hear other people’s stories.
Until next time….
