What TelecomMedic does!
Recently a friend commented that some day he wanted me to explain exactly what I do for a living. I have heard this before and thought it might be a great topic for my next blog. So here we go…
Back in the early 2000’s I started WRL Communications. While I was at SBC (now AT&T), I realized that I was selling my customers somewhat outdated and overly expensive telecommunications services. SBC had some competitors at the time with much better products and services, yet I had to hit a quota with SBC so I continued to sell products that weren’t always the best available option to my customers.
Around this same time, I met DJ Fioretti of X4 Communications (a growing master agency at the time) and started to realize there was quite possibly a better way to support my customers’ needs. DJ was selling Chicagoland businesses Long Distance and other Local products that could compete with SBC. The bell went off in my head, and I made the decision to strike out on my own so I could become vendor neutral in order to provide my customers better service.
I started WRL Communications and signed a deal with X4 and Global Crossing which made it possible for me to offer a variety of vendors and services to my customers. Why should I sell one product that may or may not be the right solution, when I could choose from 15-20 different vendors and always know that my customers were getting the best options and information?
That first agency (WRL) grew rather quickly, as many of my previous customers understood what I was doing and hopped on for the ride. The concept was very simple; basically, think of yourself as a business owner who has a telephone system, telephone lines, Internet, and maybe even other offices that you need to connect with each other. At one time most companies were sticking with SBC for all of these telecommunication needs. As mentioned, competition was out there: some were good, some were bad, and no one knew everything available, or how to make an informed vendor decision.
By becoming vendor neutral and opening up the services I could offer to my customers, I became prepared to gather a company’s voice, data, and Internet bills for analysis, and then come back with multiple options. Most customers want to save money, some want better customer service, and others require a new technology that the likes of AT&T, Verizon, and Century Link don’t offer. Since I have relationships with 20 plus companies, I can analyze all the information with all the options, providing the customer with details to assist them as they make a fully informed decision tailored to their needs.
The typical transaction would work like this: Let’s say your Internet contract was coming up in the next 90 days and you needed to shop for more bandwidth and/or a better price. Many businesses used to bring in representatives from SBC, XO, Global Crossing, and others to have them pitch their specific product. This consumed too much time and it was hard to navigate through the sales BS to determine the best solution in any given situation. Whereas, businesses that tried me were able to work with a single point of contact. I would provide quotes from all the vendors in one easy- to -understand proposal and point out the good, bad, and ugly of each. As I was vendor neutral, it didn’t matter to us which service the customer ended up choosing, allowing me to be totally unbiased.
What do I mean by vendor neutral? Basically, my company gets paid by whichever vendor the customer ends up choosing. I am an independent contractor for each of the vendors I represent. The biggest question I get from new customers is, “But won’t I get a better deal if I go direct since they have to pay you.” The fact is the opposite is actually true, a direct rep receives a salary, commission, benefits, office space, and all the overhead associated with an employee for the vendor. Whereas I am simply paid a commission without all the other costs and overhead associated with a direct rep. So the cost of sale to a vendors is actually less when paying an indirect sales agent like myself. There are a number of benefits when using an indirect agent also. The customer gets an un-biased proposal, help with the contract language (to avoid the ‘fine print’ vendors often try to sneak into deals), and I provide support after the sale whenever problems arise with the service. All of this at no cost to the customer.
It wasn’t long before I realized that WRL Communications was growing so quickly that I was spreading myself too thin and missing out on opportunities. So in early 2007, I partnered with Shawn Drimmel and we started what is now TelecomMedic. Shawn takes care of the operations side of the business allowing, me to concentrate entirely on sales, our existing customers, and our growing number of sub-agents.
Today we sell a much larger variety of products and services. We still sell voice, data, and Internet, but we have added many other services such as Cloud, Dark and Lit Fiber, IT support, conferencing, and even collaboration services. At the moment, Hosted/Cloud PBX is our fastest growing product set at the moment as the solution is finally ready for prime time and can be trusted to not have problems that early VoIP and cloud products were known for. Basically, there is almost no telecommunication or related business service that we can’t provide to our clients. We have many different contracts with vendors and currently have access to well over 100 different telecommunications vendors.
The future is bright, and our experience, as well as breadth of suppliers, makes us your go-to company of the future. Reach out and we will be happy to discuss your 3, 5, or 10 year plan Let TelecomMedic help you make intelligent telecommunication decisions .