Going over notes about Seth because I have to give a preso on Linchpin and Leaders on June 14th in Tampa.
"Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That's not marketing, that's efficiency."
"Marketing is the way people answer your phone, th etypesetting on your bill and your returns policy."
9 Things about Sales By Seth Godin
The FCC has figured out How to make broadband more affordable and available by speeding and reducing the costs of access to an essential piece of infrastructure: utility poles.
I'm sure this will be a comfort to Wireless companies:
COMPTEL Continues its Support for Using White Spaces for Point-to-Point Wireless Backhaul Services
In a filing last week, COMPTEL, in conjunction with FiberTower Corp., Sprint Nextel Corp., and the Rural Telecommunications Group Inc. continued their support for fixed licensed point-to-point use of a portion of the vacant TV bands white spaces channels to provide dramatically more cost-effective backhaul options. This coalition is encouraging the FCC to allow licensing for fixed use on UHF TV Channels 21-35 and 39-51 of up to six vacant white spaces channels second or greater adjacent to a TV broadcast station in rural counties; and any vacant white spaces channels third or greater adjacent to a TV broadcast station in all counties.
PC World states that the FCC "has adopted rules that would allow mobile broadband providers to offer services on a 25MHz band of spectrum [in the 2.3 GHz band] that's been controversial because of interference concerns from satellite radio provider Sirius XM Radio and other users of nearby spectrum.... The FCC voted to amend the Wireless Communications Service (WCS) spectrum rules to include mobile broadband uses, in addition to fixed wireless services previously permitted. The commission's action to free up the WCS spectrum for mobile broadband use is the first step in the FCC's plan to find 500MHz of spectrum for mobile broadband over the next 10 years, a goal outlined in the agency's national broadband plan released in March."
Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Buzz, StumbleUpon, LinkedIN, etc. It's overload, right? I mean email is enough. Then add Skype and chat and text messages and how do you keep up?
Here's what's happening: the old forms of media are being displaced in our mobile, ADD, sound-byte world.
People can't sit still to watch news on TV and reading a book, a magazine or a newspaper is for old timers.
What does this mean? That marketing is changing. FAST! It means that companies have to become a media company. I know. Relax. Breathe.
Social networks are a platform to do 2 things: communicate with your marketplace and tell your story.
Communication with the marketplace means that you get to listen in as people talk about your company, employees, services and your competitors! Social networks become a tool for Reputation Management. These applications also are a way to sell and respond. For example, Comcast uses twitter to fix problems one and a time.
The other side of the coin is that it's easy to tell your story. What you don't have a story?
Seth Godin asks What's your Super Power?
Many ISP's tell me that it's about their employees, that they are local, that they answer the phone. Well, tell that story. Talk about your employees. Discuss customers and cases. People do business with people not companies. Social media let's you make that connection to your marketplace.
Need help?
Social Media Strategy for Service Providers on Friday, June 04, 2010 from 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM (ET) - Register here.
Linkshare is presenting What Not to Do on Facebook for Business on Thursday May 27 at 2 PM. Register here.
LNP rules Federal Communications Commission FCC 10-85
Called local number portability (LNP), the ability to transfer a familiar number to a new carrier enhances competition by enabling a consumer to choose a service provider based on his or her needs, without being deterred by the inconveniences of having to change his or her phone number. Last May, the Commission ordered telephone service providers to reduce the time they take to transfer a customer’s telephone number to another provider from four business days to one, and set in motion a process to make that possible.2 This Order completes the task of facilitating prompt transfers by standardizing the data to be exchanged when transferring a customer’s telephone number between two wireline providers; a wireline and wireless provider; or an interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider and any other service provider.3 We also adopt recommendations made to the Commission by the North American Numbering Council (NANC). The deadline for implementing one-business day porting is August 2, 2010 for all but small providers, which must comply by February 2, 2011.
STANDARDIZED DATA FIELDS FOR SIMPLE PORT ORDERING PROCESS
Boris Jerkunica, CEO OF VOCALOCITY, INC. The FCC issued a Citation to provider of interconnected voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service for its apparent failure to make certain regulatory filings and associated payments relating to the Universal Service Fund (USF) and other administrative funds. (DA No. 10-913).
FISPA is putting its next event on in Tunica, Mississippi. (No idea why, so don't ask). It's 26 miles south of Memphis with casinos. ANY way...
The topics will include the following:
Good info there for CLEC's. Much more there for ISP's reselling from Ma Bell.
If you are a WISP, what topics are you looking for?
If you are a CLEC, what more can we add to get you to Tunica?
I put up a survey here.
UPDATE
Your ticket price ($159 early bird!!!) includes meals on 6/21-23. Hotel rooms at the casino - Gold Strike Casino Resort - are going for about $60 per day including fees under the conference rate. Register here!
The people who brought you eFax (j2 Global Communications, Inc., a Delaware corporation) now off eVoice, which is similar to Phone.com and Google Voice. The eVoice service is just a virtual phone Number - local or toll-free - that does some call forwarding and routing. Big feature: Voicemail to Text. Six month free trial, then $13 per month for 300 minutes and 2 extensions. Nothing earth-shattering.
BTW, interesting Customer Agreement for eFax, especially the stipulations for the FREE version of the eFax service.
"YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THE FREE SERVICE IS SUBJECT TO j2 GLOBAL'S "FAIR USE" POLICY FOR FREE ACCOUNTS. YOU WILL BE IN VIOLATION OF THIS POLICY IF, WITHIN ANY THIRTY (30) DAY PERIOD, YOU RECEIVE MORE THAN TEN (10) FAX PAGES, EXCLUDING ADVERTISING OR INFORMATIONAL MESSAGES SENT TO YOU BY J2 GLOBAL, AS DETERMINED BY US IN OUR SOLE DISCRETION. IN THE EVENT YOU ARE DEEMED TO HAVE VIOLATED THIS POLICY, J2 GLOBAL WILL ATTEMPT TO NOTIFY YOU OF THE VIOLATION VIA EMAIL AND OFFER TO UPGRADE YOU TO A PAID SUBSCRIPTION. IF YOU ELECT NOT TO UPGRADE, YOUR ACCOUNT MAY BE TERMINATED OR SUSPENDED AT J2 GLOBAL'S SOLE DISCRETION, EXCEPT WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. ANY FAILURE BY J2 GLOBAL TO ENFORCE THIS POLICY WILL NOT PRECLUDE US FROM ENFORCING IT AT ANYTIME IN THE FUTURE, WHETHER FOR PAST OR CURRENT VIOLATIONS." Oh, and J2 gives you a non-local number far away so just they can send you advertising faxes until you break down and pay for the service. Another example of a Freemium model that is upside down.
In other news of the obvious, ISN's brand IPFone announced a Broadsoft based iPhone app, which is just a re-package of ISIP, formerly SIPPhone from OnSIP. [You can get it here for $7 for use with any Broadsoft provider like PBX-Change, Hunt Telecom, Callis, Telesphere, ISN and others.
Another value add is 4G failover for broadband circuits. I have clients that sell cable and DSL to a business for redundancy or load balancing. That's a great way to keep the customer up and happy. MegaPath has 4G backup plans that it sells with its DSL offerings for Business Continuity.
When it is mission critical that the business have Internet - like being able to process credit card payments - what are you doing for a backup? Fuse Wireless Telecom offers 4GFailover.com plans starting at $29. There are others, like CLEAR which offers a resold Sprint EVDO device. Just a thought.
Another excellent article in Phone+ about Tariff pricing superseding contract pricing. That's right, if you have a contract with Bell but the tariff rate is higher you can be charged the tariff rate, despite the signed and executed contract.
"Thus, for example, if a carrier offered a reseller a rate in a contract that was not found in its tariffs, that carrier could not lawfully provide service at the contract rate. Indeed, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that even where a carrier intentionally (fraudulently) misrepresents its rates in a contract and the reseller specifically relies on the misrepresented facts, the carrier can not be held to the promised rate if it conflicts with the published tariff, regardless of the negative impact on the reseller."
Luckily (sarcasm), most services are not in the tariff, so the contract pricing is usually valid. And in the case of a CSA, it was signed off by the PSC (in theory) and became a de facto tariff. In the case of an non-tariffed service that is in a service guide (like Metro E), contracts that refer to the service guide leave the door open for the service guide price to be the billing rate. Please read the article by Neil Ende of Technology Law Group, LLC.
It seems like everyone is marrying DSL and VoIP. DSLi of Miami was probably one of the first ones I know of to take a stab at it. (Albeit a failed stab). Now news is in that Mammoth Networks (a large Qwest DSL aggregator and wholesale customer) has joined with DASH to offer VoIP.
In similar fashion, New Edge used to have a deal with Intelliverse that went sour and Intelliverse left the Hosted PBX game. Now NEN has an Application Service that Packet8 and XCast connect to in order to serve VoIP over the New Edge Network.
It's mainly about Quality of Service. VoIP Providers need to have a handle on the transport in order to provide top quality QOS.
Words of wisdom from another article, "For solution providers, it is also important to note that hosted services do not exist in a vacuum, that a whole ecosystem of products and services is required for a hosted PBX to function, ranging from infrastructure to IP phones to connectivity and, of course, security products. All of those items and services can lead to profitability beyond the margins realized with a premise-based solution."
While thumbing through Phone+ magazine, I came across some ideas that Service Providers can add to their bundle to become a one-stop shop and to make extra money without the staffing and up-front costs.
One is Microsoft Hosted Apps in The Cloud. According to the Phone+ article, "[Microsoft] plans to match marketing funds, up to $1,000, to help demand generation for Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Services, its software as a service suite that includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting and Office Communications Online. And through the end of June, Microsoft plans to match partner investment, up to $1,000, in the Online Services Ready-to-Go Marketing program. .... The incentives are on top of the $500 partners can earn for each new customer win of up to 25 seats with services and migrations to BPOS or standalone products, excluding Office Live Meeting. Additionally, partners that sign 10 25-seat-or-larger customers can earn an additional $5,000." That's some real cash for partnering with Microsoft.
Next is On-Hold Messaging which is now offered hosted by AMS. The article explains, "The service includes music and professional voice recordings for on-hold messaging, auto attendants and IVR systems. It works with newer IP-based systems that have embedded flash memory, or can work with a traditional PBX using external hardware, which is included with the subscription service at no charge. ... The messaging package includes four updates (including writing and voice talent) during the year for $59.95 per month; additional locations with the same messaging are $19.95 each per month. Multilocation businesses – each with custom requirements – receive a 15 to 20 percent discount on each location. Locations that only want music are $19.95 each per month. More frequent update schedules are quoted individually. .... AMS has three tiers of partners. Referral partners earn $250 spiff on messaging sales and $150 for music-only sales. Agents that close sales themselves earn the upfront spiffs plus a residual of 15 percent if their volume is less than $30,000, and 20 percent if it’s more. A third tier, a master agent, is billed at a wholesale rate of $9.95 for music-only and $29.95 for messaging. They rebill the customer while AMS still handles the customer service." That last tier might be good for FISPA.
Seth Godin's philosophy on Success is that it takes work. Surround yourself with people who are succeeding. You become who you hang with. By surrounding yourself with people who are succeeding, you’ll learn what’s working and what’s not. You can model their success and open doors that you might otherwise not see.
Master Mind groups and attending conferences are ways to interact with other successful people.
Another Big Lesson from Seth:
Everyone is not your customer.
Seth teaches us the key to failure – "the key to failure is trying to please everyone." Listen to your real customers. .... Seth on figuring out what your customers really want — "Most people have no clue what they want, and if you ask them, you’ll get a lame answer. Most people don’t know they want Pretty Woman or Slumdog Millionaire. They don’t know they want Purple Cow or one of your killer articles. So if you want to have an impact, all you can do is lead. You can’t ask."
What Do People Want Most? To be Connected.
That's why Facebook is booming. That's why people want to use the Internet. To get Connected... to like-minded people. To share themselves with similar people. To feel like a part of something.
According to Seth, "You can lead a tribe of people, connect them, commit to them and create a movement." Seth on building your tribe – "It adds to that the fact that what people really want is the ability to connect to each other, not to companies. So the permission is used to build a tribe, to build people who want to hear from the company because it helps them connect, it helps them find each other, it gives them a story to tell and something to talk about. Everything the organization does is to feed and grow and satisfy the tribe."
You provide that access, but you can also provide that Connection by helping your customers network together. If you introduced one of your clients to someone who became an investor or large customer or strategic partner, don't you think he is going to remember who made that introduction?
"The thing that makes something remarkable isn’t usually directly related to the original purpose of the product or service. It’s the FREE PRIZE INSIDE, the extra stuff, the stylish bonus, the design or the remarkable service or pricing that makes people talk about it and spread the word."
Last thought: "Seth writes that an entrepreneur is trying to build something bigger than themselves. They take calculated risk and focus on growth. An entrepreneur is willing to receive little pay, work long hours, and take on great risk in exchange for the freedom to make something big, something that has real market value." That's YOU!
[Thanks to Lessons Learned from Seth by Sources of Insight blog and to Seth Godin for sharing his ideas and insights].
My customers and readers know that I talk about Cbeyond often. The numbers are out for 1Q2010. Here are the highlights:
1Q2010 revenue of $110.5M, up 12.5% over the 1Q2009;
"Total customers of 51,731 in Cbeyond's 13 operating markets, reflecting net customer additions of 1,528 in the first quarter of 2010";
Average monthly revenue per customer location (ARPU) of $723 -- compared to $727 4Q2009 and $755 1Q2009. "The decline in ARPU from the fourth quarter of 2009 was primarily due to increases in credits and promotional incentives issued to new and existing customers."
Monthly churn is 1.4%; it was 1.5% in 4Q09.
67% gross margin (no idea what goes into that number.
Over 1500 net new clients at $700 per month is healthy.
deltathree had a rough year in 2009. The 1Q2010 financials were announced here. Here's the highlight:
"For the first quarter of 2010, deltathree reported total revenues of $3.1 million compared with $5.3 million reported for the first quarter of 2009. The year-over-year decline in quarterly revenue was primarily related to the suspension of the operations of deltathree's largest reseller customer in the fourth quarter of 2009 as well as higher levels of revenue from service provider customers in the first quarter of 2009."
It's easier to sell the tangible - say a server, a router or a phone - than it is to sell the invisible - like intrusion detection, Hosted PBX or The Cloud.
Software sales folks are used to selling licenses and shrink-wrapped stuff. It's harder to sell Software-as-a-Service (SAAS), because it's delivered over the Cloud. It's a little different, so you have to tweak your sales approach. Why? Because the Buyer's perspective has changed.
MSP Mentor has an article about how product sales drive more services sales. It's called bundling.
Your team hs to manage the sales process. Here's an article about that. But if you need help wrapping your head around this, make an appointment with my office.
From DSLReports a week ago, why VZ is selling West Virginia to Frontier (or the state of the rural copper plant in America).
"West Virginia is the last state standing in the way of Verizon's $8.5 billion plan to offload millions of unwanted DSL and landline customers to Frontier Communications. But the approval process there has been hard fought, due to Verizon's long history of neglecting infrastructure in the state. Employees and regulators for years now have highlighted how Verizon's pulled resources from West Virginia, resulting in eroding quality of service and support. This is from a 2006 report by the West Virginia PSC highlighting how Verizon couldn't care less about the state: "In rural areas of the state, miles of cable lie exposed in creek beds, along the ground or otherwise unprotected, according to officials with the state Public Service Commission’s consumer advocate division. ...Customer complaints are rising, and business clients have alleged Verizon is cutting regulatory corners."
So after watching Fairpoint's demise in New England, The WV PSC "ordered Verizon on Monday to set aside $72.4 million over the next four years to improve telephone landline service in West Virginia. The commission directed Verizon to put the money in an escrow account and use the funds to restore the state's copper-wire line network, maintain rights of way and hire more employees."
Then they approved the VZ-Frontier deal. Go figure. Only needs FCC approval at this point.
Did you see the new cellular router from DIGI? Digi Connect WAN 3G EV-DO Sprint Wireless router
Digi Connect WAN cellular products can be used for reliable primary wireless network connectivity to equipment at remote locations, as well as for a backup to existing landline communications. They are also ideal for use where wired networks (e.g., leased line / frame relay, ISDN, DSL) are not feasible, or where alternative network connections are required.
Digi Connect WAN products are able to provide a primary Wireless WAN connection to remotes sites containing Ethernet and / or serial devices. Applications include new construction locations, power utility substations, retail / POS sites, temporary facilities without primary wired connections, and many more.
They can also be used for backup network access.
Sprint has an MVNO plan that will be discussed on a con call coming up. If interested email me for the NDA and info.
"Gartner reports there has been a major shift in CEO priorities from early in 2009, switching from cutting costs to retaining customers and enhancing existing relationships." [channel insider]
For many service providers, they choose not to bother their customers. One problem: You become just a line item charge on their monthly credit card statement. You are just a number. A number to be shopped!
Spend some time in customer retention. Talk to your customers. Make sure that any nagging issues are resolved. Get a referral. Get a testimonial. Upsell them! Or cross-sell them some services that you can still get paid on. Make it sticky!
I write for TMC - in the magazine and on the blog - which owns IT EXPO. This show has expanded from VoIP to so much more. Now they have added an Agent/Channel show and a Voice Peering Conference.
"For this reason I invite you to the newest event in the peering space - Voice Interconnect and Peering Conference (VIPeering) in conjunction with partners AU24 Inc (AU24), and Crossfire Media (CFM). The one-day conference is planned for Tuesday, October 5, 2010 in Los Angeles, CA and will be collocated with ITEXPO, 4GWE, and Smart Grid Summit conferences at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
The biggest buzz in the industry right now is CLOUD. IAAS, HAAS, SAAS, Virtualization, and so much more. That sprouted Cloud Communications. There is even a Cloud Communications Alliance.
What is Cloud Communications? It is Hosted PBX.
Even IVR in the Cloud offered by ifbyphone and XO are just PBX functions delivered from the gear in the data center.
Where does Cloud Comm really take off? When you have "rich calling" as Ringio calls it.
“By tapping into the cloud for customer data, we bring everything that’s important about the caller to the top of your mind – in real time,” he said. “As you take or make a call, you can draw upon the collective notes of everyone in your organization who has dealt with this person. This helps you to connect with customers much more efficiently, professionally and meaningfully than SMBs typically are able to do.”
Report after report says that Hosted PBX sales are climbing. Connected Planet says the opportunity for Hosted PBX is now. "There is currently a window of opportunity in North America for hosted PBX services. There are enough clear signs of enterprises of all sizes actively interested in hosted voice services. There is a challenge, however: Large operators haven’t put enough marketing weight behind the services, and enterprises find it painful to engage with them."
"The sweet spot for HPBX/IP Centrex services has always been the 20-30 employee business or site."
Another report by AMI-partners finds that the number of U.S. Home-based businesses (HBBs) using VoIP technology has increased by 48% in 2009. Most of that is due to the triple-play bundles sponsored by the Duopoly (ATT, VZ, TWC, BHN, etc).
One problem is that there are over 1000 VoIP Providers running loose in the marketplace. Not good becuase most of them half-ass it and suck at implementation (a problem that CLEC's have as well). In one case, I read the messages that the CTO of an CCA company posts on forums and it makes me wonder WTH are you doing over there? How about some best practices? How about hiring someone familiar with telecom? How about some security?
Those will be the differentiators.
A blogger wrote yesterday: How fast do you have to run to escape a bear? Only faster than the slowest guy! Stop running the same pace as everyone else. Pick up your pace. Pick a path and start running.
The FCC has been making changes to the official FCC National Broadband Plan per updates. One update, the form 477 data will now be available. See cryptic notes here.
I still have not read the plan yet. Here's one blogger's highlights though.
It's going to require money -- and lots of it; spectrum - more than 500 MHz worth; more money to buy or lease spectrum and build out the network with it; and data - so we know where to build fiber.
Oh, and another point: This is just a Plan - a recommendation. It's not law. Nor is it formal. So breathe - and start thinking about your own regional broadband plan!
