If you are a telecommunications agent, or looking to become a telecom agent, then you should sign up for a free account with CarrierQuoteShop.com. Carrier Quote Shop gives you access to real-time quotes for these types of products:
To get access to the above types of quotes from the telecommunications companies you work for, or want to work for, you will need to sign up for that company’s quotes. The sign-up process is easy, and just lets you check a box next to the carrier that you want quotes from. If you are already an agent for that carrier, or work for a master agent of theirs, then you can just put that information into the form. If you aren’t currently a telecom agent for that carrier, but you would like to work for them, or one of their master agent, just check the box, and that carrier, or a master agent of theirs, will contact you to sign you up.
The telecom carriers that Carrier Quote Shop currently offers real-time telecom quotes for are:
ACC Business
AireSpring
Cavalier
MegaPath
One Communications
TelePacific
Telnes
Windstream
XO
So, get over there, sign up, and get real-time quotes for your customers…… FAST!
Nuvio is now offering an agent program that provides independent teleco agents with the ability to make more money. Nuvio is offering their authorized agents the ability to sell all of Nuvio’s services and to receive commission payments based on their monthly billed revenue. Agents are able to add Nuvio’s PBX services to the typical agent portfolio of connectivity and dial tone products.
Nuvio’s Agent Partner Program does not have a sales quota, so if you sell it, they will pay you for it. Agent’s residual sales commissions are compounded monthly, so the more you sell the higher your check! It is a great way for telecom agents to bring additional revenue into their businesses.
Lonnie Domnitz, from LANgineers, posted this on LinkedIn yesterday. For any of you agents that want to talk to Lonnie about working with his organization, you can email him here: Lonnie Domnitz
I can’t figure out why anyone wants to mess with SIP residuals. Here is the way to make money with VoIP:
For hosted customers, we pay 4x MRC to the reseller (you), if they do the installation and training. So a small 5 phone customer pays $245/month on a 36-month term contract. Dealer makes about $1,000 up front if they do the install which entails connecting the phones and installing the router and PoE switch that we supply. Add training and it is a 2-3 hour gig.
Here is the kicker: The customer buys nothing because we lease the phones to them, so they have no up-front costs. And at $245/month for unlimited lines and unlimited calling, they SAVE money over what they pay some ILEC or CLEC. They bring their own bandwidth, and we like a single healthy DSL or cable, or dual “average” DSL lines. We setup the load balancing and failover in the router. So here is a summary of how we compare from the customer’s viewpoint:
Other dealers:
Phone System: $2,500
Installation: $500
Total up-front Cost: $3,000
Monthly service from LEC for 5 lines, LD, and DSL (low end) or T1 (high end): $350-$650
Our dealers:
Phone System: $0
Installation: $0
Total up-front Cost: $0
Monthly service from ILEC: $100 (fax line with DSL)
Monthly service from LANgineers: $245
Which dealer would you rather be? The one peddling the $3,000 phone system and $350 service plan or the one with the free phone system and $350 service plan.
Residuals:
It’s simple. If the customer signs a new contract after 36 months, they get new phones and you get paid AGAIN. If not, they don’t and you don’t.
Q: Why does the customer want to sign a new contract?
A: New phones. We are re-signing our original customers and replacing their 9133i phones with 57i phones with BLF. In three years we will be replacing those 57i with 6739i… you get the picture. Works just like cellular contracts. The feature set is also evolving and improving, as we now offer BLF functionality and full time call recording.
Final Note: Everyone wants this, not just people buying new phone systems. Only 10% of our customers need or want a new phone system. What could be better than selling cost savings and great new features in a recession? Phone service is a commodity, so sell cost savings. Or sell features. Or both.
Just my two cents about how to make residuals in the world of SIP…
If you like to sell conference calling, and who doesn’t, since the money is so good, here’s a 2.5¢ per minute plan that’s an easy sell. It’s offered by The Conference Group, and comes with:
1. U.S. and International Toll-Free dial-in phone numbers.
2. Secure nine-digit participant and leader passcodes.
3. Conference with up to 99 participants. (With options for more with full service plan.)
4. Access to ReadyShow® Web to publish PowerPoint™ documents or share your desktop.
5. For added security, participants will hear music until the leader joins the conference.
6. Entry tones and exit tones will chime as callers join and leave a conference.
7. All conferences will be disconnected once the last leader hangs up.
8. Available leader features include: Lecture Mode (*5), Mute (*6), and Lock Conference (*7) to prohibit additional callers from joining a call.
Visit the website, check it out, and sign up to sell The Conference Group’s new 2.5 cent conference calling today.
At the Las Vegas CES show this year it was amazing to watch the strategies employed, it appeared as if Nokia was trying to preempt the launch of Google’s New Phone, which we learned later would be the Nexus One. Nokia told of its GPS feature which would be standard on its smart phone models – some ten different handsets in fact. And not just any old GPS, we are talking turn-by-turn GPS features. Move over Garmin, Tom Tom, and DeLorme.
Not only was Nokia doing a little tidy’ing up on the smart phone market share front, but also sending some shock waves through the personal GPS markets as well. The Ovi Maps software which run the Nokia turn-to-turn GPS system runs in 75 nations and you can speak to it with voice recognition software in nearly 50 languages. Can you say; “Ah, Hello artificial intelligence!”
Interestingly enough, did you know that Nokia made nearly a billion dollars in profit in 2009 and sold some 1.46 million handsets, and even with the market share attack now from Apple and Google in the sexy, and sleek smart phone space, 2010 appears good for Nokia in world-wide sales. Nokia’s Symbian 4 Operating System is quite the advancement as well, apparently attempting to not fall too far behind Apple’s 3GS iPhone.
In the future we can expect even more features, perhaps, holographic cell phone video conferencing, or perhaps, projection cell phone with mobile TV interface, anyway, if it can be dreamed, these personal tech gurus of science and industry will deliver, you can count on that, for sure!
I received an article today from a cell phone user in Alabama, and thought I’d share it with any agents who may sell cell phone service in the South. What it comes down to, is a choice between AT&T and Verizon, and they differ on coverage and 3G service….
“I know a lot of people these days are seeing Verizon Wireless and AT&T commercials bashing it each other. Well, I would love to tell you my view from each. I am from the state of Alabama and I rarely travel outside of the Southeast. From my part of the country when you decide between AT&T and Verizon you must choose between two things: incredible coverage or 3G.
I chose to go with AT&T for their incredible coverage. I could be in the middle of nowhere Alabama in a basement and get a signal from AT&T while my friend, who has Verizon Wireless, could easily get a signal in the city, but has no signal whatsoever while on the highway or out in the country. On the other hand if you are a business man who can afford bad coverage for great 3G, then Verizon Wireless is your best friend. Verizon has incredible 3G coverage in the city, and if you were to be able to get the iPhone on Verizon then I would suggest going that route. Overall though if you are looking for consistent coverage no matter where you are in the Southeast United States choose AT&T.”
If you are interested in selling conference calling and video conferencing, A+ Conferencing has what you are looking for. I’ve just put up a new article from A+ on our articles page, and there is a link to it on the bottom of this post. Here’s the first paragraph from the article about A+ Conferencing.
“A+ Conferencing is a full service audio, web and desktop video conferencing service that specializes in conferencing services for businesses and non-profit organizations. Founded in 2000 by Michael R. Burns, A+ has its own conference bridge network and deploys over 16,000 ports of audio conferencing with Avaya/Spectel, Polycom/Octave and ThinkEngine bridges.”
OK, here’s a really interesting product that is going to make someone a lot of money, but it probably won’t be you. A company called VoiParty is building a peer-to-peer IXC network. According to what their site says, if you join their program, for around $200, plus $30 more to be an agent, they will shares 70% of the profits with you.
To join VoiParty, you need to have high speed internet access and unlimited local service through another phone company. VoiParty then gives you unlimited phone service in the US and Canada, and uses your high speed internet service and local phone connection to sell call termination using Least Cost Routing for their client companies. They do this with a proprietary box that plugs into your phone service and high speed internet service, and routes long distance phone calls that terminate in your area though your local phone connection.
It looks like a really cool idea, except for a couple of things. I’m pretty sure your local phone company wouldn’t agree to terminate long distance calls for other companies without getting paid for them. That’s one of the ways that local companies make their money, by using their network to terminate long distance calls in their area. If all the calls start terminating through their network, but they’re not getting paid for the traffic, it may hasten their demise.
The second problem is that Google Voice is going to put all other VoIP companies out of business. When Google starts to give phone service away for free, why would anyone pay for it? If you want to take a look at VoiParty, check out their website: VoiParty.com
Birch Communications bought Cleartel’s local, long distance and internet customers last year. While they are billing Cleartel’s old customer base, and making money off of them, they are no longer paying commissions to the agents that brought those customers to Cleartel in the first place.
As telecommunications agents, we are used to dealing with telecoms going out of business, but when customers that we bring to the table are sold to other phone companies, but we stop getting paid, that’s just plain stealing. I don’t know what your contract with Cleartel said, but since those customers aren’t with Cleartel anymore, and you aren’t being paid commissions on those customers any more, they are now fair game again.
So, if you had a book of business with Cleartel Communications, and Birch Communications isn’t paying your agent commissions anymore, you should contact your old Cleartel customers and see if you can move them. Make sure you read your old contract with Cleartel first, to make sure you can legally do so, but if you can, do it!
PS. Move them all if you can, I’m tired of companies selling my customers to each other so that they don’t have to pay my commissions. It’s hard to feed my kids when they keep stealing from me so that they can increase their paychecks and their company’s stock value. (Shame on you Birch!)
Dan Baldwin, of the Telecom Association, gives agents a wake-up call with this video. He discusses where the money is in telecom, and whether applications like Google Voice, or application and hardware products like the MagicJack, are an opportunity for agents to make money, or are they the harbinger of doom.
If you’re a telecom agent, I think you need to watch this video, if for no other reason, than to save your business…
