TBI News

You can now find all of TBI’s posts and news items on our website at tbicom.com/news.

Subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Find success through our expertise

With TBI’s Partner Program, you’ll have a relationship with an experienced and knowledgeable staff whose one-on-one interaction with partners provides solutions without the runaround. TBI gives straightforward answers to any agent’s inquires about vendors, solutions and new technologies.

Telecommunications is filled with uncertainty. Many telecom agents wonder where they can turn for the best pricing, options or just an honest opinion. By putting an emphasis on forthright communication, our partners can rest assured that TBI is that place.

We’ll be at Channel Partners in DC!

Meet us at booth 2006.

Channel Partners Show Brings Success, Promise

The first Channel Partners Show of 2010, held in Las Vegas, was nothing short of a smashing success. From the seminars

One of the best views in Vegas

and meetings, to the wonderful after parties, dinners and events, the show’s atmosphere was one of hope and excitement for the year to come. Carriers were spending money at what could only be described as a “dot-com boom proportions.” Beyond the funds spent, there were some encouraging signs on the floor, as the event saw a 46% rise in attendance. Should we see this as a hopeful sign that 2010 is ready to be a break out year for vendors, agents and small businesses alike? So far, so good. Speaking of small businesses, their presence at the partner show brought more VARs and integrators than ever before. This of course also meant that a whole new crop of agents were on-hand to witness the show and learn about exciting new products and sales techniques.

Signing with MegaPath

As for TBI, their name was on the tip of many tongues at the show. Specifically of interest to many carriers, vendors and agents looking to capitalize on new opportunities, was the relationship that TBI forged with ADTRAN . To encourage sales, ADTRAN representative Andy Solomon was stationed at the TBI booth, speaking to attendees about the benefits of bundling ADTRAN NetvantaTM devices with other telecom products.

TBI also brought home some hardware, winning several awards from participating VARs. All of these awards are regarded with tremendous pride and among them are:

• Number 1 revenue generator for Netwolves 2009 award, second year in a row
• Number 1 revenue generator for Airespring, second year in a row
• Number 3 revenue generator for XO
• Number 4 revenue generator for New Edge Networks
• Number 4 revenue generator for Qwest
• And for the first time, top ten in sales achievement for ACC Business.

We at TBI hope these awards demonstrate to VARs and agents alike that we are dedicated to opening new markets, as well as continuing to bring in profits for all parties involved. The Channel Partner Show helped create the buzz. We intend on carrying it into future success.

Check out our photos from Vegas!

TBI’s Annual Ski Trip

Our retreat in the mountains

President of TBI, Geoffrey Shepstone and Senior VP Ken Mercer were joined by agents and vendors alike last week for TBI’s Annual Ski Trip. This year’s event took place in Breckenridge, Colorado at a luxurious retreat with stunning views of the Rocky Mountains.

Sponsored by CDW, Global Crossing, Lightyear, Level3, One Communications, Qwest and XO, the long weekend was both fun and constructive.  One of the best parts about the excursion was the productivity that emerged from like-minded professionals in a comfortable atmosphere.  Ken Mercer stated, “I like the fact that the Channel Managers bonded with the agents, and earned trust. I told

most of the channel managers, after this weekend, everyone of these sub agents will take your call. That is the biggest step forward.”

But it wasn’t all business all the time.  There was plenty of time to hit the slopes, reconnect and of course…eat. Some of the group’s favorite meals included Ken’s wicked twice baked potatoes, with sour cream, cheese and procuitto. Connie Shepstone pitched in with brussel sprouts while TBI Channel Manager Steve Hendler settled in front of the bbq, cooking up 25 steaks for everyone to enjoy.

Thanks to all of our sponsors and participants. We’re already looking forward to next year’s trip!

Click here to view all of our photos in facebook.

A view from the slopes

One of our many fantastic meals

Our retreat in the mountains

A view from the slopes

Taking a ski-break

Our retreat’s conference room with stunning views

Being Right Right Now: Accurate Quoting and its benefits

Joe Agent went to visit his client last week, quote in hand and ready to close a deal on a brand new T1. He had laid the groundwork the week before, promising competitive prices, complete service and great connectivity for the ABC Company, a bustling shop of 12 people. He came with similar prices from three vendors that he contacted personally and was ready to finish the deal. There was only one problem, though Joe had no idea. His quotes were all wrong. Two of the vendors’ prices were already out of date. The deals they had on T1s had expired the day before. The third vendor’s pricing was correct, but little did Joe know that on Tuesday this vendor stopped selling in ABC’s area.

Joe eventually sold ABC Company on T1 from Vendor B. They excitedly signed the quote and Joe went back to his office to get the order rolling. When he picked up the phone and called Vendor B, Joe got a surprise. T1 was now more expensive, and there was nothing he could do. He called the other vendors and received the news on their services. Luckily, he was able to locate another vendor who sold T1 at a rate similar to Vendor B’s original rate, though still a little more expensive. Embarrassed, Joe called ABC Company and explained the situation. He would be coming back, not with a finished order, but with a new set of quotes for new companies and new prices. Two weeks had been lost.

ABC Company agreed to see Joe again, but they were starting to lose faith. Would Joe be able to guarantee these new prices? Were they accurate this time? In the meantime, they began to field calls from AgentCo, one of Joe’s competitors. AgentCo worked with a Master Agent. Access to a Master Agent meant that AgentCo had a higher level of access to all the local T1 vendors than Joe did. AgentCo quoted prices that were not only competitive with Joe’s but the prices were also guaranteed. And this guarantee applied not only to price, but process as well. AgentCo was polished and poised to take Joe’s business. Eventually, even after a friendly visit from Joe, that’s exactly what happened. The sale was lost to a competitor and Joe Agent walked away empty handed, no more deal and no more client.

So what happened? Of course having a Master Agent in your corner is always recommended. It guarantees the best prices and the most complete quotes. It also guarantees that an agent will have rock-solid back office support throughout the whole process, from quoting to ordering, installation and commissions. But beside the Master Agent recommendation, there is another lesson here – having valid and accurate quotes is vital to an agent’s business. Whether using a Master Agent or going it alone, it is up to the agent to make sure that every quote cuts the mustard. All numbers need to be correct, including pricing and contract terms. Promotion dates should be verified, especially expiration dates. Bring erroneous quotes to your client and not only are you putting a deal at risk, but you are also putting a great deal of stress on your relationship. Just like Joe Agent, there are wolves at the door, waiting to steal away your customers. Don’t open the door for them by being sloppy or uninformed. Instead, arm yourself with a steel clad quote and fend off the competition.

Being Aware of Hidden Dangers…and Opportunities

In front of me sits the Barracuda Networks Web Filter 310, armed and ready to fight off web based dangers, and to ensure that wandering eyes don’t take company assets to the web’s seedy underbelly. No, we are not partnering up with Barracuda Networks. In fact, the AdTran Netvanta 7100 offers some of the same protections that the Web Filter does. But either way, both point to an important need – you must do everything necessary to protect your assets. Every nook and cranny of a network must be analyzed, every SIP trunk scanned, data protected and backed up. In short, batten down the hatches and be on the lookout for danger at all times! And it comes in so many forms. We all have visions of the hacker, trying to break into your server and steal data, or the virus planted in the seemingly innocent e-mail, but that’s just a fraction of the current dangers. How do we protect ourselves? Where do we start? A little education will help not only your own infrastructure, but knowing about addressing web threats and issues may help your clients as well and allow you to become more of an “all-in-one solution” for your customers. Let’s take a look at some trouble you may face and their possible solutions.

Any IT person can tell you horror stories about viruses and phishing scams. Just last week I spent a whole day reformatting an employee’s hard drive after he “clicked on the wrong thing.” A short while ago there was a chuckle that accompanied this statement because the “wrong thing” meant that he was on a site where he shouldn’t have been. Porn jokes aside, these days viruses or phishing attacks can be based off of even the most benign web sites (social networking sites are very popular). For example, a user may visit a news site and encounter a pop-up that says she has a virus and must renew her anti-virus software. One click of the pop-up will allow the “malware” (short for malicious software) to load itself to a machine and render it unusable. Sites that once came up, no longer do. Every click is followed by more pop-ups. The computer must be wiped out and started from scratch, down to reinstalling the operating system, sometimes more. This costs a company time and money, both for the IT work and for the dip in productivity. These dangers come in countless packages, delivered by web, email or even flash drives or CDs.

While computers can be rebuilt, you may not be so lucky with your data. This is why it is vital to protect and manage your data. Are you running daily data backups? Do you know what your company’s backup plan is (if there is one)? Were there to be a server crash, could you easily get your files back? How about your email? Do you know who has access to what data? Can your data be accessed from beyond the firewall – and by whom? These are important questions to ask. Yet many companies don’t, and when disaster strikes they find themselves scrambling to rebuild, sometimes from scratch. And aside from the time and money, data loss can have serious legal and human resources implications as well if items such as contracts, personnel or financial files are lost.

So what can be done? People build careers and companies around protecting others from attacks so it’s no small task. However, it can be managed by a competent IT support person. In the case of attacks, these threats need to be addressed by multi-faceted means. There are dozens of combinations that will help stem the tide. For example, virus and malware attacks, sometimes referred to as “blended threats,” require both hardware and software solutions. Network based anti-virus will help stem the tide of email based attacks, while a solid piece of firewall hardware, such as the Netvanta 7100 or another device, will help control access to and from the web. All can be monitored and controlled from the server by IT personnel.

With some planning and a few resources, data can be managed easily. In a pinch, portable data storage is priced to sell and backup software can be obtained cheaply off the internet. Though if one is interested, there are solutions well into the thousands. Determining the type of backup to be run is important as well, as they can be run in full, incremental and differential modes. If a company is short on IT staff, going to a hosted or co-located solution for email or file storage is certainly a viable solution. Vendors like Level3, Telx or Qwest offer such solutions. Most of these companies run daily backups, and use multiple servers to build in redundancy for your data. In addition, many of these companies build in some form of anti-virus or spam protection, which will cut down on management costs. Above the protection, using a solution like this can save you or your client dollars once spent on general IT maintenance. Companies that solely perform web based back-ups are plentiful as well and, depending on the overall size of your data, may be a viable option. Talk to your clients today about their backups and file structure. If they need help, don’t hesitate to work with them to find the right service.

Aside from all the hardware and software needs, the need for culture change is crucial. Starting at the top, principals should be aware of the dangers that their company faces, and they should know who to turn to with questions or concerns. In addition, every desktop, laptop, server and peripheral should be kept up to date with patches and updates. Questionable web surfing should be monitored, filtered or put to a stop. End-users need to be educated to be less trusting of attachments or pop-ups. For example, if the aforementioned anti-virus pop-up asks you to renew, stop and think “this isn’t from my admin – why would I click it?” We should all want to be part of the solution. Money lost scrubbing computers or recovering data cuts into the bottom line. It could be the difference between getting that holiday bonus or not.

Finally, here’s something to think about from the agent perspective: knowing about the potential issues out there can help you target client solutions. And helping them build good habits may turn out to be opportunities for the right agent. Recognizing the need for safety and security can be the final point to nail down an AdTran sale or to contract hosting with Level3. This is called being an “all-in-one solution” for your clients. The “blended threats” of the day require it.

Adventures with AdTran

There is a certain cell phone maker who likes to say that for every issue or question “there is an app for that.” If you have one of their devices, you know that for the most part this is true. Likewise, when it comes to finding solutions to the demands of any network, the same applies to AdTran. This is true from the simplest LAN to global networks; AdTran has a hardware based solution. Need to set up remote network monitoring of security cameras at an off-site location? There‚s a router for that. Want both analog and SIP phones terminating at your office? There‚s a switch for that. For every office, from the smallest business to enterprise, it is certain that AdTran has a product to make infrastructure and communications more manageable.

Always interested in improving our own vendor catalog, we here at TBI have spent the last few weeks working on our AdTran certifications. Like their armada of routers and switches, AdTran offers many degrees of certification. Each is a valuable tool for selling AdTran products as well as improving your IP telephony and networking knowledgebase. For the sales professional, there are certifications in IP telephony, internetworking and microwave wireless. For the more advanced, there are technical certifications available in the same areas. These certifications are a boon to anyone who not only sells AdTran products but also supports them for their clients. Furthermore, if anyone is game, there are even more advanced levels of these technical certifications. Training varies per product, some done as self study while others are taken as either online or in-person classes. Time spent amounts to a few hours for a few days, and all certifications involve some form of testing. Worried about testing? No need – the instruction and training materials do more than enough to ensure that you are ready for your tests.

So, what does this all mean to those of you out there selling? Based on a previous blog post, you may remember that learning new skills opens doors to opportunities for upselling. Upselling can preserve and grow existing relationships. Upselling can also impress new customers. This is true when you show them that not only can you sell them a T1, you can also make sure that their new SIP phones work on their network and that the whole thing is very secure.

Maybe you have a client with a number of analog lines, and though tempted they are still on the fence about SIP. They have questions. How will it work with their network? Is it going to expose their end users to the dangers of the internet? If you add more hardware, won‚t there be more opportunity for failure? All valid questions, but if you start the conversation by discussing the AdTran Netvanta 7100, for example, you could not only calm their fears, but you could really impress. You could show them how all of their routing, VPN, SIP and firewall are managed securely in one device. They could get rid of a few network interface devices in the process. They could run a smarter, more efficient network. They could even add wireless in the process (standard with the 7100).

Of course every AdTran devices doesn‚t have all of these features, but you can be sure that for every set of unique client networking needs there is an AdTran device that will fit the bill perfectly. Having the knowledge and training from AdTran will help you determine the best opportunities for customer networking and infrastructure. Plus AdTran devices come with a less expensive price tag than the primary competition. Who doesn’t appreciate getting savings while still being cutting edge? And for the sub-agent, the cost of these extra sales is just the short time spent in training.

So instead of that ubiquitous app for everything, your client will be saying, “there’s an agent for that.” Make sure that that agent is you.

Why Upselling Matters

One of the most difficult tasks for a master agent is to talk a sub-agent into selling something new. Everyone has their comfort zone. More established product lines are easy to sell, and oftentimes attending training and learning new or unfamiliar products will take a sub-agent out of that comfort zone. And who wants to do that?

Everyone should.

Maybe the agents just need to look at it a little differently. It all comes down to the most basic of principles. After all, why do agents do what they do? Why would anyone take a job that was 100% commission? The answer is to make money of course. And after selling the base products, new opportunities for profit exist at the next level.

This brings us to our existing customer base. Established customers can serve as the perfect proving ground for new products and services. Who’s easier to reach, the new customer or the ones with which you’ve already cultivated a trusting relationship? Just because you locked them into a contract doesn’t mean you can sell to them anymore. There’s huge value in being able to reach out and offer new products to those customers. You’ll be surprised how often they will listen.

Let’s look at an example. Perhaps you have a customer who just bought a 30 node MPLS network on a 36-month contract. Their average cost per site is $500 a month. With a little extra training on your part, you could approach that customer again with a complimentary product. At $100 per site, A DSL MPLS or EVDO MPLS back-up network would give them assurance that their network would never be down. You could even offer your customer savings on hosted services, to off-set the MPLS costs.

Some call this “farming the base,” and it’s a great way to stop relationships from stagnating. Maybe at first glance they won’t be buyers, but at the very least they’ll know you are still ready to work with them. When the time comes, they’ll go to you first, instead of the competition.

So, what to sell? There are many options on the market and many more to come. Examples include:

• Cellular
• Collocation or computing in the cloud services
• Conferencing, Audio/web
• Disaster recovery/back up network (DSL MPLS, or EVDO/satellite MPLS)
• Hosted software solutions, Exchange, security, etc.
• International services

A day or two of training on any of these products will pay off, both for agents and their customers. A growing portfolio of products and services is a tremendous value to any agent. Not only will it open new doors, but it will continue to nurture your customer base.

Back-Office Advantage

Whether you are just starting out or have been in the game for a long time, selling with the assistance of a master agent can help your business thrive. Aside from the years of industry know-how, access to amazing contracts and products, what a master agent can offer in terms of back-office services can be just as valuable. And in the end, it may just help separate you from the competition.

Consider this – how much time is spent researching quotes? And once the quotes are gathered, how much time is spent organizing and formatting them to meet your customer’s needs? Unless you run a larger shop with your own administrative team, it’s very likely you’ll spend hours doing these tasks. This is time better spent talking to your clients, or better yet, selling to new ones. Having a master agent in your corner takes these tasks out of your hands. They’ll find the best quotes for you, designed to your needs. And while some agents are stuck waiting for call backs from vendors, going through a master agent guarantees a much quicker response time. Some even guarantee 24-hour turnaround on quote requests. So you don’t have to leave your clients hanging. Timely, detailed, customized quotes from the best and most affordable telecommunication retailers out there, all while you work on more important things – what’s not to love about that?

Speaking of telecommunication vendors, what if all of their information was right at your fingertips? For example, knowing which vendor has a strong market presence in the Southwest but is weak on internet services is very valuable knowledge to have. While it may take an agent time to find this information, master agents keep track of this information daily. They know every vendor’s national footprint, available services, strengths and weaknesses and make it all available to their sub-agents. They also know where to go when there are issues with your orders. No more time spent calling vendor support, trying to find out why your bonded T1 order in Ohio is in jeopardy. A master agent can do this for you, all the while supplying you with the updates you need to give to your customer.

Finally, having a strong back-office allows for a shorter-time frame to commissions. Along with making sure orders are completed, a master agent will keep track of vendor billing and make sure your commissions are sent out as soon as they are available. There is no longer a need to call vendors repeatedly and wait longer than necessary for commissions. The master agent back-office is on the case.

A master agent can offer a lot. Contracts, commissions and products are where it starts. However, it’s just as important to look at what happens behind the scenes to see how a master agent can really help you. Why wouldn’t you?