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Also known by the term "fixed cellular terminal", cellular
gateways as described in this video save a business money by
cutting their cell phone bills four ways:
Cost for calls from the office to an employee's cell
phone (normally two charges - an outbound landline call
charge & an inbound cell phone charge) go to zero when the
office phone system calls the employee's cell phone accessing
the cellular gateway. The cellular gateway AKA a fixed cellular
terminal connected to the PBX or phone system turns the "off-net
call" (landline to cell phone) to a cellular only "on-net call".
This is achieved because the office PBX or phone system connects
directly to the cell network through the cellular gateway.
Cost for calls from an employee's cell phone to the
office (one charge if the cell phone calls the office
landline phone number, two if the cell phone calls the 800
number) go to zero when the employee calls the office cellular
gateway phone number.
Cost for other calls from an employee's cell phone drop
when the calls are made through the cellular gateway. Certainly
the cost of international cellular calls are cheaper when
connected through the office landlines. In addition, employees
will not use the cell phone for unauthorized calls when the
employee knows that calls calls not made through the gateway are
not authorized and that calls made through the cellular gateway
are being tracked.
Costs associated with employees maintaining two
voicemails drop when the office phone system routes all
employee calls not answered at the employee's desk to the
employee's cell phone.
How telecom & technology distributors make money with this
information
Business cellular gateways or fixed cellular terminals, while
very popular overseas (Google the two terms & most sites are
outside the US) are just now catching on in the US - probably
because the US seems to always be a year or so behind the rest of
the planet when it comes to incorporating great new cellular
technologies. This cellular technology adaptation lag though
creates a tremendous opportunity for telecom & technology solution
providers as follows:
Find businesses with a lot of cell phones
Obviously you'll want to target businesses you know that have
high cell phone bills due to outside employees. The best way to
find such companies is to partner with business cell phone
distributors. Once they learn you're going to help them cell
additional activations to power the cellular gateways they'll be
happy to work with you. If you know of a particularly hot
business SIC code or yellow page listing that uses a lot of cell
phones give TA a call and we'll hook you up with a big prospect
list of those businesses with that SIC code or yellow pages
heading in your area.
Direct mail or telemarket the prospects to set up
appointments
Because using plug & play cellular gateways or fixed mobile
terminals is a relatively new way to help businesses cut their
cell phone bills, getting appointments with lead statements
like, "Let me show you how we help businesses like yours cut
their phone bills in half using plug & play cellular gateways."
Another great lead would be, "Let me show you how to cut your
business cell phone in half even if you're in a contract and
can't switch cell phone carriers."
Screen prospects by getting them to fax you their phone
bills
You may or may not have time to personally visit every business
that has a cell phone. Start by calculating the categories of
cell phone calls. The target category is calls between corporate
cell phones and the corporate offices that could install a
cellular gateway. All these calls can be switched from "off-net"
(from the cell network to the POTS network). Another category of
calls would be 411, international or other premium cell calls
that would be cheaper if routed over a land-line through the
cellular gateway. Finally look for off-net calls over 2 minutes
that could be routed over the office's landlines.
Calculate ROI before calculating the solution price
In a perfect ROI scenario, the difference between what a company
would pay if all calls were on-net (all cell phones calling each
other for free) and what the company is paying now for all the
off-net cellular calls is the possible monthly savings figure
that would be used for the ROI payback calculation to retire
what you'll charge them to buy and install the cellular gateway
solution. Among successful cellular gateway distributors, the
"going ROI rate" to justify the cellular gateway solution for
businesses these days is about six months. To price the
solution then, estimate the savings the customer will
realistically get every month after installing the cellular
gateway and then multiply that monthly savings times six - this
should be your starting retail solution price before considering
other factors. If this calculation doesn't afford you at least a
100% margin then keep looking for better prospects.
DON'T DIRECTLY SELL THE SOLUTION
Selling equipment is a lot different then selling service.
You can't "give it away and make it up on volume". In other
words, don't give away the equipment at your cost or with a
cost-plus markup. In fact, don't ever tell a client that the
cellular gateway can even be purchased as an individual
component. Every "value added reseller" (VAR) worth their
salt never sells components separate from the total "value added
solution" package (hence the title). If your cellular gateway
supplier (or any other cellular gateway distributor on the
planet) discovers that you've posted a retail price for a
cellular gateway solution component on the Internet, expect a
severed horse head in your bed.
"Loan" your client the solution in exchange for other
business
Since the cost of the solution is cheap in comparison to its ROI
value (a lot of telecom equipment is sold that has a 24-month
ROI) you should seriously consider not selling the cellular
gateway solution to your client at all but simply "loan it to
them" for the duration they contract with you for other
services, an MPLS data network for example or to enhance your
return on a TEM/TCM (telecom expense/cost management) agreement
you sign with them where you get paid on how much money you save
the customer. (In an arrangement like this you'll want to first
make sure you can block the customer's cell phones from calling
off-net to force the cell phone users to use the cellular
gateway for off-net calls.
Use a demo as a door opener for your other solutions
Even if you know a business client or prospect does not have a
lot of cell phones, the appointment getting lead statements in
#2 above will likely get you a demo appointment with those
C-level technology business decision makers who loves to see any
and every new business cost saving solution so they can impress
their bosses. The cellular gateway demo is very easy to do, can
be done in all of 5-minutes and is an efficient way to prove to
the decision maker that you're the go-to guy for all his or her
telecom and technology solutions.
Next Step, Get More Information and/or Buy a Demo Unit
To take the next step in distributing cellular gateways, to get
more information or to buy a demo unit like the one in the
demonstration video please contact:
