| By
Dan Baldwin, TA Founder &
Executive Director I received the invitation below
so like the curious agent that I am I registered & attended the webinar.
Scroll down below the image for my review. If you'd like to draw your own
opinion about the webinar you can access the recording of the webinar by
sending an email request to
salestraining@tmccom.com or by calling TMC at
866-999-1133.
I was most interested in hearing TMC's spin on the
future of selling business telecom and why agents would keep wanting to
put it through a reseller instead of a carrier direct especially in light
of the beating some reseller customers (and their agents) have taken in
recent months at the hands of the resellers and their wholesale providers
with regard to all the sudden surcharges outbound call centers had been
hit with.
The webinar started out pretty dry as it sounded like
the four folk pictured above were reading from a script. After
introductions of themselves and each other they proceeded to read and
answer previously submitted questions.
I submitted two questions in advance. One they answered
(Why should agents keep using resellers when they can't control their
destiny?) and one they did not (Will TMC give customers a 90-day
contractual "out" if TMC raises surcharges or rates more than ___% at once
or over the term of the agreement?).
After about 20 minutes or so the presenters loosened up
a bit as the webinar audience began submitting questions via chat. Most of
the answers were fairly corporate and predictable. My understanding is
that Advoda is a big TMC agent & Network Intelegence one of TMC's vendors.
While I had serious concerns about putting any more of
my own business with a reseller, Ron Ireland comments specifically put
some of my main concerns to rest as he reminded all the audience that:
1. Resellers are more like agents than carriers
in they can distribute any wholesale provider and therefor "shop around"
to put the best solutions together. In many ways resellers act like
"personal shoppers" for agents. They do quite a bit of solution leg work
in advance of our even entering into a deal. This brings a great deal of
value to both agents and end-users.
2. Resellers excel at presales design & engineering
while carriers are more like Costco warehouse store. with all the new IP
services coming to market it really makes sense to make sure whatever
solution you're selling as an agent both works and solves the end-user's
problems. Big carriers often will sell you anything you ask for under the
assumption that you know and understand what you're ordering.
Bottom-line?
Hats off to TMC for doing something in this season of
turmoil, for taking questions in advance and offering to distribute the
recorded webinar. As agents it's imperative to our success to stay on the
cutting edge and even though the webinar was somewhat scripted and
predictable I strongly recommend that all agents request and listen to the
60-minute recording.
To access the recording
send an email request to
salestraining@tmccom.com or by calling TMC at 866-999-1133.
What's your "partner review"? If you listened to the recorded or
live webinar let us know what your review is and we'll post it here. Email
your thoughts to
Dan@TelecomAssociation.com
or record your thoughts by calling TA's partner review audio recording
line at 951-200-4144. |
