TA Daily News Blog

5 Things They Don't Teach in B-School: Secrets from Dr. Bob, Leann (and Dan)

Posted 3/22/10 
By Dan Baldwin, TA Executive Director, 951-251-5155 email 

Like many of you, I started marketing my businesses on the Internet pretty early, way back in 1997. I went through quite a few "domain name registrars" (the people you buy your URLs from) before I discovered "GoDaddy.com". It's not often that you run across the best solutions and the best service at the lowest cost but that's what GoDaddy delivers. (I know because I used several really rotten registrars before I found GoDaddy.

Anyway, I was a GoDaddy customer several years before I discovered GoDaddy was owned by a guy named Bob Parsons. Like many telecom agents and channel partners, Bob has a business degree and is a serial entrepreneur. More than anything though Bob is a consummate marketer and a self-made millionaire. If Bob has advice about running a business I'm pretty interested in hearing what he has to say.

Following is a video blog from Bob's site titled "What They Don't Teach You in Business School". I enjoyed it quite a bit & so I thought I'd share it with you with my comments below.

Click here to see video and the rest of the blog post

Posted under TA Marketing Telecom Blog

Why Facebook is an Important Tool For Business (and Telecom) Marketing

Posted 3/24/10 
By Dan Baldwin, TA Executive Director, 951-251-5155 email 

 If you're a telecom agent or channel partner that has not turned on to Facebook ("FB") - it's time to take the leap.  I turned on about six months ago after resisting for quite some time. I saw FB as nothing more than a better looking Twitter which I had a pretty dim view of as nothing but a SPAM engine or a complete time waster. But I was wrong.

Braun Mincher gets the credit for changing my mind. Here's a REAL successful telecom agent and channel partner who likes to keep track of everything going on in his world - along with his 1,133 FB friends.  What Braun knows, everyone else is starting to know. FB helps you keep track of everything you want to keep track of in just seconds a day.

What's this mean for businesses & business (and telecom) marketers? 

You need to make yourself into something the 300 million FB users want to keep track of. The best way to do this is with a Facebook Fan Page "FP". (FB "fan pages" are what "businesses" use to promote themselves to FB users.)

Click here to read the full blog post & see good examples of business Facebook fan pages

Posted at TA Telecom Marketing Blog

Nice One-Page, Multi-Carrier Telecom Voice and Data Product Matrix from Telarus

Posted 3/23/10 
By Dan Baldwin, TA Executive Director, 951-251-5155 email 

Ever try to keep track of everything, all at once, all the time? It's tough, especially when "everything" is always changing and the bits of information are scattered all over the Internet.

Telecom agents and channel partners understand this problem too well when it comes to keeping track of voice and data circuit pricing and promos for their business customers.

Telarus is doing a great job of helping their agents though with their new one-page product matrix. 

Click here to view the whole blog post and see the one-page matrix

Filed under Telarus and Master Agency blogs.

Earn $1,000 the Easy Way (by Helping Telesphere Hire an Indirect Channel Director)

Posted 3/21/10 
By Dan Baldwin, TA Executive Director, 951-251-5155 email 

Telesphere is hiring - and that's a good thing for you and your friends! 

The job is Director of Indirect Channel.

The reward for turning Telesphere on to the right person is $1,000.

Click here to view the whole post.

Filed under TA Telecom Jobs Blog.

Funny Telecom & I.T. Images Help Business End-Users Find TA Professional Members

Posted 3/22/10 
By Dan Baldwin, TA Executive Director, 951-251-5155 email 

What TA's doing to generate business for our members? Check this out...

 Who needs direct mail to send a funny post card image when the Internet is faster and easier on the environment?  Click the image below to view the first image of a series TA is publishing here on our Facebook fan page to initiate a viral campaign that is designed to drive business to TA professional members.

Will it work? Well a similar concept  (like the one you can see at this link: http://bit.ly/KeyWestBar ) has helped over 4,000 thirsty folks get a happy hour special in Key West.

We'll release about one image per week. Got an image to contribute? Contact Dan Baldwin at [email protected] or 951-251-5155.

Use the same contact information to get on the lists of TA Professional members so you can get referrals ... first com, first served!

Posted at TA Marketing Telecom & BuyingTelecom blogs

See How Alliance Cost Containment Helps TA Members "Get More Pie"

Alliance Cost Containment ("ACC") is one of TA's newest vendor members. They contacted me because their own affiliates have recently experienced a great deal of success working with telecom agents and channel partners so they wanted to take that to the "next level" by introducing all TA's members to all of ACC's affiliates.

To get the introductions going I recently interviewed ACC President, Miles Lee . Click here to download the MP3 file or click the player below to listen to the recording.

To get connected to an ACC affiliate near you contact ACC or Miles at  866-364-2848 or [email protected].

Interview Questions   Right-click here to download the MP3

"This is Dan Baldwin and today I'm speaking with Miles Lee, President of Alliance Cost Containment or ACC.  Miles thanks for speaking with us today.

00:11 - #1  What does ACC do, how long have you been doing it and why'd you start it?

02:32 - #2  Why are you specifically seeking to work through telecom agents?

03:27 - #3  What process to you see governing the way your people and out people work together?

07:10 - #4  In what areas do you generate the most cost savings for your clients?

08:55 - #5  What type of business or industries do you specialize in?

09:52 - #6  What if our people want to become a franchisee - is there an opportunity to do that?

10:32 - #7  When you look in your crystal ball, what do you see for your franchisees and customers?

12:55 - #8  Any big changes your firm is looking at in the near future?

14:08 - #9  Is there anything we've forgotten to discuss?

15:41 - #10  How should people contact you to take the next step?

Independent RespOrg ATL Pioneers "Reverse" Disaster Recovery

Aelea Christofferson, President and Founder of ATL Communications is interviewed at SuperComm 2009 by TMC. In this interview Aelea shares how ATL is pioneering a solution that gives private firms the ability to create a "reverse" disaster recovery solution to keep them in touch with their customers. 

ATL's unique "reverse" disaster recovery solutions are in addition to the other solutions they provide telecom agents, channel partners, IP carriers as well as any toll free provider or user needing the services of an independent RespOrg ("responsible organization") to manage their toll-free numbers.

Click here to view the five minute video interview that gives an overview of ATL's many unique solutions.

Filed under TA Backup/Disaster Recovery Blog

Top Telarus Agents Share Success Tips at Telarus Agent Expo

What does it take to "arrive" as an agent (i.e. "When will my spouse start speaking to me again?) 

In two years of covering the annual Telarus Agent Expo I've learned that Telarus fosters an environment that causes their top agents to share some of their best secrets with other Telarus agents. This is obviously one of the big draws that cause such a good turnout at Telarus' annual Agent Expo. It also tends to get a higher than average attendance rate to Telarus' weekly agent training calls.

 
This year Telarus had Tim O'Rourke of TelePointe Communications, Gala Gorman of Go To Telecom, Steve Roy of TelecomBuyer.us and Jeff Ott of Total Carrier Solutions all take the stage to share with their peers.

Click here to watch the 60 minute video to learn their secrets.

Files under Telarus, Master Agency, TA Expo and TA Agent Success Stories Blog

NuVox' "SIP Video" Clears Up the Confusion [MUST SEE!]

 There's a lot of people that are still just a bit confused about SIP & hosted VoIP and when one is better than the other. 

NuVox no doubt had this confusion in mind when they decided to create the short video below to ensure the whole concept of SIP came through crystal clear. While this video was produced several months ago, I just came across it today and I'm sure happy I did.

Click here to view the complete blog post that includes the full NuVox SIP video

Filed under Windstream & TA SIP Blogs

Why Nuvox Loves the Windstream Deal (see Dan Sterling Video)

Dan Sterling did not look worried.

Windstream VP of Dealer Sales Dan Sterling tells the Telarus Agent Expo audience why he went from slightly concerned to very happy when he learned that Windstream (an "old-fashioned" residential copper-based carrier with tons of cash but declining revenues) would be purchasing NuVox, a business based CLEC.

Sterling assured the Telarus agent audience that he'd been told by everyone at Windstream with an opinion that "they want us to be and stay very aggressive".

Click the video below to view and hear Dan's comments to Telarus' top agents.

Click here to see the full blog post including Dan Sterling's video from the Telarus Agent Expo in Las Vegas last month. (There's also a super secret extra PRETTY FUNNY video included).

Post filed under Windstream, Telarus, Master Agency, CLEC & TA Expo blogs