TA Daily News Blog

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

Gold Star for an IT Tech Ad on Facebook

For those of your that don't know, Facebook is evolving as a great place for small businesses to advertise their services to other business owners. Why? Facebook knows more about you than Google. (don't worry, I think it's all fairly benign.) With Facebook ads you can target the exact sort of audience you want, like college graduate males in Los Angeles. 

Several years ago I got involved with Google Ads before the big corporation priced small guys out of the market. (I actually did pretty well. I spent about $15,000 over a couple years by made a bundle off that.)

Click here to view full blog post including an evaluation about how well the Facebook ad worked and the Facebook ad landing pages

Posted at the TA Marketing Blog

New Windstream Exec John Leach Showcases Special Differences at Telarus Agent Expo

Are all "copper-in-the-ground" phone companies the same? Apparently not! Why does a "big name" CLEC executive like John Leach move from one big company to another in the middle of a recession? Watch the video below to discern what John sees in Windstream that creates a special opportunity for agents at Windstream.

Like their company name might suggest, John Leach and his fellow Windstream executives delivered some fresh air to Telarus' top agents last month. When you consider all the "me too" vendor presentations you can drown in at a trade show, it's refreshing to hear a presentation that showcases something quite different than all the other presentations. While I believe Telarus is Windstream's biggest or oldest master agent, other TA vendor master agents for Windstream include Telecom Brokerage Inc. out of Illinois, World Telecom Group out of California and MicroCorp out of Georgia.

Windstream (a Southeast "RLEC" that recently acquired Nuvox) did just that with their presentation delivered by Jason Dishon RVP Sales, John Leach Sr. VP Sales and crowd favorite Chris Shubert Dealer Manager.

Windstream, it seems, owns quite a bit of copper in the ground in many rural parts of the country...

Click here to view the complete blog post and watch the video comments delivered at the Telarus Top Agent presentation by Windstream's top executives.

Blog posted in Windstream, Telarus, Master Agency and TA Expo blogs.

MegaPath Sales VP Shares 2010 Vision at Telarus Agent Expo

At the annual Telarus Agent Expo this past month, Eric Wick, MegaPath VP of Sales got up close and personal with the crowd and shared why Telarus and MegaPath get along so well. 

After that he went on to suggest why MegaPath was positioned to make sure Telarus agents could maximize their customers happiness in 2010. Eric's presentation was actually one of the best 15-minute vendor overviews I've seen lately.

Click here to view screen shots from the PowerPoint presentation and the 15-minute video of Eric's remarks

Qwest Predicts Business Tech Trends at Telarus' Annual Agent Expo

At the annual Telarus Agent Expo last month, Qwest gave a terrific presentation that showcased the macro trends that would shape the business telecom and technology buying climate over the next 18 months or so.

As you can see from this PowerPoint slide screen shot to the right, major present and future trends include:

• Network Traffic Growth
• Collaboration: Text, Voice & Video
• Internet Gets Mobile
• Smartphones!
• Google and Disruptive Innovation
• THE CLOUD
• Intercompany and Customer collaboration
• Ethernet Delivery
• Data Center Consolidation

Click to view the complete post and to view the overview video

Posted under Qwest, Telarus, Master Agency & TA Expo Blogs

Does Telarus Really Have "The Best" Technology for Agents & Partners?

"Best Technology" is kind of hard to measure. The number of IT "humans" a business employs is not hard to measure - especially if they're standing up in the front of a large auditorium.

Telarus attempted to have their agent partners measure their technological "bestness" by paying to bring their four IT staffers out to the annual Telarus Agent Expo in Las Vegas last month. During the portion of the program where Telarus outlines all their newest "technology" tools, Telarus executives Adam Edwards, Patrick Oborn and Andrew Morgan repeatedly had their four IT staffers stand up in the front row and take a bow.

Click here to view the complete blog post that includes the video of Telarus executives covering the technology advances from the past 12 months in great detail.

Posted in Telarus, Master Agency & TA Expo blogs

The CarrierQuoteShop.com "Back Story" Video

On the second day of the annual Telarus Agent Expo last week, Telarus President Adam Edwardsexplained to Telarus' top agents why Telarus is "giving away" part of the valued GeoQuote multi-carrier quoting tool (for which Telarus has a patent) to the agent public through their new online toolwww.CarrierQuoteShop.com.

The reasons cited by Edwards include the following:

1. Give all carriers a terrific incentive to ensure Telarus' GeoQuote & CarrierQuoteShop.com tools have the best information

2. Drive down Telarus' costs of supporting their proprietary quoting tool

Click here to read the rest of this blog post and to watch Adam Edward's video explaining CarrierQuoteShop.com to existing Telarus agents.

Filed under Telarus, Master Agency & TA Expo blogs

Instant Free Multi-Carrier Quotes for Any Agent at CarrierQuoteShop.com from Telarus

At the Channel Partners Conference last week, Telarus unveiled "CarrierQuoteShop.com", their new website for offering instant multi-carrier quotes to any agent - even agents that are not Telarus agents. The new site is powered by the patented GeoQuote software platform that Telarus built in-house to create instant multi-carrier quotes for their own agents.

To hear why Telarus is doing this and how it benefits non-Telarus agents and carriers alike, click the link below:

Click here to view full blog post and listen to two audio recordings from Telarus President Adam Edwards sharing his thoughts on CarrierQuoteShop.com

Posted under: Telarus, Master Agency & TA Expo blogs.

Qwest Multi-Location Case Study Training at Telarus Agent Expo

Telarus hosts their annual agent expo each year in Las Vegas during the two days that precede the annual Channel Partners Conference. It's a training intensive event that brings Telarus' corporate staff together with close to 100 of their top agents and most all of their top vendors.

The first of the two days was dedicated to deep technical training with Qwest on their SIP, MPLS and hosted VoIP solutions. the day was capped off by a great case study that required that the audience put their thinking caps on to solve a problem for a multi-location customer.

Click here to view the complete blog post which includes seven "video snapshots" as well as a detailed multi-location case study 

 

Telarus President Adam Edwards opening Telarus Expo

 

Telarus Agent Gala Gorman with Qwest Case Study solution
 
Click here to view the complete blog post which includes seven "video snapshots" as well as a detailed multi-location case study 

Posted 3/9/2010 in Expo, Telarus, Qwest & Master Agent Blogs

Power People News: Rick Ribas

Let me first say that I'm not a stalker (though I did put myself through college as a professional legal process server - but that's a whole other blog post). I do however read public information that crosses my computer screen and was intrigued to see that one of the industries original telecom agents is "on the loose" in the New York City area.

Rick Ribas founded Online Telecommunications way back in 1987 while I was still in the Navy. When I finally turned on to the whole "telecom agent gig" around 1994, Rick was a telecom agent veteran who was only too happy to take a call from a "new guy" like myself and answer a lot of stupid questions.

Rick has always been very kind to me and most all agents I've met who've known him. He's only too happy to show a new guy how to make money and never thinks twice if he's "giving away his "secret sauce".

When I heard in 2001 that Rick had moved his flag over to master agency PlanetOne I figured he was giving up the stress of running his own shop while at the same time "giving back to the industry" by focusing on helping other agents become successful through PlanetOne's program.

Well like I said, I'm not a stalker but yesterday I noticed on LinkedIn when Rick recently added to his profile that he was "owner of Ribas Associates" and that his run at PlanetOne appeared to have concluded in January.

I put a call into Rick to see if TA could help get his new gig off to a hot start. He seemed appreciative of the call but was not ready to publicly share his vision for the future. 

So I have no idea if Rick's going to recreate a successful master agency, help out an East coast CLEC or save the world by joining the Peace Corp. 

What I do know is that he's both smart and nice. I wish him the best and I'm looking forward to learning what his plans are. When a guy with Rick's industry background and current knowledge looks into the "telecom crystal ball" his vision will be worth noting.

Posted 3/9/2010 by:

Dan Baldwin
TA Executive Director

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