Don't you just hate it when the prospect you've been trying to close for a month says, "My I.T. guy is recommending that I get my voice and Internet from the cable company"?" I hate it when they say that!
Sure, you can try to counter with with what the CLECs teach us, "Well cable Internet is not 'business grade' it's just 'best effort' and many businesses like yours aren't happy with that 'residential quality' Internet access...blah, blah, blah."
Then all the blood runs out of your face when your prospect says, "I hear you but this cable price is really nice and my I.T. vendor assures me it will work just fine. I think I'll give it a try. Click..."
Those damn I.T. vendors!
Just goes to prove the point I've blogged about before, if you want to survive as an independent network service sales consultant these days you need to be proposing at least three diverse but viable choices to your business end-user prospects and that will almost always include cable when you know cable's in your area.
If Time Warner Cable Business Class is in your area then you're in luck because they're pretty telecom agent and channel sales partner friendly and they've just joined TA as our newest vendor member that you pretty much have to sell (or lose against).
Fortunately, TWCBC doesn't throw out a "take it or leave it" agent partner program (are you listening AT&T and Verizon?) and the master agents I've spoken to who already partner with TWCBC agree that they're very easy to get along with and their pricing mostly can't be beat in their on-net footprint and "lit buildings".
So what do they need agents for when they've got retail reps? well I asked that question and several others of TWCBC's Brian Snortheim in the following interview.
Click here to download the MP3 or click the audio player below to listen to the interview now.
(Check back here to read interview transcript)
For more information about becoming an authorized telecom agent or channel sales partner, or to get referred to one, please visit http://www.TWCBC.com/partner or contact Brian Snortheim at 919-573-7247 or brian.snortheim@twcable.com.
"Business Cable" is an important part of an agent's product portfolio. Without it and agent can not properly consult the full range of solutions to their business clients and prospects.
At Bandwave, we have formed strategic wholesale partnerships with multiple cable operators across the country. Bandwave's agent can cover 80% of the country with some flavor of cable.
Posted by: Tom Azelby, President, Bandwave Systems | 09/17/2010 at 11:35 AM