December Update
How are things going for you these days
With the holidays coming up as well as the end of the calendar year, I'm sure things are very busy for you. You might be thinking about things you SHOULD have done earlier this year that would be generating cash now, as well as gathering all your receipts so that you can get your tax writeoffs ready when you do your income taxes in 2008.
I am not going to go into a lot of detail right now, other than to say that the VAR program is being improved significantly, which is going to make it even more attractive to existing VARs as well as future potential VARs. There are some statistics that you may want to be aware of in the December 2007 issue of the Cognigen Times (http://www.cognigentimes.net) but suffice it to say for now that Telarus is moving forward at warp speed, and for your own financial benefit, I want to encourage you to continue to be a part of our success, as well as embracing the VAR program.
One of the things that I want to focus on in 2008 is Ethernet. You are probably aware that you already have a ShopForEthernet site. A few months ago, we had an agent training call where I was the moderator and Andrew Morgan of Telarus was the guest speaker, where that call focused almost exclusively on Ethernet and why customers would be interested in it. If you did not participate in that call, I would encourage you to find it in your Telarus back office in the audio library and review it, since it gives many tips about how to market this service, as well as the reasons that customers would be interested in its cost effectiveness for a superb bandwidth solution.
I would encourage you to use some of those tips and put them into practice. If your normal method of marketing is Internet-only and web leads, this may not work for you; rather, you are probably going to need to burn some shoe leather in the process. Check ShopForEthernet and find out if certain buildings in your city are lit buildings for our carriers. If so, you can quickly use various online tools (i.e., yellowpages.com and multiple others) to find businesses that are located in those buildings or nearby. ("Nearby" = within about 1000 feet or so).
Then go out and drop flyers with those companies, or even better, ask if you can meet with the IT manager or office manager for those companies "for about 10 minutes". Have material that you can leave with them, which of course features your URL. Flyers and such are freely downloadable from your Telarus back office, where you can customize it appropriately with software that you probably already have on your computer.
January 2008 Incentive
To show you how serious I am about this, I am offering you a special for the month of January 2008. For all Ethernet sales that close in January, I will send the lead agent a $50 gift certificate at Best Buy. Yes, each one. If there are 10 agents that submit Ethernet leads that close in January, I am prepared to send out $500 in Best Buy gift certificates. If 20 agents have closed sales for Ethernet in January, yes I am prepared to send out $1000 worth of Best Buy gift certificates.
Why am I doing this? Because I want to provide you with an incentive to try this type of offline marketing, although for a closed sale, I don't care if it was done online or offline, it's just that as explained in previous newsletters, your valid lead & closed sale ratio has been shown to be about EIGHT TIMES GREATER with offline marketing this way, compared to web leads and online marketing. I think if you start seeing the kind of increased success level you have, it will make a huge difference in how you spend your marketing time and efforts in the future.
Another reason is because I want you to be able to clearly see the type of bandwidth advantage you have with Ethernet offerings. Where a simple T1 (1.5 mb) might be $400 per month in a major or semi-major metro location, if that customer is near enough to a lit building for Ethernet, they can get a TEN mb circuit for around $1k. In other words, that is about SEVEN times as much bandwidth for about 2.5 times the cost of a simple T1. Most customers will look at the significantly more bandwidth they can get and not focus on the cost. This Ethernet circuit is about one-third the cost of a 7xT1 bonded circuit, and about one-fourth the cost of a fractional DS3 circuit. And of course, that translates into more commissions for you on a greater dollar amount of a circuit sale!
Why January? It's a great way to start the new year, it will give you time in December to identify your targets, and it will give you time in December to prepare your flyers and printed material that you will leave with the companies that you visit.
Summary
I appreciate your efforts and look
forward to working with you so that we can both reach our goals.
I appreciate your leads and your efforts with ShopForT1, and you
need to know that I do take leads very seriously, since without
leads, neither of us make money.
Please
feel free to contact me if you have questions, comments, or suggestions. My best wishes to you and your family for a super Happy Holiday season!
God
bless,