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In a challenging economy, there is always a segment of consumers and companies alike that prefer to stay in their “comfort zone” and not make any waves, but at the economy stabilizes, acting outside the box can strongly position your business in 2010 and beyond.  

 

In the case of telecom brokers, it can be difficult for a master agent is to talk a sub-agent into selling something new, according to Ken Mercer, senior vice president of Chicago-based Telecom Brokerage Inc. “There is a risk of putting your reputation on the line for an un-proven experience. There is also the risk of having a new vendor or product going away and not paying. The hardest thing to do is something different and new,” Mercer said.

However there are many benefits of having a growing portfolio of products and services, including  constant contact with the customer, keeping the relationship fresh, offering more value to the client, and ultimately for agents, making more money. “By becoming the single point of contact for your client, you shield the account from outside competition,” Mercer added.

In a challenged economy, the benefits of upselling for the customer include additional ways of streamlining, saving money, consolidating services, simplifying services and possibly even reducing headcount, he said.

According to a recent TBI blog, after selling base products, new opportunities for profit exist at the next level, which include:
 
·      Cellular;
·      Collocation or computing in the cloud services;
·      Conferencing, Audio/Web;
·      Disaster recovery/back up network (DSL MPLS, or EVDO/satellite MPLS);
·      Hosted software solutions, exchange, security, etc.; and
·      International services.

 

“Perhaps you have a customer who just bought a 30 node MPLS network on a 36-month contract. Their average cost per site is $500 a month. With a little extra training on your part, you could approach that customer again with a complimentary product. At $100 per site, A DSL MPLS or EVDO MPLS back-up network would give them assurance that their network would never be down. You could even offer your customer savings on hosted services, to off-set the MPLS costs,” according to the TBI blog.

 

Telecom Brokerage (News - Alert) Inc. is one of the nation’s largest telecom master agents and represents more than 60 industry providers. Mercer said the company offers a “one-stop” source for advice and aggressive pricing on telecom services from major providers of Internet, data, local, long distance, conferencing and managed services.