Selling then and now, some things never change: Getting the first appointment

October 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Early in my career I went to work for a Toshiba dealer.  I learned how different Toshiba was.  I understood its reliability, backwards and forwards compatibility, the ease of use and Toshiba’s longevity in the industry. 

I spent the next 10 years working for Sprint and as a telecom engineer.    After my second child, I stayed home for a while.  Before leaving the work place, while pregnant, I went to one IP class.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but later I understood 2004 was a REALLY BAD TIME TO LEAVE TELECOM!  Everything changed!  

 Well, almost everything. 

After both of my children were in school, it was time for mamma to get a job.   Darn it.   

As I studied the IP world, it reminded me of trying to sell voice mail and fax machines in the eighties.  It’s something fairly new and the customer is confused about it.   Something else I noticed:  Who are all of these manufacturers?    Where did these crazy names come from?  Shore what?   8 X huh?  Where did all of the normal telecom companies go? 

 Then it hit me, what has NOT changed:  Toshiba: The reliability, backwards and forwards compatibility, the ease of use and Toshiba’s longevity in the industry.  This is your ticket inside and how to set yourself apart from everyone else banging on Mr. Prospect’s door:  this line:  I represent a company that has been one of the top five telecom manufacturers for over thirty years, no other manufacturer can say that.  This is a huge deal that really, no one else can say.   All of the new ones are just that: NEW, Cisco and Avaya have barely been in the telephone business a decade and their market share is not from selling phone systems.   It’s from acquisitions and selling servers that can also be a phone system:   Big Difference. 

My sales close ratio is not at 100% (yet), but getting the first appointment is never a problem.  When you start with Toshiba’s history, everything else should be secondary.  Because of Toshiba, 2011 is a GREAT time to get back into telecom! 

Congratulations to our Authorized Toshiba Dealer Yvonne Ruff at iTalk Telecontracting, Inc. located in Gladstone, MO! We asked our Toshiba Dealers to submit blog posts for our  ’Next Toshiba Blog Star’ contest. Yvonne’s Selling then and now, some things never change blog was chosen as a top-three runner up by our panel of judges. The blog submissions were judged according to creativity and originality in both the title and content.

Filed Under: ToshibaTelecom, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Myths About Telephone Systems Debunked!

October 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
 
Telephones have been around for over 130 years. It is not surprising that over that century and a quarter a few incorrect assumptions have surfaced. Today we will attempt to shine the light of day on what we believe are the 10 myths about telephone systems.

 

1. Video Conferencing is too expensive.

In years past that was true. You needed tens of thousands of dollars in specialized equipment and dedicated point to point T1 lines for bandwidth. With today’s low priced cameras and gigabits of inexpensive bandwidth, video conferencing can be affordable for the smallest companies.

2. Self Administration software is helpful if you have a dedicated IT person.

Today’s feature rich applications are designed to be sold to the small business owner. Developers realize this and design the interface to be accessible for even the most novice user.

3. Every system needs Voice Mail.

I am not a big fan of pink slips. I am less of a fan of those who hide behind their Voice Mail. If your business is designed accordingly and has the dedication to customer service, you can function without voice mail. Remember, Voice Mail does not help your customers, it only documents their problem. People solve problems. Get the callers to the right people and see you problems diminish.

4. A receptionist is a waste of money.

As we stated in number 3, you can have a company that chooses not to use Voice Mail. If so, they wouldn’t necessary need a receptionist, but they do need someone to answer first time callers and be available to help customers whose primary contact in the company is unavailable. Having someone work an hour a day and then spend their time filing their fingernails and reading romance novels is not a good idea. Not having anyone to answer when customers call to spend money is far worse.

5. Voice Recording is only practical at the Police Station.

With the drastic cost reductions in hard drive storage and the advancements made in speech compression, voice recording also known as voice documentation can be affordable to almost everyone.  If you don’t think you’re a candidate ask yourself what the financial impact would be if you could reduce order errors? Could you improve customer service if you knew first hand what their experience was? Does your staff make it easy for your customers to buy things from you? The questions go on but the answer may just be voice documentation.

6. Pure IP is always the smart solution.

I’m all in favor of IP phone systems with their laundry list of applications. When it comes to IP, versus digital, telephone sets; that depends on the application. Pure IP may require re-wiring your building to Cat5e or Cat6a cabling, installing QOS routers, POE switches, setting up a V-LAN. If you don’t know these acronyms, you’ll need to hire an IT person to help design your network. If you do understand these acronyms, ask yourself if the investment is worth the reward.

7. Signing a 5 year contract for Network Services is a better deal than signing a 3 year contract.

Historically pricing for comparable Network Services has dropped since Alexander Graham Bell called Watson. Additionally, if new offerings arise that may prove a better fit for your company, those last two years may seem like an eternity.

8. Dealing with a large company is superior to dealing with a small one.

Small companies can give you local personalized service, quick response and in-house billing resolution. Larger companies tend to focus on larger accounts, have defined response procedures and corporate billing resolution. If you think the little guy can do the job and be there when you need them, give him a chance.

9. Never lease, always pay cash.

Leasing may be the way to go depending on your company’s income, expenses, debt and other factors. Talk to your accountant and ask them the benefits and arguments for and against leasing. It just may make their day.

10. Maintenance Contracts are a waste of money.

Today most Maintenance Contract costs are calculated on the actual risk involved. They’re a good idea if you want to buffer and budget for unexpected costs. If your company’s finances can take a little feast or famine occasionally, that’s another story.

We’ve just debunked 130 years of myths. At the rate technology is evolving, we’ll need to address this in about 130 days.

Congratulations to our Authorized Toshiba Dealer Mike Beyer at Select-Telecom, Illinois! We asked our Toshiba Dealers to submit blog posts for our  ’Next Toshiba Blog Star’ contest. Mike’s Top 10 Myths About Telephone Systems was chosen as a top-three runner up by our panel of judges. The blog submissions were judged according to creativity and originality in both the title and content.

Filed Under: Call Recording, System adminstration, Toshiba IP Phones, Uncategorized, Videoconferencing, VoIP Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If IPedge were a man, he’d wear tights and a cape…

October 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

And The Next Toshiba Blog Star is…Linda Bennett of COMMWORLD in Kansas City! We asked our Toshiba Dealers to submit blog posts for our  ’Next Toshiba Blog Star’ contest. Linda’s If IPedge were a man, he’d wear tights and a cape…was chosen as a top-three finalist and then as winner by our panel of judges. The blog submissions were judged according to creativity and originality in both the title and content. Congratulations to Linda for winning the all-new and amazing Toshiba Thrive Tablet! We received many great blog post submissions, and look forward to sharing them in the coming weeks.

If IPedge were a man, he’d wear tights and a cape…

Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings to connect people across the street and around the world.

Look! Over on that desk! It’s a collaboration device. It’s a management tool. It’s a Toshiba IPedge Communication System!

Yes, it’s the IPedge – the new, pure IP communication system from Toshiba that comes to businesses with powers and abilities far beyond those of other phone systems.

IPedge – the communication system that can change the course of companies to make them more profitable, almost bend time with its features to increase efficiency, and which, disguised as a user-friendly telephone system for growing businesses everywhere, fights the never ending battle for More Business, More Profits and American Business Success.

Ok. Maybe the Superman analogy is a little over-the-top and lost on the under 30 crowd, but the IPedge is worthy of the comparison.

There are so many powerful applications built to run on this single server, open standards Linux system. Toshiba engineers thought of everything from Unified Communications to Meet-Me Audio Conferencing and Web Collaboration to Centralized Administration and beyond.

Size may matter in some instances, but not with the IPedge. There are three models which support up to 40 users, 200 users and up to 1,000 users per server. Plus there’s the ability to seamlessly network IPedge servers together and with Toshiba CIX systems.

Toshiba offers endpoints to meet different needs and wants. Choose from a whole family of Toshiba IP desk or wall telephones, a soft phone on your laptop or tablet, SIP phones, analog phones, wireless IP phones or you can even use your smart cell phone as your extension.

IPedge is another example of Toshiba’s world-class technology, legendary reliability and unmatched investment protection. Don’t think of it as just another phone system, think of it as the Superman of Communications Systems with special powers to take your business to new heights!

 

Filed Under: Full Feature Phone Systems, IPedge, VoIP Tagged With: ,

Call Manager deemed “outstanding”

October 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Toshiba is recognized for “innovation, unique features and significant contributions toward improving communications technology”

With Toshiba’s Call Manager on your Strata CIX or IPedge business communication system, your Windows laptop or desktop PC becomes a powerful tool for managing telephone calls, voicemail, Web, email and more all from a single screen, using your mouse, without ever picking up the telephone. Presence and IM/Chat unified communication capabilities also increase efficiency.

Strata Call Manager brings forward all the capabilities of the acclaimed Net Phone product into a new look based on the graphical “ribbon” interface of Microsoft Office 2007.  Commonly used tools are grouped together under tabs for intuitive, one-touch access to features, applications, files, contacts and more.  Drag-and-drop features make it faster and easier to manage calls, trigger user-defined actions and launch applications, screen pops or Web pages.

Call Manager redefines how users interact with their contacts, their communication channels and with customer information.  For example:

  • Point and click for one-touch management of phone calls and voicemail right from the PC screen.
  • See the status and details of incoming calls.  Right-click for a menu of actions (such as answer, hold or forward) or drag-and-drop to send the call to voice mail or another party.
  • Schedule and auto-dial multiple outgoing calls, integrating with popular customer relationship management programs such as Microsoft Outlook®, Act! ®, and Tigerpaw®.
  • Collaborate with the immediacy of instant messaging (chat).
  • See the status of all the automatic call distribution (ACD) groups to which you belong.
  • Define more than 500 custom buttons for mouse-click access to the computer or telephony features you use most—such as to speed-dial contacts, view or manage call center groups, or launch Web pages and programs.

Pretty cool, huh?  Customer Interaction Solutions magazine thought so, and honored Call Manager with a 2011 TMC Labs Innovation Award.  The award recognizes companies whose products demonstrate groundbreaking contributions to the industry.  Highlights of the 2011 award winners will be presented in the September and October 2011 issues.

“New companies, new products and new services in the CRM and call center industry are being created all the time,” said Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC, the magazine’s parent company.  The TMC Labs Innovation Award distinguishes the companies that make significant contributions in the advancement of the CRM and contact/call center industry.  We’re proud to reward 16 outstanding accomplishments with a TMC Labs Innovation Award this year.”  We’re proud to receive one.


“Toshiba’s Call Manager is truly innovative and has made significant progress in the advancement of the CRM and contact center industries.  We’re proud to reward this outstanding accomplishment with a 2011 TMC Labs Innovation Award.”


Rich Tehrani, CEO of Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC)

Filed Under: Call Centers, Mobility, Strata Call Manager, Toshiba IP Phones Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,