Most CLEC/ITSP/ISP/WISP do little marketing. And Branding isn't even in the picture. Heck, something as simple as having an updated website seems beyond the reach of some service providers.

What most execs don't grasp is that most sales are moving online. Buyers do research before they buy. They check reviews. They ask their networks on Facebook, twitter, Linkedin, Google+. All of this online.

If you are not online - or worse your image online is awful - sales will be hard to come by.

I think one issue is that service providers don't have a grasp on who they want to market to because they think everyone is a prospect. WRONG!

Your marketing should target the most profitable prospects with the most profitable services.

Don't worry it isn't just you. I read this article yesterday, "Most entrepreneurs have NO idea how much they really need to be marketing in order to effectively and consistently attract more clients and make more money. You need to be really clear on what you want to accomplish that will make you happy with your progress."

Do you have a monthly sales goal? Do you know what/who/where that will come from? [i.e., from two medical offices at $750 per month for Internet and Hosted PBX.] This gives you a target prospect and a product bundle.

What is the average dollar amount each client is worth to you each month? What is your ARPU?

next we do sales math. How many prospects do you talk to? How many proposals to you send? How many contracts get ink? Closing Ratio = INK/proposals

More sales math: Your closing ratio times your ARPU is your monthly revenue. So if you want 2 sales and you close 10% of the time then you need to do 20 proposals and that means talking to XXX prospects OR talking to 40 qualified prospects.

So how does Marketing come into the picture?

You want to have a certain message go out to your marketplace, especially to your most potential prospects. Email, website, social media, networking, direct mail, webinars/seminars, trade shows, search marketing (SEO/SEM) and guerrilla marketing are all possible tactics. The strategy is to reach the targets that the message and product bundle will resonate with. The fact is that it takes a lot of touches to make an impact on a prospect. That's where the tactics come in.

So you need to identify your best prospects.

What will they buy from you?

Why would they buy from you?

How will you get this message to them?

How do those messages convert to sales? Branding a consistent message to your best prospects means that sales will be more targeted and if you have the right message, product and target --> KA-CHING!

Need help with this? Give my office a call at (813) 963-5884

FYI, these slides sum up what I said.

Peter Radizeski is a telecommunications consultant and analyst with RAD-INFO INC. Service Providers have called on RAD-INFO INC for assistance building a channel, improving sales, managing online marketing efforts, and overall company strategy. Contact RAD-INFO INC at 813-963-5884 or http://rad-info.net

In the Economist article about the collapse of Kodak, the story tells a tale of why Fujifilm is going strong while Kodak is seeking bankruptcy protection.

One reason is the monopolist mindset that RBOC's and Kodak have. That mindset is why products don't get launched quickly. Rivals with less market share can win by launching many imperfect products into the marketplace. Kodakk "executives “suffered from a mentality of perfect products, rather than the high-tech mindset of make it, launch it, fix it."" Software and apps developers think this way. Apple does not. Google certainly does. Failing is okay. Failing is important. It means you take risks. No risk, no reward. Also, failures have lessons embedded in them too.

Another quote from the article: "Even when Kodak decided to diversify, it took years to make its first acquisition. It created a widely admired venture-capital arm, but never made big enough bets to create breakthroughs, says Ms Kanter." It is pointed because I see it with the powers that be in Tampa and I see it with many service providers. They won't partner with others. They have to build it all themselves.

It's a good read.

Peter Radizeski is a telecommunications consultant and analyst with RAD-INFO INC. Service Providers have called on RAD-INFO INC for assistance building a channel, improving sales, managing online marketing efforts, and overall company strategy. Contact RAD-INFO INC at 813-963-5884 or http://rad-info.net

Alteva has sales training for agents - and they charge for it!! Two days for $350. Alteva will be offering this training at ITEXPO East in Miami Beach on Jan. 31- Feb. 1.

Alianza landed a deal with Clearwire. "Alianza will oversee day-to-day voice operations for Clearwire and supply all end-to-end software components of the hosted voice platform, including soft switch, application feature server, call rating, CPE provisioning, monitoring, security, and end-user self-support tools," according to the article. Apparently voice over 4G won't be the same as voice over 1G and 2G networks. Interesting.

This is kind of cool:

Change the way you think about the phone call! I found this video about Thrutu via Rich Tehrani's eye opening article about the future of telco competition. It isn't about the phone call -- it's about how customers want to communicate.

ITEXPO East 2011 is Feb. 1-3 in Miami Beach. I will be moderating 4 panels. There will also be a dutch dinner gathering on Feb. 1st. If interested, contact the office at (813) 963-5884.

Peter Radizeski is a telecommunications consultant and analyst with RAD-INFO INC. Service Providers have called on RAD-INFO INC for assistance building a channel, improving sales, managing online marketing efforts, and overall company strategy. Contact RAD-INFO INC at 813-963-5884 or http://rad-info.net