Listening to panelists all week, I think that they only come in two flavors: one, those enamored with the technology and two, those that have to get their talking points out (like a politician). In both cases, they miss the mark. At least, the passion techie or geek is interesting to listen to.

Why do you think voicemail is so prevalent? No one wants to hear your marketing dribble. No one wants to be interrupted by something that is not relevant to them or interesting.

We have numerous tactics to broadcast to people: as a presenter, in an interview, PR, advertising, direct and email, social networks, and other forms of marketing. In many cases, these are just tools used to spout forth the marketing talk or the talking points. And we wonder why it doesn't work effectively. Interruption Marketing is boring, tired and uncreative - especially for companies in telecom who mostly have me-too services.

Email marketing has a 1% open rate. Direct mail is less than that. Voicemail is to hide from the robo-calling. Broadcasting on twitter with a shortened URL to track clicks has to be disappointing. And the website bounce rate is about 8 seconds.

Consumers have ADD - but Marketers cause it.

I get press releases that have nothing newsworthy in them. I wonder if the PR firm isn't just padding the bill or has to invent something to put out this week. (This only adds to the disruption, ADD, and avoidance).

Marketing teams consistently look for a hook. They ask how to go viral. They look for the next tool or trick to use. But they forget the fundamentals.

It isn't about the tool. It's about the Message!

And puking on your audience doesn't work. (And Call Loop spamming my cell phone with SMS marketing won't work!)

The best tech doesn't win. The best marketing wins.

And by that I mean clear, concise wording about the huge benefit to the customer.

Seth Godin wrote Permission Marketing, Purple Cow and Meatball Marketing - combined they spell out how to market in an era of too much noise. It boils down to saying something relevant to the audience - in other words, speak about benefits not features - and engage the audience.

At the end of the day, can you spread your idea?

I am a Certified Telecom Professional now. On the TCA Open Agent call this Friday at 4 PM, we will be talking about CTP, tips and tricks, and trends that will affect Agent revenue. Register today here. This is the slide deck that I crafted as I was thinking about the call.

Several Carriers have notified agents that in 2011, they will be "managing to their contracts". "Some Carriers are having monthly reviews with their Contract Divisions to see which Agents are not meeting their obligations. While most Carriers were open to allowing Agents to roll their bases under a Master in 2010, we are seeing this to be a lot more difficult in 2011."

I would take this as a heads-up to review your own contracts to see what you need to do to secure your commission streams in 2011.

Some ideas might be the following:

• sell your smallest contract to another agency;
• partner with a VAR or MSP to assist you in meeting your commitment level for Carrier B;
• collaborate with Carrier Y on ways to market their services more effectively;
• roll your smaller contracts up under a Master if you can.

Meanwhile, Smoothstone has restructured their Pre-Sales support structure to help Agents get the assistance they need to win deals. This support now consists of three RSMs - Regional Sales Managers - who will help Agents qualify prospects for Smoothstone and local Sales Engineers, who will help quote and close the deals.

As carriers try to sell more "Cloud services", Sales Engineers will play a key role in the sales process, which will become a bottleneck to sales. The other key aspect is that the carrier needs to know exactly who the best prospect is and what they look like in order to maximize closing ratios and minimize SE's spending time on unlikely prospects.