Peter Radizeski is Founder and President of RAD-INFO INC. He is an accomplished blogalyst, speaker, author and consultant. He has helped many service providers with sales training, marketing, channel development and business strategy. He is a trusted source of knowledge about the telecom sector. His honest and direct approach make him a refreshing speaker.

Look for his innovative ideas and analysis of current technology on his blogs.

Meet him at one of the many conferences he attends and speaks at.

Hire RAD-INFO today!

Lessons in Social Marketing

Things learned from sending customer newsletters is a good read on LinkedIn. A couple of things: Consistency is important. It helps to build trust. The newsletter is about delivering Value (consistenctly) to your customers and prospects, not selling them stull. If anything, thing about the branding — your logo and colors and name, coming at them at a regular interval.

The follow up is the mark of persistence and consistency. That says enough. (Sales stats show that most give up by 3 follow ups, but sales are made after the 8th or 10th or 15th contact.) Stay in front of them and bring value.

Speaking of LinkedIn, do you have a company page? Do you have a complete profile with an up to date photo? You can post stories and updates that will get your name in front of your network.

These types of misfires on social media are why some businesses don’t want to go on social, but you have to be there. It is where the audience is today. [To see how it can be done, here are 12 examples.]

In this article about the reasons Google Plus died, the lessons can apply to any company and any product. For example, employee incentives if not carefully thought out can back fire. Make certain you are measuring the proper metric (factor). Listen to both employees and customers. Yet study your customers. It is all about Blue Ocean and Positioning. Attacking the giant head on with the same product is doomed.

As we have more and more to do – including social marketing – time management becomes important. the key is an egg timer. Break things up into bite sized tasks (on your calendar) and use an egg timer to say stop. Next!

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

Marketing Today is Changed

3 articles about marketing and sales today. Google has a new algorithm for mobile going into effect this weekend. The only thing constant is change. SEO is now really content marketing. Sales is tough because it is becoming inbound.

Your Marketing Is Chasing Customers Away!

The ROI of Content Marketing

Why aren’t you my customer

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

HE.Net is now available

HE.net started a partner program, so if you want HE.net I can not rep them for bandwidth and collocation.

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

Some VoIP News I Wish Was Interesting

There seems to be a new Hosted PBX launching every month. This month it is a SIP Trunking company. SIPTRUNK.com Announces Public BETA Program. With this program, now even your phone vendor can offer SIP Trunking and compete with you for the small slice of market that is available. This will likely result in (a) more white-label programs; and (2) price war coming since 2000+ Hosted VoIP providers are already finding it expensive to find customers. The one challenge that SIP trunks have over POTS: QoS. I don’t see this platform solving that issue. It isn’t a lack of SIP; it is a lack of quality of service as most SIP trunks ride OTT (over-the-top) which offers little in the way of control or quality — the reason many small businesses keep (or go back to) POTS.

Grandstream announced a one and two line phone line. Just what was needed – more phone models. I am not picking on snom, Yealink, Grandstream or the other manufacturers, when you make phones, you make phones. That is your hammer – and everything is
a nail. The problem isn’t about cheaper. Many are debating the death of the desk phone. These phones are computers. They understand XML. But we don’t use them for anything. They have all the smarts of a smartphone and the same ability. Lack of Imagination. Hire some folks from Disney.

SMS is growing, according to Voxox, a wholesale VoIP and SMS provider. Frontier has had SMS enabled landlines for a year. Many ITSPs are enabling SIP lines with SMS. (that whole unified messaging inbox.) It is something that will soon be a checklist item, instead of a value-add.

There is a thread on voice-ops listserv about delivering Key System Emulation via SIP, especially BroadWorks. BSFT has a document on how to do it. Key System emulation is wrought with issues – from the phone (especially the Polycom VVX) having issues with call appearance to call park and message on hold. The best advice (from the list and me): “We also try and break people of the key system habit whenever possible.”

Often key system comes with associated challenges like overhead paging which SIP has a problem delivering in the same way. Door buzzers are another. You can one off these solutions with third party gear, but you still have to support it; make it work; and keep the customer happy. New one to me this morning: flush mount intercom door station that is SIP enabled.

BTW, Phonism launched out of Beta. Phonism is out of Tampa and does VoIP endpoint Provisioning and Monitoring. Cool dashboard and interface. I am on their board.

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

Apps that Automate Tasks

I have had a VA (virtual assistant) since 2004. I had 3 VAs at one point. My pal is hiring a VA from a service in the Philippines. There is an app for this now. Point that Android phone to here. It is called Any.do for the GTD (get things done) crowd. It is a Task List & To-do List. “Any.do just announced a built-in VA (virtual assistant) service called Done.” [thx Jon Price!] Price suggested, “Now they just need to pull in a cloud integration automation tool like IFTTT.com or Zapier.com and it’s over.” Zapier is a remote work automation tool. [I personally need to get on the automation.]

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