Do you ever ask if this prospect in front of you should even be your client? Think about it.

You aren’t looking for a million customers. You are looking for 1000, then 2000, then 10,000 profitable customers. Preferably even not just customers but fans, members of your tribe. Wouldn’t that be great?

If that is what you aspire to, it is up to you to ensure it by asking the right questions. Like: Is the cloud right for this prospect? If they want the exact thing – the key system replacement – just refer them to someone who can sell them a new key system. If they don’t want to change their business flow, then cloud is not a good option.

RapidScale suggests these Qualifying Questions. These are basic for cloud customers.

1. Do you need to upgrade software?
2. Do you need to refresh hardware?
3. Do you have little or no IT department?
4. Are you in need of a data backup plan?
5. Are you looking to cut down on CapEx? (Goes back to hardware)
6. Are you looking to convert to BYOD? (Explain that.)

If they are looking at price, and ask you to meet or beat one, you haven’t done your job of explaining your value — or the customer won’t be a good fit because they just want what they have now only pay less. is that a good fit for you?

It is rare that there are stories about CLECs actually thinking outside the box AND executing on it. Here are 4.

In the successful CLEC Transformation model, we tried to fit either EarthLink or Cbeyond in, but folded its cards by selling itself to Birch and the other saw its CEO leave behind a mess reminiscent of a college frat house after the big homecoming party. But in Waynesboro, Va., we might have a good example of a traditional Tier 2 voice CLEC transformed. Lumos has built “an extensive enterprise business in the mid-Atlantic region supported by a 7,000-mile fiber network”, says telecompetitor. I got to interview their new CFO at Comptel Dallas 2014 and I can quote Lumos’ services.

Buhler, Kan. based IdeaTek Systems Inc. transformed from an ISP formed in 1999 to a fiber provider – selling services to cellcos and enterprises off its 1,800 route miles. It just sold that fiber network to Zayo. And take a look at this website – great look and feel – and a cool message: Human at Our Very Fiber. BOOM! It takes a lot of elements to get to the sale stage – marketing, sales, assets and a proven track record. Those things require an investment of not just money, but effort, execution and persistence.

Sonic.Net is up to something with a new advertising campaign about Fxing the Internet in America [video].

An old ISPCON pal, Eliot Noss of Tucows fame, is in the ISP business. According to the Wash Post, “On Tuesday, Ting Mobile — a small, Canadian-owned wireless carrier based in Mississippi — said it was buying up an Internet service provider in Charlottesville, Va., home to the University of Virginia. The acquisition of Blue Ridge InternetWorks will kickstart new investments by Ting into the town’s local fiber optic network, enabling new fixed broadband plans costing less than $100 a month for speeds roughly 100 times the current national average, or 1 gigabit per second.”

Lately there has been a lot of talk about UC, unified communications – that combination of components that allow companies to collaborate, communicate and fill an inbox.

ANPI has been putting out some good blog content including these 7 Pitfalls, Hosted Contact Center stats, and these UCaaS stats from analysts.

This article lists some good Q’s to ask Prospects – like CAPEX or OPEX, Mr. Prospect? Any stringent compliance or security requirements? Do you need to deploy quickly or on a temporary basis? Do you want to integrate communications into your business workflow? Do you want a reliable system that is simple to maintain? Good Q’s!

Looking at these 15 Trends in IT for 2015, you see that Hybrid solutions will win and that IT staff is being lapped by the tech available to consumers (read: employees).

Dell got in the game with “Dell Unified Communications Command Suite (UCCS), the platform aims to help organizations gain better insights into their UC investments while also breaking down employee adoption barriers….. Dell said its UC Command Suite is the market’s only solution to offer both analytics and diagnostics across Microsoft’s Exchange and Lync platforms.”

Sprint is partnering with companies on its Complete Collaboration suite with Lync. [see here]

Does Microsoft offer a PBX? Unified messaging expert Richard Luckett explains how Microsoft Lync Server acts as a PBX replacement in this post (registration required).

I have been giving a webinar on goal setting since 2009. Year 5 comes with a special gift for my readers. Download the workbook (and an older set of slides) from here now. Even if you don’t sign up for the webinar that I will be doing on 12/10/14 at 1 PM ET, you have a full 20 page workbook to go through for both goal setting and sales planning. My holiday gift to my readers.

My slide deck from 2010 is on slideshare. Use it to do the exercise with your company.

My preview deck is on slideshare as well — but that isn’t the final deck. I have changed it every year and I am changing it again before I do the webinar. That means if you have taken my webinar before, this one will be different — they all are. I rarely use the same deck twice.

Hope to have you on the webinar (REGISTER HERE), but if not, set some goals anyway.

Germany is debating charging businesses for emailing employees after hours. I’m not sure most people can answer any question with Google and a connected device. But this always on, always connected life has a price. According to CP’s Big Think 2015, “Ubiquitous connectivity is taking a serious toll on the mental and physical health of tech users. Documented negative side effects of never being unplugged include stress, exhaustion, decreased mental clarity and weight gain. In 2015, look for more apps that help users monitor their connected time and more company policies that encourage employees to take log-off breaks.”

So I am going to blame the extra 18 pounds I have on my smartphone, tablets and laptops.