“When you have no money for marketing, everything you do is marketing,” founder of the Geek Squad said, Robert Stephens.

“Robert Stephens said he’s glad he didn’t have any money when he started 20 years ago because he would’ve been tempted to hire marketing and public relations firms to develop his company’s imagery and culture rather than finding the right notes organically.” [He spoke at LaunchFest in NOLA]

Most of my projects in the last two years have been about Marketing – telling the company story to position services against a crowded marketplace. This sometimes involved identifying the best customers. We worked on a re-branding project that involved a lot of touch points. Marketing is everything from logo, website, collateral to what your sales people say, to how technicians dress and act, to how you answer the phone and handle customer service. marketing is every touch of the customer.

BTW, for those of you worrying about Facebook and other social media sites: be on the one site that most of your customers use, but realize that social platforms are out to make money. Hence, why Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort are back to basics with blog, websites and email. Read why here.

What is your marketing plan?

Amdocs found (in a survey of 1,311 global SMBs) that 66% of SMBs found that cloud services are very important to their businesses, while 57% said their businesses are already making use of cloud-based services, like data backup. SMBs use on average 3 cloud vendors.

Most telling: 74% of respondents said they prefer to receive cloud-based services from their primary service provider, but 41% believe they can get better deals from independent cloud vendors.” Also, “80% of respondents said they want to receive one bill for all the communication services they consume.”

I love this speech by Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross. [some swearing but when I talk to salespeople I swear too.]

RAD-INFO Inc receives 2013 Florida Excellence Award

April 18th 2014 – RAD-INFO Inc has been selected for the 2013 Florida Excellence Award amongst all its peers and competitors by the US Trade & Commerce Institute (USTCI).

Each year the USTCI conducts business surveys and industry research to identify companies that have achieved demonstrable success in their local business environment and industry category. They are recognized as having enhanced the commitment and contribution of small businesses through service to their customers and community. Small businesses of this caliber enhance the consumer driven stature that Florida is renowned for.

RAD-INFO Inc has consistently demonstrated a high regard for upholding business ethics and company values. This recognition by USTCI marks a significant achievement as an emerging leader within various competitors and is setting benchmarks that the industry should follow.

As part of the industry research and business surveys, various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the selected companies in each category. This research is part of an exhaustive process that encapsulates a year long immersion in the business climate of Florida.

About RAD-INFO INC.

RAD-INFO INC is a TCA certified telecom professional agency that helps service providers go-to-market, increase sales, brand awareness and positioning in a crowded marketplace. Learn more at https://rad-info.net

About USTCI

The USTCI is a leading authority on researching, evaluating and recognizing companies across a wide spectrum of industries that meet its stringent standards of excellence. It has spearheaded the idea of independent enterprise and entrepreneurial growth allowing businesses of all sizes to be recognized locally and encouraged globally.

It’s amazing what some money (used to be $25K, probably $50K now) can get you.

The announcements came out of all the leaders in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Global Network Service Providers. ATT, BT, Orange, VZ, Tata, NTT were all picked as Leaders. Vodafone is a visionary. (How?) T-Systems is the only Challenger. Sprint was a Challenger last year, but this year joins C-Link, Level3, Telefonica, and Reliance are niche players.

Gartner Positions Sprint as a Challenger in Magic Quadrant for Global Network Service Providers, since “Sprint has grown its global MPLS, Ethernet and SIP Trunking coverage for business and wholesale customers.” And somehow being named a Challenger warrants a press release. “Hey we came in last!! But we are trying.”

Here are two announcements (that sound similar). ATT MQ pr.
NTT Communications Positioned as a “Leader” in Gartner 2014 Report: “Magic Quadrant for Global Network Service Providers”. NTT was evaluated for the completeness of its vision and its execution capabilities.

Meanwhile, Verizon also gets “Leader” in Gartner 2014 Magic Quadrant, Global Managed Security Services Providers Report.