News, comments and opinion about Intelisys, a telecom master agency. This blog is independently edited by Telecom Association. Intelisys' official website is Intelisys.com. Join TA's 3,800 members at TAjoin.com.
After a full day on Thursday of 17 vendor presentations and a mini-trade fair with what looked to close to 30 vendor tabletops, Friday was the "fun day".
The events guests choose to spend the day golfing, on a wine train, on a wine bus tour or what Nancy and I choose, a private cooking demonstration, a four course lunch with a three-course wine pairing, and a private tour of the Culinary Institute of America, the previous Christian Brother's Winery in stunning St. Helena, California.
Click the video below to view the beginning of our private cooking demonstration, our terrific lunch and a tour snippet through their training kitchen.
After our bus ride back to the Meritage and a much needed nap it was time for the reception and dinner featuring awards and honors for the 24 "Year One" members and Cancun trip winners from Intelisys' "Club TPC".
Click the video below to see Jay Bradley welcoming guests with a video showcasing the ten-year anniversary of the annual Intelisys celebration. You'll also see footage of the great dance band that kept everyone moving. The video ends with a not-to-be-missed exclusive from Travis Deatherage of Solstice Multimedia (spouse of Copper Conferencing channel manager Sarah Deatherage) forecasting future market dominance in the multimedia arena.
Saturday morning greeted everyone with a warm sunny day to nurse big heads, search for fast-food to settle stomachs and day dream about the 11th annual Intelisys Channel Connect in just 11 and a half months as we all headed home.
(Scroll down to watch "video snippets" from the day's events)
Wow! That was a full day.
Intelisys bills itself as the master agent for "high performing agents" and I can personally attest to the fact that that's who I met at today's "vendor marathon" day. But before recapping all the vendor presentations (seventeen 15-minute presentations in all) I must take a moment to say that the most impressive thing about Intelesis is not so much the quality of their vendors (sure, they're great) but the quality of their agents.
I went out of my way to ask agents I met, "How did you get started, how are you selling and what are you selling?" I met three kinds of agents. The ones that have been doing it 20 years and have amassed 500 plus accounts and a score of employees. Those that have done it since 2001 and have half that. And I met a couple who've only just begun but have quite the fire in the belly. I didn't meet a single part-timer.
As for "How are they selling?" Two-thirds reported serious reliance on existing customers and referral partners but a full third had W-2 sales people under quota. As to "What are they selling?" The answer is data, Internet access and dial-tone. I did not find as many agents as I hoped to find selling add-ons like managed services, conferencing or one-offs like merchant services. Most reported that they're just too busy taking care of their base with renewals or circuit add-ons.
As to their vision of the future, most acknowledged concerns about encroachment into network services from their current lead partners (interconnects, applications guys & IT vendors) but they did not feel it was an immediate threat as most of their lead partners were pretty busy just attending to their own primary businesses.
What secrets were learned? Doing more for existing customers was the "success theme of the day". Most of the successful agents I spoke to were not so much interested in calling their existing customers to sell them one-off services so much as calling them to make sure they were happy with whatever they'd already been sold. Agents doing this regularly reported getting extra business and referrals to for their core business services of dial tone, data and Internet access.
Bottom line? Minority stuff is still minority stuff. The big idea is to contact your existing base to see what they want and then sell them whatever they ask for - and introduce them to new lines and opportunities like conferencing and enhanced/managed services.
The other big idea(s)? Doing more for bigger clients. One vendor flat out said, "On the direct side we're done selling to customers that spend less that $1,000 per month. Feel free to sell to them yourselves - but on the direct side, we're done. Similarly, an up and coming agent I spoke to said, "I've got 80 customers but I've determined that 25 are the sort that I want more of." Not that he's going to abandon the 55 that don't make him as much money, he just isn't going to expend resources pulling in anything other than companies that look like his "top 25".
As well, vendor after vendor started out their presentations with, "We're looking to attack the upper mid-market and enterprise customers." While it used to take $500 a month or more in telecom spend to attract an agent now it looks like it's going to take a $5,000 a month spend to attract agent marketing dollars at least.
Another big idea? SIP trunks. As more vendors and agents move towards larger, multi-location prospects they encounter a need to provide services that give free inter-office calling and work with the new IP equipment platforms. Hello SIP trunks.
Lastly? Managed services and business applications. While the 17 vendors all had 15 minutes to speak, none of them could go more than 4 minutes without saying "managed services" or "business applications" a half-dozen times. What are managed services? Anything business customers can rent or subscribe to that allows businesses to have to hire one less IT employee.
What are business applications? Any software package an employee accesses to perform their job function. Fewer businesses seem to be interested in paying for employees that manage internal systems as opposed to generate new revenue. Business customers do seem to be interested in paying agents whatever's necessary to get business admin funtions accomplished short of hiring an employee and incurring the overhead that comes with that.
In summary. If you're an agent out there that is a serious full-timer but you feel like you need serious support you should should look into working with Intelisys. Sure there are a lot of great master agents to work with but appears to be the favorite of quite a few high performing agents. You should investigate why that is.
So those are all the secrets and observations you missed if you were not here. Following are video snippets to give you the flavor of the show.
Video Snippets
Jay Bradley&Mike McKinneykick off the "agent only" round table. This was a very cool hour as no vendors were in the room and it was just the Intelisys agents "peer-to-peer" sharing.
Nancy & I got to the Channel Connectresort here in Napa with enough time to unpack & grab a bite to eat before the opening reception at 8pm. A very nice affair with probably 200 of the almost 400 registered guests in attendance.
Click the video below to see a quick walk around. The crowd doubled about 30 minutes after I shot this video.
We spent time mixing and mingling with the guests - many we recognized as agents but did not know they were with Intelisys. Everyone was in a party mood.
I spent some time speaking to one of Intelisys' founders Rick Sheldon. I didn't know until this evening that we had similar starts in the industry, selling local California LATA via dialers for 15 cents per minute against Pacific Bell's 30 cents per minute back in the early 1990s. Always nice to find some guys as old as myself still selling after 20 years.
I also spent time talking to InterCall's Brad Dupee and MegaPath's Ross Anderson about the evolution of telecom into the managed services industry. There seems to be general consensus that migrating to managed services is the best way to get away from the whole problem of telecom being viewed as a commodity.
Tomorrow it's a day of vendor presentations in a wine cellar while the honored guests (our spouses) enjoy wine tasting in downtown Napa.
