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I have been in telecommunications for 12 years and recently had a business situation take place that I can not believe and would like to share it with anyone looking to get into a home based or agent program for telecommunications or VoIP.
Negotiations for a new SIP Trunk VoIP product for a large group of hotels that have been online with my agent for 10 years had started. No every VoIP provider deploys SIP Trunk VoIP or even knows what that is, so allow me to give you a crash course. VoIP can be expensive to use if you have an exiting PBX already in place that still is in good shape. Hence comes in SIP Trunk VoIP it allows small businesses to take advantage of all the benefits of IP telephony without the high cost of equipment. Hosted VoIP requires an IP enabled telephone and for obvious reasons that would not be cost effective for small to medium size hotels because of the cost of a new phone for every room. Hosted VoIP is a great choice for small to medium size companies that need a phone system.
Having been an agent I have always stuck to a certain set of principles and do not like it when asked to deviate from them. My main principle is I am not going to pay anything to sell a companies product. Now I do have a couple of exceptions and if I am a VoIP wholesale or if I am going to privately brand/label a product I know there are up from costs involved and have not a problem paying them, but this was strictly an agent program. With $30,000 a month in recurring revenue for 3 years.
I was told in the beginning they had an agent program application fee of $1500, I immediately holding nothing back that that was not my standard business practice or standard practices of any reputable agent programs and I would not in any way pay that fee. I received a comment as to how tough of a business woman I am and how it is admired. Subject dropped and negotiations moved forward and we were ready to go into testing mode when it was brought up again. This time it was good news as far as they are concerned because they are slashing the fee in half. Once again it doesn’t matter if it is one dollar or fifteen thousand dollars. What part of I am not paying this agent application fee are they not understanding. They would be getting guaranteed minimums and three year contracts for each property over 1,080,000.00 in revenue over three years they tried to put it back on my company that if my company can not afford a $1500 agent application then what kind of company are we. A smart one I say……a really smart one.
With that being said you do not have to pay money to be a VoIP telecom agent.
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Lisa Kaye has been in Telecom for 12 years and has developed TelecomArena.com as an online telecommunications portal for IP telephony for businesses, residential services and agents.
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