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A well executed enterprise to small business telemarketing campaign should certainly nonetheless be the centre piece of any advertising mix,
even in 2010. It is still the only form of marketing and advertising at your disposal that doesn't rely on
the prospects actively taking action to make contact with you. It does not matter in the event you deploy attempted
and tested advertising like direct mail, public relations, advertising, events or look to technological advances in e-mail marketing, online advertising
and marketing, social media and so on, they all rely on the prospect getting already identified their possible interest /
need for your remedy and then they make contact. They also all rely on considerable budgets and lengthy periods of
time to gather crucial mass, prior to your prospect automatically thinks about you, when they feel they require a answer.
Telemarketing is distinctive, it makes it possible for you to proactively contact your ideal prospects and engage in an intelligent
two way conversation. During the conversation you could establish their pains, their challenges, demonstrate your items positive aspects and reinforce
your providing by employing past case studies. The important distinction between telemarketing as well as other forms of marketing is
the prospect will need not have any expertise of your provider or answer 5 minutes earlier to agree to a
sales meeting. In spite of this, telemarketing wants to adapt and move away from the old image of thumbing through
any old list and mechanically pitching to as lots of persons as achievable. To be productive at telemarketing in 2010
you must adapt and use new tools. Here are the 3 fast and hassle-free approaches to bring your telemarketing into
the 2010s. Integrating email marketing and telemarketing. Did you know that integrating e-mail marketing and advertising and telemarketing can increase
telemarketing productivity in between 25% - 75% Telemarketeers are now able to access real-time results of prospects opening and clicking
through to internet sites from most email advertising solutions. The telemarketer in 2010 can call a prospect although they are
nonetheless reading the original e-mail and get started a conversation on subjects that are relevant to the internet pages they
have just been visiting. Integrate your CRM, information acquisition and prospect profiling. It can be now possible to save enormous
volumes of time in identifying get in touch with details and prospect profiling. A best example will be the capability
to add solutions from Onesource or Hoovers to Salesforce through the App Shop. These immediately download data direct into your
CRM about people plus the business that would have taken an inordinate quantity of time if gathered by any other
means. This not merely increases the time spent essentially targeting prospects by the telemarketer in 2010, but also supplies greater
specifics to the telemarketer so they are able to adapt their conversation towards the corporation and individual they're speaking too.
Build Social Media links then use it towards the max. The explosion of social media has enabled the telemarketer in
2010 to actually see the networks they live within. Everybody is forging links among 1 yet another and using the
recognition of websites just like linkedin. com we are now able to see who knows who, past employment and what
they're presently performing. Read up on hostel dialer information This insight enables a telemarketeer in 2010 to bring existing
relationships into their conversation. This indicates the telemarketeer in 2010 can acquire greater access to target prospects and strengthen the
effectiveness of calls to arrange sales meetings. This new network information can uncover persons your prospect knows, mutual contacts, past
and present colleagues and so on. All these relationships can be levered into conversations to good effect. The telemarketeer in
2010 has a totally several profile from the past. They're employing each doable piece of data at their disposal to
hold unique conversations with their prospects and drawing upon a growing number of sources of information. Read more here.
The telemarketer in 2010 will maintain telemarketing at the centre of your advertising and marketing mix. Those that do
not alter will shed this valuable marketing tool forever.

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Read more here. A call center is like any other small business inside the sense that it measures
its efficiency the way conventional corporations measure theirs. Usually, efficiency measures involve comparison of expense against revenues. The greater the
actual profit margin, the far more effective the provider is supposed to be. Within the case of call centers, a
great deal with the performance evaluation will focus on price per call metrics; whereas in others, in a manufacturing business
for instance, item unit cost metrics might be by far the most applicable. Call centers naturally will be particularly concerned
with how much is spent on calls in comparison to actual revenues generated. Per call expense, as a way to
be an effective measure of call center efficiency, will likely be composed of telephone bills presented by telecommunication service providers,
the expense of equipment, and other services. Related CoverageCustomer service Call Center EtiquetteA lot of individuals do not know this
but there is a whole lot far more to customer service call center etiquette than just answering the telephones. Customers
use call centers for a variety of factors, as well as a lot with the times it regards asking questions
or generating complaints about a particular product and or service they have paid for. A great deal of offshore call
center providers have etiquette standards that their customer service call center representatives must follow. Etiquette Suggestions for Call Center Agents
for Far better Customer ServicesThere are Etiquette's in just about every function or activity so one can follow them to
obtain good and planned outcomes, You will find also some etiquette for call center agents and by following these they
are able to constantly give excellent finish at every call. Call Center Services And Inbound Call CentersIndia may be the
world's leading Call Center Services provider as a result of the right resources out there for the call center requirement.
Call Center Services supplied by businesses in India are of excellent normal. Call Center Inbound CallsOutsourcing and call center inbound
calls with Costa Ricas Call Center makes for an awesome combination in the BPO outsourcing business. Ironically, these expenses account
for only a tiny percentage of total per call expense. Labor costs, which incorporate employee wages, paid incentives, and positive
aspects account for a hefty 67%, the greatest factor affecting profitability or efficiency ratios. There is no denying the reality
that profits are the ultimate measure of enterprise efficiency and call centers, to lessen per call expenses and raise their
efficiency levels, need to look at their labor expenses closely. Call centers are well conscious of this and this is
the reason various of them are resorting to outsourcing to third world and emerging countries. One solution to cut down
on labor expenses would be to raise labor efficiency. This indicates maximizing call center agent time. Raising the number of
calls a call center agent makes in an hour or day can generate much more business and should lessen the
percentage of labor expenses to per call expense. This scheme is an ongoing practice in some call centers. Some even
put daily quotas to maximize time and agent utilization. Nonetheless, this scheme has particular pitfalls and is only one of
a large number of schemes that call centers use to raise productivity. One of the drawbacks of maintaining various clients
may well be poor top quality of calls, as agents naturally would be pressured to make even more calls to
meet their quotas. Nevertheless, this could be remedied by constant coaching. Focusing on the call center agent is actually a
sound technique of raising overall center and individual productivity and improving efficiency, even though, not surprisingly, within the case with
the latter, the quality of calls need to be factored in. Evidently, the problems posed by per call price metrics
as a method of measuring call center efficiency are weighty sufficient to compel call centers to resort to outsourcing in
countries where labor expenses are fairly lower. The number of call centers putting up operations in these cheap-labor countries attests
towards the profitability of call centers as soon as labor problems are addressed. Cost per call metrics could be the
most beneficial way to measure call center efficiency, as long as all of the essential and greatest sources of financial
resources outlays are included in its computation. Overall efficiency is very easily determined and by keeping tabs on an agent's
quantity of calls day-to-day, it's also an successful tool for measuring individual performance efficiency.

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A burning problem with measuring call center performance may be the validity with the underlying information - what are KPI's
honestly telling us and how can we trust these metrics






Working with KPI's for performance measurement can be a nicely documented, tried and tested management tool. Problemsarise on the other hand, with what the metrics are basically telling us and also the validity with the underlying
raw information. You'll be able to see what we mean after you take into consideration many of the top metrics
commonly applied to measure call center performance; call good quality, service level, customer satisfaction, typical speed of answer, 1st call
resolution, employee satisfaction and so on. The truth is that several of these metrics are subjective and not qualitative. Achieving
consistency across the metrics being gathered becomes much more problematic if you think of the number of distinct sources from
which the raw information is collected. Call time is conveniently and accurately measured, however customer satisfaction comes from the customer
themselves and 1 customers perception will differ from another along with the identical applies to employee satisfaction. Other KPI metrics,
such as adherence to call center telephone policies will fall to be reported by a supervisor or other observer adding
however one more source of metric information and broadening the difficulty of consistency with the raw information. It becomes crucial
for that reason that rather than very simple isolated metrics being utilized, that they are weighted and collated to give
an holistic picture of what is actually happening using the call center. This is where balanced scorecards that offer weightings
to proper KPI's play an crucial role within call center performance measurement. Applying proper weightings towards the importance of a
given metric will and combining the isolated weighted metric using the other KPI measures will help in smoothing anomalies in
information collation from inconsistency as well as the assortment of information sources. Ensuring that the metrics which are applied having
a balanced scorecard are valid we must think about what makes a valid call center performance measurement metric. Metrics selected
as performance measures ought to be relevant, they should be accurate, collected on a timely basis, provide a total or
unconditional value and be clear. additional resources What appears to be a relevant metric might possibly in actual fact
not be so, call center managers themselves might be influenced by their own working practices and not in touch using
the broad mission with the organization. An accurate metric measure will also lend confidence inside the measure if it is
actually unambiguous along with the closer towards the raw information this may be, the higher the degree of accuracy expected.

Regrettably, call center managers are blissfully unaware of the actual power of balanced scorecard and KPI metrics believing thatthey're helpful for performance measurement and not something far more. The real energy of KPI metrics lies in their diagnostic
ability when applied holistically, as the balanced scorecard attempts to do, not simply for performance measurement but also for benchmark
performance against market competitors, identifying performance gaps and proscribing remedies as well as offering team members with individual responsibility for
their component in over call center performance.

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Hosted VoIP Call Centers also identified as Virtual Call Centers have become very affordable to tiny businesses. The technologies out
there today has evolved towards the point that for a minimal upfront investment any enterprise can have a Call Center
that would have cost millions of dollars some short years ago. A VoIP Call Center is a telecommunications platform that
allows companies to efficiently route telephone calls to accessible agents. A Hosted Call Center makes it effortless for businesses to
configure inbound calls to a sales desk, a support hotline or aid desk. Hosted Virtual Call Center software program will
even permit you to have Call Center Agents in many physical locations; these agents can even be house based agents.
A comprehensive sales and customer support program are a essential component for any business enterprise. It isn't sufficient to supply
a competitively priced high quality product. It really is definitely necessary that you simply present your customers with a first-class
service expertise when doing company along with your firm -- just before, for the duration of and following the sale.
If this is your first time evaluating a Hosted Call Center answer, here are 10 very important points to consider.
1 How does the pricing function A provider that charges you per-agent or per-seat is charging you even when your
agent isn't on the phone. Having a provider that VoIP calling rates per minute utilised, you'll only be paying for
the service which you actually make use of. two What Hosted Call Center Characteristics are readily available Fantastic Contact Center
solutions ought to provide you with fine grained control over every aspect of your call center. This is how your
consumers are going to expertise your Call Center and it's vitally imperative which you present a comfortable expertise. You'll want
to have the ability to, as an example, decide on what music customers listen to while on hold, the maximum
quantity of time they'll have to wait, and also the number of callers within your queue. three Does the provider
need specialized IP Telephone sets Home-based employment is becoming increasingly well-liked. And for excellent reason: off-site workers are able to
participate in their jobs without having relocating or commuting. additional resources Tap into the possibilities of a workforce unrestricted
by location by creating positive that your ip call center enables agents to answer phones wherever they are, without needing
to stay tied down to a certain piece of hardware. Virtual get in touch with center software program should really
empower agents in your workplace or across the nation. four How are incoming calls routed to agents The more specifics
a call center agent has about a caller, the superior. Ask the provider what facts is readily available to the
call center agent and how is that information and facts provided. Several call center providers integration with CRM applications like
Salesforce. com and Sugar CRM. This sort of integration is really beneficial as it permits your agents to see a
history with the interaction with your shoppers. 5 Does your service present Call Recording There is no far better way
to monitor and assessment your call interactions than to have access to recordings and transcriptions of them. A little company
telephone service provider that makes this alternative offered will allow you to give distinct feedback to your agents by seeing
precisely how they did and what is usually improved call center. 6 Determine the capabilities with the call center
supervisor To be able to manage the agents, the call center supervisors have to have up to the minute facts
about all aspects of the call center. This includes details about how the agents are performing also as how long
shoppers are waiting to speak to an agent more info. It really is import that a call center answer
offers powerful real time call center reporting. 7 Do you present the alternative to set schedules for individual agents Your
Virtual Call Center is only as wonderful as your scheduling options. By incorporating the schedules of individual call agents, you'll
be able to make sure that calls are getting routed to agents who are readily available to take the calls.
Make your call queuing far more efficient--which your clients will love--by utilizing a precise schedule for each and every agent.
8 Is there a setup fee or long-term contract Fees vary widely among call center providers. A Hosted get in
touch with center solutions is often a web-based technology that does not call for the invest in of hardware or
software. Many call center providers need a term contract as a result of the upfront expense they incur setting up
and installing your service. This may be really beneficial to you and make sure you not dismiss a provider considering
that they need a fee or a term contract. It could end up saving you within the end. Rather than
look for a no fee, no contract provider, look for a provider that delivers some sort of guarantee. 9 Is
IVR integration accessible Can I transfer callers to yet another agent, call distributor, or IVR Your Virtual Call Center does
not exist in a vacuum. Or, no less than, it shouldn't. With Interactive Voice Response technology integration, it is easy
to make far better use of your Call Center, allowing you transfer callers to a further agent, department, post-call survey,
or voice mail. 10 Decide the customer support policy There is certainly no method which is 100 percent fail proof.
Figure out what occurs within the event of a program crash Ask the vendor if they've redundant facilities. A hosted
pbx providers with redundant facilities is less most likely to have a significant outage than a provider that doesn't have
redundant facilities. This may give you a superior sense of how prepared the provider is for these scenarios. Tell Us
about Your Call Center Wants AVAD Technologies is usually a leading organization services VoIP provider in USA and small business
telephone businesses of Hosted VoIP PBX telephone service. With its cutting edge line of integrated voice/data solutions, AVAD Technologies gives
total VoIP configuration to cost-conscious, results-driven, value-oriented organizations. AvadTechnologies. com offers IP workplace manager, VoIP Services, voice over world-wide-web protocol
providers and call centers answer for smaller enterprise and substantial enterprise shoppers. Look at also for: Call Center Software program
and Call centers remedy.

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Telemarketing has played a very important role in increasing revenue and expanding market share for many businesses all over the
world. It may have earned a bad reputation for itself from the general public's viewpoint, however, in the B2B realm,
telemarketing continues to help companies generate sales everyday. In fact, it is becoming more popular today even for smaller businesses
because of its proven cost efficiency and effectiveness. This is the reason why the telemarketing industry thrives amidst state and
federal laws and teleservices providers remain in business. In general, outbound telemarketing activities are implemented by all companies following the
same pattern. The campaigns may vary a little depending on the nature of the business but the entire concept stays
the same. All telemarketers are required to make calls based on scripts and specifications set by the company being represented.
The calls are made to sell products/services to customers and prospects, set appointments or meetings for product demos, and determine
current market trends for product development. Being able to successfully outsource telemarketing services depends on the following:Lead quality. Industry, location,
are just some of the few factors that determine lead quality. Lead generation should be carried out by someone that
has extensive knowledge of the market being targeted. Targeted lists can be obtained from business list providers, government agencies, public
records, online Yellow Pages, etc. Skills. The agent's skills contributes significantly to the success of a cold-calling campaign. Telemarketers should
have the ability to deal with different customer behaviors and be able to come up with statements that will draw
the customer or prospect's attention. They should be able to respond to whatever questions or concerns people might have about
the offer or the call itself. It is also important to have good product knowledge and confidence in whatever is
being offered in order to overcome rejections and objections efficiently. Improvisation and creativity are weapons that can help telemarketers in
their calls. Goal-Setting. The telemarketing company as well as their agents should set sales goals and deadlines to keep the
campaigns moving to the right direction. Leaders and representatives should work together towards reaching targets even if this means putting
in extra hours and providing incentives for those who work hard and perform well. site Keeping a positive a
mindset. Telemarketing poses different challenges to salespeople. additional resources It is important to keep a positive mindset in order
to conduct efficient cold-calling. An organized and harmonious workplace affects the way salespeople think and perform. Their motivation and optimism
not only come from their own will to succeed but also from the way they are treated by their leaders.
In the telemarketing industry, cold-calling success is defined by being able to mix together a bunch of different things like
lead quality, phone marketing skills, performance, leadership, communication and many more. If a campaign misses one of these, it is
very likely to yield little or no results. Failure is painful, but it can be avoided and risks can be
reduced by taking into consideration the factors mentioned above. Outsource your telemarketing needs to a well rounded company.

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Today, there are many companies offering outbound telemarketing services in the market. Most of them encompass an innovative call center
setup meeting diverse needs and requirements. Many service providers come equipped with the advanced tools that enable them to create
successful marketing calls for your services and products. In any company, every outbound call gets recorded with an aim to
ensure that the quality of calls made from an outbound call center does not get deteriorated. Outbound calls stand important
as it generally refers to an on going conversation between one prospective customer and the agent. The expertise and experience
in handling the outbound call center services stands essential to accomplish every project successfully. Today, the BPO firms include well
trained professionals who will be undertaking every project to accomplish their tasks well. Every project that is undertaken for sales
and marketing of different services and products stands crucial to bring about the right solution in all respect. The outbound
call center services include a range of well-appointed services. These include product or service promotion, appointment scheduling, market research and
survey, mortgage lead generation, email follow up, sales and marketing, voice broadcast and others. Appointment setting or schedulingThe appointment setting
activities as offered as a part of the outbound services form to be the keystone of generating the new business
avenues. It forms to be the most competent business to business communication channel that needs a complete administrative program to
make sure that the appointments are rightly scheduled, by every field representative in a resourceful way possible. Market Research and
SurveyAll companies have a mission. The mission of firms offering outbound services is to offer its clients with the information
that can be put into use as immediately as possible for making the organizational decisions and critical business. It is
outstanding performance that matters in each campaign or project so as to ensure better customer support. Product/ Service PromotionPutting in
use the state of art infrastructure, most outbound call center companies aim to offer its clients with the information that
can be well put into use as quickly as possible. It is through the use of advanced infrastructure that companies
will be assured of getting solution based approach that meets e-commerce and telephonic needs, connected to any product campaign and
also the following promotion. Sales and MarketingCompanies engaged in offered outbound call center services bring about all inclusive sales and
marketing services that ensure generation of significant revenues for clients. Several strategies are used to undertake a particular marketing or
sales campaign. Voice BroadcastVoice broadcasting or voice broadcast stands for the delivery of the pre recorded voice messages to any
live person or answering machine or sometimes both hostel dialer. This is by far, one of the most economical
and cost effective ways for reaching out employees, prospects, customers and groups. Email Follow UpThe outbound call centers are generally
specialized in improving and increasing the rates of business conversion, maximizing the campaign effectiveness and also building a strong customer
relationships through the direct mail follow up. This sums up all the essential components of a modern call center. href="http://quizilla.teennick.com/stories/19931914/partnering-with-an-it-telemarketing-firm-can-help-you-generate-high-quality-server-virtualization-sa">additional resources If you are thinking of building a call center or outsourcing your call center work make sure that
the above elements are part of the system.

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No business can survive the long run without some form of consistent advertising. As a result, most business owners will
eventually consider using advertising to promote their business. The toughest part of the advertising equation is in determining where and
how to spend your advertising dollars. If you do it wrong, you could plunk down your entire advertising budget and
receive absolutely no return on your investment. But, if you do it right, your advertising could continue to bring a
nice return for years to come. HOW DO I MAKE THE RIGHT ADVERTISING DECISIONS
In order to make gooddecisions concerning how to spend your advertising budget, you must first have a good understanding of the different types of
advertising and promotion available and what can be expected to be achieved by each. You must understand which markets the
different media's can reach. You must understand the demographics of the media's consumers. You must understand the buying habits of
the consumers reached through the media. WHAT OFFLINE ADVERTISING & PROMOTION MEDIA'S SHOULD BE CONSIDERED
The media's that peoplethink of most often are television, radio, newspaper and magazine advertising. Of course, these are the big boys that big
businesses use regularly. Other methods of promotion include trade shows, press releases, direct sales, telemarketing, word of mouth, branding and
billboard advertising. CONSIDERING THE BIG MEDIA OUTLETS
The big boys of advertising media's generally cost big bucks. Given certaincircumstances, the big media's can be bought for very little money. Take for example, television, radio and newspapers cost big
bucks during their prime times, but can be bought for pennies on the dollar during non-primetime hours. Television primetime is
between 7pm and 10pm. Radio primetime is between 7am and 6pm. With newspapers, the primetime is Wednesdays and Sundays. If
you intend to hit a media during prime time, get ready to drop some bucks. Primetime means that you will
be able to hit more consumers during these times. So, in most cases, a primetime buy will enable you to
reach more people with your advertising. Non-primetime hours can still deliver a lot of eyes and ears to your message,
and sometimes, these off-hours can be bought for a bargain basement price. GETTING MILEAGE FROM EVENTS
Trade shows andpress releases are more event-driven. The trade show is the event, while the press release generally exploits an event. Trade
shows are an exceptional tool when you deal directly with potential sellers of your products or services. Other shows are
directed at the consumer, and those can be very valuable avenues for sales as well. The press release is aimed
towards gaining attention for a business by distributing newsworthy information about the business. Sometimes the appearance of a business at
a trade show or other show can provide the necessary angle for a press release. But most often, a successful
press release will actually require more noteworthy information than the appearance of a business at a show. Yet, even the
most mundane of information could be spiced up to give the real air of importance necessary to get your press
release read and printed. read more here The great thing about a press release is that might permit you
to get relatively inexpensive promotion on television, radio, newspapers and magazines; for far less than what it would cost you
to buy advertising in those same outlets. UTILIZING A SALES TEAM
Depending on what type of business you runand the consumers you are trying to reach, you might find direct sales and telemarketing to be very lucrative ways
to drive sales to your business. Both are very similar in nature. Direct sales can be very expensive, as it
requires a great investment of time to accomodate. Telemarketing seeks to minimize the time expenditure, but it often leads to
a smaller degree of respect and attention. Depending on your product or service --- and always depending upon the people
you employ to the task --- each method will be more suited to each business on an individual basis. BRANDING
YOUR BUSINESS
I grouped branding and billboard advertising together in my original list for a reason. I did thisbecause billboard advertising serves most businesses best by helping to support the process of branding. Branding is the process of
establishing your business as the supplier of a certain product or service, or in emphasizing a certain USP (Unique Selling
Proposition) as it pertains to your business. If branding and USP seems to be a confusing concept, think about Wal-Mart
and their tag line: "Always Low Prices, Always. "
Think about Ford Motors, "Quality is Job One. "
Think about the Visa Card, "It's Everywhere You Want To Be. "
You see, these top corporations have managedto make their USP part of their branding. Even if you are only competing in a local marketplace, your USP
can and should fit snugly into your branding strategy. NO MATTER THE MEDIA OR METHOD
Whichever method or mediayou should choose to employ in your advertising and promotion, you should become knowledgable about your market, and the consumers
reached by each media. It is important to understand which consumers can be reached by a certain media, and in
what quantities. However you choose to spend your advertising dollars, you should always track the results of your promotional efforts.
Failing to track successes and failures will ultimately lead to the failure of a business. When you know whom you
are trying to reach and how you think you might be able to reach them, you will begin to learn
how to use advertising and promotion to make your business successful. That is a good thing --- after all, that
is why you got into the business in the first place, isn't it.

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There is a lot of buzz about VoIP Internet phone service. On the consumer side everyone is getting alot of exposure to Vonage commercials as well as triple play offers from Cable Companies. From a technology standpoint, VoIP
is now much more mature than in its nascent days when Internet telephony meant a scratchy voice conversation over two
computers. Whereas VOIP Services has been used by Telcos to carry voice traffic over long portions of their networks for
years, it is now positioned to become the standard technology used to carry voice traffic over the last mile from
every consumers home. Increased broadband penetration and advances in VoIP technology make this possible, and now there is a long
line of VoIP providers out there looking for a piece of the action. They range from giants like Verizon and
Comcast to relatively small unknowns. For the first time in the history of telecommunications it is possible to be a
telephony provider without the huge barriers of capital needed for switches and network operation centers (NOCS).) nor the regulatory barrier
of being a Local Exchange Carrier. So will the industry be marked by many small nimble players What is the
likelihood of survival for small consumer VoIP service providers

The Cable TV companies have a strong position in the
telephony market. They already have a large embedded base of customers. They also have a local presence, with field installers
regularly driving around neighborhoods and customer service locations in every town in which they have a franchise. Having the field
installers is a major advantage since they can install VoIP service and also hook up inside wiring so the service
experience is no different than before. Therefore a person doesnt have to be the least bit technically inclined to adopt
the service, thereby opening the market to the masses. The pure-plays like Vonage just cant reach the mass market like
this.

Cable companies also have huge brand awareness in their markets. What is also potentially important is that they
are perceived as a utility company and people are used to getting phone service from this type of entity. There
is a familiarity and comfort level of going to a utility company for phone service.

They also have tremendous
strength in both billing and customer service. While some may hate the cable company because they have lengthy time windows
for showing up for an installation, may show up late, and may keep you on hold at the call center,
the Cable companies are in actuality very good at managing the complexities of their operations. For example, RCN entered some
markets years ago as an alternate cable provider thinking they could leverage peoples dislike of the cable companies service record
and do it better; instead they ended up realizing how very complex it is and ended up doing it worse.
If a company wants to scale as a major VoIP provider, they will have to manage the complexities of billing
and customer service. The cable companies have been down this road already.

Here is what could be the biggest
factor to why the Cable companies will be most successful at VoIP and ruin the chances of other smaller entrants
- They provide a broadband connection. Since this is required for VoIP, the incumbent provider has the first dibs on
providing voice service. Also, since broadband connections have high margins and VoIP has low margins, broadband providers could treat voice
service as a loss leader to get and keep customers on their high-speed connections. NetZero, for instance, is giving away
free telephone numbers and low priced VoIP service presumably with the hopes of signing on users for their ISP. Voice
service could in fact become so commoditized that it will be given away with broadband service the same way email
is today. If this becomes a reality, there would be very little market opportunity and a bleak survival outlook for
smaller pure-play VoIP service providers unless they could offer a differentiated value proposition.

The Local Phone Company also shares
many of the same advantages as Cable in that they have strong brands, ability to bill effectively, established customer service,
and field technicians. They also should provide the greatest comfort level to people for providing a phone service. However, the
Phone Companies have dismal showing compared to the Cable companies who have the greatest number of VoIP subscribers. Verizon VoiceWing
and AT&T CallVantage each have only 5. 5% of the 2. 9 million pure-play VoIP subscribers (Telephia Q2 2006). Those
320k subs are dwarfed by the Cable Companies like Time Warner Cable who alone had 1. 6 million VoIP customers
as of October 2006. Why have the Phone Companies had such a dismal result Internal confliction between POTS and VoIP
is one reason. They can not put emphasis on a low margin VoIP product in their core offer and have
struggled to create an effective bundled product strategy with advanced services. They are also expending more resources and internal focus
on better broadband offerings than DSL and trying to break into video services read more here. Nonetheless, they still
hold second and third positions for share of pure-play VoIP subscribers and have deep pockets, which will allow them to
far outspend a small VoIP provider to get mindshare.

Vonage, with 53.9% of the 2.9 million pure-play VoIP subscribers,
is spending a ton of money to get mindshare and customers. This is good in that it raises awareness of
the product category, which helps a smaller pure-play. However, it also presents a huge challenge for smaller providers to compete
head to head for customers when a single provider has such a dominant voice.

There are a number of
challenges facing a smaller VoIP provider. Small providers have to compete for share of voice against companies that are spending
a lot of money. As far as the business case goes, VoIP has relatively small margins and the ROI for
marketing campaigns and generating brand awareness is a challenge. Yet without spending money on marketing, it is difficult to capture
customers.

Then there is the challenge of the market size. Pure-play providers dont have local installers and technicians, which
limit the market to those who have the technical savvy to set up the service or the willingness to do
so. If the target market is defined as people who have the technical savvy to set up VoIP on a
home network, then this market is comprised largely of younger people. This group is increasing mobile based and has little
use for a landline phone. Also, consider how the overall telephony market will change over the years. People in college
now that will be graduating over the next couple of years and getting apartments are 100% mobile based and have
never had a landline phone. Thus the market for pure-play VoIP will be shrinking as fast as it grows.
/>However, there is still an opportunity for small VoIP providers in this challenging market. The opportunity is to focus on
niche markets and leverage specific advantages of VoIP that are particularly important to specific customers segments. In such segments, word
of mouth advertising is a viable strategy if the service can meet a strong need. This solves the dilemma of
investing in media to build a strong brand and maintains better profitability.

ReVoS Internet phone service is an example
of a small VoIP provider taking just this strategy. They are focusing on a niche segment of people who make
a lot of international calls. ReVoS offers VoIP service, which includes unlimited international calling to over 40 countries including the
standard VoIP product offering for $24. 95 per month. They have also developed a VoIP product that works over a
mobile phone that doesnt require a broadband connection. This is geared to people of international origin who, by the way,
have the greatest propensity to use cell phones of any demographic in the U. S. This niche makes sense since
carrying long distance call traffic is an inherent strength of the VoIP networks. Also these customer groups are better reached
through a niche strategy and would be missed by mass-market strategies. This market is comprised largely of people living in
the U. S. who have moved here from other countries. These are tight communities where word of mouth can flourish
and the value proposition is strong when saving people money on high cost international calls ivr. This is an
example of how a small VoIP provider can successfully compete against much more formidable competitors such as the Cable Companies
and Vonage.

However, the future of the telephony industry and the role that VoIP takes still needs to be
fully defined and there are many uncertainties. There is a long list of unknowns, which include such things as Google
getting into Voice and whether Microsoft includes a softphone and VoIP service as a standard part of their operating systems.
Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) is another technology wildcard that could change the shape of the competitive landscape. The overwhelming penetration
of mobile phone service and mobile carriers ability to steal the show with a FMC offer is very real. This
may be the competing technology that upsets the MSOs stronghold on VoIP. The question then becomes which bundled product offer
is greater 1) Broadband and VoIP or 2) Mobile phone and VoIP. Another thing to consider is how Wireless VoIP
(wVoIP) could change the competitive landscape and underlying telephony ecosystem if municipal hotspots and/or WiMax take off.

Whatever the
future the holds, the economies of the telephony industry are likely to place a few large carriers in control of
the majority of the market. People want simplicity in their lives and the winners will be those who provide the
most seamless solutions to peoples basic communications needs. For smaller VoIP providers to survive and make profit, they will need
to meet strong niche needs that get overlooked by the mass adoption strategy, have a well defined and differentiated value
proposition (Recall ESPN Mobiles problem), efficient operations to control cost and low margins, low churn in order to compensate for
limited total average revenue per subscriber (ARPU) absent a larger bundled product strategy, and the ability to benefit from viral
marketing within the target markets. With all of this in place, there is a chance of survival for small VoIP
providers.

more info RNK Telecom is a privately held phone company offering wholesale and residential telecommunications services including
VOIP Services. They market ReVoS, an Internet telephony product which offers superior International Calling.

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