Conferencing Blog by TA

Conferencing is Rapidly Migrating From the Business to the Consumer Market

2009-12-15T05:31:00.000-08:00

When I first started working for the telephone company in the seventies, the only way you could have a conference call was through the phone company and you had to schedule it in advance and pay around $3.50 per minute. During the late eighties and nineties, conference bridging technology developed to where you could hold reservationless conference calls without an operator and the rate dropped to around 50 cents per minute. Businesses were slow to adopt conferencing, but once they did, their usage increased dramatically. Newer technologies such as web conferencing, using the Internet, have added even more usage and lead to a reduction in pricing. Now that desktop video conferencing technology has emerged and has become economical, conferencing has finally started to migrate to the consumer market.

Consumer markets have been traditionally tough to penetrate in the conferencing arena. Multiple efforts have been tried and most have been ineffective. Teen chat lines, family lines, school lines and patient lines have all been introduced, but very few have taken off to produce any significant amount of usage.

One of the problems has been that consumers have not seen the need for such a product. Another problem is that conferencing typically has been sold on a "paid by the minute" product and consumers have been more budget minded and worried about families running up large conferencing bills.

With the advent of desktop video conferencing, consumers can now use their webcams and the Internet to hold meetings right over their laptops or desktop computers. With speakers and headphones, the voice can be carried over the Internet, as well. With the technology based over the Internet, pricing has dramatically fallen and new flat rate, unlimited usage pricing models have developed. Now you can hold as many family video conferences with family members around the world as you want for less than $99. per month.

Conferencing truly has come a long way since the seventies. Beginning with the business markets, conferencing is now starting to gain a foothold on the consumer markets. The use of the Internet, webcams and personal computers will continue to drive conferencing to every corner of the earth.

Mike Burns has been in the conferencing industry since 1971, having originally worked for Southwestern Bell and AT&T. In 1989, Mr. Burns founded Conference Pros International and in 2000, Mr Burns founded A+ Conferencing, a conferencing provider that sells exclusively through master agents and resellers.

Mr Burns speaks and writes about the conferencing industry frequently. 888-239-3969. http://www.aplusconferencing.com

The Future of Collaboration - InterCall and Huddle

2009-12-15T05:14:00.000-08:00

Thursday, December 17, 2009

12:00 PM - 12:30 PM (Americas) Eastern Time (US & Canada)

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The first 50 registrants will receive a $5 Starbucks gift card. Huddle is a perfect accompaniment to your InterCall phone or web conferencing account. It gives you simple, secure online workspaces to schedule phone & web meetings, collaborate on meeting minutes, share and edit files online, hold discussions, manage projects and more.

Learn how Huddle can help you:

Delight your customers, partners and suppliers - create a professional, branded portal to manage your business relationships
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Legal Industry Conference Calls a Specialty of A+ Conferencing

2009-11-06T11:31:00.000-08:00

I think Mike Burns of A+ Conferencing has been in the conference calling industry since conference calling got competitive. When I personally started selling conferencing in a big way seven years ago I sold quite a bit of Mike's flat rate service. Everyone in the conferencing industry knows Mike. A+ is actually his second conferencing company, he sold his first for a nice profit many years ago.

In any event, in addition to having every flavor of conferencing you could possibly need, A+ specializes in conferencing that requires "high touch". Mike has conferencing operators he's trained personally who've been with him for many years and a very flexible billing platform. These are just two of the reasons that the legal industry is one of many vertical markets that A+ specializes in.

Click the video below to listen to a short video of Mike explaining A+'s points of expertise when it comes to taking great care of attorney's and law firms that need special handling when it comes to their conference calls.

(Mouse over video to see controls)

Following are key features mentioned in the video:

Audio, web and video conferencing for lawyers, attorneys and law firms.
40% of A+ Conferencing's customers are lawyers or law firms.
A+ does individual billings to separate law firms if multiple law firms are all involved in the same conference call.
Individual billing codes can also be incorporated into the invoices.
Extensive experience in court calls and deposition calls. An A+ operator stays on to moderate the call to ensure success.
A+ has the flexibility to meet any legal conferencing requirement.
A+ offers a free trial to qualified lawyers, attorneys and law firms.

For more information call A+ Conferencing at 888-239-3969 or visit their website at http://aplusconferencing.com/

I've sold conferencing myself for many years. If you're interested in my spin feel free to contact me directly at 951-251-5155 or Dan@TelecomAssociation.com.

Got you own spin you'd like to share? Please leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading, watching and listening.

Dan Baldwin
TA Executive Director

Master Agent TelcoPro USA on Why They Like the Conference Group

2009-11-06T09:53:00.000-08:00

Following is an interview with Dan DiOrio, President of master agency TelcoPro USA on how conferencing fits into his business and why he works with the Conference Group.

Click the image below to watch and listen to the interview. (Turn the sound up on your computer speakers.) You can see the questions asked below the video. You can use the video "scroll bar" to fast forward to the question you're most interested in.

(Mouse over video to see video controls)

1. How does conferencing fit into TelcoPro's service offering mix?

2. How long have you sold conferencing?

3. Do you lead with conferencing?

Do you primarily sell conferencing to your embedded base of customers or new prospects?

4. Percentage of your revenues from conferencing?

5. What conferencing vendors have you used in the past?

6. How long have you used the Conference Group?

7. How is the Conference Group better?

8. How does conferencing look in your future?

9. What else do we need to know about the Conference Group?

10. What do we need to know about TelcoPro USA?

For more information about TelcoPro USA please contact Dan DiOrio at 610-423-8101.
For more information about the Conference Group please contact Greg Plum at 877-716-8255 x8268.

I've sold conferencing myself for many years. If you're interested in my spin feel free to contact me directly at 951-251-5155 or Dan@TelecomAssociation.com.

Got you own spin you'd like to share? Please leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading, watching and listening.

Dan Baldwin
TA Executive Director

Copper's Easy Email Marketing Makes Agent Conference Sales a Snap

2009-11-06T08:04:00.000-08:00

Copper Conferencing distinguishes itself by using automation to make itself the easiest conferencing provider to for telecom agents and channel partners to sell to their customers and prospects.

If you're a telecom agent or channel partner that uses (or wants to use) email marketing to sell new services to your customer base on prospects then you defiantly want to check out the following video tutorial from Copper Conferencing.

Want more information about Copper's agent program? Click here or call 866-903-7521.

For those of you who may not be familiar with the "cutting and pasting" needed to do this (it's really not that hard) I actually made a screen video myself of how this is done. To see my video where I do what they talk about in the video above click here.

I've sold conferencing myself for many years. If you're interested in my spin feel free to contact me directly at 951-251-5155 or Dan@TelecomAssociation.com.

Got you own spin you'd like to share? Please leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading.

Dan Baldwin
TA Executive Director

Got a Customer Base? Resell them 50% Margin Conferencing with InterCall

2009-11-06T07:29:00.000-08:00

I interview a lot of successful telecom distributors and one regret many have is they did not get into conferencing earlier in their business. Most distributors get in only after a few customers beg for a less expensive or more reliable conference service. Once telecom distributors learn about conferencing margins that can pass 50% and a close rate of 35% they think, "Wow, I've left a lot of money on the table over the past several years."

If you're telecom distributor that's got a customer base that trusts your recommendations then you should seriously consider reselling conferencing services to them. To flesh out the basics of what's involved in conferencing resale I interviewed Shelby Cooper of InterCall.

Click the image to watch and hear the interview. Below are questions Shelby addresses in the interview. You can use the "scroll" bar in the video control to "fast forward" to the questions you're most interested in.

Interview questions include the following:

1. How do you select a good "white label" program?

2. What's the "secret sauce" for white-labeling conferencing?

3. What "close rates" should be expected?

4. How can Intercall help "white labelers"?

5. How does Intercall manage user's "use of service"?

6. What's a successful case study look like?

7. What's a reasonable revenue expectation?

8. What are per customer margin ranges?

For more information about Intercall's "white label" or reseller program please contact Shelby Cooper at srcooper@intercall.com.

I've sold conferencing myself for many years. If you're interested in my spin, feel free to contact me directly at 951-251-5155 or Dan@TelecomAssociation.com.

Got you own spin you'd like to share? Please leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading.

Dan Baldwin

TA Executive Director