https://www.channelfutures.com/wp-content/themes/channelfutures_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • SDN/SD-WAN
    • Cloud
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Telephony/UC/Collaboration
    • Cable
    • Mobility & Wireless
    • Fiber/Ethernet
    • Data Centers
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • IoT
    • Desktop
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Analytics
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Channel Research
    • Business Models
    • Distribution
    • Technology Solutions Brokerages
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Best Practices
    • Vertical Markets
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2022 NextGen 101 Rankings
    • MSP 501 Information Center
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • From the Industry
    • Reports/Digital Issues
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • Channel Futures TV
  • EMEA
  • Channel Chatter
    • Back
    • People on the Move
    • New/Changing Channel Programs
    • New Products & Services
    • Industry Honors
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Advisory Boards
    • Industry Organizations
    • Our Sponsors
    • Advertise
    • 2022 Editorial Calendar
  • Awards
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501
    • Channel Influencers
    • Circle of Excellence
    • DE&I 101
    • Channel Partners 101 (CP 101)
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • MSP Summit
    • Channel Partners Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Industry Events
  • About Us
  • DE&I
Channel Futures
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • SDN/SD-WAN
    • Cloud
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Telephony/UC/Collaboration
    • Cable
    • Mobility & Wireless
    • Fiber/Ethernet
    • Data Centers
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • IoT
    • Desktop
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Analytics
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Channel Research
    • Business Models
    • Distribution
    • Technology Solutions Brokerages
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Best Practices
    • Vertical Markets
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2022 NextGen 101 Rankings
    • MSP 501 Information Center
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • From the Industry
    • Reports/Digital Issues
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • Channel Futures TV
  • EMEA
  • Channel Chatter
    • Back
    • People on the Move
    • New/Changing Channel Programs
    • New Products & Services
    • Industry Honors
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Advisory Boards
    • Industry Organizations
    • Our Sponsors
    • Advertise
    • 2022 Editorial Calendar
  • Awards
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501
    • Channel Influencers
    • Circle of Excellence
    • DE&I 101
    • Channel Partners 101 (CP 101)
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • MSP Summit
    • Channel Partners Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Industry Events
  • About Us
  • DE&I
    • Newsletter
  • REGISTER
  • MSPs
  • VARs / SIs
  • Agents
  • Cloud Service Providers
  • Channel Partners Events
 Channel Futures

Telephony/UC/Collaboration


Resale Channel: Stop Gold from Turning to Straw

  • Written by Channel
  • May 31, 1999

Posted: 06/1999

Stop Gold from Turning to Straw
By Eileen M. McGervey

You’ve sold the accounts and signed up the customers. Watch the money roll in. But
wait, it’s not as much as you thought. Maybe next month? It’s still not there.

Sometimes it’s not the sale, it’s the post-sale. So before you start blaming the
customer, your order-entry people, your underlying provider, the local exchange carrier
(LEC) or just about anyone you can think of, ask yourself if you know:

  • What percent of your orders end up confirmed on the first submission?
  • What percent are initially rejected for a presubscribed interexchange carrier (PIC)
    freeze? How many do you fix and how quickly?
  • What percent of your orders are in a reject status?
  • Does your confirmation percent or interval vary between regional Bell operating
    companies (RBOCs), independent telephone operating companies (ITOCs) and competitive LECs
    (CLECs)?
  • How many of your confirmed orders do not have any traffic?

If you already know the answers to these questions and are satisfied with the numbers,
that’s great and read no further. But for some resellers, it’s not unusual for 30 percent
to 50 percent of their orders to never be confirmed. To put this in perspective,
assume you add $10,000 each month in new revenue. If your current confirmation percentage
is 60 percent and you increase that to 70 percent, you’d receive almost $80,000 more in
annual revenue, an increase of more than 15 percent over a one-year period.

So what can you do to turn more orders into paying customers? First, you’ve got to know
the numbers. Second, take appropriate action to make sure they’re moving in the right
direction.

Following are different areas to target in boosting those revenue numbers, including
tips on what you should be looking for and asking about.

Know the Numbers

Knowing the numbers is a basic requirement. Look at your internal reports. What kind of
visibility do you have to order and billing status throughout the process? How current is
the data? How accurate is the data?

Next, do you reconcile your internal order reports with those provided by your
underlying carrier? How often? Make sure the underlying carrier sees what you see. This
keeps the carrier honest and helps you keep your own operation honest as well. Regularly
reviewing and reconciling these reports catches problems before they become big. Sometimes
there may be a real problem, but sometimes it may be a miscommunication on who does what.
It also makes sure your underlying provider stays focused on your business and knows what
is important to you.

Understand Confirmation Intervals and Percentages

Every day you should look at orders received, orders submitted to the carrier and
responses back from the carrier. If you haven’t already, establish benchmarks for how long
it takes orders to get to the carrier, how long until you hear back from them, how long
until they are confirmed by the telco and how long until the first billing call data
records (CDRs) are received. Exceptions to these benchmarks should be monitored and
investigated.

You should know the confirmation intervals and confirmation percentages for each
RBOC, CLEC and ITOC with which you do significant business. Differences can vary widely,
impacting your projected cash flow.

Do you know what type of provisioning arrangements your underlying carrier has with
each LEC? Are they online, direct into their systems, or does the carrier transmit
electronic files? Do you know how often files are sent and how frequently the carrier
receives information back from the telco? Does it ever fax orders to the telco? This is
not always as bad as it might sound because in some instances, faxed orders may have a
shorter interval. But that should be the exception, not the rule. If you identify problems
with certain LECs that cannot be resolved, you may want to modify your target sales areas
or factor that impact into your revenue projections.

Work PIC Freezes

The PIC freeze is an issue that continues to grow and can wreak havoc with confirmation
percentages. Quick turnaround is critical to resolve these while the sale is still fresh
in your customer’s mind.

To make it as painless as possible, establish a process, such as:

  • Identify who will follow up on PIC freezes;
  • Establish a set time to "blitz" these rejects on a weekly or more frequent
    basis;
  • Prepare a list of LEC contact phone numbers;
  • Gather any necessary forms that may need to be submitted to the LEC in support of a
    request; and
  • Develop a script for your reps to use when contacting these customers and/or the LEC.

Look at this as an opportunity to reaffirm a customer’s buying decision by proactively
contacting them quickly and professionally to get their service with you up and going.

Investigate Rejected Orders

First and most important–work your rejects. Do you know:

  • How long it takes to hear back from your underlying provider on rejected orders?
  • Which rejects the provider works vs. ones that you should be working?
  • Your underlying provider’s interval for correcting its rejects? How about your interval
    for correcting your rejects?
  • How many orders initially rejected are fixed and translated into confirmed orders by
    your underlying provider? By you?

Similar to PIC freezes, rejects must be worked quickly. Again, it’s helpful to have a
specific team that focuses on resolving these as their top priority. While they may work
on other projects, these come first. You should have a benchmark of what is considered an
"acceptable" level of rejects and manage to that target.

Also, establishing targets and goals on preventing rejects as well as speed in
correcting them will help keep your team focused on this missing revenue. Translate the
rejected orders into lost revenue so it’s crystal clear that you’re talking about money
here. Look for patterns on your rejected orders–type of rejects, who sold them, who did
the order entry, particular service type, particular LEC–as another way to minimize the
problem by attacking it at its source.

Follow Up on Confirmed but No Traffic

Follow up on automatic number identifications (ANIs) that don’t show traffic within the
first 20 to 30 days. These customers may have reverted back to their previous carrier or
been slammed by another provider. Winback programs by competitors can result in orders
you’ve successfully provisioned producing little or no revenue because of a swift
switchback. Don’t count on being notified by the LEC or your underlying provider that this
has happened. Proactively monitor minute activity on toll-free, 1+ and other services and
follow up as needed.

Check That Address

If you send out confirmation or welcome letters (or even invoices) to your new
customers and any come back as undeliverable mail, or if the post office sends you a
change-of-address card, take action. For address changes, get those into your system (and
your billing company’s) as quickly as possible to prevent any delays or problems in
invoice delivery.

If the address is undeliverable, invoicing the customer will be impossible, which
should raise an immediate red flag. Since mail usually is forwarded for several months and
this is a new order, the address should be current. The problem can be as simple as a
mistake in order entry or sloppiness in writing up the order, or it could be an indicator
of a potential fraud situation. Either way you want to get this resolved immediately. It
doesn’t matter how many minutes someone uses if you can’t bill and collect. Again, if this
is a significant problem, track it back to its source–sales rep, order entry or file
problem.

One Last Note

Your priority is to get orders up and billing as quickly as possible. Your cash flow
depends upon it and so does your reputation with your customers. This is their first
impression of doing business with you. The amount of time it takes for you to provision
their order and send them their first invoice is an indicator of your efficiency and
thoroughness as well as the soundness
of their selection. According to Jay Conrad Levinson, "guerrilla market-ing"
expert, the "moment of maximum satisfaction" for a purchase lasts for 30 days.
You want to use that period to reaffirm your customer’s decision to go with you and make
sure any potential issues with their order and invoicing are resolved before that glow
wears off.

It is astounding the amount of revenue left on the table after the initial sale is
made. You’ve already done the hard part–make sure it pays off.

Carrier Beware

Underlying carriers should take note of a reseller
that has rejected orders piling up and doesn’t seem to care. Some resellers go for
quantity at the expense of quality and that can end up to be the carrier’s problem. While
initially a reseller looks like a great customer because the order and minute activity
looks great, very soon the calls will start. And they won’t be happy calls. An underlying
carrier may end up in the middle of disputes between the reseller’s end users and the
reseller. And in different states, responsibility is being placed on the underlying
carrier for actions undertaken by their reseller customers. As regulatory attention on
slamming continues to increase, it is imperative that you demonstrate your best efforts to
monitor suspect activity.

Eileen McGervey is a 13-year veteran of the long distance industry, serving in
positions with Sprint Corp., LDDS/WorldCom and Cable & Wireless Inc. At the time of
this writing, she was a consultant doing business as emc2, Falls Church, Va. She has since
been named director of marketing with Telsave.com, New Hope, Pa. She can be reached at [email protected].

Tags: Agents Telephony/UC/Collaboration

Most Recent


  • Global social network
    As Commoditization Takes Toll on Telco Revenue, Providers Eye Network-as-a-Service
    Telco providers can rake in the big bucks with network as a service offerings – if they get their act together. A new study by ABI Research touches on the rise of network as a service (NaaS). Reece Hayden, ABI’s distributed and edge computing analyst, said the NaaS market will surpass $150 billion by 2030. Moreover, […]
  • Hired
    Zoom Taps Telarus, Intelisys Alum to Oversee Contact Center Partner Experience
    Knight spent the last two and a half years building the contact center practice at one of Zoom's top partners.
  • Chatbot on laptop
    Avaya Reshapes Partner Landscape with New Cloud Products for a Hybrid World
    The company is offering more low code, no code solutions as well.
  • Conversation Intelligence Improves Outcomes for Contact Centers, Observe.AI Research Shows
    However, two-thirds of contact centers still rely on manual processes for critical workflows like agent coaching and quality assurance.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your Channel Futures account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Cloud Phone
    AT&T to Offer Up to 1 Million Customers Cisco Webex Calling
  • Sign a Contract
    Unisys Adds Managed UCaaS with $153 Million Unify Square Acquisition
  • Fortune 500 2021 logo
    AT&T, Microsoft, Verizon, More Tech, Telco Companies Make Latest Fortune 500
  • Telephone poles and lines
    Granite Buys Epik: Score One for Legacy Telecom

Upcoming Events

View all

MSP Summit

September 13, 2022 - September 16, 2022

Channel Partners Conference & Expo

May 1, 2023 - May 4, 2023

Galleries

View all

Microsoft Reveals 2022 Partner of the Year Awards

July 6, 2022

Channel People on the Move: AT&T, HPE, Google Cloud, Comcast, More

July 5, 2022

Missed June’s Cloud News? AWS, VMware, HPE, Google Cloud Made Headlines

July 5, 2022

Industry Perspectives

View all

The Role of Mentors and Sponsors in Advancing Your Tech Career

July 5, 2022

How to Make Embracing Change Part of Your Company Culture

July 1, 2022

How to Differentiate to Leverage 5G’s Revenue Opportunity

June 28, 2022

Webinars

View all

VEP Platform for Delivery of uCPE, SD-WAN and SASE

June 29, 2022

The Digital Worker: How to Empower Customers with a Flexible, Scalable VDI Solution to Enable Remote Work

June 30, 2022

Growing Partner Revenue and Customer Satisfaction with Power Management Services

June 23, 2022

White Papers

View all

Work Goes Remote – (and Other Top ITOps Trends)

May 25, 2022

The New Bottom Line: How MSPs Can Meet the Healthcare Crisis While Evolving Their Businesses

April 19, 2022

How to build a Security Operations Center (on a budget)

April 4, 2022

Channel Futures TV

View all

Vonage a ‘Single Communications Stack Provider’ for Partners, Customers

IBM, Partners and the $1 Trillion Hybrid Cloud Opportunity

June 26, 2022

Agents Share ‘Secrets,’ Industry Opportunity

May 11, 2022

AT&T, Microsoft, Cisco, ThreatLocker on Unlocking Partner Potential

May 6, 2022

Twitter

ChannelFutures

Read about @ScienceLogic's two new hires. dlvr.it/STRqwM https://t.co/BWeZo4fXbs

July 6, 2022
ChannelFutures

Breaking down the 2022 #Microsoft @msPartner of the Year Awards. dlvr.it/STRlVC https://t.co/HspwIXREp2

July 6, 2022
ChannelFutures

RT @MSP_Summit: Today's #MSPSummit & Channel Leadership Summit #SpeakerSpotlight is on @Len_DiCostanzo, CEO of MSPToolkit! Learn from one o…

July 6, 2022
ChannelFutures

Global software company @Nable has acquired @Spinpanel, a multi-tenant Microsoft 365 management and automation plat… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

July 6, 2022
ChannelFutures

.@nitelusa weighed in on @ABIResearch's latest study. dlvr.it/STRVYg https://t.co/CudmYUiLjz

July 6, 2022
ChannelFutures

.@Zoom's hiring of Brandon Knight brings aboard one of the most respected contact center experts in the agent chann… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

July 6, 2022
ChannelFutures

Distributor @Infinigate to acquire @nuviasgroup to create "pan-European #cybersecurity powerhouse."… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

July 5, 2022
ChannelFutures

[email protected], @AWSCloud, @VMware, @Azure, @HPE, more, all made big waves in June with respective #cloud news.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

July 5, 2022

MSP 501

The industry's largest and most comprehensive partner awards program.

Newsletters and Updates

Sign up for The Channel Report, Channel Futures Update, MSP 501 Newsletter and more.

Live Channel Events

Get the latest information on the next industry-leading Channel Partners event.

Galleries

Educational slide shows and images from live events.

Media Kit And Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • Channel Partners Events
  • Telecoms.com
  • MSP 501
  • Black Hat
  • IoT World Today
  • Omdia

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter

FOLLOW Channel Futures ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X