More than 100 channel partners shared their successes and challenges selling emerging services at the first-ever Selling Techniques Networking Luncheon at the Fall 2011 Channel Partners Conference & Expo.

The event, sponsored by World Telecom Group, featured peer discussions about selling hot services, including the cloud (tables sponsored by Quest and PAETEC), SIP trunking (table sponsored by SoTel Systems), energy (table sponsored by BlueStar Energy), UC, MPLS, Ethernet, hosted VoIP, conferencing and collaboration and wireless.

A majority (86 percent) of attendees polled during the event said that diversifying their revenue streams with new products was “important” or “very important.”

Specifically, one in four attendees (26 percent) said they would be most likely to add cloud services in the next 12 months. Similarly, one in four said they would add energy. About one in nine (12 percent) is looking to add mobility.

However, one in four (25 percent) said they were challenged in choosing the right vendor partner to aid their diversification. One in five said the challenge was training salespeople. A similar number (21 percent) said educating customers was a problem.

Selling new products also was a challenge. Twenty-seven percent said getting to the right decision-maker was the issue. Generating leads was a problem for one in four (24 percent).

By Josh Long

For the first time ever Thursday evening, Channel Partners hosted the Channel Partners Zone – a casual event featuring cocktails and off-the-cuff conversation.

The idea was to create an atmosphere akin to the show on TMZ where founder Harvey Levin and his staff rag on the endless supply of idiots in Hollywood. But instead of ridiculing the likes of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Snooki, channel partners invested time shredding the hand that feeds them: carriers.

The banter ranged from serious conversations (“We have to change the way we are doing business”) to one-liners (“Oh my God, Sarah Palin just walked by” and “My kids don’t need to eat. Wait, I got kids?”). (In case you were wondering, Larry Walsh, president of The 2112 Group, blurted out all these quotes. I don’t know Larry personally, but after sitting in on several sessions he hosted today, I get the sense he’s not the bashful type.)

Frankly, it was a boisterous bunch – that’s fairly inevitable when the wine is flowing – and I had some trouble following the banter at first. Eventually, I heard one guy say (and I’m paraphrasing) that carriers could give a damn about their customers because they just need revenues and have a mountain of debt to service. VIRGO CEO John Siefert seemed to vigorously challenge that position.

Another theme that emerged: Carriers aren’t afraid to break their contracts with agents because they know that lawsuits cost a hell of a lot of money and take forever. That made sense to me except when some folks kept referring to the litigation process in such a breach of contract action as a six- to seven-year event. Apparently, they all live in California and plan to take their case to the Supreme Court.

Walsh indicated the IT channel is too complacent because it doesn’t want to make suppliers like Cisco mad as hell.

“You have to push back,” he said.

Some agents also talked about the pros/cons of selling gas and electricity. One agent indicated that a few of his big customers thought that was a silly idea. But it is logical for some transactional agents with a history of selling long distance and T1 circuits, countered another dude.

It was about then that I started to fade off into space until some chap said something about 147 dog years – I think that’s how long he has been in the communications business. (For the record, it is commonly believed that one dog year equals seven human years, so apparently this dude has been in business for 21 years).

Fairly soon, Channel Partners Editor-in-Chief Khali Henderson was raising her wine glass to the crowd – and the event was over.

To be candid, the Channel Partners Zone wasn’t as entertaining as watching a famous person make a complete fool of himself on TMZ. But it was a laid-back and amusing event that the Channel Partners team will work to improve.

Yealink Network Technology Ltd. (Booth #1505) is gearing up production on the new T32G Gigabit Color Phone, the successor to the T38G model. The new Yealink phone comes in a darker color and with brighter printing on the keys. It’s also smaller than the T38G – at 7.2x7.8x3.5 inches – to give users more space on their desks.

Further, Yealink is loading the phone with more features than usual. For example, there’s a three-inch color display, Gigabit Ethernet, G.722 high-definition voice coded, Power-over-Ethernet support, color-picture Caller ID, full-duplex speakerphone, multiple language support, an open VPN client and more.

Yealink will make the T32G phone available through 888VoIP (Booth #1505), its distribution partner in the United States, at the end of the third quarter. 888VoIP did not specify the margin ranges its reseller and integrator partners can expect to earn on sales of the T32G. It did say volume discounts are available.

Yealink--888VoIP also specializes in unit provisioning, logistics, financing, and technical and marketing support.

Vocal IP Networx (Booth #1431), a provider of Internet access, IP telephony and cloud services, now offers a unified communications (UC) platform, dubbed Vocal UC.

But the New York-based company didn’t just develop its own product – it’s using Microsoft’s highly regarded Lync software as the foundation for Vocal UC. To that point, Vocal UC lets users connect and collaborate so they can improve productivity, work with mobile colleagues, promote greater responsiveness and maintain regulatory compliance. Vocal UC comes with enterprise voice features, as well as deployment and management tools.

Vocal IP is a Microsoft-certified partner. Because of that, its sales engineers also are accredited on the Lync platform. That means Vocal IP agents are able to use sales engineers as resources when working to close deals. The company said internal studies show that once a Vocal IP sales engineer is involved, close ratios increase “dramatically.”

And while Vocal IP didn’t say what range of commissions agents can expect to earn, it is running a sales incentive. Through September, the company is offering one month’s recurring commission for all new Vocal UC sales. Channel managers have details at Vocal IP’s booth.

California-based TelePacific Communications (Booth #1200 and an executive show sponsor) is launching national MPLS and managed services thanks to its acquisition of Telekenex, which is expected to close in the third quarter. The competitive service provider’s agents “can now rely on TelePacific for all of their nationwide MPLS needs,” said Ken Bisnoff, TelePacific’s channel chief.

“Our unparalleled level of agent support, customer service and reliability, coupled with our new suite of managed services makes this an ideal opportunity for our agents to grow with us,” he added.

The new nationwide, PCI-compliant MPLS/OC-192 backbone provides efficiency and redundancy. And, because of TelePacific’s network reach, customers’ data will cross the most direct and shortest paths, to achieve the fastest possible speeds, the company said. There’s also intelligent routing with disaster recovery configurations, and network monitoring and reporting, intended to reduce downtime and increase productivity. The MPLS and managed services are supported by a firewall – which is constantly monitored and updated – that resides in TelePacific’s infrastructure.

TelePacific further said agents’ retail clients will benefit because they’ll have direct access to payment card processors, which ensures secure credit- and debit-card transactions.

“With the new network and services, TelePacific is positioned for some exciting developments in the near future,” Bisnoff said. “We look forward to having the agent community on our side as we embark on this new phase.”

Master agency Telarus Inc. (Booth #1408) has added Ethernet to its patented, real-time carrier pricing tool GeoQuote.

Partners now may get budgetary pricing for 10mbps to 1gbps Ethernet over fiber in seconds, rather than days or weeks, Telarus said. The GeoQuote enhancement also cuts down on the number of unqualified quotes from carriers.

“Ethernet is becoming one of our core product sets,” said Adam Edwards, president of Telarus. “Agents are selling it in droves and, more often than not, the carrier with fiber in a customer's building wins the deal. It only made sense to focus our R&D dollars to develop technology that could give agents access to this information in a quick and efficient way.”

Using "lit building" lists, or addresses of buildings where carriers have a physical fiber presence, as well as above-ground and subterranean fiber maps, GeoQuote determines the likelihood that a carrier can serve a customer and, at what price. The carriers that have volunteered their information to be a part of the quoting system include AboveNet, AT&T, ACC Business, Broadview Networks, CenturyLink (formerly Qwest Business), Level 3, PAETEC, and Time Warner Cable Business Class. Telarus expects to have more carriers participating in the platform by the end of the year.

“GeoQuote knows where all of the lit buildings are, it knows where fiber runs, and it knows the typical budgetary pricing carriers offer on [various] circuits,” said Andrew Morgan, vice president of web development for Telarus. “The only unknown is the build-out fee, but that cuts down on 90 percent of a carrier's workload while giving agents valuable information in seconds. The ability for agents to get pricing quickly for their clients is critical to their business."

GeoQuote further provides a visual representation of the carrier fiber environment through Google maps. The capability allows for high-level research in case a customer isn't within the pre-subscribed distance, in feet, from any lit buildings.

"This new software is a real game-changer," said Lance Akins, vice president of sales for Telarus. "Never before has it been so easy to sell high-end Ethernet broadband pipes than now, through Telarus.”

Telarus also recently unveiled its new lead-generation program for agents. The initiative feeds leads to partners in their local markets.

Star2Star Communications (Booth #1220) this week is showcasing StarRecovery, its business continuity service.

StarRecovery provides users with a complete virtual PBX system that can be called into action when a customer’s main telephone system is rendered inoperable by environmental, power or Internet disruptions.

StarRecovery does not require an initial capital expenditure. Users pay a low monthly fee plus usage charges. StarRecovery is best for customers who would like to have the reliability of a Star2Star phone system, but who are contractually obligated to keep their existing phone systems for some period of time.

During initial configuration of the StarRecovery system, the system administrator determines how incoming calls will be routed on the StarRecovery system. Employees who have their own direct dial number can choose to receive calls on a cell phone, home phone or both. Main or departmental numbers can be routed to an auto attendant or to a ring group.

When the primary phone system goes down, the administrator activates StarRecovery by notifying the local exchange carrier. Upon notification, the carrier reroutes calls to the StarRecovery system using remote call forwarding. The StarRecovery system accepts all incoming calls in place of the company’s primary phone system. Incoming calls are automatically routed to their pre-determined destinations.

“StarRecovery allows companies of all sizes to have a robust, reliable and inexpensive disaster plan for their phone system,” said Norman Worthington, CEO of Star2Star Communications.

StarRecovery provides all the features of a standard Star2Star Business phone system, including unlimited voice mail, email delivery of voicemail, auto attendants, menus and conference rooms. The entire StarRecovery system is hosted at Star2Star’s data centers, and no local power or Internet connection is needed.

In the event of an extended outage, StarRecovery services can be delivered via an optional portable IP PBX system that can be installed in hours. StarRecovery systems can be permanently converted to standard Star2Star systems with minimal configuration changes, making it a good transition solution for companies planning to switch to Star2Star.

“We built this product because customers were asking us for it,” said Worthington. “We’re offering users of other companies’ systems the ability to fail over to Star2Star’s proven, highly reliable VoIP system in the event of an outage.”

StarRecovery is available now.