After you’ve been in the telecom and IT fields for a while you get excited when new offers become available.  In 1989 I started selling long distance for Allnet Communications in Southern California.  We were selling state to state long distance for $0.35/minute.  That means that a 10 minute call from you to your girl or boyfriend cost $3.50.  Do you remember?  Allnet merged with Frontier about 12 years ago, then with Global Crossing and has not been seen or talked about since.  At that time (1989) I’ll never forget how great my feet felt after making 50 cold calls.  Somehow the fact that I had made multiple customer contacts, uncovered some great opportunities and often had closed a deal that same day made all of the pain fade away.  It was an exciting time for me and for our industry.

Thank God the cold calling days are over…..maybe.  Today, most of my time is spent with customers that I’ve supported for years and the days of hurt feet are done with.  Cold calling is still a great way to penetrate a market and get a feel for how your product or service is perceived in the marketplace.  It can be a bit scary for those that have never done it, but usually it has great rewards.  Amazon has “Telephone sales for dummies” – I couldn’t find a dummie book for cold calling.  Check out Tom Hopkins or Zig Ziglar for some true classic training. 

One offering that I might have to present via cold calling is TW Telecom’s new ethernet + PRI or SIP offering.   Provided your business is in one of their “LIT” buildings you can get a 4 Mb ethernet connection to the Internet along with a PRI or SIP trunks for your voice calling for only $775/month (10 Mb ethernet with PRI is only $950/month).  Installation and DID cost aren’t included, but wow, what a deal!   7-8 years ago $775/month wouldn’t buy you an Internet T-1 or a voice T-1.  Would anyone like to argue that the break-up of Ma Bell wasn’t a good idea?  There are some crazy people out there!

And just a reminder for those of you from Lubbock – “DSL/Cable is for your home, T-1 is for your business”. 

Times have changed and TW Telecom is one of the carriers out there putting together attractive bundles for the cash conscience consumer.  Get with your favorite “Carrier Agnositic Telecommunications Agency” for additional details.