Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

If you have customers looking to upgrade their ADSL circuits to faster, more reliable fibre broadband and fibre Ethernet and you do not operate your own network, you may be looking for a partnership.

If so, how do you decide the best company to partner with? We have put a few questions together to help you decide.

1 – Do you want to manage the billing?

If so, you need to look for a reseller scheme, where you can set your own pricing and bill your own end users. If you don’t have your own billing platform or prefer not to take the risk on 36 month contracts, a dealer programme might be more appropriate for you. Most reputable suppliers will be upfront with you about their costs and will split the margin with you 50/50. If you go down the dealer route then look for a Partner that has a HMRC approved self-billing system. This guarantees regular payments and avoids the need for you to raise invoices for every penny of commission owed to you.

The combination of smartphones with VoIP technology has changed the landscape of business communications. Desk phones were seen as critical for business until recently with the rise in popularity of cloud hosted telephony, allowing you to use your mobile as a desk phone. Will smart phone apps replace desk phones eventually? I am not sure.

Better business communications at lower costs

Cloud voice offers better functionality than traditional on premise phone systems, at a fraction of the cost, available on monthly contracts per extension. With a reliable internet connection, a phone line and a cloud-hosted package, you get access to features such as voicemail to email, call re-dial, DND, call pickup, hunt groups, SIP port, disaster recovery, hot-desking, call waiting and music on hold. Some packages also include the latest VoIP desk phones and come with inclusive standard UK and mobile minutes. Add-ons such as call recording are also available at a few pounds per month extra.

Websites tend to be a focus when you are starting up your business and often over time, the company website gets forgotten. Does any of this sound familiar?

1 – You are busy

You work long hours managing your core business and updating your website doesn’t come close to being a priority. The website was put together for the launch and there is no dedicated resource to manage it. Your team is busy supporting you and your customers and with no one person looking after the website, it doesn’t get updated.

Do you have customers that need a better internet connection to manage their office applications? Have you thought about recommending or even supplying more reliable internet connectivity?

Ever been put off by;

• Dealing with the major carriers directly?
• Coverage by single suppliers?
• Time it takes to get a quote from multiple carriers?
• Lead times?
• Engineer fails?

Voice resellers and IT support companies are coming across tenders to upgrade internet connectivity and traditional telephony more frequently. Many are turning to Jola for help because they have years’ of experience with bespoke solutions and have a leading cloud-hosted telephony platform.

The restaurant chains tend to ask for more complex MPLS solutions to connect multiple sites rolling out over years, however smaller chains and single restaurants are being set up almost overnight. 

Working in the IT and telecoms sector you come across suppliers, both old and new, looking for dealers and resellers on a regular basis. Like any good partnership there needs to be a good fit and having access to a few key areas of information can help you make the right decision. We have come up with a list of what to research when looking for a new channel partner as follows:

Experience

How experienced is the business at delivering services via the channel? Check out their credentials. How long have they operated in the channel? How likely are they to compete with you now and in the future?

2016 is set to present greater challenges for operators who will need to work harder than ever to keep their customers.

According to YouGov the SIM-only market has tripled in size over the past five years. Customers are holding onto handsets for longer and opting to provide their staff with customised call, text and data SIMs depending on their needs. With offers in the marketplace changing so quickly they are opting to be completely flexible rather than committing to 24-month handset and airtime contracts. 

We don't all have the luxury of large marketing budgets with dedicated or outsourced specialists on the payroll, however there are 5 marketing activities we can all do, to help generate more business. They don't take much time, are low-cost and can be very effective at generating new business.

1. Manage your data

Keeping your customer database up to date is essential. Having up to date contact information has obvious benefits, however adding key information such as products bought, renewal dates and details of conversations and visits, highlights future potential revenue such as upgrade, re-sign and cross-sell opportunities.

Start-ups

It is often quoted that 50% of new businesses will fail within five years. To quote Steve Jobs, “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” So while there are a few must-have ingredients such as customer demand, products that work as they should and good customer service, there are also a few general strategies to ease you through those difficult early months and years. 

Jola Partners rarely spend money on traditional marketing, prefering to communicate with customers and prospects directly online. We have identified three of their best habits used to win with customers online - both prospective and existing.

1. The truth will out

You have to be honest about what you are doing. If you are selling don't pretend you are having a conversation, as people will always smell a rat. Great marketing is built on truth and the truth will always out. Customers will make up their own minds. You have to listen to the online conversation and often endure it. It is nice when customers give you a glowing reference but sometimes you need to see and hear the negative and address it.