VOIP Phones

I am seeking some advice. We soon will be moving to a new location and will need to purchase phone service (we are in a shared office environment currently with phones as part of the package). We have started looking into voice over IP phones and these seem to be a good alternative to regular phone service, especially factoring in price. Are there any downsides to this type of service? Are there differences in service providers? How about differences in equipment?

On a related note, we have begun using Skype for making calls to folks in India. Not only are the calls free, the sound quality is awesome. The downside is that you need a computer and a broadband connection to make calls. Not practical for all situations, but worth checking out.

Please share your advice and phone stories.

Rob

How Do I Find New Customers?

Most new companies have to figure out how to find new customers. Of course Zelcom Group is no exception. We have begun to explore many different marketing methods and I would be curious to know where other people have had success or failures:

• Web site: For our business this is table stakes. It provides a level of credibility as well as further describing our business. Unlike B to C businesses, we do not look to our web site as a primary source for customers, but as an important supplement. Please check out our web site, www.zelcomgroup.com and give me your feedback.

• Marketing lists: There are many marketing lists out there from various sources. Today we had an interesting meeting with a company called InfoUSA that enables users to create both b to b and b to C lists and mailings. Their product called Sales Genie enables a user to easily access the InfoUSA database with a pretty slick front end tool. The tool enables the user to select names based upon criteria that would be consistent with the types of target customers most likely to respond to the product or service being offered. I liked the overview we received in our meeting today, and we are following up to get more information. Folks interested in other lists available should consider contacting the national credit bureaus, Trans Union, Equifax, and Experian as well as Acxiom and Choice Point. There are other companies out there that provide lists as well. Please let me know if anyone has had success with other list providers. Our company specializes in evaluating lists and optimizing marketing results using list data.
  

• Local Chamber of Commerce: We have joined our local chamber of commerce and have found this to be very useful from a number of perspectives. First, it is a great networking opportunity. Not only have we found some business leads, we have also had a great opportunity to practice pitching our business. It seems like the business pitch should be something easy to do, but this was not the case the first couple of times we had to explain what we do. Practice makes perfect. Second, we have found a source of great services for our company. This includes things like promotional items, computer servers, telephone service, etc. Lastly, this is a great way to connect into the local business community.

• Direct Mail: I will have to get back to you on this one. We have created our first marketing piece and will be mailing roughly 1,500 people next month. Wish us luck! I think what we do will difficult to explain in a direct mail piece.

• Professional Sales People: Good sales people are indispensable. They allow you to focus on building your business without having to worry about finding new customers. However, sales folks can be expensive. Make sure you price your product or service with sales salaries/commissions in mind. We were fortunate to find a couple of sales folks that quickly enabled us to fill out our pipeline.
  

• Cold Calls: We have not yet done any cold calls. I don't think this would be very effective for the service we are trying to sell. This has got to be the toughest way to acquire customers!
  

Please share your experiences in acquiring customers. Let me know if I have missed any methods you have tried, whether successful or unsuccessful.

Rob

It begins....

I thought it might be interesting to share my experiences in starting an international analytic consulting company. After working in corporate America for over 16 years, I felt it was time to strike out and be able to do my own thing. Life at times in the corporate world was bordering on a Dilbert cartoon. I look forward to sharing some of these experiences in future entries. I would also love to hear your experiences as well. If you are interested in learning more about my company, please check out our web site:

www.zelcomgroup.com

They say variety is the spice of life...
We have been in business for only 4 months, and in this short period of time I created a business plan, set up a web site, am negotiating partnerships with companies in India and Canada, presented our business plan to investors, and built out a significant business pipeline. Never mind setting up new phone systems, buying a new server, and finding office space. I must say, there is more variety in this owning your own business thing than in corporate life. So far, the experience has been great!

It is my hope that this blog will benefit those who are going down similar roads with their own business. In future posts, I will update you with the lessons I have learned as we continue to build our business. I may also ask for advice from those of you who have already been on the roads we are approaching.

I look forward to reading and sharing your comments.