Business phone? Top 10 reasons to use an independent agent

by Iraj Partovi on 02/11/11

1. Unbiased opinion of multiple service providers

Independent Agents have extensive experience working with multiple carriers and service providers and are familiar with their products and services. Being independent they are free to sell any solution from any vendor that best suits your needs. An experienced independent agent can provide you with consultation that can prevent your business from future disasters. Like buying a telephone system that does not support the features you need, or a system that does not grow with your business and you have to replace it at your expense.

2. Stability and Availability

The telecom industry has been in turmoil and going through financial crises for years. With the large number of carriers going through bankruptcy or with all the merger and acquisitions that is taking place it is a slim possibility that the representative that sold you your solution a year ago still be with the same service provider. With an independent agent you still have the same expert to contact with your telecom needs regardless of these changes with the carriers.

3. Single Point of Contact

Today products of multiple vendors are used to provide telecom functionality for a business. For example for a business IP PBX system it is possible that a vendor provides the Internet connection, a second vendor provides the VoIP service for connection to the PSTN and yet another vendor sells the equipment and provides the call processing functionality. You have the independent agent as a single point of contact to facilitate and coordinate the tasks among the vendors at the time of purchase or when system malfunctions. An experienced independent agent is instrumental in resolving issues where each vendor is blaming the other vendor as the cause of the problem.

4. Independent Agent is your Business Partner

As independent agent is your business partner who knows your business needs and preferences. You can trust him to be your buying assistant and a source you can go to for your telecom needs. It takes time to create this trust and understanding, and a representative that changes every year or two can not reach to this level of intimacy with your business.

5. Better and broader understanding of the technology

Convergence of voice and data networks has increased the complexity of the telecom solutions and has made it very difficult for a non technical person to sort through all the possible products that are available in the market today. An experienced independent agent who has worked for years with multiple carriers has broader knowledge in technologies like: MPLS, IP PBX, VoIP, T1, SIP Trunks, and Hosted solutions to name a few, compared to a carrier representative that is exposed only to the products of that carrier. With such knowledge an independent agent can save significant amount of money for your business in purchasing solutions that best fits your current and future business needs.

6. Vested interest in the success of your business

A direct sales representative of a telecom company is paid to only generate sales. Any problem after deployment of the service is handled by the customer support. A sales representative is told to direct the customer to help desk with all the product problems after the sale. He/she has no incentive to help you with the product issues. On the other hand an independent agent is compensated by small monthly commission pays which usually takes many months to equal the one-time payment of a sales representative. The business model for an independent agent is to build a portfolio of satisfied clients that keep paying month after month. He/she has a vested interest in keeping you happy to keep the monthly payments coming and hopefully sell more products to you in future.

7. Independent agents do not have a quota to make

Sale representatives are incentivized to sell you features and services that you do not need in order to make their quotas. Most of the time this is presented to you as a complex selection of features and capabilities that you do not even notice that you do not need some of these features at the time of purchase. The independent agents usually do not have quotas with carriers they are selling for and they want to keep you satisfied with their sale after deployment of the product. As a result they do not try to sell you features or products that you do not need. Usually an audit of your account by an independent agent can eliminate the useless features and reduce your bill by about 10-20 percent.

8. Same product pricing

Both direct sale representatives and independent agents offer exact same standard pricing for the products and services. All promotions and special pricing for large projects are available to the independent agents the same as the direct sale representative.  To insure all customers are treated equally service providers have to provide independent agents with the same promotions that are available to the sale representatives.

9. Better support

Usually the independent agent is a local resource to provide you with the support compared to a technical support organization of a service provider that might be housed overseas. Independent agents might have direct access to the support team and might be able to expedite resolution of a problem in case of an emergency. They can also be a strong advocate for your company in resolving issues with the multi-vendor products. With their vendor experience and their knowledge of the technology they might be able to narrow down the problem to the vendor who is responsible for resolving the problem.  

10. Proactive to changes in technology

Newer technologies help businesses with streamlining their operation and reducing their operational expenses. Independent agents keep abreast of these changes to stay in business. An agent who has worked with you is knowledgeable about overall communication products and services that are deployed in your business and had intimate understanding of your business direction and goals. To keep you as a satisfied customer this agent makes sure that you are aware of the trends in technology and provides you with timely recommendations about deploying the new technologies. With such a service you are assured that you are in par or ahead of your competition in benefiting what technology has to offer your business.

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