Welcome to FISPA LIVE!
Overcoming the Challenges
of New Business
Development
Funding, Outsourcing & Acquisition
Are you a Yes Man ?
Answer these questions
- Do you have multiple channels driving revenue?
- Are you conducting the right activities?
- Are you leveraging best practice cost strategies?
- Do you have the right avenues to fund growth?
- Does your business model allow growth without big costs?
- Is your business structured to look like a good investment?
- Does your business have an excellent exit strategy?
Our background
8-year history of success operating and managing
Telecommunications Agency, Carrier and Consulting firm
– Broad services (Cloud, Managed, Consulting, IT and more)
– Strong financial performance examples
• (55% margins, >2% churn, 100% sales growth)
– Proven tactics and strategies
Quick Facts
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HQ in Nashville, TN
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Currently provide management services to 9 successful companies
today and support over >8,000 businesses
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Solutions for ALL businesses (cloud, voice/data, mpls, internet, …)
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Success based on excellent operations, experience and leadership
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Skilled at cloud based services and telecommunications
Our Core Focuses for Success
 Corporate alignment around annual goals
•
Executives to hourly staff (communicate and manage alignment)
 Revenue growth is imperative
•
•
•
Revenue Ownership Model
Customer experience and churn management
Brand awareness & value
 Competitive loss management
 Operational efficiencies and scalability
 Reporting and administration accuracy
 Sales and Marketing excellence
• Activity management that equal to result expectations
 Individual accountability
• Manage impatiently
Example – Define your Experience
- Position your business around a solid customer strategy.
- Below is a tool used at AT&T, NTT, Earthlink and our business. It works.
DEFINE
• Strategy
• Business Case
DESIGN & SALE
DEPLOY
• Development and
Integration
• Deployment Support
• Business and Technical
Requirements
• Propose and Close
Solutions and
Consult
SUPPORT
• Measurement
• Reporting
• Upsell
SALES
TECHNICAL ARCHITECTS
Applications
Design and
Development
Deployment
Support
SYSTEM INTEGRATORS
CERTIFIED SOFTWARE / HARDWARE PARTNERS
SYSTEM ENGINEERS
PROJECT MANAGERS
ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
Some Key Strategies to Discuss
 Account Management Program
• In-house or outsourced – its critical
 Alternate Channel Program
• Fast growth but be careful with cash
 Competitive Sales Products
• Market adaptation is key
 Onboarding and Training
• Market research will show that this is where your sales
organization succeeds or fails
 Positioning for merger or acquisition
• Big payday or not?
Account Management
 Dedicated inside sales teams
– Lead with support, get the sale
 Focus on the up-sale of Cloud and Managed
solutions. It’s a natural conversation.
 Solid scripting will make a huge difference
 Its about activity calls not reactive support.
20-30 calls a day not 10.
 We learned to set an analysis meeting
Alternate Channel
 Get your program defined
 Comp, support, pricing, order process, pay
 Got to make agents feel confident and comfortable with it
 Make sure you do the right recruiting and mindshare
activities. We learned:




2 mixers a month
1 newsletter a month
1 to 2 training activities a month
5 face to face a week (education and mindshare)
 Help them sell, then let them sell
 Always be educating
 Keep an eye on the cash flow
Competitive Sales Products
Pay attention to your competition
 What are they selling, pricing, winning
 Competitive sales reviews
Do not under-estimate Cloud and Managed services
▫
Wild, Wild, West!
We learned that ROI tools are imperative
Sales training is critical. We learned that repetition
is a good thing.
Great collateral empowers your teams.
Onboarding and Training
We have learned to look for the following:
 Winning attitude
 Quick wit
 Experience if possible
Put together an organized onboarding plan
 Even have a test
Give the sales team a book to reference
Enforce reporting and tracking
The first 30 days are the difference between sales in
60 days or 4 months.
Positioning your business
 Starts years before your ready to exit
 Is it a Business or just your job
 Organization and Detail are key
 Is your business a Focus or Ferrari….(Beep
Beep or Vroom Vroom)
 Does it paint the picture for the next persons
success
Don’t Overlook Cost Savings
• Are you owed SLA credits?
 If you are wholesaling are you due credits. We found thousands.
• Can your base of accounts be migrated for better
returns than sales?
 Take a look at your infrastructure costs. Sometimes fixing that is
worth more than new sales. We found almost a million.
• Are there costs in the acquisition of a sale that can be
reduced?
 We found we could cut truck rolls in half and free up 30% critical
time.
• There are more. Pay attention to the opportunity.
What now?
Consider the following paths. But don’t do NOTHING!
 Path 1 – Implement one of the strategies with excellence and let
us know how it goes
 Path 2 – Find a qualified consultant to help you insert some of
these strategies into your business. We can point you to some
contacts.
 Journey 3 – We can assist you with a couple solutions we have
for carriers. Next page
R.A.G. Solutions
 Acquisition – If you are interested in possibly
selling your business now or within the next three
years then WE WANT TO SPEAK TO YOU.
 Investment – Sometimes a little funding can go a
long way. We are looking to invest in some great
companies. Our small investments include:
- management consulting
- best practice support
- revenue growth assistance
- wholesale of critical products
We are available to help ?
Scott Raymer (CEO)
scottr@equinoxfive.com
Ken Royer (COO)
kenr@equinoxfive.com
Chris Wolff (EVP Sales)
chrisw@equinoxfive.com
Rusty Hagenbuch (CFO)
rustyh@equinoxfive.com
Matt Claus (Associate Partner)
Mclaus@raymeradvisory.com
Questions?