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Agent Best Practices |
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Better for Business
When you're successful in business, people want to know how you're doing it. The X4 commitment to top-level communications means helping our Agents build their businesses by sharing information.
Each Agent brings a new definition to the term success. These Best Practice profiles bring you a closer look into how and why they are thriving in today's telecommunications market.
At A Glance
Agent: ATI
Contact: Russ Zielezinski
Location: Naperville, Illinois
X4 Agent since: 2004
Employees: 60
Specialties: Telecommunications solutions
Yrs. in Business: 27
Avg. Client: Any size
Best Practice(s): Be a one-stop shop for all aspects of telecommunications systems and stay at the forefront of technology. Read more
The Internet serves as a constant reminder of the many opportunities a customer has to educate themselves and comparison shop. Experts know that, while abundant, the reliability of the information on which they make decisions can be inconsistent. That's why ATI has decided to stay on the bleeding edge of technology and be the single source for expert, educated information about today's hardware and software solutions.
Customers of this 27-year-old company thrive on using ATI"s knowledge base to decipher the right suite of telecommunications products and services for their business.
"The Internet has brought us a tremendous resource of information," Vice President of Sales Russ Zielezinski said. "The down side is the quality of that information – it's not always accurate.
"Although our customers are better educated and at least know more about what's out there, it's a daunting task for them to keep up with technology. That's where we come in."
Offering multiple solutions and taking a consultative sales approach always have been the business models at ATI, Zielezinski said. It allows the firm to be a one-stop shop for its roughly 2,500 active clients. The company connected with X4 Solutions in 2004 after its carrier partner began demanding exclusivity.
"We do not want to be exclusive with any one provider," Zielezinski said. "That's not consistent with our philosophy. We want to give our customers the best solution, not the only solution."
At A Glance
Agent: Britton Information Services
Contact: Sarah Britton
Location: Evanston, Illinois
X4 Agent since: 2004
Employees: 5
Specialties: Network services & consulting
Yrs. in Business: 10
Avg. Client: Any size
Best Practice(s): A laser focus on customer care. Read more
Exceeding customer expectations is the goal of businesses everywhere. However, applying a paper goal to the real world is not a success most of those companies achieve. It's what makes Britton Information Services stand out in a sea of consulting firms vying for domestic and international networking business.
Its owner, Sarah Britton, calls the company's approach "a laser focus" on customer service, defined by their commitment to finding the right solutions, understanding the technology and presenting plans to the client in a hassle-free way.
"By helping the customer save money and get the best technology – that's how we're going to keep them in long run," Britton said. "We're there to give them the right solution in an unbiased way."
The approach has kept Britton and her staff busy over the past decade, immersing themselves in white papers and trade magazines, as well as collaborating with engineering resources to stay up with ever-changing technology.
Britton called the company's partnership with X4 Solutions a move to "broaden our product set and make us more credible with the customer."
"It allows us not to have to focus on the administration parts of our job," she said. "We can get the right price and the right solution."
At A Glance
Agent: Telecommunications Services Inc.
Contact: Jay Mammel
Location: Lakewood, Colorado
X4 Agent since: 2005
Employees: 5
Specialties: Telephone systems
Yrs. in Business: 27
Avg. Client: Six to 60 phones
Best Practice: Focus on one product and become the expert in your field. Read more
Telecommunications Services Inc. has had many opportunities to grow in its 27 years by diversifying its product line. Yet owner Jay Mammel contends those opportunities would have left his customers without an expert source for the one solution they need: a reliable, versatile telephone system.
Instead, Mammel and his team have narrowed the field, selecting a single vendor to represent - Samsung – and becoming known as the "go-to guys" for that solution.
"It's very easy to sell lots of different flavors of dial tone and data," Mammel said, "but not so really anymore with phone systems. Today, they have thousands of features and every product is different.
"By specializing in one product and becoming very knowledgeable in that product, we can really try to be the champion of what we do," he said.
For years, Mammel's customers also have turned to him for help with the voice and data lines these systems support. He decided to employ the same business philosophy of choosing one vendor who offered several options and partnering with them exclusively. He chose X4 Solutions for its single-source variety and its customer service.
"It didn't make sense to hook up with one vendor offering one solution; that was too limiting," he said. "Now we have options for a service our customers need anyway."
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