The Conference Coach™

Carolyn Bradfield

Copper Conferencing exhibited at the Phone Plus Channel Partner show in Miami this week.  In fact, we just won an award as one of the Top 50 Channel Partners by Phone + Magazine, the sponsor of the Miami event for the second year in a row.  The show is designed specifically for telecommunications agents to network with service providers to increase their knowledge of technology and services.

Some of you may not know what a telecommunications agent is or how they add value in the marketplace and I think this is worth a discussion.  Small to medium sized businesses often do not have the resources to hire a dedicated telecommunications expert to navigate through the myriad of services they need to communicate.

All companies need a long distance strategy, a data strategy, a phone system, wireless technology and of course, our service, conference calling.  Making those choices, finding the right vendor and making sure you negotiate the best price is very difficult and that’s where a telecommunications agent steps in.  It’s their job to assess a company’s telecommunication needs, match them with the right vendors, negotiate the contracts and put the services in place.  Yes, the vendors pay agents when they sell services to the customer, but the benefits to the customers are enormous.

And it also seems that a company’s needs are never static.  Technology changes, companies grow (or shrink), they open new locations and rearranging these services are generally an on-going need for an organization.  The telecom agent stays involved, monitors these needs and generally makes suggestions for improvements.  They will step in, re-negotiate contracts, audit invoices and keep vendors delivering what they promised.

At Copper Conferencing, we recognize the valuable role that these agents play with small to medium sized companies which is the market we pursue.  We partner with agents by giving them tools to educate their customers, allow those customers to use our portal to manage their accounts and being there when they need more information about our web and audio conferencing services.

Copper developed a web-based technology called Copper Link™ that even allows agents to create customized e-marketing campaigns to alert their customer base to the fact that conferencing is one of the services they offer.  It makes it easy to get the message out so that the agent can be more complete in the service offerings.

We enjoyed the Channel Partner Show in Miami (despite the construction at the Lowes Hotel in South Beach).  Our hat is off to these independent business owners who have a telecom agency and to the time they spend to educate themselves at shows like the Miami event.  Our hope is that more companies will realize just how valuable agents are in charting their communications strategy.