The WayCommunicator

News & Noteworthy

AT&T has announced that it will exit the consumer long distance market in 2005.
AT&T Wireless is merging with Cingular to become the largest wireless carrier in the US. Verizon Wireless is currently the wireless carrier with the most subscribers.
Networking Tidbits
Everyday marketing tips
Talk to strangers. It’s a good idea as a business owner to talk to strangers. You never know what a casual conversation might turn into.
Don’t overlook the effectiveness of the “schmooze factor.” That’s just talking and having fun with people. Build relationships with your potential clients.
Stay in touch with your customers consistently. Constantly find ways to follow up. Newsletters and articles go a long way.
Give your customers something valuable they’ll keep. That means those little specialty items on which you have your business’ name printed. Talk with an advertising specialty firm to see what kinds of items might be helpful to your customers.
Remember: Life is a series of sales situations. No matter how successful your business is, you should never stop marketing.

Volume 1, Issue 3 - December 2004

In This Issue:

  • 5 Ways to Increase Sales Productivity with Phone Meetings
  • A Look Towards 2005 News & Noteworthy
  • Greetings from WayComm President
  • News & Noteworthy ... Networking Tidbits

5 Ways to Increase Sales Productivity with Telephone Meetings

We’ve all been trained that the only way to sell is by having face-to-face meetings, but sometimes you can have meetings that are just as productive over the phone. If you’re open to the idea, you can save yourself hours of travel time and money and dramatically improve your productivity. Here are five telephone meeting tips:

  1. Schedule your telephone meetings just like you would schedule face-to-face meetings.
  2. Prepare a detailed agenda of the things you want to discuss.
  3. Send the agenda and any other materials (if appropriate) via email or overnight delivery to the person in advance of the meeting.
  4. Know what objective or outcome you want to achieve from the telephone meeting.
  5. Before the telephone call ends, discuss the specifics of what happens next. What will you do? Get a commitment and then schedule another meeting, either by phone or face-to-face, so you can move your sale forward.

Adapted from: Serious About Small Business, Fall 2004 Issue

A Look Toward 2005

By: Gina Sos

As the telecom industry nears the end of another turbulent—and sometimes surprising—year, we at WayComm figured the time was right to take a comprehensive look forward at where the telecom technology focus is likely to be in 2005.

We believe that much of the anticipated action in the new year will be in access networks, wireless technologies, and in the broad range of applications– fixed and mobile, consumer and enterprise—that drive the need for increased bandwidth.

We will also be watching whether 2005 will mark a period of maturity for technologies like voice over IP (VoIP), which had a significant year in 2004 and will undoubtedly face some considerable coming-of-age challenges in 2005.

Equally as important are the back-office support mechanisms facilitating all those networks and services—the operation support systems software that streamlines network operations, the provisioning platforms that makes new service introduction and delivery easier, and the billing systems that ensure accurate revenue collection for everything that’s created.

We will be watching what’s going on there, as well. Although it’s impossible to make crystal-clear predictions about telecom’s future, 2005 certainly promises to be another critical year. We hope our knowledge and services help guide you through it.

Holiday Greetings from Our President —Wayne Sos

You may have noticed a new fee charged on your the local portion of your telephone bills entitled “9-1-1 System and Emergency Response System.”

This is a new state assessment to support the emergency response service in New Jersey and is required by state law.

The fee is $.90 per month per access line and was billed for the first time on your October bill. It was billed retroactive to July 1, 2004. The entire amount of the fees collected by your supplier are submitted to the New Jersey Division of Taxation.

Please note that local service provided via and Integrated Access line such as a T1 or PRI is also subject to this fee.

From all of us here at WayComm, Happy Holidays!

We hope that 2005 brings happiness and prosperity.