The first step is
to call or email. You’ll be contacted
within 48 hours to set an appointment to meet and discuss your concerns and
collect information on your current services. Basically, we start by determining what you have, what you want to do
and then assess if there is any opportunity for us to work together and what
timing would be appropriate.
Why wouldn’t I just go to a carrier directly?
You could, but you
would be limited to only the products and services that the company sells. We have access to hundreds of different
products and services from a wide variety of providers. We scan the entire landscape to find the
service that’s the best fit for you. In
addition, our pricing will typically be less than you’d find dealing directly
with a providers’ sales representative.
Do you charge me a fee for your services?
No, we charge the
customer nothing. If a customer decides
to choose one of our recommendations, we would then get paid directly by the
service provider, just as if we worked for them directly. We only get paid if you keep the services, if
you leave for another provider, our commissions stop. So, we are completely invested in keeping our
customers happy throughout the term and beyond.
Does Commtech do the installations?
While we do not do
the physical installation ourselves, that is handled by licensed professional
installers employed by the carriers, we do however manage the process. We work directly with carriers’ and service
providers’ implementation teams to coordinate dates, times, and third party
vendors to ensure a smooth transition for our customers.
What happens if there is a problem, who do I call?
You will always be
provided with the direct contact information for any carrier or service
provider you work with, so you can always call them directly to report
trouble. Or, you can call us and we will
open trouble tickets with the provider and monitor their progress, making sure
they meet time intervals, etc. In this
way, you can get back to your business and we will manage the troubleshooting
and repair.
How is Commtech able to get better pricing than the
direct reps?
Commtech works
through the indirect sales channel. Every carrier sells their services through their direct sales channel
and through the indirect, or agent, channel. Their direct channel sales reps get a salary, health benefits, workers
compensation, car allowance, expense allowances and commissions. In addition, the carriers will typically
spend significant money to train all new sales reps. In other words, they invest a lot of money in
every one of their sales employees. As
for the indirect channel, they don’t pay us anything except commissions. So,
their overhead is much lower, allowing them to get us better rates that their
own employees can get. In addition, the
direct reps have no choice but to sell the products and services of their
company. Indirect agents have the choice
of several companies’ offerings so the carriers realize that they face
competition and therefore offer agents better rates to better compete in the
marketplace.
Do the carriers have any problem with the indirect
channel?
No, quite the
opposite. For the past several years,
carriers and service providers have come to embrace the indirect channel. They realize that the relationships the
agents have built with customers are much stronger than their direct channel
can manage, usually due to the excessive turnover that exists in the direct
channel. All carriers have seen a
tremendous increase in the percentage of sales coming from the indirect
channels and are constantly devoting more and more resources to support and
grow this channel.
So, what are the negatives of working through the
indirect channel vs. the direct channel?
There really
aren’t any! You get the same exact
products and services, almost always at a lower cost. You get better customer service with more
attention to detail, better responsiveness and more stability. You get the complete management of the entire
process, from analysis of current environment to evaluation of options to
contract negotiation and execution, to provisioning to coordination with 3rd
party vendors to implementation. And you
get the benefit of complete management of your account following the
implementation.
