VoIP reselling businesses have become very popular in this Internet of Things era, where communications have become the key to the success of any business. We often speak to people who ask us how to become a VoIP reseller. You can start reselling VoIP even with a small budget and you don’t have to be an expert in its advanced technology. All you need is the basic understanding of what VoIP is, its top features and what benefits it can offer for modern businesses.
If you are wondering how to become a VoIP reseller but don’t know how to start, here is a quick guide to help you kick start this lucrative business!
Choose Your Business Model
The first thing you need to consider before starting your VoIP business is which model you want to work within. There are three main models of the VoIP reselling business, each of which have a different scale, responsibilities, advantages and disadvantage.
1- VoIP dealer or sales agent:
The first and easiest approach is to become a VoIP dealer or sales agent for an established VoIP brand. You will essentially act as their salesperson in return for a commission. The advantages are that you don’t need to employ any technical staff. You just need the right skills to be able to recruit customers and take orders. The VoIP supplier will do all the technical work and invoice customers. The disadvantages are that you don’t really own your customer relationships, you will not look any different from any other dealer and you can’t control the pricing terms.
2- Self-Sufficient VoIP Reseller:
The second option is to become a self-sufficient VoIP Reseller for a wholesale VoIP operator. You will sell the product as your own and take full responsibility for provisioning and supporting VoIP systems for your customers. The advantages are that with the necessary technical skills you could be generating the most profit from VoIP reselling.
3- Reseller for a Wholesale VoIP operator:
The third option is to become a reseller for a wholesale VoIP operator. You will be able to brand the VoIP service as your own and have a full control over your customer relationships, pricing strategy and contract terms. You ought to be able to delegate system provisioning and technical support to the VoIP operator if you don’t have technical resources of your own. The only price you pay for this greater freedom is that you have to take responsibility for billing your customers.
What skills do I need?
Each business model requires a different skill set and knowledge in VoIP systems but all of them require brilliant skills in marketing and selling. If you can reach customers and persuade them to buy from you then you jumped the biggest hurdle. You could operate as a successful VoIP dealer just by having an effective lead-generation process and good sales people.
If you want to be able to deliver and support VoIP solutions yourself then you will also need technical skills. You don’t need to be a telephone engineer but you do need to understand data networking and how to configure internet routers and IP telephones. If you already have the necessary skills to install and maintain IT equipment then you will find it very easy to acquire the extra knowledge needed to set up VoIP solutions.
Choose Your VoIP Provider
There are almost 100 wholesale suppliers in the UK and they are all hungry. They all use one of these three core technologies which offer the same capabilities: Asterisk, BroadSoft and 3CX. What separates VoIP suppliers is their pricing, commercial terms, quality of support and their working practices.
Here are eleven factors you need to consider:
- The monthly cost per user.
- Outgoing call charges.
- Who owns the customer relationship?
- Can you apply your own branding to the service?
- Can you supply phones of your choice?
- How easy is it to place new orders?
- Do you have to hit a monthly sales target?
- Are you or your customers tied into long contracts?
- Will the supplier help with pre-sales consultancy?
- Will the supplier set up and install phones for your customers if you need them to?
- Will the supplier provide technical support for customers if you need them to?
There are also nine terms and clauses that you should run away from in any telecom and VoIP contract. Learn them in our article “Villains of The Telecom World”
Decide on Your Target Market
Every kind of enterprise of any size is a potential customer for a VoIP solution. Every business needs a phone number and every business needs to make calls. There are about five million businesses in the UK and a thousand other VoIP suppliers in the market. Obviously, you can’t target all businesses in the UK and you should focus either on a region or on a type of industry which you have the means to reach efficiently.
We suggest you start by approaching customers which you already serve. They already trust you and you can have an honest discussion with them about the benefits of a VoIP system.
How to be different?
One telephone service is as good as another to most potential customers. It is difficulty to differentiate your offering based on technology alone. We also think it’s pointless to compete on price. It is a just a race to the bottom.
The two most important differentiating factors are service and trust. You really want to keep your customers loyal for a long time so that they don’t want to go anywhere else. People don’t like changing – so don’t give them a reason to.
A very good way to create and sustain trust is by making a point of not tying customers into contracts. It forces you to look after them. Another way to look at it is that month-by-month contract is a contract which never ends. The customer never has a natural trigger to look for a change.
Now that you’ve made your choices of which business model you want to start with, the VoIP supplier you’d like to use, the audience you want to target and learnt which skills you need to have to success in your career, you are ready to start your business.
Still want to learn more? You might be interested in reading “how to start a VoIP business”
If you have more questions, please don’t hesitate to call us on: 03300881182
Or send us an email to: sales@vipvoip.co.uk