TouchPoint Networks has been a partner with us since February, 2009. They are headquartered in Portland, Oregon with additional offices in Medford and Eugene.
Interview with Gary Gonzalez, President
You have 10 deals in the works and recently closed 4 large deals. Tell us about your increase in sales?
The reason we’ve been successful in selling FreedomIQ is because we’ve made an internal shift in our company focus. We understand that companies that are going to grow and succeed must focus on growing their recurring revenue streams. We have to change the way we go to market and what we sell. We are focusing on the monthly payment. Obviously the FreedomIQ solution fits into that mold very nicely.
I think our success has been a combination of setting a goal that we are going to focus on recurring revenue and train our sales team to sell in a new way. We had FreedomIQ in our pocket, in our quiver to use for some time now. We had a hard time with selling a monthly payment at first. Once we got over that hurdle, once we got comfortable with the monthly payment notion and had some success, we said “Hey, we can do this.”
FreedomIQ is an easy product to sell when looking at the vertical markets and also companies that don’t want to spend large upfront costs. It’s also a green product and that fits well into the values of Oregon. I don’t think it’s entirely that I said, “This is what we are selling.” Really, the product sells itself. It’s on a month to month basis, with low upfront costs and it fits with the business market of today.
Tell us about your strategy surrounding Jackson Hewitt?
We landed the Jackson Hewitt deal because of the ability to scale up and down. You use it, you pay. You don’t use it, you don’t have to pay for it. The Insurance market needs a product that allows you to use only what you need during the busy seasons. Even with other hosted carriers, there is a five dollar per month hibernation cost.
Jackson Hewitt was a brand new client and came about through a convention. Every year they get together and focus on ways to improve their business practices. They wanted to start looking at the implementation of VOIP. So, Jackson Hewitt is kind of our trial run. If this goes well, they are going to report back at their next annual convention in July. It could be a nationwide thing for us! Our first roll out is 50 phones. In total, they own 150 store locations, 40 storefronts, and 90 plus kiosk centers.
What set FreedomIQ apart?
Some of the feature sets. Most importantly full time call recording at 69 dollars per month. That was a no brainer. We will have 88 locations that are going to be calling into the call center, and people all across the state will need to be recorded. That was a big deal that could’ve been thousands of dollars on a traditional system. And, so far, FreedomIQ the product and you guys as a company, have been really flexible to work with. There were several customizations that you all have been willing to work with us on, and everyone has been really helpful to talk to. No one has said it can’t be done.
How does this benefit the customer?
Huge savings! That in itself is good enough. Eventually we are getting rid of two T1s and 88 POTS lines that they are paying for. The beauty of this is that some of these POTS lines used to have stay in year round when they aren’t even using it. With FreedomIQ, they no longer have to keep those lines. It’s going to be an insanely large amount of money saved going with your solution. I don’t think you can emphasize the savings enough.
Tell us more about your company, how many employees do you have? 16
How long have you been in business? 11 years.
What other services do you sell?
Zultys, Tadiran, Shoretel and a lot of Adtran networking gear. What we try to do is have a real focus on sitting down with the customer and not just asking how many phones, how many lines, etc. We ask the business questions: how are they growing, where do they want to be? We find solutions for them. The more companies we sit down with and talk to, the more we leave there saying, “Man, this is another FreedomIQ solution.”
What are your goals moving forward as a company?
We have three goals: first, we are committed to proposing C-TAP and monthly recurring products 100% of the time. Second, train and retrain all our sales staff on the TAG selling process. Third, devote internal resources and staff to developing our customer base and turn them all into raving fans!
Is there anything else you would like to include?
There’s always that learning curve when you take on a new product. You always need to get through the first growing pains of a new solution, and you all have been great to work with! Part of what is good about this product is that it’s pretty easy to get a hold of.
