They usually come around dinner time or in the early evening (not past 9:00 PM please!) and often at work.  I receive offers to buy credit card processing, sell my timeshare, buy business lists, advertise in a journal, or the program of some retired sports figures playing a charity game against the local fire, police, what have you.  And ALL of them are absolutely awful sale pitches.

I’ll say this up front – the callers are just doing a job so I never get personal with them – in fact I’ll offer suggestions to help them improve their pitch by NOT reading the script, usually written by someone who thinks it contains enough sales triggers for the listener to decide that what they were doing can wait, in place of listening to this absolutely critical information.  If you really want someone to listen to you, you have to have a compelling story or reason, not the usual blah, blah, blah.  I’ve even put down the receiver and noted how long the person talked at me before realizing I wasn’t listening.  Of course the caller thinks what they have to offer is the greatest thing since sliced bread or the wheel, but if you cannot tell me why you want me to think the same, then you are falling miserably.

Want me to care?  Do this:

Sell benefits, not features.  Features may or may not apply to my situation.  Benefits always apply to my situation.  You have to be engaging and ask questions to learn what makes the prospect tick.  An airline representative offered me their co-branded airline AMEX card immediately after I paid with my AMEX card – do I need another AMEX card?  No, and especially not for the ‘status’ that an AMEX card affords.  Feature.  Would I have been interested in the double miles that come with each purchase?  Maybe but we never got there. 

Sell for my reasons not your reasons.  The time-share tour sales guys on the street in vacation destinations are the kings of guilt?  You want me to go on the resort tour so you can make your quota and buy your kid a nice Christmas gift?  How is that my responsibility?  You want me to buy the car so you can win the sales contest with a trip to Hawaii?  Did you seriously just say that?  The most popular radio station in the world remains WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?).  “What do you like to do on vacation?” “What is important in a car to you?”  These questions start us down the path of my reasons.  Nobody who ever bought anything cared one little diddly about the salesperson’s reasons or what they got out of the sale.

Have a compelling unique sales proposition?  What makes your product or service better than what I can find on the internet?  Do you do something different with the services?  Are your satellite phones delivered in a manner that makes them easier to use (BTW – YES, if you buy from GlobaFone).  Do you know enough about your industry to create something special, even from a product or service that I can find anywhere?  For years, I bought gas exclusively from one gas station chain because their stations, stores and restrooms were the cleanest I’d ever seen.  Was their gas any better?  No, but it was a far better experience than anywhere else.  If you cannot articulate in 10 seconds what makes your company/product/service better than the competition, you have some work to do.

So there you have some thoughts to help you more professionally present yourself and you products or services to prospects in a way that will be more engaging for and make your calls more enjoyable, even if with a ‘No thanks’.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to make a cold call…….

Thanks for reading!

 Such first and amazing achievements bring future innovation.  What did we learn from the Bell X-1 plane?  How did it’s flight impact the modern age of jets.  Did this impact the engineers’design of Concorde to account for the 6 in stretching of the fuselage during it’s near Mach 2 speeds?  What about the suit that Baumgartner wore? How will it impact future astronauts clothing?  What other uses of such a suit can be discovered?  What about the effects on his body?  How will is help us better prepare astronauts for longer distance flight at higher speeds?

 It is fascinating to see the potential ripple effects of ‘first-ever’ flights (think Wilbur and Orville).   While we can admire the people achieve them, and maybe more so the support staff on the ground, we can only wonder what future impacts are yet to be discovered from these remarkable events.  Our technology is impacted by the dreamers – the few magical people who are always asking ‘What If?’  Here’s a ‘what if’ – What If they never got to fly, to pursue their dreams?  Where would we be? 

We salute you – the Few, the Bold, the Daring.  The people whose pushing the envelope advance technology for the rest of us. 

Thanks for reading.

Spending $1,200 plus service for a satellite phone is a very serious consideration for him.  But what are his options?  How far will his cell phone really work out to sea?  He had to ask some substantive questions and carefully consider the financial implications before spending the kind of money it takes to buy a satellite phone.  He made the choice and became a subscriber.

 While he was in our office he relayed the story of a recent trip; fueled up ($4.00+/gallon for marine diesel), bait, meals, crew  – all ready for a few days fishing.  He was on his way out – about 120 miles each way – and passed the limit of his cell phone.  His satellite phone was on….  It rang and one of his buddies told him not to waste his time making the trip – no fish.   He turned around and fished in close, caught two big keepers and cashed in.  He said it would have taken 500 gallons of fuel to get out (just out!), not to mention bait, crew time, food, time away, and the ever-present risk.  October weather can pose a significant threat in New England.   Do the math – that is a lot of money to bust. 

He got the call on his satellite phone and it saved him a ton of money, time, resources and most importantly, risk.  The next time you are considering the value of a satellite phone, be sure to look past the actual cost; take a closer look at the value the phone can provide for you.  It is easy to count the dollars spent.  It may not be so easy to count what is saved.

Thanks for reading!

Having a good plan in place can make the difference between success and further disaster.  Having an emergency plan means that all aspects of your business are accounted for – employees, financial records, vendors, customers – can you still sell from your parking lot?  The statistics are staggering – according to Corina Mullen on www.chamber101.com;  ‘Forty percent of businesses do not reopen after a disaster and another 25 percent fail within one year according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Similar statistics from the United States Small Business Administration indicate that over 90 percent of businesses fail within two years after being struck by a disaster.’ (Copyright The Mid-County Post – http://www.mcpost.com)  90 percent FAIL within two years! That is astounding.  So what do you do?  Prepare, yes, but given the complexity of creating a business continuity plan, one can easily become overwhelmed.

There are many resources available for developing a plan that you can find with a simple Google search.  FEMA offers a great emergency preparedness information and a business continuity plan building tool: http://www.ready.gov/business/implementation/continuity.  With the number of resources available, there is no reason to not have a plan, even a simple one, even for the smallest business.

Emergencies can happen any time, so you need to be prepared all the time.

Thanks for reading!

On the other hand as we head into America’s most important presidential election…well, not as refreshing, to say the least. The misinterpreted comments that reach the news desk, the out-of-context statements used for political gain, the nastiness that has become American politics is disheartening.  Our government is broken and it needs to be fixed.  So far our elected officials have simply stalled and put things off and passed the buck.  The unpleasant reality is that we all – everyone, no exceptions here – need to help pay for the damage of the past 30-40 years.  Spending money we didn’t have (and still don’t have) has become an addiction.  Here’s the tough question: Do we have the backbone to face up to the fiscal mess in which we are embroiled, or do we just shrug it off  as ‘that’s life’ and get back to our lattes, unlimited texting, facebook updates and on-demand video services?  Will we pay as much attention to the political games as we did to the Olympic games?

So what’s the tie into Satcom?  Threefold:

1) Satcom was used extensively during the London Games

2) Satcom will be used extensively during the upcoming political season and

3) Whether you are an optimist or cynic about the Satcom space, there is plenty to discuss.  Between Inmarsat’s channel conflicts and pricing adventures, Globalstar’s litigation with various providers, the guys who are still ‘selling’ Terrestar knowing there is no network; one could easily be a pessimist. However, look at Iridium’s tie into the future ATC system, hosted payloads, the storied success of Globalstar’s SPoT and the revolutionary functionality of BGAN and KVH’s increasing presence and one may conclude Satcom’s best days are still ahead of us.

It just depends on your perspective.  What perspective do you think the athletes who participated in London would have regarding Satcom’s future?  Please feel free to e-mail me with your view.

Thanks for reading!

Last week I shared a story about a proposal being too good to be true.  To re-cap; a state agency had a bid for phones and minutes to pool–minutes, no service.  Those of us in the Satcom world understand that you must have service in order to have your phones active so you can use the minutes.  The ‘winning’ bidder submitted pricing for only minutes which made their bid look the lowest.  When the agency awarded the contract, the provider told them that they would have to pay for monthly service at a total cost ABOVE the total price of the other bids: at a cost of over $1,500 (ouch!).  In response the state agency has said “No! You will honor your bid <as is> or you will be blacklisted.”  Bigger ouch!

In the end, the lowest bidder ‘won’ the contract but it will cost them more than their profit because they were not clear about the true cost of the bid.  While there is some satisfaction to be had in this scenario, the preferable option is for bidders to provide accurate pricing and information to those who are buying satellite phones.  As well as a responsibility to make sure that they are clear on what they are asking for in their bids.

There certainly is far less cost in that route and much more value in the final outcome.

Such as it is with Satcom as well.  If you see a price that looks too good to be true, you’d better investigate to prevent problems.  Here are two examples:

A state RFP requested pricing for Iridium 9555 satellite phones and 250 anytime, pooled minutes.  There was no mention of service.  The professionals in the business included service in the per minute price and came up with prices around $3.00/minute.  The State selected the lowest bid, priced closer to $1.00/minute.  Nearly 60 days after issuing the award, the provider has told them that they have to pay for monthly service at a total cost ABOVE the total price of the other bids.  That lowest price sure sounded great; until they looked at what it actually entailed.  Too good to be true.

Second example – a government agency requested pricing to call a satellite phone.  This can be done via direct dial, two-stage or a local number that call forwards.  With direct dial, the incoming call is free to the phone but can cost over $6.00/minute.  Both two-stage and local number dialing charges the call to the phone at whatever the rate is for that program.  The agency chose the provider that listed incoming calls at $0.00, not realizing that A) they have to have international dialing on all of their land lines and cell phones in order to call the satellite phones, and B) their land line or cell phone bill will reflect the call charges for dialing direct.  This will cost them thousands of dollars extra.  Two stage and local number dialing incurs a charge of less than one-third of the direct dial charges.  Too good to be true?

So what it the point of all this?  Not to embarrass the people who make these bad decisions – after all they are anonymous for a reason.  The point is to educate, to help you make sense of the myriad of prices you may encounter when buying satellite phones.  Be sure to ask questions – Is this the TOTAL cost?  What other charges will be incurred, separate from the satellite phone bill?  Most importantly, you want to know why one provider has pricing that deviates so far from the ‘pack’.  There are cases where these deviations are thrown out and that is probably a good thing.  This is Satcom – there are no competitive advantages THAT significant.  Everyone ultimately buys from the same network- it is too good to be true that one provider can offer a service for free when is costs $1.79 (or thereabouts) from all other providers.

SO be vigilant and ask the questions because you know what they say: If it sounds too good to be true….it is.

Best regards and Thank You for thinking of GlobaFone.

Louis Altman

The announcement of the joint venture between Iridium and the FAA (and NAV Canada, Harris and ITT Exelsis) – called Aerion, brings this simple phrase to reality.  The notion that Iridium will be building a system to track aircraft around the globe is astounding.  This truly means that Iridium will be everywhere –with both full global coverage AND on the thousands of commercial airliners across the planet.  It is great visionary thinking that results in these kinds of programs and we congratulate CEO Matt Desch and his team for this accomplishment.

Now, this week’s blog is interactive (figuratively speaking) so I’ll ask you to reflect:  What is YOUR Mission Accomplished?

What is your organization’s mission?  Is there one; and do you know what it is?  How does management live into this mission and set the wheels in motion, build the structure, keep the energy and momentum to accomplish that mission?  What is the ‘mission accomplished’ point?  How do you know it is ‘accomplished’?  I ask these questions so you can follow Iridium’s lead.

At GlobaFone we have a mission: ‘We Help Heroes Save Lives’. Whether the solutions we provide are used by our men and women of the military, emergency responders, or business continuity planners (the Heroes), the notion that Satcom provided by GlobaFone saves lives drives us onward.  We’ve received notes that said “Thank you – this phone saved my life’ and it has happened on more than one occasion.  So?  Mission Fulfilled for GlobaFone? Sure but this is an on-going process, not a one-time event.  We continue to push ahead with new solutions and services that fulfill that mission, exploring all that this innovative industry has to offer.  We may borrow a page or two from Iridium, as well as other sources to consider where we go and the process may involve re-defining, or re-focusing, although our underlying mission has remained the same for nearly 10 years since I first coined the mission phrase – ‘We Help Heroes Save Lives’.  It certainly garners further discussions when people ask ‘what do you do’?

So keep driving towards those mission accomplished moments, those achievements that define you, your work and your organization.  As Iridium has shown us, ‘Mission Accomplished’ is a great place to arrive.

Thanks for reading.

I raise this point because I will be speaking this week at the Train Comms conference in London – http://www.traincomms2012.com/ – and I’ll be discussing the use of Satcom on trains to provide Wi-Fi service to passengers.  Of course everything on a train was also once an idea brought to fruition and my discussion will bring many some interesting thoughts for the group.  As we look at the potential solutions for Wi-Fi on rail, my intention is to provide a catalyst for the group to start thinking a little differently about the various Satcom solutions.

Here is an example: the Satcom industry has developed over the past 20 years from huge terminals to small hand held phones and transportable VSAT terminals that can bring very high speed data services to the end user.  This has provided the opportunity for the airline industry to bring Satcom to aircraft for passengers to use the Internet and make phones calls.  Virgin Atlantic has been the first airline to announce that passengers will be allowed to make cell phone calls from their London-New York routes.  Despite your personal feelings about this (and I dislike it immensely), you do have to acknowledge the “wow” factor.  It is pretty neat that you can call your loved ones at 37,000 feet.

My contention is that the aviation model can be ‘lent’ to other industries – if Satcom will work on a plane flying 500 mph, where else will it work?  Why, on trains of course!  Rail operators already have Satcom on board and the aviation model – antennas, space segment, passenger front-end systems – can all be integrated into a new or in many cases improved model.  What truly gets me excited is that there are solutions that challenge the status quo with improved data speeds, lower cost hardware and lower cost services.  We can now discuss improving an existing system while lowering the price of using it.  Glorious!

This is the type of thinking that spurns innovation, product and service development.  Within that thinking, you will find anything and everything around you.

Thanks for reading.

The other day I met a client that has this same mantra; cut costs!  When I presented a plan that in fact will cut costs, I was most impressed that we then had a discussion about the TOTAL cost of implementing my proposal:

How much will it cost to pay the employees to swap out SIM cards?

How much will it cost to produce an Excel sheet of all their lines?

How much will it cost to track who has completed a SIM card swap and made the test calls to ensure the new SIM cards are working properly?

These activities may fall under the ‘that’s their job’ umbrella, but if employees are doing these types of low-value administrative tasks, they are NOT doing higher-value work that further benefit the company.  This was the first time I have heard this kind of discussion around cost containment.  This company was brilliant in their ability to look at the total cost, not just the dollar figure of the price proposal.

When buyers are looking only at the number on the bottom line things get interesting (and frequently expensive!).  The lowest price doesn’t create a good story and actually can often border on disaster.  I am aware of a satellite phone provider that sells at the lowest cost, however they are always in a precarious financial position, on the edge of collapse.  Would you use this as your provider?  In my view you risk everything when you engage this kind of supplier (for anything, not just Satcom) because you could be left with no satellite service when they file for bankruptcy.  Is that hassle worth it to save a few bucks (very few bucks)?  I say no way.  Lowest price shopping represents a very narrow-minded approach to buying goods and services and completely ignores  any value proposition.

This is why I was so impressed the other day – they ARE looking at the complete picture, all of the costs.  They are looking at the overall value of the proposal.  If you save $3,000 but it costs you $4,000 to implement, then what is the point?  They’ll need to analyze the scope of the project and projected costs and well they should.  Of course I offered that we would do most of the admin work so it increases the value for them.

That entire discussion is a great starting point and the notion must be perpetuated throughout the industry.  Only then will the Satcom proposition of anywhere communications grow and be fully understood.

Thanks for reading.

Lou Altman, CEO GlobaFone

l.altman@globafone.com