Steve Parianos says his company saves hundreds of dollars because he’s never met anybody from his Internet service provider — including the sales rep or technician who set up the service.
Parianos is the chief technology officer at Innovative Data Solutions, an information management company for HMOs and PPOs in Ohio and surrounding states. When shopping for an Internet service provider within the past year, Parianos had no time to lose. He remembered a mailing he’d received from Fiber Network Solutions Inc. of Columbus, so he gave the company a call.
He spoke with a sales representative, visited the company’s Web site and spoke with one of Fiber Network Solutions’ customers. He didn’t need to meet with anyone face-to-face, and he didn’t want to.
“I think it was important to save time,” Parianos says. “I get kind of impatient. There’s definitely a time loss with getting somebody into your office. We determined over the phone what kind of services and need requirements we had for the data line and they basically set everything up.”
No representative from Fiber Network Solutions visited him, and Parianos had his service set up within 20 days.
“If all these people would have had to come out here and meet with me, it would have taken a lot longer.”
It also would’ve cost more. Innovative Data Solutions saved hundreds of dollars in the hours it would have paid for Parianos to meet with salespeople and technicians, he says.
Eric Naille, vendor services director for Fiber Network Solutions, says his company closes more than 70 percent of its sales without making any face-to-face contact with company representatives.
“The majority of the MIS directors we talk directly to are usually caught up in day-to-day activities,” Naille says. “They already know what they want purchased. They don’t really have time to meet. But when they’re at their desks e-mailing, they have 100 percent of their attention on their e-mail.”
E-mail is a valuable tool for the Fiber Network sales staff. It’s been used to build good, long-standing relationships with clients by answering the questions they have, while not overloading them with more information than they want.
“I still subscribe to the fact that people do business with people; companies don’t do business with companies,” says Fiber Network Solutions President and CEO David Koch, whose 4-year-old company generates $40 million in annual revenue. “It’s still a people-to-people relationship. We talk to them on the phone or e-mail them. These people are so busy that taking an hour-and-a-half out of their day costs them money.”
The same holds true for Fiber Network Solutions. Face-to-face meetings require more time and travel for salespeople, while doing business by phone and e-mail lets them spend more time making contact with clients from the office.
That’s probably why Koch says he prefers to do business that way, but he doesn’t force it on clients. After all, 30 percent of Fiber Network Solutions’ clientele still wants to go the traditional route and meet with a company representative.
“We do like to show our appreciation for their business and meet them, if they think [it’s worth their time and money],” Koch says. “We have a Customer Call Day, where we touch base with our clients once a month and find out if there’s anything we can do.
“We found that there was a benefit for doing that because the contacts have led to our customers upgrading or adding new services.” How to reach: Fiber Network Solutions Inc., www.fnsi.com, 818-7070
Darrel Richter ([email protected]) is a free-lance writer for SBN.
