Master Plans
Faced with the evil twin villains of disruption and disintermediation, master agents have emerged from their server closets newly armed, informed and ready for battle. Not only are these once telecom-centric master agents saving themselves from the supposedly inevitable obsolescence many believed they faced in a world moving away from circuit sales toward IT and IP-based solutions, they also continue to lead independent and sub-agents through the twists and turbulence of convergence in our still-emerging ecosystem.
Putting together our annual Master Agent Directory, it’s clear that veteran and traditional master agencies are not content to stand pat with their portfolios. Even less are willing to simply ride into the sunset selling phone lines and data circuits. Indeed, most of the companies listed here are now funneling dozens, if not near a hundred, suppliers of all sorts of cloud and businesses services. And it’s not just advanced and next-gen “communications” solutions. More and more it’s common to be adding logos such as BroadSky, QTS, T-Mobile, Gibraltar, Retarus, aryaka, Mosaic 451, Digital Realty, Rapidscale and Rackspace to a master agent listing, and to check the box next to additions including SD-WAN, IaaS, storage, security, business SaaS, BC/DR, DRaaS, intelligent contact centers, and more.
At the same time, leading master agent executives tell us they have put significant resources into adding the sales engineering, back office processes, automation and product education and training required to support all these added solutions and facilitate the sales wheels necessary to competing in today’s (and, even more, tomorrow’s) communications landscape.
It’s one of the reasons ChannelVision is excited to be sponsoring the upcoming Tech+Connect event put on by master agent member group The Alliance Partners. A three-day, invitation-only event, Tech+Connect will bring together representatives from the top agencies in the channel to discuss specifically the sales enablement of key emerging services. The event promises to be light on much of the noise and pitches present in traditional trade show formats but heavy on the valuable and actionable information that gets passed around when leading minds come together to share and network.
Tech+Connect will take place November 6 – 8, 2017, at the La Cantera Resort in San Antonio, Texas, and we hope to see you there. In these times of telecom transition, where buyers’ needs are evolving and competitors and foes are popping up from several directions, it’d be wise for channel partners to pull together their powers and share their successes and failures.
Of course, we expect there to be lots more of the former, and less of the latter. Because while they might not be “faster than a speeding bullet,” many of the companies in our 28-page Master Agent Directory certainly are moving fast.
– Martin Vilaboy (Editor-in-Chief)
2017 Master Agent Directory
Are you a Master Agent?
Click here to update your free listing in our upcoming Master Agent Directory
About ChannelVision Magazine:
ChannelVision is a bi-monthly digital and print magazine, read by channel partners selling all manner of voice, data, access, managed and business services (both on premise and “in the cloud”), as well as, technology, gear, and equipment. ChannelVision is a highly focused and efficient way for service providers, hardware, and software companies to reach experienced channel partners targeting the small/medium business space. Serving a controlled circulation of providers and indirect distributors of communications, network, IT and cloud-based business services, ChannelVision is telecom’s gateway to perspective on how to adapt, what to sell, and how to sell it.
