Tired
I'm tired of Verizon's business plans changing daily solely on the claims of AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile.
A week or so ago, we totally revamped part of the store simply to integrate the half-word "app" into everything. Before the iPhone, we didn't bother much with device comparisons, and now with every phone release it seems we need to compare it to an iPhone or Pre. Also, because AT&T claims to have more smartphone customers than any other company, sales reps have to change the way they naturally sell to integrate PDA phones into each and every conversation, even when it's 95-year-old Betsy asking for a Samsung Knack and a car charger or 10-year-old Britney who's mom simply wants to get her a basic, cheap phone.
I'm sick of other com...
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A week or so ago, we totally revamped part of the store simply to integrate the half-word "app" into everything. Before the iPhone, we didn't bother much with device comparisons, and now with every phone release it seems we need to compare it to an iPhone or Pre. Also, because AT&T claims to have more smartphone customers than any other company, sales reps have to change the way they naturally sell to integrate PDA phones into each and every conversation, even when it's 95-year-old Betsy asking for a Samsung Knack and a car charger or 10-year-old Britney who's mom simply wants to get her a basic, cheap phone.
I'm sick of other com...
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Interesting.
You will also recall that VZW or Sprint didn't use the term '3G'. It was a term more reserved for GSM networks and AT&T. initially both carriers were marketing against 3G. Funny how now that's all everyone talks about.
You will also recall that VZW or Sprint didn't use the term '3G'. It was a term more reserved for GSM networks and AT&T. initially both carriers were marketing against 3G. Funny how now that's all everyone talks about.
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Exactly.
I had a customer fight me for an hour that Sprint's 3G indicator on their phones was entirely better than Verizon's 1XEV on my phones. I couldn't get him to understand that they were the same exact thing, and he kept claiming to be an engineer and that he knew of these things.
When iPhone 3G came out, I fielded question after question about why Verizon "didn't have 3G." Verizon had 3G in 2004, before 3G was anything more than an industry term. Hell, I just had a customer yesterday ask me what 3G was by prefacing with, "Hey, I've got a stupid question that I've always wondered about..."
It's so frustrating. Apple and AT&T have marketed themselves well. I respect both companies highly. It's frustrating that the "Can You...
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I had a customer fight me for an hour that Sprint's 3G indicator on their phones was entirely better than Verizon's 1XEV on my phones. I couldn't get him to understand that they were the same exact thing, and he kept claiming to be an engineer and that he knew of these things.
When iPhone 3G came out, I fielded question after question about why Verizon "didn't have 3G." Verizon had 3G in 2004, before 3G was anything more than an industry term. Hell, I just had a customer yesterday ask me what 3G was by prefacing with, "Hey, I've got a stupid question that I've always wondered about..."
It's so frustrating. Apple and AT&T have marketed themselves well. I respect both companies highly. It's frustrating that the "Can You...
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You mean you have to 'sell' phones instead of waiting for a customer to bring one up to the counter for you to ring up? You better get use to this if your going to be in sales. Every industry has 'fish that's going bad' and if your the salesman your job is to 'get rid of the fish'. Right now the iphone and pre are riding on a wave of effective marketing and have somewhat of an advantage. If you want to hear some salesmen that have a right to complain about a hard sell go by a Dodge dealership and watch them sweat by the trucks at least you don't have to follow people out in the rain and snow to sell.
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Actually you can ignore everything I write here for the next year and a half. I'm just waiting for that aneurysm to happen every time I try and use the phone book on the Onmia that a verizon wireless 'sales person' sold me. I'm about a day away from buying a small notebook and hand writing all my contacts in it, it would be much more efficient and easier to use than the Omnia phone book.
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My friend, I've been a sales rep for this company for more than five years. I know full well what it's like to sell in this industry. Perhaps my original post wasn't clear enough.
For the last few months, I've seen Verizon remodel stores, put thousands of people through training, reword half of our terminology, force its salespeople to adopt robotic and ineffective sales processes, and put sales expectations through the roof to the point of ridiculousness, all in the same of competing with AT&T.
When I started with this company, we didn't let our competition dictate how we ran our sales business. We were mindful of the competition, but focused more on the quality of our network, the quality of our people, and the quality of the comp...
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For the last few months, I've seen Verizon remodel stores, put thousands of people through training, reword half of our terminology, force its salespeople to adopt robotic and ineffective sales processes, and put sales expectations through the roof to the point of ridiculousness, all in the same of competing with AT&T.
When I started with this company, we didn't let our competition dictate how we ran our sales business. We were mindful of the competition, but focused more on the quality of our network, the quality of our people, and the quality of the comp...
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"There's nothing wrong with returning a phone if it's not the right phone for you."
Aren't there restocking fees, etc, that may deter someone from exchanging it for something else?
Just curious!
Gregg
Aren't there restocking fees, etc, that may deter someone from exchanging it for something else?
Just curious!
Gregg
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No, a "no return" policy is a deterrent. A $35 fee may not be something you'd like to pay (I know I wouldn't like it either), but it doesn't prevent you from exchanging your phone. I'd rather pay $35 to switch to a phone that will be better for me over two years than live with it until I can upgrade.
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Verizon had the marketing advantage when AT&T/Cingular had the whole identity crisis and kept changing their name. However AT&T now has the hottest phone on the market and even though I have heard many sales reps say how stupid roll over minutes are, they are a great marketing tool. Especially now with the economy down AT&T can do the whole this saves you money ad campaign. The only marketing I see from big red is the "can you hear me now" guy doing various commercials. I would imagine that by the time LTE becomes the standard and both CDMA and GSM are gone and there is no real network advantage for anyone VZW will have to start letting customers do all those dirty things with their phones like putting their own MP3 files for ring tones.
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1) Roll Over is a marketing ploy. I prefer gimmick, sometimes. Roll Over has a handful of caveats that most people never bother to ask about.
2) You haven't been watching much TV, I guess, or you would have seen the Friends and Family commercials for the thousandth time. Friends and Family is Verizon's gimmick, or marketing play. I have to point out, though, that there are a lot fewer things to remember with Friends and Family than there are with Roll Over.
I'm not sure what Verizon commercials you're seeing. It seems that Friends and Family is about as economy-friendly as Roll Over.
3) I haven't paid for a ring tone in six years or more. Sure, of the phones I've carried, most of them have been PDAs and I could use whatever ...
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2) You haven't been watching much TV, I guess, or you would have seen the Friends and Family commercials for the thousandth time. Friends and Family is Verizon's gimmick, or marketing play. I have to point out, though, that there are a lot fewer things to remember with Friends and Family than there are with Roll Over.
I'm not sure what Verizon commercials you're seeing. It seems that Friends and Family is about as economy-friendly as Roll Over.
3) I haven't paid for a ring tone in six years or more. Sure, of the phones I've carried, most of them have been PDAs and I could use whatever ...
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1) marketing has very little to do with the truth. I didn't say that roll over minutes was better just that it has a more appealing message and the Friends and Family was done up before VZW by both T-Moblie and Altell, looks like VZW is using a 'ploy' that T-mobile and Altell no longer seem to be pushing. Also VZW has done a terrible job of advertising that Altell is now or is very soon going to be VZW to the average person.
2) the "can you hear me now guy" has been in all the friends and family commercials I have seen. The roll over commercials are all better than the F&F at getting a "perceived" value across. And they are just better more entertaining commercals.
3) the ring tone is just the one that I see most complaints about, you ...
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2) the "can you hear me now guy" has been in all the friends and family commercials I have seen. The roll over commercials are all better than the F&F at getting a "perceived" value across. And they are just better more entertaining commercals.
3) the ring tone is just the one that I see most complaints about, you ...
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the verizon-alltel merger is still in the process of going through. On top of that, not all alltel customers are coming to verizon (there are a ton of "Trust" markets). These markets are still releasing new plans and phones with the Alltel name. Too much advertising will lead to a lot of confusion as customers will come into the stores wanting to port their alltel lines over only to find out that they cannot thanks to FCC Regs.
I do agree that rollover ads are kind of entertaining, but it's still a useless gimmick for a lot of customers.
I wish you could buy unlocked phones for verizon.. hopefully you'll be able to with LTE. But as long as a phone carries a carriers UI and they subsidize the cost, they can pretty much allow/block ...
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I do agree that rollover ads are kind of entertaining, but it's still a useless gimmick for a lot of customers.
I wish you could buy unlocked phones for verizon.. hopefully you'll be able to with LTE. But as long as a phone carries a carriers UI and they subsidize the cost, they can pretty much allow/block ...
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Don't forget that with the new Env3/EnVTouch you CAN just drag and drop the song (to the my sounds folder) and set it as a ringtone from that.
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Looks guys,
Until you get over the whole "Rollover is a marketing ploy" thing you will never truly be able to get a customer away from rollover.
I have a unique perspective formerly owning AT&T stores but the "marketing ploy" tactic will be laughed at by many people that are even remotely interested in switching.
Friends and Family is a competitive advantage just like Rollover is a competitive advantage. You can use it to sell against the benefits of rollover but dismissing rollover is simply a mistake (especially in markets like mine where AT&T is the incumbent market share leader). There are just too many ways rollover can save you money.
Until you get over the whole "Rollover is a marketing ploy" thing you will never truly be able to get a customer away from rollover.
I have a unique perspective formerly owning AT&T stores but the "marketing ploy" tactic will be laughed at by many people that are even remotely interested in switching.
Friends and Family is a competitive advantage just like Rollover is a competitive advantage. You can use it to sell against the benefits of rollover but dismissing rollover is simply a mistake (especially in markets like mine where AT&T is the incumbent market share leader). There are just too many ways rollover can save you money.
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You may be aware that Verizon mimics the competion in many ways across regions, districts etc... Each regional president runs his region like a CEO. In some markets they have eliminated techs and customer service reps and everyone in the store is a sales rep. In other markets they have no techs abd csrs have the dual role. These are ideas they pick up from the competition. Each district manager is attempting to be innovative to show his peers how it is done so he can be promoted. I imagine that over at AT&T they are shopping VZW stores to see what Verizon is doing. It happens. When I went to sales training our homework assignment was to shop an Alltel or T-Mobile or Cingular and grade their sales process. Now in between getting chew...
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My DM sits at home and forwards emails all day.
I don't disagree with anything in your statement. I just feel that there's a point where borrowing strong points from your competition moves over into outright copying their model because they seem to be kicking your trash. I feel that my multi-state region has come to that point. We're in crisis mode, watching AT&T erode our business, and instead of doing what we do best, we're simply ditto-copying a model that won't work as well for us as it has for the competition.
I don't disagree with anything in your statement. I just feel that there's a point where borrowing strong points from your competition moves over into outright copying their model because they seem to be kicking your trash. I feel that my multi-state region has come to that point. We're in crisis mode, watching AT&T erode our business, and instead of doing what we do best, we're simply ditto-copying a model that won't work as well for us as it has for the competition.
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Verizon is not the only company which does this sort of thing. Sprint is now "America's Most Dependable Network". Years ago Stan Sigman declared he wanted to take AT&T to where Verizon was and not soon after all of their rate plans suddenly mirrored Verizon's. This is the nature of the beast. Taking the Biggest to Best or Taking the Best to Biggest whatever the slogan is today. Embrace change... These stores are the proving grounds. Even were there no competition they would still compete with other VZW stores or last year's numbers. Since AT&T is the largest competitor sure they will get the most mention, but it is just a game to keep driving sales productivity.
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No one is forcing you to work there. Verizon pays your salary and has the right to change there marketing plan every day if they want to. You have the option of quitting. I agree that Verizon needs a iphone and no phone they have now does that. Perhaps the new Samsung Omnia II and the Pre (later this year) will help. I am surprised that LG has not created a iphone killer as I think they have the skills. I bought the iphone 3GS on the 19th of June and returned it on the 22nd. Neat phone but half the time the phone was searching for a signal or on the edge network. I am going to give Verizon another year.
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