The devil is in the details. I only sell "unlimited" connections over
leased line connections. Everyone else signs our AUP and agrees to a
maximum speed on their plan. We do not do this to be punitive either. We
do it because you will go broke if you try to sell multiple customer
connections per access point in any other way. Selling "unlimited"
anything is opening yourself to failure in the residential broadband game.
Scriv
John J. Thomas wrote:
Sam, Walmart has made most of its money by screwing others.
Truck driver makes delivery to Walmart ad unload pallets. Goes to have
receiving sign for them. Receiving refuses to sign, and says that *after* the
truck driver *unloads* the items off the pallets, then he will sign. This is
NOT the truck drivers responsibility.
Walmart decides that a Gallon jar of pickles shoud cost $3.97-*regardless* of
whether the company can make 10 cents on that. Company sells $3.97 jar of
pickles and goes bankrupt after that.
Walmart is costing the State of California Millions of dollars each year just by telling
its employees " we won't give you that benefit, but if you go apply for State
assistance, they will."
A little bit of research on the Internet will show you to what degree they have
gone to to screw others. If that is the way you want to do business, then so be
it. Me, my family and anyone else I have influence over won't do business with
you-period.
You have to structure your pricing in a way that you can successfully market. I have a
problem with those people that say "512k unlimited $39.99 per month". Then,
when you download a single movie, they cut your service. That is Dishonesty-period. If
you tell your clients, 4 Gig for $39.99, then there is no issue. I'm sure MANY are going
to jump in and tell me I'm wrong, and they certainly have a right to. At some point, this
will have to be the way it works-you can't sell unlimited pipes for $39.99 per month,
when you have to pay $100 or more per month-the economics are not there.
I applaud Marlon for what he is doing, and I hope that he will review his
pricing regularly. If he finds that he can drop the rates a bit, or adjust the
limits upward, I'm sure his clients will appreciate it. They should also
appreciate that fact that he isn't trying to squeeze every last dime from them.
John Thomas
-----Original Message-----
From: Sam Tetherow [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 10:49 PM
To: 'WISPA General List'
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Service Offerings - Competing
There actually are some of us out here that don't have this luxury in
our markets. My total market is approximately 3000 people (not
households) and I have to go 45 miles in any direction to find another
town with more than 80 people in it.
I'm not saying this in a 'woe is me' tone, just stating a fact. Some of
us operate in the well under 10,000 people areas where 'finding a higher
ARPU customer' is not really a viable option. We have to be all things
in order to have enough customers to pay the bills. The top 10% of my
market would get me less than 100 customers and they would have an
average income of less than $100K.
As a slightly off-topic aside: (those that don't want to listen to my
ramblings can safely stop here :)
I do find the Walmart reference interesting. Since I have started this
business I have tried to read as much as I can in terms of business,
marketing and sales books. Having come from a purely tech background
it astounds me how clueless I really was until I started a business.
One of the things that I have struggled with is the price point vs
service aspect of the business. Obviously being the cheapest option has
it's sales advantages, especially in the residential best effort
internet business. But as we all know, being the cheapest makes it a
bit harder to pay the bills.
When I read business and marketing books they all espouse the higher end
customer is the better customer view. I understand this view, you have
a valued customer who is willing to pay a reasonable price for quality
service. You look at brands like Lexus and Bose and think, these are
the people I need to be like. These companies have made millionaires.
But what I find interesting is that companies like Walmart and McDonalds
who do live in the quantity, not quality world have made billionaires.
The trick seems to be, if you can somehow manages to be the cheapest and
do it right you can make a boat load of money and it doesn't have to be
at the expense of the customer.
Sam Tetherow
Sandhills Wireless
Peter R. wrote:
John J. Thomas wrote:
But, the model will work if you bill by the bytes....
If Joe is paying $40 per month for 6 Gig and gets throttled at 6 Gig,
then he has a disincentive for keeping going. If he is paying $40 for
unlimited access, he has no reason to slow down.
Charter cable is doing 10 meg down/1 meg up in some markets for like
$99 per month, how can you compete with that?
John
Well, the reality is this: you can't compete with it. And why try?
Why not move upstream to a larger ARPU customer?
Cable & ILEC can handle and deliver service to the masses cheaply -
for now.
But there is a segment of every population that needs more than the
cheap dumb pipe attached to the cheap dumb support. That is the GAP.
That is where the money is.
That is where your market is. But it may mean selling beyond just a pipe.
I've been preaching this for years - and clients that have listened -
narrowed their focus; but the shotgun (marketing) away; have done well.
See articles here: http://www.rad-info.net/newsletters/walmart16.htm
And there: http://www.rad-info.net/newsletters/winninger.htm
Regards,
Peter Radizeski
RAD-INFO, Inc.
(813) 963-5884
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