Why do service providers and the industry at large insist on calling a phone line delivered over an IP network a “SIP Trunk”?
Customers do not want SIP trunks, they want business phone lines delivered via IP.
It is funny that no one outside of the industry knows what the heck a SIP trunk is, yet every company that provides IP based business phone lines continues to use this nomenclature.
Need proof?
Take a look at the Google search queries for SIP Trunking for last month.
As per my favorite keyword research tool, about 300. I venture to bet more than half those queries come from people who sell SIP trunks.
Now, if you take a look at the Google search queries for say business phone service, you will find that there is more than 10 times the amount of search queries.
Businesses do not know what a SIP trunk is and honestly they really do not care. They are not looking for SIP trunks.
What they are looking for is reliability, quality and low cost telephone service. The transport mechanism is secondary.
So service providers, save your marketing dollars and come up with a new way to market business phone lines over an IP network because again customers do not know what SIP trnks are and certainly aren’t looking for them.
Like This Post? Subscribe Via RSS Feed and Never Miss Another Post!
3 responses so far ↓
db // Jan 23, 2008 at 9:07 pm
I have SIP trunks.
Ted Trentler // Jan 23, 2008 at 10:40 pm
I teach Service Providers and end users how to install Cisco IP based phone systems and agree. Most people do not know what a SIP Trunk is (Especially legacy phone guys) or why they would want it. I agree that as good a technology as SIP is, they should spend less time selling the Buzzword and more time on what makes their service stand out.
Ike Elliott // Jan 25, 2008 at 10:41 am
While some customers will know what a SIP trunk is, and will seek it out and buy it, these customers represent a shrinking fraction of the overall market. The mainstream market doesn’t buy SIP trunks, at least not by that name. I’d take it a step further: the mainstream market doesn’t by VoIP, by that name. For example, none of the cable VoIP services are marketed as VoIP services, preferring to call the service “digital voice” or some similar pseudonym. Service providers who market their services as VoIP are barking up the wrong tree. Read the rest of my rant on my blog at http://ikeelliott.typepad.com/telecosm/2008/01/voip-doesnt-sel.html
Leave a Comment