VoIP in Big Box Retail is No Big Deal

This anouncement this week that Circuit City and Earthlink are teaming up to sell the Earthlink TrueVoice service in Circuit City stores nationwide was no real surprise to me, but it did get quite a bit of attention in both the press and the blogoshpere:

News Stories:

Circuit City Stores Now Offering EarthLink trueVoice VoIP Solution

EarthLink Evolves Its VoIP Partnership With Circuit City

Earthlink Plugs Into Circuit City for VoIP

Blogoshpere:

Rich Tehrani - Earthlink and VoIP

VoIP Loop - Earthlink TrueVoice Available for Retail Market

VoIP is the new “IT Girl” - everyone wants in. I get calls from individuals everyday looking to get a piece of the VoIP pie, why would anyone expect the big box retailers to not follow suit?

The thing that gets me, and Rich Tehrani spoke to this to an extent in his post, is that getting your VoIP service into a big box mass merchant has more to do about eye balls and less about sales because eventually the aisles are filled with VoIP services. Rich said it best when he wrote,

“But when there is an entire aisle of competing VoIP products and services to consider, one wonders how these companies who provide VoIP service will be able to differentiate themselves. For example will name brands be enough? And on wonders, is AT&T a stronger brand than Vonage? Perhaps not.”

A great question posed and furthermore there truly is an opportunity for a VoIP service provider to truly differentiate themselves from the pack, but even if a VoIP service was different from all of the rest, boxes and displays do not talk; people do. The ability for a box or display to sell VoIP is limited. The fundamental flaw in these initiatives is the ability for the retail staff at these big box merchants to effectively communicate the differences between the products, the services, and to inform customers on the true benefits of migrating to VoIP.

If I were an executive at a top tier VoIP service provider, I would cringe at the thought that the success of my product sales through big box mass merchants depended on a bunch of high school and college kids. But the executives are not cringing. They are not cringing because they know that in reality, getting in the big box mass merchants is more about eye balls and press then it is about sales.

Effectively selling VoIP service in a retail environment is no easy task. I learned this first hand when I lead this retail VoIP project just a few short months ago. While the project was deemed a “success” in many ways, I learned three very interesting facts about retail VoIP Sales:

1. Most consumers think AOL is “the Internet”.

2. Most consumers have no clue what Voice over IP is.

3. Most consumers find the basic set-up of VoIP to be “difficult and too technical.”

The reps that worked the kiosk recieved a pretty robust initial training and recieved frequent coaching and mentoring from some experienced sales professionals and even still some of the stumbled or flat fell on their face. This is something that I know, from inquiring about VoIP at a big box mass merchant, big box mass merchat sales associates are not getting. In fact, the sales associate was so bad, I felt sorry for him. There is no way, as a whole, big box mass merchants can effectively communicate and sell VoIP service.

So in reality folks, this Earthlink/ Circuit City anouncement and any other VoIP service provider/ big box mass market that have come out or will come out are essentially pricey branding campaigns focused on gaining as many eyeballs as possible, not strong partnerships forgred to truly drive sales. These announcements are about as meaningful as one announcing an additional DVD was added to their DVD section.