Vox Telecoms' Telepreneur unit has exceeded the company's expectations, despite its small size.
The unit was formed to create entrepreneurs who can resell Vox products and recruit more 'telepreneurs' to also sell products. The business is based on a referral marketing strategy and uses a dealer network, and focuses on products aimed at the consumer and small and medium company space.
Vox Telepreneur is the fastest growing start-up in the group's history, with more than 11 000 customers and 4 000 dealers added to the network since its launch in February 2008.
During the past year, the unit created its first millionaire, Thomas Reid, who employed a traditional reseller model in the form of a telemarketing team to gain a competitive advantage. He has sold over 1 900 Vox ADSL phones and could break his own record in the coming year.
Vox Telecom group MD Douglas Reed, who created Telepreneur, adds that the unit is growing by between 10% and 15% a month.
Fast growing
The unit is only about 1% the size of Vox, which made R2 billion in revenue for the last financial year. Reed says the company's revenue should grow, as it has added a new phone to its range, which has six extensions and allows three calls to be made at the same time.
He explains that the phone is a standalone unit that does not need to be plugged into a PC, but allows free calls to be made on the Vox network. In addition, because of a relationship with Gigaset, free calls can be made to the US on that network.
Reed says, while he “can't complain, [as Telepreneur] is doing well”, the company would have liked to see more uptake from conventional resellers, an area that it is working on.
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