Telecom Auditing + My Clients = My Passion
I have been in the telecom business my entire professional life. Quite literally after graduating from college, I called up the manager of a large telecom and demanded that I work for him, I suppose the rest is history.
Some people ask me how much telecom has changed since I started in the business (wooa boy – pull up a chair). Where do I think communications will be in 5 – 10 years? Is the wireless carrier they’re thinking about moving to better than the one they’re on? But by far, the best question I get asked about being in telecommunications for 20 + years is “WHY do I do what I do?”
The most honest answer I will ever give? I LOVE helping my clients, and I LOVE telecommunications. I would be horrible at doing something I wasn’t passionate about and I made the vow a long time ago I would only do something my heart was fully committed to. So far, so good.
The best way I can relate this to you is a story I can share about a real-world experience I had a few years ago (or was it yesterday?) – The names have been changed to protect the innocent. 
We had made contact with a prospect at a pretty high level within their organization. I remember sitting down to chat with the Chief Technology Officer of this large, well recognized company. You know the one, where if you mentioned their name to somebody off the street, they would know exactly who you’re talking about.
We had done a pretty good job of talking about what our program was about and what we might be able to do for their company, the CTO agreed. He picked up the phone, I could hear on the other end whoever it was answered before the first ring was done.
“Hey, could you come up to my office? I need you to meet someone.” he asked.
Within a few minutes, there was a knock on the door and I was soon introduced to Jacob – the IT guy.
“Listen Jake, I want you to meet with Benny and his team here and see what we they can do for us, they’ve got a lot of good ideas and I want you to work with them okay? I’ll let you all get acquainted, I’ve got to jump on a conference call here so thanks for stopping by!” he said.
And so just like that, I was out of the CTO’s office and walking to the elevators with Jacob to go to his office.
“Ummm….” I started, “Thanks for interrupting your day to meet with me. I know you probably have a lot on your plate right now..”
Jacob feigned a polite smile and even though he politely thanked me, I could feel the weight of what was just put on him was one more thing he had to do.
As we sat down at his desk, I could feel the defensive posturing start up from Jacob. I asked about telecom for the company, a little about what it looked like today and how he felt about their services. All the while, Jacob stared at me with the arms crossed and a frown on his face.
A few minutes leter, I stopped the conversation, closed up my portfolio and with the most sincerity I had, I turned to my defensive prospect and said “Listen Jacob. I know that this is very awkward for both of us. You didn’t even know who I was 10 minutes ago and now Mr. Simmons is demanding you work with me. I honestly feel really bad about this and I don’t want to make your day worse.”
Jacob eased up a bit, he relaxed his shoulders and his frown turned into a bit of a sad look. “Sorry Benny, I realize this is weird for you too. Let’s start over and let me see what we might be able to work out.”
It turns out that while telecom was his responsibility, he hating working with the vendors and bills. He was an IT guy and loved working on doing network upgrades, playing with new equipment and designing new systems. Telecom was his responsibility alright, but because they spent so much of his budget on telecom, he was worried. It boiled down to this, his fear was that if I found a boatload of money they were wasting, he might get reprimanded or worse – fired.
“Jacob, you might be surprised to know that I hear that response a lot. Many people who own telecom responsibilities for their company should be able to audit and maintain their bills without outside help. The truth is that it’s NOT that simple. Listen, you were hired to do a job for your company. PART of that responsibility is keeping the telecom bills and services in check, it wasn’t the reason you signed on to work here I bet.”
Jacob nodded his head in agreement.
I went on to say “Our job is to be YOUR partner. ALL we do is find ways for companies to reduce their telecom bills and reduce the burden of managing them. What that means is our experience in understanding where telecom carriers typically make errors, tariff violations, overlook ways to reduce your existing rates without adding on to your contracts and having the knowledge of what other competitors and comparably-sized companies are spending It all helps you reduce your telecommunications costs, PLUS – here’s the greatest benefit is that you don’t have to worry about wondering if your billing is correct, finding waste or fraud as your business partner I report to you and show you what we were able to find.”
Jacob’s face by now had a smile instead of a frown, he looked me straight in the eyes, held out his hand and said “Okay, let’s do this!”
Move forward a several months. We had presented out findings to Jacob who in turn was able to report to the CTO what we had done for them – which was extremely positive. In a scheduled account review, I sat down with Jacob and asked him what he thought of our working relationship together and how we were doing.
“Benny, I have to say – at first I was extremely skeptical about you. However, you guys have made my life so much easier. I don’t even bother second guessing what you’re doing any more and now I realize what you’ve done for us is MUCH more than just reduce our costs.”
“Oh?” I questioned, “What do you mean?”
“What I didn’t tell you was before I met you was that I was getting tremendous pressure to reduce my headcount by 2 people this year. I couldn’t sleep at night, I mean I have a GREAT team, I really like them. Most of them are married and some of them have kids getting ready to go to college I am supposed to reduce my headcount, ruin someone’s life and now do without two people and we have to pick up the slack? With the savings you’ve found, I was able to walk into Mr. Simmons’ office and confidently tell him that I shouldn’t have to lay anyone off, I justified it, showed him the rationale and you know what – he agreed!”
To this day, I think about that story all the time. I love what our company does, and further more I love what we can do for our customers, and guess what? We’re going to keep on doing it!
One Response 
Leave a Reply 
Benny Carreon is the President and CEO of GrayBear Resources Group. GBR is a next-generation telecommunications consulting firm. We aren't a telephone company's vendor disguising itself as a consultant. We don't sell carrier products that would conflict with out mission - our goal is to work for our clients by reducing costs, streamlining services, eliminating waste and fraud while providing the least disruption to your business.
Honesty, Integrity and Quality Service - Our pledge to you. 
This story is pretty typical. The IT guys usually hate dealing with telecom issues, and they can be pretty defensive when higher ups bring in telecom consultants – after all, that is their job.
You are right about telecom consultants and auditors being partners to help lower expenses. Most IT guys have no time to do a thorough audit, and that is usually why it never gets done. And moves/adds/changes? Forget about it.
Auditors and consultants can be a terrific addition to any company’s IT department.