William S. Samuels IV, President of Telesales Services, an acknowledged Telesales and Telemarketing industry leader gives his insight into the eight things you need to know before you outsource your call center needs. Bill consults organization of all sizes in all industries – from Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and medical companies, to federal government to two-person startups, and even Dancing with the Stars! Bill works with over 100 call centers to find you the right solution, so you can be confident in his ability to evaluate a call center.

Rochester, NY January 16, 2008 — William S. Samuels IV, President of Telesales Services, an acknowledged Telesales and Telemarketing industry leader gives his insight into the four things you need to know before you outsource your call center needs.

Do You Know These 4 Items to Consider Before Outsourcing Your Call Center?
William Samuels, IV
President
Telesales Services

I. Is Call Center Outsourcing Right For You?
Call Center Outsourcing is the use of a Telesales or Telemarketing vendor to handle an inbound or outbound call center project that normally draws on internal resources. Using outside resources allows you to concentrate, cost effectively, on your core competencies.

Outsourced Call Centers Offer:
• Skilled Telemarketing professionals
• Improved market coverage
• Faster ramp-up, launch, and roll-out of campaigns
• Experience with programs similar to yours
• Rapid response to market conditions
• Account management expertise
• Enhanced reporting capabilities
• Market testing capabilities
• Remote call monitoring

The Benefits of Outsourcing Call Center Services
• Increased Sales and profits
• Reduced costs per sale
• Maximum phone productivity
• Increased number of appointments
• Increased customer base
• Increased lead generation
• Higher number of qualified leads
• Higher number of closed sales
• Better customer retention
• More immediate feedback
• Better results through test marketing
• Increased local, regional, or national market share

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See, Click and Transform: Latest Version of Bling! It Grants Individuals and Small Businesses Operating Mac Systems the Confidence and Credibility to Compete on the Global Market and Raise Sales, Click-Through-Rates and Sell Stagnant Inventory

San Francisco, CA January 16, 2008 — Vertus, the graphics and imaging software division of Heligon, a technology business specializing in image data interpretation, today unveiled the Macintosh-compatible version of Bling! It, its recently released deep-graphic image-editing tool that quickly and easily transforms product shots to create maximum online sales impact. Since its initial launch, Bling! It users, even those without any prior image editing experience, have found that the software helps raise the achieved sales price of their products and increases the click-through-rate over standard thumbnail images. By giving product images a “shot-in-the-studio” look and feel, Bling! It creates images which attract more attention from buyers, helping sellers achieve higher prices for their products and move previously stagnant inventory. The software is available for live demonstrations throughout Macworld Expo 2008, January 15-18, in the Vertus booth #W-4231.

By combining complex technology with easy-to-use tools, Bling! It empowers any user to strengthen and embellish product images thanks to capabilities previously available only to seasoned image editing professionals. With Bling! It, Mac users can unlock their creative potential without having to master complex and intimidating image editing programs such as Photoshop. With just a few clicks and the guidance of Bling! It’s intuitive balloon tips, users can seamlessly replace a standard image background with a more appealing backdrop and add features such as drop shadowing, highlight effects and logos. The sheer speed realized with Bling! It enables even the novice user to produce product images up to four times faster than with any previously available solutions.

“Bling! It enables anyone to create high quality product shots capable of competing with studio-shot professional product images. We’ve received numerous comments from customers that have “Blinged” their product shots, that they have realized as much as a 20% increase in their achieved product price,” said James Carr-Jones, president and CEO of Vertus. “With businesses of all sizes and industries offering products through e-commerce outlets, the entrepreneur that makes the best impression online ultimately generates the most sales. Bling! It enables even the most casual seller to optimize potential revenue and increase profits by making products truly stand out from the ever-growing crowd without the need to master Photoshop or other complicated imaging programs.”

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Revolutionary new rapid payment processing lets businesses get their money the very next day, improving cash flow

Thousand Oaks, CA January 15, 2008 — Paymentmax announced a new feature that lets business owners charge a customer’s credit card, then have access to the funds the very next day. This is a major advancement over traditional credit card processing services that take 2 to 5 days before funds become available to the merchant.

“The length of time that it takes for credit card funds to land in a merchant’s bank account has always been a big issue with businesses,” said Tony Shap, President of Paymentmax. “A business can have all kinds of sales on the books, but still have to wait a week to get their money. That can cause cash flow problems. Paymentmax’s new Next Day processing solves that problem,” Shap said.

Paymentmax’s Next Day processing is being made available to the Internet’s millions of online businesses that need to accept credit cards. Paymentmax serves as a single source for capturing and processing of receivables. “In the past, your sales were captured by one provider, then your funds were processes by two or three others. Not only did everybody get a slice of your sale, but every service had to work together and long delays were frequent. Paymentmax speeds up the entire process to a single day with one of the lowest costs in the industry,” Shap said.

Paymentmax delivers businesses credit and debit card funds directly into the merchant’s existing bank account the next day — or in as little as 12 hours. “We constantly strive to offer the best quality solutions in the industry while keeping our prices well below average. Business owners are constantly telling us Paymantmax gets the job done far faster and costs them far less,” Shap said.

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Axios faculty affiliate, Professor James Anderson of the Kellogg School of Management, launches his new book, Value Merchants: Demonstrating and Documenting Superior Value in Business Markets. Based on the results of his latest research on crafting winning value propositions and managing customer value, Dr. Anderson defines the best practices in business to business (B2B) marketing.

Chicago, IL January 14, 2008 — Axios Partners, Inc. today announced its faculty affiliate, Professor James Anderson of the Kellogg School of Management, has launched his new book, Value Merchants: Demonstrating and Documenting Superior Value in Business Markets. Dr. Anderson is considered the world’s leading authority on Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing having already written the best selling B2B marketing textbook and numerous Harvard Business Review articles. On Tuesday, January 15, Dr. Anderson will be hosting a book launch in conjunction with the Kellogg Alumni Association on the Kellogg campus in downtown Chicago.

Based on the results of Dr. Anderson’s latest research on crafting winning value propositions and managing customer value, Value Merchants defines B2B marketing best practices and provides expert guidance to managers who are facing disappointing sales growth and increasing price pressures. “To gain a fair return on the value their offerings deliver, firms must be able to persuasively demonstrate and document the value they provide customers relative to the next best alternative for those customers,” says Dr. Anderson. In Value Merchants, he describes his groundbreaking customer value assessment methodology to provide an understanding of customer requirements and preferences, and what it is worth in monetary terms to fulfill them.

“Dr. Anderson’s approach to customer value management has created dramatic results for our clients. For example, we’ve seen clients increase margins by 25% or achieve 85% penetration in new markets by demonstrating and documenting their superior value,” says Eric Berggren, Managing Director. To reflect the success that its clients have had with Dr. Anderson’s and other cutting edge methods, Axios has redesigned its website: www.AxiosPartnersInc.com. Copies of Dr. Anderson’s book, as well as other publications highlighting best practices in marketing, can be obtained through the Axios website: www.AxiosPartnersInc.com/ideastools.html .

About Axios Partners, Inc.

Axios leads clients to innovate and manage their customer value for revenue and profit growth. Drawing on a network of expert resources, Axios combines highly skilled and experienced consultants with the cutting edge methods to address each client’s unique challenges. Axios has developed and implemented highly effective differentiation strategies for clients across a variety of industries, such as financial services, high-tech, energy, health care, telecommunications and industrial products. Axios client results have been highlighted in Fortune, Harvard Business Review and numerous other publications.

For more information, please visit: www.AxiosPartnersInc.com.

Invesp, a marketing consulting boutique that offers conversion optimization services, announced that its clients had an average conversion rate of 11.12 percent in 2007, which translates into an increase of up to 321 percent in online revenue.

Detroit, MI January 14, 2008 — Most large online companies have reported a soar in their sales. Companies with significant web presences such as Amazon, Bestbuy and Motorola were able to drive hundreds of thousands of visitors to their sites and as a result reported double digit growth in sales. Other e-commerce sites do not have such brand awareness and are not enjoying the same revenue growth. Most of these sites are turning to conversion optimization companies to help them boost sales. Invesp, a marketing consulting boutique, announced that its clients had an average conversion rate of 11.12 percent in 2007 reporting an increase of up to 321 percent in online revenue.

The fact is that at the heart of every ecommerce website is someone whose job is to increase revenue. As there is an increased pressure on online retailers to generate more sales, these sites are trying to figure out ways to convert more of their traffic into actual consumers, which is why it is crucial to focus on conversion rates. Data tracked by Invesp Consulting, a marketing optimization company, indicates that online conversion rates have been on a steady decline for the last 6 years. Fireclick index, which provides an objective comparison of key metrics across a variety of segments, reported that ecommerce website reported an average conversion rate of 6 percent in the year 2000, but by 2007, most ecommerce sites are reporting an average less than 2 percent.

Surprisingly, these rates have not always been this low. Ecommerce sites used to experience more sales because of limited competition. They were not required to be optimized nor designed with users in mind. But with the boom in e-retailing sites, competition is fierce. Sites are turning to conversion optimization methods with one goal in mind: trying to figure out the best way to increase online conversions.

And companies should be concerned with conversions since there are more users than ever online. Users are picky, if the site does not capture their attention because of the lack of optimization and focus, they will click out within seconds. That translates into hundreds of dollars in lost sales.

For an ecommerce site driving 50,000 visitors a day, a 2 percent conversion rate may suffice. But, conversion rate doesn’t have to stop at that low number. Ayat Shukairy, a managing partner at Invesp Consulting (www.invesp.com), says, “if you’ve already invested hundreds of thousands into your online platform, you are getting tens of thousands of visitors to your site every day. Increasing your website conversion rate can mean getting 1,000 orders instead of 500 orders. Our clients are reporting an average of 11 percent conversion rate. That translates into 321 percent increase in revenue. If companies do not fix the problem with their website, then they are simply leaving money on the table for competitors to take.”

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