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Daniel Lonstein Appointed AireSpring President and
culture, AireSpring has remained 100% channel focused, debt free and family owned. At the same time, AireSpring has expanded every department to meet increased demand for its enhanced white glove support and customer service. "The industry has reached an inflection point and AireSpring is uniquely suited to capitalize on this given our strength in serving multi-location and mid-to-large enterprises,” stated Daniel Lonstein. “We are strategically investing significant capital to meet the increased demand for our managed services business. These investments allow us to fill the void for our customers left by the larger mega-carriers that are not prepared or able to deliver the personalized, high-touch services to the mid-market that are both needed and appreciated by these organizations,” added Lonstein. “I am honored to assume the role of president and CRO and look forward to leading AireSpring’s sales and marketing efforts as we continue to execute on the vision that has contributed to our success." Avi Lonstein, AireSpring CEO, stated "2017 was a fantastic year for AireSpring, and we are strategically focused on growing our managed services business rapidly in 2018 and beyond. Daniel is a most capable leader who can further ramp up the increased momentum we have been experiencing with our channel partners and overall sales growth. We are thrilled to have Daniel step into this new role. He has done an outstanding job as COO and is the logical choice to navigate AireSpring during this next period of expansion." |
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AireSpring Celebrates New Headquarters Grand Opening! AireSpring marked the official Grand Opening of our new headquarters building on Wednesday, April 11, 2018. The event began with welcome remarks by CEO Avi Lonstein, followed by a truly heartwarming flag-raising conducted by the Van Nuys Senior High School JROTC. With the flag waving proudly in the background, the official ribbon-cutting ceremony was performed by AireSpring founders Avi, Daniel, David and Tony Lonstein. They were assisted by Nancy Hoffman Vanyek, CEO of the Greater San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce.
JROTC raise the flag at Grand Opening Key southern California civic leaders attended and presented certificates of recognition to the company for its years of contribution to the state and local economy, as well as the community at-large. Presenters included representatives for U.S. Congressman Tony Cardenas, District 29; California State Senator Robert Hertzberg, District 18; California State Assembly Member Adrin Nazarian, District 46; Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, District 3; Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti; Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nury Martinez, District 6.
AireSpring was thrilled to present a donation for $5,000 in honor of the occasion to Janet Marinaccio, CEO and Chunya Blumenkrantz, CDO of MEND Poverty, an important source of aid and support for hundreds of families in the San Fernando Valley. Said Avi Lonstein, "This is a special moment for AireSpring and we wanted to recognize this occasion by giving back to the community that has been so good to us for 16 years. I believe that one of the most deserving local programs is MEND Poverty. MEND's mission is to break the bonds of poverty by providing basic human needs and a pathway to self-reliance with dignity and respect."
Following the ceremony, AireSpring executives led the community business and civic leaders on tours inside the newly renovated facility, showing off AireSpring's high-design lobby, efficient new office spaces, high tech conference rooms and the colorful recreation room and Zen quiet room, both a source of some envy among the visitors. We hope you enjoy these images of this special day at AireSpring! |
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AireSpring Thanks Our Channel Partners for Another Great Event in Las Vegas! AireSpring was a major presence at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas. Represented by our Executive Team and Channel Managers from across the nation, AireSpring rolled out the red carpet for our partners and agents, and made new connections in the industry.
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AireSpring Grand Opening Event for Partners You are cordially invited to the AireSpring Grand Opening for our partners and to wish Lanny Eule well as he retires from AireSpring and begins a new career! Please join us in our newly renovated headquarters to see our new offices up close and meet the team behind the AireSpring Advantage. Stay for our partner training and help us pay tribute to Lanny Eule during our luncheon at the 94th AeroSquadron Restaurant at the historic Van Nuys Airport!
AireSpring Channel Partners Grand Opening & Training Luncheon
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AireSpring Launches Newest Wireless Services Product AireSpring is now offering AT&T Mobile MAX, an all-in-one, fully managed wireless service. The solution includes a SIM card and activation, and it comes with a base plan of 120GB with add-on Data Packs of 10GB each available. Customers are advised that after data allotments are used, all data usage is slowed to a max of 128kbps for the rest of the bill cycle. The solution includes a fully-managed remote cloud monitoring platform to analyze real-time data usage and connectivity, and to provide proactive alerts and notifications. Customers can also take control of their own plan and monitor usage in real time.
Mobile MAX means a new level of convenience and control, with features such as:
Mobile MAX includes a SIM card provided by AireSpring. Data plan and pricing options include:
A range of mobile device options are available, including:
Static Public IP Addresses are required and included in the all-in-one price. AireSpring's Mobile MAX all-in-one service is now available for quoting in QuoteSpring. For more information, please contact your Channel Manager. |
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Hit the Jackpot in the Jungle with SPIFFs on Renewals!
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AireSpring now supports advanced CRM features complete with cloud-based services that integrate with all of our AirePBX products. Customers can use them for broad integration with over 100 different CRM applications, including Salesforce, Microsoft CRM, Zoho, SugarCRM and many others. AirePBX’s Advanced CRM Features are easy to implement and require little training or support. Some of these new features include:
Join AireSpring Channel Manager and UCaaS expert John Kitchen, and Joe Burris, AirePBX Product Manager for an in-depth demo of AirePBX on Thursday, May 24, 2018. Get an overview of these new AirePBX CRM features and how your customers can benefit.
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TBI IMPACT |
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ITW Visit us at Booth #1610, bilateral table P39 |
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SANDLER PARTNERS |
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TELARUS TIC |
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TELARUS PARTNER EXCHANGE |
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Welcome to the latest edition in our series of profiles, shining the spotlight on AireSpring’s amazing partners. This month, we’re speaking with Michael Stevens, President, Network One Solutions. Michael, thank you for agreeing to speak with us. To begin, please tell us a little about yourself and your professional background. I started in the telecom industry in 1998, working for AT&T as a sales representative. I stayed there for seven years, then moved to Mpower Communications Corporation, a.k.a. TelePacific, in 2005. It was during my time at TelePacific, now TPx, that I first started to consider becoming an agent. I knew that I was getting beat by agents every week on deals when I worked in direct sales. I didn’t know all that would be involved in making such a switch, but I figured, if they could do it, I could do it. I opened up Network One Solutions in January 2007 and we’ve been running strong for over 11 years. My wife was skeptical at first, and it was tough going in the beginning, but since I didn’t know what was ahead of me, I just kept moving forward and learned as we grew. At Network One Solutions we are somewhat vertically focused, especially on the hospitality industry and local governments. We provide a lot of services for hotels and municipalities. We combine services and traditional telephony such as DIA and PRI for the hospitality setting. We have always positioned ourselves as a partnership-based company. When people refer to themselves as partners, they are often actually independent salespersons, but we consider our partners true agents and we compensate them accordingly. We take customer and client services very seriously and step in whenever there is a problem. We always strive to put ourselves in the client’s shoes and think about what we would want to have happen if our own circuits were down and we had no voice or data. How long have you been working with AireSpring? I was first introduced to AireSpring as early as 2009. I now work with Gabriel Valderrama, National Channel Manager at AireSpring, and he supports me and my team very well. We’re a loyal company and we work with the agents and managers more than with a particular company, at least until the company proves they can do a good job, and AireSpring has done that. What do you like about working with AireSpring? The great thing about AireSpring is your ability to really go nationwide, using numerous providers with multiple network-to-network interfaces (NNIs) and many carriers, in order to give the customer one bill to pay. In the beginning, a lot of carriers were regional, but AireSpring was one of the first to say we can provide service in Delaware and Wisconsin, for example. These are two very small places and AireSpring offers coverage there and across the country. Another strength at AireSpring is your flexibility in the commission structure. It’s really helpful for our ability to win the business from customers by discounting voice services and/or SD-WAN if we need to, so that we can meet a price point that nobody else can. AireSpring does an excellent job with providing pricing flexibility based on the competition we’re going against, so we really have a chance to win the deal if it comes down to pricing. You give us a competitive advantage for sure. What would you say is the secret to being a successful agent or VAR? The most important qualities you need are being truthful and having perseverance. It’s a hard business, but if you have those two qualities, honesty and perseverance, you can make it. Early on, I had one customer that was with a particular carrier and they wanted to move. I told them that they were out of contract and could move. They did make the move, but they incurred ETFs of $3700. I paid that ETF fee for them because I was the one who told them they were out of contract and could move. I stuck by my word and, as a result, that customer became a customer for life. They saw I was an honest man of my word. They have been with me for years now and always call me when they have a need. They have grown to fourteen locations. They get called all the time by other agents and by major carriers, and they just tell those carriers to call me directly—that’s real trust. As an example of perseverance, I had approached a hotel management company about servicing their properties in my region, again and again, for three years. The owner told me many times I could give him a quote for more locations. I never got the deal even when I was offering cheaper rates. They had an agent rep from a company and were locked in. Finally, one year I went against that other agent and beat their price by $250 working with the same carrier. The next week, the customer called me in for a meeting, and I now have several of their hotel locations. I think this shows that if you just stick with it, you can break through. I lost at least 20 bids for them over a period of three years, and finally it paid off. Often, the challenge is that a hotel management company doesn’t know what systems they have. They may have purchased a hotel from someone else and hotels in general have very thin margins. They could have dozens of POTs lines and be paying $90 for each of them. Now, we’ve saved these guys thousands of dollars by showing them what they do or don’t need. We’ll chase down all the lines and data on costs and present a new proposal to them that is very to-the-point and compelling. They appreciate that sort of honesty and as they add properties they call us to do that analysis. Be honest with yourself, too. As an agent, we can all get the same pricing. You bill yourself as a consultant. You don’t have to give customers the lowest price carrier. If you can give them the best price as well as the best carrier, you’re doing your job on their behalf. We have about 70 sub-agents that work under us, and we’re very selective about who we partner with. Ninety percent of the people we work with are like-minded. Just think about the scenario when one of your vendors is treated badly, you lose the vendor and the customer. It’s a tiny industry and if you do something wrong, it’s hard to get past that reputation. What is the “next big thing” you think agents should be aware of in 2018? It is definitely changing technology, with an awareness of financial planning as well. The connectivity business is dead—it’s a race to zero when it comes to DIA connectivity. If you’re not thinking along the lines of offering security, SD-WAN, cloud, UCaaS and the latest technology, you are in trouble. The days of getting a large connectivity deal are few and far between. Change your mindset away from traditional telephony into the newest technology. If all an agent knows how to sell are transactional services, they need to get in with a master agent or a carrier who provides the technology training they need to update their skill set. For example, Intelisys offers the Super 9 Intensive Events—all this free training on the most current technologies. There is also the Intelisys Cloud University which is awesome, it’s all free to help people that are VARs or transactional business agents to move away from the past and keep up with the changes in technology. If you are not keeping up with change, your income will dry up and your business won’t grow. The days of being able to make a good living just by selling connectivity are over. The financial aspects of the industry have changed. For example, I sold a 100 MB pipe, straight fiber, six months ago for $374 and it took me three weeks to close the business. I lost money by doing that deal. You have to pick and choose and unless it’s a rare exception, stick to it. What are some of your hobbies and interests outside of telecom?
Michael, thank you for sharing your insights with us. We look forward to contributing to the future growth of Network One Solutions! |
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At AireSpring, we know that it is our dedication to customer service that sets us apart, and customer service begins with great employees. Here is your chance to get to know the AireSpring team that oversees your orders and delivers great service every day. This month we are talking with Yvonne Napoleon, Director of Account Management. Hello Yvonne. To begin, please tell us about your professional background and how long you've been in the telecom industry. I have been in the telecommunications industry since the mid-80s selling everything from local, long distance, big data, and both wireline and wireless, cellular as well as fixed digital wireless. My first job was as a Sales Representative for CommSystems, selling dialers. Dialers allowed small and medium-sized businesses to cut the cost of their LATA and LD usage in half. After that came the deregulation period of the 90s where I spent part of that time with Pacific Bell as a Win-Back Specialist, converting customers who had exercised their right to choose a CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) over Pacific Bell as the ILEC (Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier). That was an exciting time filled with changes and technology advancement. The mid-90s into the early 2000s I spent with Teligent Telecom, a fixed digital wireless CLEC that sold wireless antenna connections point-to-point or point-to-multipoint, as a Regional Sales Trainer. I was responsible for assessing the skill gaps of the sales staff and creating, developing, designing, and delivering training to close the training deficits in the Western Region: California, Nevada, Washington, Arizona and Vienna, VA (Corporate Office). While working as a Sales Trainer for Teligent I was promoted into sales management by the Regional Vice President, Dave O’Neill, where I managed a group of 15 sales folks, a Sales Engineer and an Account Manager. As a new manager I cut my management teeth in a huge way, with a new experience and new technology for the enterprise segment of the telecommunication industry. After Teligent closed its doors I landed another training position with a company whose name you will recognize, XO Communications. There I went back into a training role similar to the position I played within Teligent. It wasn’t long before I found myself being recruited by Cingular Wireless for the role of District Sales Manager. Here, I found myself face-to-face with the challenge of understanding how to be successful in a company in the midst of a transformative storm. Think about having customers calling you from both Cingular Wireless and AT&T needing help with solving their problem(s), but you are not able to help them because of the transitory state of the “New” AT&T’s back offices not meshing. It was a mess. It was in that environment that I learned the true meaning of creativity. I had to execute my sales strategy and retention plan in spite of the environmental landscape. And, we did it by setting clear objectives, focusing on vital behaviors that yielded high-leveraged outcomes for both the company and the customer. While still with AT&T the market landscape began to change and voice began to move out of focus and data became the new darling. I remember the recruiter who called me and asked me if I would be interested in selling data. How could I say no to such a progressive opportunity? This catapulted me into my next position as a Regional Sales Manager with Cogent Communications, a Tier 1 International Internet Service Provider. Here I managed a team of 14 salespeople who sold only data into Cogent lit buildings, Cogent owned data centers,and multi-carrier data centers internationally. As you can see I have had tons of experience with sales and customer management. Tell us about your role at AireSpring and how long you’ve been with the company. Timing is everything! AireSpring had been on my radar for a number of years because Evemy previous boss at XO Communications and Ron McNab [AireSpring Senior Vice President, Channel Sales] were friends. I met with Ron on two occasions and the stars just didn’t align. However, after spending some time in Beijing on a special project and returning to the US about three years ago, things simply fell into place, almost organically. The AireSpring recruiter reached out to me for the position of Director, Account Management, I met with Daniel Lonstein [AireSpring President and CRO], spoke to Avi Lonstein [ AireSpring CEO] and the rest is history. I am as excited today as I was my first day about joining the AireSpring family! My role as Director of Account Management affords me the opportunity to contribute to the success of this uniquely entrepreneurial spirited organization in a major way, which is hugely important to me. The Lonstein’s are never interested in the status quo and are always looking for ways to help our customer’s (the agents) accomplish new heights. That appealed to me! It motivated me because I too am driven to help an organization build on its processes, achievements and even its dreams. What do you enjoy most about working at AireSpring? It's the people! The bulldog tenacity of the Ops team members who never stops trying to find new and better ways to deliver service on time, every time. The Customer Service team members who will turn over every stone over to make sure that our customers are satisfied with their service. Our Repair team members who are not satisfied unless the calls and data are flowing symmetrically for our customers. Our Marketing team who never stops searching for better ways to connect with our agents and customers. Our Channel Manager team whose laser-focused efforts are all about our partners' satisfaction. Last but not least, the Account Management team whose main goals are to create the best lifecycle experience a partner or customer has ever had with a telecommunications company through 1) relationship life-cycle management, 2) reducing the instability of customer retention through problem-solving, and 3) internal customer advocacy. What are some of your hobbies or interests outside of the office? My proudest accomplishment in life is raising an accomplished, intelligent and compassionate son. I am also the captain of a two-time regional championship United States Tennis Association team (2017). My passion is found in helping others realize their potential, which is why I have continued my education. As I mentioned earlier I am a few months away from completing my Master’s in Psychology with an emphasis on Organizational Psychology. My next academic goal is to obtain my PhD in Human Resources. I plan on using this knowledge to create a consulting firm that will help two populations: executives and new college graduates entering into the workforce. Leaders, because they are the heartbeat of an organization and everything rests on their ability to lead effectively. New college graduates, because college does not prepare them to maneuver the politics of corporate America. In addition to my passion for helping corporate America I have written a book for the purpose of encouraging professional women in the workplace. I draw on the many lessons I have learned on my professional journey. I share things from how to apply for the right position based on their profession and personal strengths to how to determine the motivation of a prospective employee. I am all about the empowerment of humanity. Yvonne, thank you for sharing your story with us! |
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AireSpring is an award-winning provider of Managed Connectivity and Cloud Communications solutions providing fully managed and connected end-to-end, next-generation solutions for multi-location enterprise customers, including:
AireSpring's services are delivered over its revolutionary nationwide MPLS Mesh Network, providing customers a fully integrated, end-to-end solution from a single vendor.    |
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