Mobile Middleman

AFTER MORE THAN A DECADE

selling landline services to enterprises, Tim Koxlien found his telecom agency at a crossroad like so many companies following 2001s telecom bust. That juncture sent the company down a challenging but rewarding path selling enterprise wireless services.

A Midwesterner with a strong reputation selling OC-level accounts for then US West and Ameritech, Koxlien was recruited in 1999 to expand sales into Texas for Ameritechs new parent company, SBC Communications Inc. Koxlien relocated from the Twin Cities to San Antonio and set up operations; all was well until late 2001 when the Bell company decided agents like Koxlien would be relegated to smaller business accounts. Thats a totally different kind of business than what we were in. We struggled through that, he recalls.

At the same time, Koxlien Communications Inc.s large enterprise customers were beginning struggles of their own to procure and manage their growing uses of corporate wireless services. Their chief complaint was a lack of consistent sales/service personnel. They turned to Koxlien, who had been working with them for years. These requests, combined with increasingly limited local service opportunities, conspired to get Koxlien in business as a mobile middleman.

In early 2003, the agency started working with Nextel (now Sprint Nextel Corp.) and followed up with contracts with all the major operators, including Sprint, AT&T Wireless (now Cingular Wireless), T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless.

A year later, at the urging of the mobile operators, Koxlien opened a retail location in San Antonio. Ostensibly created to increase activations, the retail store, called Wireless Warehouse, serves as an anchor for local retail sales to consumers and small businesses. Orders from corporate customers elsewhere in the country still flow through Koxlien Communications.

Becoming a retailer was uncharted territory for Koxlien. Fortunately, his wife Lisa was an experienced retailer, having worked in executive management for grocers such as SUPERVALU Inc. She managed the buildout of the retail space, and now runs the consumer retail aspects of the business.

Still, the Koxliens were new to the wireless business, so in 2005, they hired a general manager, Miguel Ceciliano, who offers practical experience as a former Nextel dealer.

Wireless is not just a one, two step. Its very helpful to have somebody involved that has had the experience before to give you the guidance, says Koxlien, explaining mobile operators are only now beginning to recognize and support the channel as an effective way to reach businesses.

After three years learning to manage multiple operators and their systems, Koxlien Communications now logs 25 percent to 30 percent of its annual corporate revenue as wireless sales. Koxlien does not expect that ratio to change, but he does expect overall B2B revenue to grow, noting wireless and wireline sales feed off each other.

The companys biggest opportunity will be in mobile data sales and software applications, he says. Already, Koxlien Communications has developed partnerships with software firms like Good Technology Inc. and Xora Inc. to deliver specialized applications. As an agent, we can acquire the software for the server … [and] we can also sell them the data plan on the wireless carrier, he says.

The wireless applications also are integral to growth of the companys new division, Rural Health Telecom, which targets health care providers in the rural market. Can you imagine the power of health care records on your PDA? We see that as an opportunity to sell more wireless products, he says.

Koxlien also plans to leverage the companys experience to enable other wireline agents to avoid the steep learning curve and get into the wireless business more quickly and easily.

Up Close & Personal

President:

Lisa Koxlien
Vice President: Tim Koxlien
Company: Koxlien Communications Inc.
Web: www.koxliencom.com
Headquarters: San Antonio
Employees: 5
Customers: 250
Wireless Carrier Suppliers: Sprint Nextel Corp., Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless, T-Mobile USA
Passions: Tim says he loves music and plays guitar.
Before Telecom: Tim was a congressmans personal assistant and an actor.
How He Got Into Telecom: Tim worked a temp job for US West and then got into sales where he intended to make a lot of money and move to Nashville to start his music career. Instead, he married Lisa and kept his day job.