Meet Wes Pace, VP of Business Development

In October, S-NET was thrilled to announce that it is joining forces with SkyTalk Plus. As we are onboarding many new clients and welcoming the SkyTalk team to the S-NET family, this is a great moment to learn more about the founder of this successful hosted voice provider, Wes Pace, who is now S-NET’s new VP of Business Development.

Wes founded SkyTalk Plus in 2012 with the goal of delivering locally engineered and supported Hosted VoIP solutions to businesses across the USA. He built a multi-channel organization that became known for exceptionally reliable service and a high client retention rate.

In his new role a VP of Business Development, Wes is responsible for ensuring a smooth transition for all SkyTalk clients and partners to S-NET’s services, expanding the S-NET partner program, as well as utilizing his extensive success at SkyTalk to pursue large enterprise opportunities.

We are excited to get to know Wes, so we sat down with him to ask a few questions. Here is what he had to say…

How did you get your start in the telecommunications industry?

I started in 1983. I originally studied computer programming, but instead of becoming a programmer, I found a sales job replacing clients’ rented Bell Telephone equipment with a new box called a PBX. I still had a full head of hair back then. (Laughs.)

For the next 25 years, I was selling phone equipment. Telecommunications was a predominantly hardware-based industry at the time, and it was fascinating to see how it gradually evolved into the service-based industry we know today.

When did you start SkyTalk Plus and what was your primary objective?

I founded SkyTalk in 2012, when hosted VoIP solutions were becoming increasingly popular and I could tell that the technology was going to take over. But without the networking tools and resources available today, it was nearly impossible to deliver high quality services. In fact, about half of all companies who installed VoIP during this time decided to uninstall it later.

I saw an opportunity to significantly improve the quality of services by offering hosted VoIP solutions to businesses in underserved rural and suburban areas with the support of local telephone equipment vendors working as my agents. By resolving network connectivity issues and helping us with troubleshooting, local partners empowered us to provide much higher quality services than most of the market, no matter where clients were located. Over time we acquired many accounts from unhappy customers of big name competitors and we had excellent client retention.

What accomplishments are you particularly proud of?

I’m proud of the Hosted VoIP solutions that we developed for the quick-serve restaurant business. This required unique feature sets and a level of service dependability that was not easy to achieve with a small installation site. By partnering with local vendors, we were able to offer superior service and became very successful with pizza stores, chains and franchises.

You recently joined forces with S-NET. What do you expect from this acquisition?

As a much larger provider, S-NET has a wider portfolio of services and significantly more resources available. I am excited because this acquisition will bring a new level of service quality and competency for our clients. Our partners and customers have been very positive about this change and look forward to a smooth migration to S-NET’s services.

What will be your new role at S-NET?

For the first several months, I will be ensuring that all the customer and partner relationships are smoothly transitioned into the S-NET family. I will then shift my focus to adding new enterprise accounts to S-NET’s client base – specifically businesses that have numerous small locations spread across the country in rural and suburban areas. S-NET has a market-leading value proposition, and I believe it is expertly positioned to serve accounts that fit this profile.

What is your vision for our company?

My vision is to create a unique space for S-NET in the world of cloud communications, from which we can excel against our larger, less nimble competitors.

I am very positive about our outlook. Our companies had a lot in common before the transition, and our family-like team cultures have blended seamlessly. Together, we have great energy and motivation to deliver best-in-class services and support to customers and partners every day.

When you are not building S-NET’s bright future, how do you like to spend your free time?

I enjoy golfing with my kids; we make time for it at least a few times a year. I also like to take care of different jobs around my home, such as yard work. Otherwise, my lifelong passion is traveling. I am never happier than when I get a chance to visit a new destination and learn something about that place. I guess I was born under a wandering star.