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Very-small businesses typically do not have technical staff or the knowledge to understand, much less the time to spend understanding, lots of telecom jargon, says Kevin Baker, Protus Product Marketing Manager.

In fact, that is one reason why Protus recently decided to refer to "find me, follow me" services as "call forwarding," even though IP-based "find me, follow me" offers more utility than legacy call forwarding. But that isn't the point, says Baker. Small businesses with one to five employees tend to be a practical lot and just want things to work, he says.

"We struggle all the time with how to explain this," says Baker. In fact, "people sometimes buy but they really don't know what it is that they've bought."

That's a bit of an occupational hazard for any firm selling hosted calling features, but especially for providers selling a layer of software running with existing phone service. As you would imagine, a key feature for a very-small business is the ability to use "auto-attendant" features typically offered by business phone systems, without the need to buy a local switch. 

But some buyers wouldn't even be familiar with the term, so sometimes "virtual receptionist" or some other term makes more sense. 

That means "Aha!" moments often occur, perhaps as often as recognition that enhanced features can be used without replacing existing phones or service providers.

Among the common issues: "We struggle to convince people that we are a layer on top of their existing phone service," says Baker. Also, "we find call forwarding (find me, follow me) is confusing to people."

What seems to sell the service is one particular new feature a very-small business (a plumber, for example) can use. "In a nutshell, it is a virtual receptionist or auto-attendant answering service that takes calls, plays your greeting and then can forward a call to the right person or telephone number.

Essentially, it's all about giving a small company a "bigger company" image, plus getting all calls answered, says Baker. 

Beyond that, toll-free number capability or local presence in a remote market seems to be key to adoption. Though earlier versions of the service sent calls straight to voice mail when a called party is occupied, the latest update of the software allows inbound calls to be directed to another associate, if desired. 

Unlike some other services sold to very-small businesses, "my1voice (News - Alert)" offers a uniform set of calling features across all of its plans, which are differentiated by the number of minutes in the usage plan.

The service can be used globally, but local numbers are available for the U.S. and Canadian markets. Quite frequently, the application case is a firm that wants a local presence in a particular U.S. or Canadian market. 

Among the latest enhancements is voice mail transcription, with delivery as an email or text message, allowing a user to determine quickly whether a particular message requires immediate action. 

Baker says most new customers use a new phone number, typically a toll free number, when buying the service. Local number portability is selected by a smaller percentage of customers. 

Part of the advanced call screening functionality is "request routing," which allows users to set up rules to redirect calls based on data entered by the caller. That feature allows calls to be routed to regional sales people, customer support or other "departments."

When selling to very-small businesses, simplicity always is key, says Baker.