Coming up through the ranks
Steve Michaels' company, TAS Marketing, has seen and experienced many changes in the telephone answering service industry throughout his long career. Steve got into the telecommunications field in Eugene, Oregon in 1975 working as a salesman for Record-A-Call selling answering machines. Once the leads were generated, he traveled throughout Oregon, Washington, and northern California contacting prospects. One method he used to close the sale was to use his previous “disc jockey” skills to put a professionally sounding message on the outgoing greeting. Once the prospective buyer heard how good his greeting sounded, it was hard not to purchase the product. From there Steve started his first company, Interstate Communications Marketing, where he sold call diverters to businesses who wanted to transfer their after hour calls to another location. This method of call transference was especially successful in the real estate field where agents would take turns receiving inquiry calls after hours. In 1976, Michaels was hired by Candela Electronics to sell their electronic answering service system. It was a product that incorporated an LED box at the TAS office and a call diverter at the customer's office that would be manually programmed to send a three-digit number down a standard phone line identifying the caller. Steve sold his first system in Bend, Oregon. This innovative technology foreshadowed the end of hardwire off-premise extensions. Even so, it would be some time before DID service was introduced.
Wanting to experience the big city, Steve moved to the San Francisco Bay area where he continued to sell call diverters for Barbary Coast Communications. There he opened the market for this new call transference idea to companies who were advertising in many phone books but had only one central location and phone number that was usually a long distance call to potential customers in the outlying areas. He would offer the companies a local phone number in the area that the book was advertised in, thereby generating more business using a local number. One problem that occurred was where to physically install the call diverters. "We installed them in funeral parlors, barber shops, or any place that we could get into 24 hours a day." It was quite a network.
In 1977, Steve moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a salesman for Pacific Communications selling voice logging equipment. He was the top salesman for the 3M products and was instrumental in changing voice logging from reel-to-reel to a cassette system. His primary sales were made to police and fire departments.
His first encounter with the TAS industry came in 1978 working for CAS Systems located in Sunnyvale, California. Acting as sales manager for the company, Steve sought out answering services that were looking for a way to computerize their businesses. A major complaint from the owners was concern over finding operators who could type. This CAS system used DID and call-diverters to transfer the calls to the service; it was quite affordable. Sales were brisk because ATSI had contracted with a large company called Lynch to design a computerized system for their use but it was very costly and overkill for the TAS application. At the same time, Startel had developed a computer system that could interface to the Candela system. So, instead of only getting a three-digit readout, the Startel system provided a whole screen of information.
In 1979, Steve felt the desire to start his own company and branched out on his own, starting TAS Consultants. He saw there was a need for a consultant to fill the gap by helping the TAS owner understand and upgrade from hardwired cordboards to newer computerized technology. One method of doing this was to publish an in-depth study that evaluated all of the equipment being offered at the time. It was called "TAS Equipment Analysis Report." Steve reminisces about his first consulting job with Joe Wofford in Houston, Texas and from there he flew to Fairbanks, Alaska then to Honolulu, Hawaii… not bad for a beginner. He states, "I was scared to death because I had never done this type of thing before and who was I to give out advice regarding such a large acquisition." But he states, "If I didn't know the answer to something, I could sure find out." His consulting practices allowed him to intervene between the manufacturer and the TAS resulting in an experience that would last a lifetime.
Steve's consulting business was in full gear when a new start-up company called ACI, Advanced Communications, Inc., approached him in 1981. They had a revolutionary new product that could send text messages from a computer over the phone lines to a small printer. This was in the days before fax was widespread. They had developed a product but needed someone to market it. Steve seized upon this opportunity because he had seen the need in many operations to download messages to the client's office early in the morning thereby eliminating extra staffing during peak hours. For the next four years, he traveled to every state in the union. One of the hot selling points was that if the owner of the TAS bureau would buy one terminal and ten printers, Steve would return to their office and actually go out in the field with them to sell and install the printer. This is where he met many of the TAS owners that he knows today. "I would go out to the customers office with the owner, sell them on the idea of having all their messages printed out right on their desk. Then to finalize the sale, I would literally crawl under their desk to install an amphenol connector but if that weren’t possible, I would jury-rig the printer to a second or back line. I saw a lot of feet and phone wires at that point in my career!"
Steve was instrumental in taking ACI public and with the newly acquired funding, the company decided to expand its marketplace outside of the TAS industry so Steve again returned to consulting on a full time basis. A voice mail company called Centigram contacted him in 1985 and hired him as an outside consultant to come up with a marketing plan to address the TAS industry. Steve set up a network for the company using the services of Bill Hunter with American Voice Mail, as its main distributor. He attended many trade shows and used his numerous contacts as prospective buyers. Some bureau owners were afraid that this new voice mail technology would put them out of business. The progressive thinkers of the time used it as another service offering and for message delivery to reduce peak hour traffic.
After his contract with Centigram was over, several other vendors, wanting him to sell their products, contacted Steve. It was at this time that he decided to change the name of his company to TAS Marketing. Among some of the products that TAS Marketing distributed was the DC-7, a dial out controller system that kept track of outgoing calls. Another very popular product was the AVI operator training system. This interactive tape recorder system would actually role-play with operators in training, allowing them to go through a live scenario and then be critiqued while hearing their responses on tape. Steve mentioned that at the show in Vancouver, BC, both he and his associate had lost their voice because they gave so many demos at their booth but the sales were great. A record twenty-seven systems were sold at that show.
In 1986, he and Chris Michaels, his future wife, started their first answering service in Palo Alto, California called American Executive Service. Here, Steve, put his knowledge and experience of the industry to work at his own company. It was a 9:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday service that only catered to professionals. Chris managed the operation while Steve did the marketing and sales. He was also selling a variety of TAS products at the time to other services.
A group of vendors had gotten together at this time wanting to sponsor an expo of Telemessaging products. The association's name was "Association of Telemessaging Suppliers" and the board consisted of Judy Meyer, Jim Becker, Bill Hunter, Frank D'Ascenzo, and Eric Suder. Mr. Michaels spearheaded this project, setting up sales and marketing, facilities, speakers, and entertainment for the first vendor sponsored convention of its kind. It was in Atlanta, Georgia with Norman Vincent Peale as the guest speaker. A second expo was held in Phoenix the following year but it did not prove to be a viable, ongoing venture for this association.
In 1988, TAS Marketing moved to Fort Bragg, California, which was located on the beautiful Mendocino coast. The Michaels purchased a house on the ocean, which was a bed and breakfast. They continued with that business and Steve started selling used answering service equipment.
After a short stint on the coast, the Michaels moved their llamas and marketing facilities to a town outside of Boulder, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, in Colorado. A little log cabin would be their headquarters for two years until their latest move, which has taken them to Trout Creek, Montana.
Setting up shop in Big Sky Country with one hundred acres of land, a pond, airstrip, wildlife, and plenty of peace and quiet had been a dream of Steve's since he started selling answering machines back in the 70s. This is where he started brokering answering bureaus in 1991 with his first sale in Dallas, Texas. During his career so far, he has sold over 350 businesses including telephone answering, call center, alarm monitoring, and voice mail companies totaling a whopping $80,000,000.00.
In 1991, Mr. Michaels got into the magazine business and started the trade publication, Connections Magazine. He started it from scratch and saw a need for an all-purpose trade publication that spanned over the traditional TAS applications to encompass the entire messaging industry. His varied and wide experience led to articles that were appropriate to the learning curve for the industry at the time. In April of 2000, Steve purchased the only competitive magazine in the industry, the Communicator, formerly the TAS Trader. His bi-monthly column, "From the Publisher" was written to teach that lessons learned from everyday life on his ranch and that nature could be applied in the work environment. This series of stories led him to publish his first book, "Homespun Insight." The magazine was sold to Peter DeHaan in September 2001 where it is still the leading & only publication for the industry today.
In his career, Michaels has seen it all and has climbed his way from the bottom from selling answering machines where he made a twenty-five dollar commission up to brokering million dollar deals. He has published numerous articles, worked for four major TAS/Voice Mail companies, owned his own telephone answering service, organized and served on the Board of Directors for ATMS, sold new and used equipment spanning over thirty years, has consulted with and spoken at many industry conferences and started Connections Magazine.
He looks forward to being a broker for many years to come. Michaels says, "You know I've been around for a long time and have earned the trust and confidence of a lot of TAS owners. I have received calls from individuals who I had sold equipment for years ago and they will say, Steve, you did a good job for me eight years ago with my equipment, now I am ready for you to sell my business."
"It is gratifying to have worked with individuals who introduce me to their kids that are now active in the business," Michaels concludes. "I am thankful to all of the people who have supported me throughout the years and am blessed to be associated with such an outstanding industry."