4 sales strategies for the telecoms industry

The telecoms industry faces unique challenges that demand innovative approaches to thrive. High competition, rapid technological advancements, and evolving customer expectations create a dynamic environment where staying ahead is critical.

Telecom companies must continuously adapt to these shifts, often finding it difficult to balance quality service with cost efficiency while differentiating themselves from competitors.

Customer expectations, shaped by the increasing options in the market, push for faster, more reliable, and personalised experiences, adding pressure to deliver beyond traditional offerings.

Traditional sales approaches no longer suffice, as telecom companies need to leverage data, personalise engagements, and embrace digital transformation to stay relevant.

In this article, let’s look at four innovative sales strategies that can help telecommunications companies succeed in this highly competitive landscape.

1. Create hyper-personalised offers

Hyper-personalisation delivers offers that resonate deeply with users, allowing telecom companies to enhance customer loyalty and satisfaction. This strategy revolves around leveraging data-driven insights to craft and deliver experiences that meet customers’ needs.

This is how telecom companies can put this sales strategy into practice:

• Utilising big data and analytics: Harness big data and advanced analytics to uncover detailed insights into customer behaviours, preferences, and pain points. Telecom providers can identify purchase trends, predict future needs, and tailor offers accordingly.
• Implementing AI and machine learning algorithms: Use AI and machine learning to analyse customer profiles and behaviours in real-time. These technologies help create personalised offers, from tailored plans to product recommendations, that align perfectly with individual customer preferences.
• Offering real-time adjustments: Adapt plans and services in real-time based on customer usage patterns. For instance, offer unlimited data plans to data-heavy users, ensuring their needs are met while increasing engagement and reducing churn.
• Promoting location-based offers and discounts: Leverage location data to provide offers that are relevant to specific regions or customer segments. These targeted promotions can drive engagement by addressing local needs or preferences
• Breaking down customer bases into micro-segments: Segment your customer base into smaller, more specific groups, such as families or senior citizens. This makes it easier to create tiered subscription models that offer great value to users. More on this below.

2. Subscription and loyalty programs

Subscription and loyalty programs are powerful tools for telecom companies to foster customer retention and increase lifetime value. These give freedom to the users and shift the control into their hands while rewarding them for bringing in continued business.

Keep the following tips in mind while pricing different subscription plans and building loyalty programs:

• Offering multi-level subscription plans: Develop tiered subscription plans that offer increasing benefits as customers move up in levels. For example, higher tiers could include faster internet speeds, priority customer service, or exclusive offers.
• Introducing flexible subscription options: Provide customers with the ability to adjust their plans as their needs change whenever they want. This flexibility reduces churn by allowing customers to scale their services up or down without feeling locked into a plan that no longer suits them.
• Creating loyalty programs: Reward long-term customers with valuable perks like device discounts, free add-ons, or early access to new technologies. These rewards incentivise continued loyalty and make customers feel appreciated for their ongoing commitment.
• Implementing points-based systems: Introduce a points-based reward system where customers can earn points for activities like on-time payments, referring friends, or using additional services. Accumulated points can be redeemed for discounts, upgrades, or other rewards.
• Offering additional services at no extra cost: Enhance subscription value by including complementary services such as free streaming subscriptions, cloud storage, or advanced security features.

3. Sales team training and development

A well-trained sales force can effectively navigate technological advancements, understand customer needs, and leverage new tools to drive success. There are some tried and tested methods to put this long-term sales strategy into practice:

• Training on the latest telecom technologies: Regularly update sales teams on the latest advancements in telecom, such as 5G, IoT, and cloud services. Consequently, they can confidently address customer inquiries and position these technologies as solutions to their needs.
• Providing knowledge of emerging market trends: Educate sales representatives on current and emerging market trends. Understanding these trends allows them to craft relevant sales pitches and demonstrate how your company’s offerings align with the future of telecoms.
• Focusing on soft skills development: Active listening, problem-solving, emotional intelligence, etc., are essential for building rapport with customers. This warms the users up to your brand and plays a key role in retention.
• Adopting a consultative selling approach: Train sales teams to prioritise understanding and addressing customer needs over simply recommending plans. An interactive selling approach builds trust, leading to stronger customer relationships.
• Educating on CRM software use: Ensure sales teams are proficient in using CRM software to manage customer interactions, track leads, and personalise follow-ups. This makes it easier to tend to every prospect request appropriately without failure.
• Implementing automation tools: Introduce sales automation tools to handle repetitive tasks like data entry or routine follow-ups. Telecom sales teams can focus more on building relationships and closing deals rather than doing administrative tasks.

4. Monetise network infrastructure investments

Telecom companies can maximise returns on their network infrastructure investments by exploring new revenue streams. Monetising these assets involves offering flexible, tailored services to businesses, leveraging excess capacity, and partnering with other technology providers to enhance value.

Here are some ways to navigate this:

• Providing scalable, on-demand access: Offer businesses the ability to access network resources as needed through a Network as a Service (NaaS) model. This scalable, on-demand access is appealing to companies seeking flexible, cost-effective solutions for their changing network needs.
• Targeting high-performance network industries: Develop tailored network solutions for industries that demand high performance, such as finance, healthcare, and media. These sectors require reliable, low-latency networks, making them ideal candidates for premium services.
• Selling excess capacity during off-peak times: Generate additional revenue by selling unused network capacity during off-peak times to businesses that need temporary bandwidth increases, such as during large events or seasonal traffic spikes.
• Partnering with CDNs or OTT providers: Collaborate with content delivery networks (CDNs) and over-the-top (OTT) providers to optimise network usage. These partnerships can help monetise excess capacity while improving content delivery performance.
• Creating bundled services: Bundle basic network services with advanced features like cybersecurity, managed services, or IoT connectivity. These comprehensive packages offer greater value to customers, increasing their willingness to invest in higher-tier services.
• Offering specialised enterprise packages: Develop specialised packages for enterprise customers that include dedicated network slices for critical applications requiring high reliability and low latency.

Wrapping up

Sales teams in telecom companies should continually evolve their approach while pitching their offerings to their customers, whether they are individual consumers or enterprise clients. This is essential for reaching the right audience and converting them.

Hyper-personalisation allows companies to connect deeply with customers, increasing loyalty and satisfaction. Subscription and loyalty programs help retain customers and boost lifetime value.

Comprehensive sales team training ensures that representatives are equipped with the knowledge and skills to thrive in a complex environment. Finally, monetising network infrastructure investments unlock new revenue streams, maximising returns on significant technological investments.