Windstream's Summer Vision: "You Sell It, We Grow It!"

06/10/2010

Windstream's Summer Vision: "You Sell It, We Grow It!"

Posted 6/10/10 By Dan Baldwin, TA Executive Director, 951-251-5155 email

I was taking the long way home from a business trip to Florida and decided to drop in on my friends at Windstream Dan Sterling & Sarah Smith to see how life is treating them since Dan reported last February at the Telarus agent expo that everything was looking good.

He reported that except for one month since the big announcement (Windstream acquiring Nuvox) that sales were on target and the "vision" was going according to plan. I asked him to share with me the 2010 Summer message for the channel and he summarized it as follows:

1. Nothing bad has (or is going to) happen to the agent program - The big concern for some agents was that because Windstream did not appear to have a robust channel program prior to the purchase that maybe agents had something to worry about. Dan Sterling's response, "Nothing bad's going to happen!" As evidence he again suggested that one of Windstream's primary interests in the acquisition was Nuvox's agent channel - and the opportunity to expand it - not mess it up. As evidence he again held out Windstream's hiring of John Leach.

2. The most up front money ever & a totally awesome year end sales trip - Far from cutting back the agent program or compensation package in any way Windstream is currently offering more up front money than ever and has added a first-ever year-end trip for their top agents.

3. Opening new CLEC & ILEC areas - Dan emphasized that agents selling in the old Nuvox CLEC areas was as profitable for agents as it's ever been and that Windstream is opening up new CLEC areas that all agents can now sell in any Windstream ILEC area. (Dan did say there were some ILEC sales consolidation "challenges" being overcome - as can be expected in any merger - but both Dan & Sara flat out said that "Nuvox" agents can sell in the Windstream ILEC areas today.)

4. We will grow AND RETAIN an agent's existing base while they sell new accounts - This point came across crystal clear. The Windstream partner team has a very clear vision - do whatever it takes to grow the base of agent's existing customers. "You sell it and that's it", Dan suggested. "We provision it, love it and renew it!" While many carriers talk the talk about customer service, Dan and Sarah ended our visit by taking me around the several floors of in Greenville that housed just a few of the 8,000 employees focused on making sure the Windstream channel partners have "customers for life" after bringing a customer to Windstream.

Click the link below to view TA's video of Dan Sterling giving a "partner update" as of 6/10/10: -------- ----------- Click here or the following link to learn more about Windstream's partner program:

http://business.windstream.com/Partners/index.htm

Posted at 10:51 PM | Permalink

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