A telecom sales CRM for agents and resellers who sell by phone.

How do small telecom sales teams win business?

Small telecom teams win business three ways: prospecting businesses that don't buy from them yet, renewing the customers they have and upgrading those customers as their needs grow. Each is a different list with a different tone, so run them as separate campaigns.

The sale itself follows a familiar path. A rep finds the decision-maker, gets a copy of the current bill, works out what the business has and what it pays, requests quotes from carriers or a distributor, presents a proposal and gets the contract signed. Then come the install, the number port and the first bill, which is where a lot of customer trust is won or lost. The people doing this selling usually fall into three groups:

• Independent agents and sub-agents sell several carriers' services, often through a master agent or distributor, and are typically paid residuals while the customer stays.
• Resellers and managed service providers package connectivity, voice and UCaaS with their own support.
• Small in-house teams at regional carriers and internet providers sell their own network.

What should a telecom rep track on each account?

Track what the business has now, when it can change and who decides. Those three things tell you when to call and what to say.

One pipeline with a Deal type field (new, renewal or upgrade) keeps every opportunity on a single board. A simple set of stages is Prospect, Contacted, Bill review, Quoted, Proposal sent, Signed, Installing and Live, plus Lost with a reason.

In TopReach, account details go in custom fields and tags on the company and its contacts, and the call screen shows the contact, their last note and the next step. Worth tracking:

• Current provider and services, such as fiber, broadband, voice lines, UCaaS seats and mobile lines
• Contract end date, and the notice deadline if the contract renews automatically
• Monthly spend and the number of locations, lines or seats
• Decision-maker and who else signs off, such as an office manager or IT lead
• Problems from discovery, such as dropped calls, slow internet at one site or a bill that keeps creeping up
• Tags such as Multi-location, Bill received, On-net building or Renewal this year

What does a good B2B telecom prospecting cadence look like?

A good cadence mixes calls, voicemails and emails over two to three weeks, then moves the account to a slower check-in until its contract window opens. Many first calls reach a front desk or voicemail, so plan for several attempts and keep each one short and specific.

In TopReach, an unanswered call can trigger part of this for you: a dropped voicemail, then a text or email on the days you choose, logged on the contact so nobody repeats a message. A typical two-week cadence:

• Day 1: call. If there's no answer, leave a short voicemail and send an email with one specific reason to talk.
• Day 3: call at a different time of day, and ask the front desk who handles phones and internet.
• Days 5 to 7: call again, and email a one-line question, such as when their current contract is up.
• Days 10 to 14: a final call and a short note that you'll check back closer to their renewal.
• After that: if you learned the contract end date, set a reminder for about six months before it. If not, check in each quarter.

How do you run renewal and upgrade campaigns?

Start renewals well before the contract ends, often around six months out, and earlier for multi-location accounts or contracts with a long notice period. A customer who hears from you before the deadline can renew calmly; one who hears from a competitor first has a reason to shop.

Build the renewal list as a dynamic list from your contract-end field or a renewal tag, so accounts join it as their dates come up, and call it in power mode. Everyone on that list is revenue you already have.

Upgrade calls work best when they're about something the customer told you, so log what you hear on every call. A note that the office is adding ten people in the spring is the reason for the next call. Common reasons for an upgrade call:

• A new location, a move or a growing headcount
• Complaints about speed, dropped calls or outages
• An aging phone system that's due for replacement
• A price increase at renewal that makes a review timely

Should telecom reps use a power dialer or a parallel dialer?

Use parallel mode for large, cold business lists and power mode for everyone you already know. Parallel dialing calls several numbers at once and connects the rep to whoever picks up, which helps on prospecting lists where most calls hit voicemail or a front desk.

The trade-off is that when two people answer at once, one gets dropped. On a list of a few thousand businesses that's an acceptable cost. On a renewal list, where every contact is a paying customer, it isn't. Power mode calls one number after another, so whoever answers reaches a rep. Dropped calls also count toward abandoned-call limits, covered below.

Both modes come with the same $99-a-month phone licence, and each local phone number is $10 a month, so a small team can choose the mode list by list.

What happens after the contract is signed?

The sale isn't finished until the service is live and the first bill is right. Installs, number ports and equipment delivery can stretch over weeks, and customers judge you on how well you kept them informed.

TopReach includes projects for work after the sale, so each signed deal can have its install tracked as a project: order submitted, site survey, port requested, install date, go-live and first-bill check. Calls and texts to the customer during the install land on the same timeline as the sale, so anyone on the team can say where things stand. When the account goes live, set a reminder for a check-in call a month later, and make sure the new contract end date is in its field for the next renewal.

What calling rules apply to telecom sales?

Telecom sales calls fall under general telemarketing rules plus a few that are specific to switching service. This is a general overview, not legal advice. Check with your counsel or compliance team, and with the carriers or distributor you sell for.

TopReach keeps one do-not-call list and handles texting opt-outs across every rep, so one request applies to the whole team.

• Business calls: most business-to-business calls are exempt from the National Do Not Call Registry and much of the Telemarketing Sales Rule. The exemption has limits: a small-business owner's cell phone may be treated as a personal number, and the TSR's ban on misrepresentations still applies.
• Cell phones and texts: under the TCPA, autodialed or prerecorded calls and texts to cell phones generally need prior express consent, and written consent for marketing, whether the phone is used for business or not. A dropped voicemail is a prerecorded message.
• Abandoned calls: the TSR and the FCC's rules cap abandoned calls at 3% of answered calls per campaign over 30 days. Each extra answer dropped in parallel mode counts, so ask your counsel how the limit applies to your campaigns.
• Selling to consumers: residential internet or phone sales bring in the full TSR, the National DNC Registry, calling hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and state telemarketing laws, some stricter than the federal rules.
• Switching service: FCC rules against unauthorized carrier changes require the customer's verified authorization to switch their phone service, often a signed letter of agency, and number ports usually need one too.
• Call recording: some states, including California and Florida, require every party's consent to record a call.
• Canada: calls to businesses are exempt from the National DNCL rules but not from the CRTC's other telemarketing rules, and CASL covers texts and emails, including most business-to-business messages.