Acquiring new customers is critical. Losing poor-fit customers may be equally critical

According to leading analyst firm Gartner, “Business leaders are starting to recognize how costly keeping a poor-fit customer can be for business” due to issues such as over-customization, bespoke solutions and the outsize time spent on servicing. “Long-term profit erosion must also be kept top-of-mind, as investments in poor-fit customers may boost revenue in the short run, but compromise profitability in the long run,” Gartner said.

They may be right and if they are, expect the impact on telco technology providers to be significant as they switch from a focus on chasing gross revenues to profit, likely moving from customised solutions to more off-the-shelf (often subscription) products, and from service-heavy deals to more straightforward implementations. This will have a significant knock-on effect on telco marketing; a process that in theory could be streamlined and see messaging becoming less dense and the lead-generation process more sharply defined. Generating leads may remain as challenging as ever but ruling out (and ruling in) prospects earlier in the funnel should become both more straightforward and more critical. Winning the right deal will replace winning any deal at any cost as the maxim. As a result, approaches to pipeline building will become more significant than before.

This reality will need to align with another sea change in the telco market, the likely extensive revision in approaches to value creation already being driven by the jump to 5G (and ultimately 6G) networks. That new network technologies can give Communications Service Providers ways to find a new competitive edge is at this point yesterday’s news. Why else bear the cost of network investment and the expanding device ecosystem they require? But if as the GSMA has pointed out, the future of services “now lies at the intersection of service innovation and network intelligence” then it’s likely that more sharply honed products that deliver measurable value will need to enable increasingly new (and innovative) Use Cases. What will those look like? For marketers, and in particular product marketers, there’s a rare opportunity to get ahead of the curve in what’s likely to be a rapidly changing landscape but it will be challenging to do that successfully.

If you’d like to discuss any of our insights and learn more about how eCS can help you increase the RoI on your investment in MWC2022 please e-mail us.