As the leading telecommunications wholesaler in Australia, at Telstra Wholesale, we work closely with our customers to help them grow and retain their customer base.

Retention activities can sometimes be a tough conversation. To help navigate the challenges of retention selling, Tania Davis, Telstra Wholesale Sales Director, sat down with Tony Hughes, best-selling author on modern sales techniques and international keynote speaker, to provide some best practice techniques. Here are some of his top recommendations.

Convey the right intent

People need to believe that you're there to improve their business rather than make a sale. Essential is conveying how you’ve been proactively working on their behalf to help secure better value for money and to further drive down risk for their organisation. If you lead the conversation about yourself, you inadvertently cause the person to start comparisons with competition.

Relationships matter

Trust is essential to driving loyalty and growth with customers. Position yourself as a partner for growth and approach customers with changes in their market. Demonstrate an understanding of pressures in their business while offering the security of solutions that best fit their requirements and ensure the right outcomes.

A trusted advisor

Trust determines the size of the commitments people will make and the speed at which they move. You are their trusted advisor and domain expert who can help win their time back, ensure they're more competitive and deliver the best value for money.

Talk the language of leaders

As a customer of Telstra Wholesale, your services are not a commodity but an essential part of how businesses can be successful. Talk the leader's language, including business outcomes, strategy and risks. Focus on driving down risk, ensuring competitive advantage and securing the best value from their suppliers.

Strong partnership

The key to a strong partnership is genuine empathy. Customers operate in an environment of increased competition and uncertainty in their supply chain and talent pool. Many are trying to pivot their business model to execute successfully in the fourth industrial revolution. Speak to these challenges by asking how they plan to transform their business.

The digital world has changed customer expectations and created new growth opportunities for businesses. Telstra Wholesale will continue to help our customers feel confident in discussing competitive re-terming options for their customers.

Speak to your Telstra Wholesale account team to learn more about tailoring sales conversations into opportunities.