B2B Telco leaders need to think as a VC does.
B2C has been taken away by Whatsapp, Facebook, Google, Netflix — you get the drift. B2B on the other hand is as yet an open opportunity today.
I say that B2B leaders in telecom companies need to think like VCs because they need to make bets on multiple companies and bring services to market in big numbers and work long term with those that stick. It’s not rocket science! The best part is that a lot of telcos are already out there and have created a series of successes.
B2B leaders don’t need to re-invent the wheel — There is a blueprint for success. It starts from CVM > Goes to Pricing > and then to Go-To-Market.
With these three pillars of B2B CVM, B2B Pricing and B2B GTM — your B2B juggernaut can yield what B2C has lost, and the trust in the telco as a provider with a long-standing history makes them the partner of choice for the enterprise.
Do you know what stands in the way? — “Agility to Innovate”.
Innovate and ye shall win, slow down and there are plenty of takers to eat your cake. The B2C cake has been eaten already, and it was eaten not by your peer telco, it was Google, Facebook, Whatsapp, Netflix and all the other OTTs that run on the internet that the telco powers in their nation and invests in, but gets paid a pittance for it — on a cost-plus basis — not on a value-based basis. (More on Value-Based pricing for B2B Telco offerings later and why ‘more = much more’ works best — and using the Harvard school’s case study method — you aren’t re-inventing — you’re learning and adapting for your market.)
Wireless Federation has an established framework — for the successful B2B Telco and this framework has been executed by Tier 1 telcos to unleash the true value of the B2B opportunity treadmill. It has lead to an over 28% increase in revenue within the first quarter of launch with a mix of channel and direct sales — powered by the DiGiGTM and LURE frameworks.
Its pillars comprise of Utility (and why you need to understand that a milkshake is not a milkshake alone, it has a job to do — its “utility”), Value, the Opportunity treadmill, the Pricing treadmill, the effervescent Competition, the Partnerships, the Future and your GTM at its core. You nail these 8, and you’ve got yourself a winner.
Now, Why Telco B2B leaders need to think like a VC? — Spread your bets, because the ones that will turn unicorn maybe a few, but those will be super winners! You’ve got the base already, you just need to know how to invest!
Pick your bets well, and there will be no duds either, just that some will do wildly better than the others, and no-one is saying go build them — partner, invest and conquer!
Godspeed!