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Blog · Coverage and territory · Telecoms and connectivity

Ten questions a B2B telecoms sales director asks, and the table that answers each

The ten questions a business telecoms sales director puts to the account managers, what is site penetration and is the estate current, which sites are near their capacity, which contracts end in the notice window untouched, which orders are stuck in provisioning and where, which customers' estates have closed sites still billed, what is product attach per site against the norm, which customers could co-terminate, which sites went quiet, which account managers cover at cadence, and what changed, each with the table from billing, the estate file, the contract register and the usage export, and the answer to send back.

The short answerA B2B telecoms sales director's questions are about sites, contracts and capacity, and each has a table from billing, the estate file, the contract register, the provisioning export and the usage data: site penetration with the estate's source and date; sites near contracted capacity with upgrade value; the renewal calendar with the notice window; order-to-activation per customer with the stage split; estate sites with no billing to retire; product attach per site against the norm; co-terminus opportunities; quiet sites; account manager coverage; and the movements page. Billed sites are a subset of the estate, and the answer to send back is a penetration figure on an estate nobody has refreshed.

A B2B telecoms sales director asks for site penetration and gets a percentage over an estate somebody typed in two years ago. Billing, the estate file, the contract register and the usage export hold the current version as tables. This guide is the ten questions, the tables, and the answer to send back.

The ten

# The question The table Identity Send back
1 Is the estate current? Estate source and date per customer; billed sites not on estate; estate sites not billed Billed ⊆ estate Penetration on a stale estate
2 What is site penetration? Sites on-net over estate, with the estate date Same as 1 A percentage with no denominator date
3 Which sites are near capacity? Peak utilisation vs contracted; days above threshold; upgrade value Live circuits have usage or are unmeasured Average utilisation
4 Which contracts end in notice untouched? Renewal calendar; notice window; renewal activity Calendar sums to contracted base Renewal dates
5 Which orders are stuck, and where? Order-to-activation vs norm; stage split Stages in sequence Average provisioning time
6 Which closed sites are still billed? Estate reconciliation: no usage, no contact, still billed Same as 1 Billing as the estate
7 What is product attach per site? Products per site against the norm for the site type Products sum to billing Product revenue
8 Which customers could co-terminate? Services per customer with spread of end dates Same as 4 Contract count
9 Which account managers cover at cadence? Coverage per account manager; untouched revenue Assigned customers sum Activity counts
10 What changed? The movements page Every line cites Narrative

A worked exchange

Sales director: What is penetration at customer 2207? Response: 90 percent on an estate refreshed twenty months ago. Billing shows three sites not on the estate and seven estate sites with no billing for fourteen months. After the refresh: 38 of 38. Tables 1 and 2. Sales director: Anything else there? Response: Two sites at capacity twenty-two and eighteen days last month, doubling from the prior quarter, $9,600 a year at the next tier; and five services ending across eight months, a co-terminus conversation. Tables 3 and 8. Sales director: And the install? Response: Two leased lines at twice the norm, both stuck at the wholesale carrier for over forty days. Table 5.

Three tables, one customer, one account manager with four things to say.

Where it goes wrong

Estate never refreshed. Penetration confidently wrong.

Capacity averaged. Ninety percent at three o'clock hidden in forty on average.

Provisioning as an average. The customer at seventy-seven days inside thirty-five.

Renewal without the notice window. Called the month the contract ends.

Every month, ten tables

Covirage produces the ten tables from billing, the estate file, the contract register, the provisioning export and the usage data, with the estate check first. The telecoms page describes the setup, and the customer estate guide covers the first table.

Questions people ask

Which question first?

Whether the estate is current, because penetration is only as good as its denominator, and an estate typed in at the last tender produces a confidently wrong figure. Days since each customer's estate refresh, and the billing reconciliation, come before the penetration number.

Do these need the usage export?

Capacity and quiet sites do; they are peak usage against contracted bandwidth per site. Penetration, attach, the calendar and provisioning come from billing, the estate, the contract register and the provisioning export. All exports on customer and site identifiers.

What is the identity?

Billed sites are a subset of the estate; the renewal calendar's value over all months equals the contracted base; every live order has stage dates in sequence; drawn capacity never exceeds contracted without a record. A penetration figure on an unrefreshed estate is sent back.