DENVER and TORONTO – "Sales Strategies in a Bundled World" was the topic for hundreds of CTAM members around North America, including over 50 in Toronto and Montreal, who took in last Friday’s Teleseminar.
Broadcast from the Comcast Media Center in Denver, marketers were able to glean some serious information from the three panelists: Colleen Langner, vice-president of marketing for Cox Communications, Orange County; Bill Brovsky, Starz Entertainment’s v-p of tactical marketing; and EJ Glazer, president of RCH Cable Outsourcing – a cable marketing company.
Langner outlined Cox Orange County’s direct attack to gain and keep bundled customers. Cox was one of the first North American cablecos to offer telephony service to its customers and since it launched its triple play bundles, “churn has been cut in half,” said Langner.
“We’re between Los Angeles and San Diego so it’s hard to do mass advertising,” she said, adding that Cox does a lot of database and individual marketing. Cox uses real customers in some of its TV ads and in its customer magazine, In Touch. “Our house is totally Cox,” is its tagline.
Glaser added that today’s sales strategies are far different for his company than just selling cable packages. “The bundle requires a lot of work to explain, he said.”
So, RCH salespeople will often set an appointment time to come back to people who are busy at the first knock on the door, “looking for a kitchen-table sit-down,” he explained.
Starz’s Brovsky later added that no matter how it’s marketed, these new bundles take some work to market. “If we have a tough time, imagine what the customer is dealing with,” he said.
Brovsky showed off an ingenious on line sales tool from Starz which was developed by a former company he worked for, that can immediately match what services a customer has now with what its local cable company offers, directly showing what they could be saving a month in a bundle.
The very interesting CTAM Teleseminar (“I’m glad to see it really delivered,” said CTAM Canada co-president Chris Fuoco of Alliance Atlantis), can be viewed on line at www.ctamrm.com.
– Greg O’Brien
