Qwest Unveils Wholesale Agent Program ... Again

By Khali Henderson

QWEST COMMUNICATIONS

International Inc. officially launched an agent program for wholesale carrier sales to CLECs, ISPs and other service providers. The move is a bit of déjà vu; the carrier first announced it was creating a wholesale agent program in spring 2004.

Among the differences between then and now, says Derek Koecher, director, Qwest wholesale markets group, is the appointment of Jeff Obechina as manager of the wholesale agent channel program. Obechina comes to the role from product marketing and is the architect of the original program.

The other difference is an active recruitment campaign, which will include participating in trade shows like the Channel Partners Conference & Expo where the program was unveiled last month along with a joint marketing effort across Qwests channel programs, which also include the Qwest Business Partner Program (QBPP) and Residential Referral program.

While the three units will present a unified front and funnel leads to each others programs, they will not duplicate personnel in an effort to preserve the customer experience, says Koecher.

Authorized Wholesale Agents are likely to come from among the ranks of former carrier sales execs or even QBPP. QBPP agents have regular contact with CLECs, ISPs and smaller carriers, which they also represent to their commercial accounts, says Koecher, explaining thats how they often come upon a wholesale opportunity. With typically milliondollar- plus-per-month deals, a QBPP agent turned wholesale agent stands to make a lot of money, he adds. Commissions are 6 percent on all data products; 2.25 percent for voice and 1.5 percent on networking equipment when required.

But Qwest wont take just any business agents throw its way, Koecher says. The accounts must be new to Qwest and preapproved as a target. They also must satisfy the carriers credit policies. Qwest will assign a direct sales rep to the broker to assist in closing the deal.

Koecher says the program already includes 20 brokers, but he declined to say how many more would be recruited. He did reveal his goal to triple revenue from wholesale agents by the end of the year. He concedes that the present contribution from this group is very small less than 1 percent of wholesale revenue for the company, but he says its building at a rate that is not insignificant.

Koecher says the program is appealing to him because it boosts Qwest Wholesales sales ranks; currently 60 carrier sales reps make up the team domestically. Internationally, he adds, there are no direct sales reps. To fill these gaps, the company is extending the wholesale agent program to other parts of the world, including Canada, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, Latin America and Mexico. Zack Erisch has been named manager of international agents and will head the effort, which will target Tier 2 and Tier 3 providers that typically do not have offices in the United States and are not managed easily by the Qwest Wholesale direct sales force.