Business News - Sprint Adds Internet Agent Program to E-Commerce Sales Initiative

By Tara Seals

Posted: 08/2000

Sprint Adds Internet Agent Program to E-Commerce Sales Initiative
By Tara Seals

Sprint Corp. (www.sprint.com) unveiled in June an Internet sales affiliate program that offers performance-based commissions and per-sale cash bonuses for e-commerce orders.

The program is the latest of several online sales and service moves the carrier has made during recent months.

The tier 1 carrier’s Internet-marketing strategy has attracted nearly 5,300 Internet sales affiliates in the two testing months before its official rollout this week.

Sprint says its e-commerce initiative is an effort to increase sales of its services while lowering customer acquisition costs. The interactivity of the web medium also brings value to the customer. “Our efforts to date are just the beginning of a significant push into serving consumers the way they want, when they want, how they want,” says Dan Alcazar, assistant vice president of marketing and sales for Sprint’s National Consumer Organization.

Sprint’s e-moves may be indicative of future trends. “This is certainly a harbinger of things to come,” says John Delaney, an analyst at Ovum Ltd.
(www.ovum.com).

“In principle you can see extending bandwidth-on-demand, self-provisioning ability down to smaller businesses, and even to some extent to the consumer,” Delaney says. “In that event, not only are you giving the customer some control over ancillary functions like sign up and billing, but over the service itself. You cut support costs while improving the functionality you’re offering to the customer. And that’s a very credible scenario indeed.”

The Internet sales affiliate program allows website operators and ISPs to sign up online to sell Sprint products via a link.

Visitors to an affiliate site can click a banner, button or text link to access Sprint’s latest online offers.

Program participants can earn commissions on Sprint’s PCS phone and service plans, long-distance services including Nickel Nights and Sprint 1000, and international calling plans.

Additional services such as Sprint Business Services and Earthlink Sprint Internet access may be added in the future.

“The Sprint Internet sales affiliate program is the first performance-based, online marketing initiative of its kind for a major telecommunications company,” says Alcazar. “The program allows Sprint to increase sales, drive traffic, generate qualified leads and extend brand reach very efficiently to thousands upon
thousands of sites, while at the same time offering revenue enhancement opportunities to website operators.”