PARTNER CHANNEL: Sprint Launches Small Business Partner Program

By Khali Henderson

Posted: 5/2003

Sprint Launches Small Business
Partner Program

By Khali Henderson

Sprint
Corp. is expanding its partner channel with the addition of a Small Business
Partner program to work with agents serving small business and SOHO customers.
The addition was made officially in January, but the company pulled the covers
off the plan at the PHONE+ Channel Partners Conference & Expo in late March.

"The expansion is to fill a gap
we found in our program," says Don Green, senior director of marketing and
distribution marketing, Sprint’s Global Markets Group.

That gap was in the low-end of the
business market served by simpler products like switched long-distance services
and DSL. In contrast, the existing Sprint Business Partner Program is targeted
at agents serving midmarket and large enterprises with high-end voice and data
services.

The expansion also marks the first
time the company’s Mass Markets Organization (MMO) has had a presence in the
partner arena. MMO will be transparent to agents as both partner programs will
present one face and will be served by the same infrastructure. However, each
program will have its own customer service and management. Weston D. Montee has
been tapped to run the small business program as the channel director and
reports to Margie Tippen, vice president, general business sales for Sprint
Business.

Montee says his team also includes
six new channel managers recruited for the newly created posts.

He adds his team is looking for
agents in three categories:

"We are looking at agents of
size," Montee says. "We want to drive revenue. We need volume and
fast." As of the end of March, the company had not yet signed any agents to
the program, he reports.

Greg Spencer, senior market
development manager, small business marketing for Sprint’s MMO, says the
commission structure will be based on volume with smaller agents generating
$5,000 per month and larger agents at $50,000.

The product is launching with a
switched long-distance offer, which is to be supplemented by local and DSL
offerings later this year.