Many years ago, I was employee #14 at Bell Mobility in Canada, serving as Vice President responsible for securing dominant market share in Quebec and Eastern Ontario.
At the time, we sold cellular subscriptions through phone retailers, whose sales reps could earn up to $1,000 per phone. While our competitors doubled down on this retail gold rush, I took a different approach - call it the long game.
The first buyers were tradespeople, real estate agents, and professionals; all eager individuals who lined up at retailers to get the newest tech. But these one-off subscriptions were costly for us to support. Each customer required marketing, onboarding, and support, all amortized over a single line. Worse, they tended to churn faster and pay less reliably than corporate accounts.So while we kept our retail strategy sharp, I shifted focus to the corporate market which, at that point, didn’t even know what a mobile phone was.
We profiled ideal clients: organizations with large, mobile field teams, but crucially, employees, not contractors. That narrowed our focus to two key verticals:
From there, we identified the top three players in each segment and dedicated a salesperson to each vertical. Their goal? Just two subscriptions: one for the VP of Sales and one for the VP of Marketing.
Each contract might’ve only generated $1,000 in annual revenue - most of it the cost of the phone - but that wasn’t the point.
To get buy-in, we needed data. We ran cost-benefit studies to measure the value of mobile phones to the business. We had to track:
These reports helped the VPs justify a trial. The trials went well of course. Within months they had executive approval to invest in phones for their entire sales forces.
By securing high-profile, brand-name clients early on, we built credibility and trust in the corporate market. We positioned Bell Mobility as the default choice for business, and reaped the rewards:
It wasn’t flashy—but it was lasting.
If you’re planning a market expansion or entering new territory, resist the temptation of the quick win. Instead, ask yourself: “What could I be doing if I played the long game?”
Feel free to reach out - I'd love to explore this with you. It’ll be fun.
See you next time,
Andrew
PS. Fun fact. We chose the pharmaceutical market for one more reason. I had learned that the Pharmaceutical companies were early adopters…they were the first to give their sales people cars, then power windows, then automatic transmissions, and then air conditioning. And then, thanks to our efforts, they gave cellular phones😊. And, being a very competitive industry, if Pfizer offers cellular phones, then Roche has to follow…
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