People plans reseller army to ramp up revenue

Telecommunications provider People Telecom has been banging its channel drum, with CEO Ryan O'Hare arguing that it wants to sign up as many partners as possible.

O'Hare said the telecommunications provider aimed to multiply Australian reseller and dealer numbers as much as possible. So far, People Telecom had a total 650.

"It's cheaper than [simply] running your own direct sales force," O'Hare said. "In our business, we need about four channels."

Fifty percent of the company's revenue came from direct sales. Its channel comprised dealers and SMB business IT providers, he said.

Thirty percent of its broadband revenues were B2B and 70 percent consumer, he said.

O'Hare claimed resellers were attracted to People Telecom for the level of service it aimed to provide to customers and partners. Customers should feel that People Telecom thought it was a privilege to serve them, O'Hare said.

"Every new dealer that comes to us, they all say its the way we manage it; [for example], paying weekly and giving them the information they want," he said.

The company was poaching partners from the top five telcos, O'Hare claimed. "Probably not so much from Telstra, but clearly from some of the others."

Two months ago the company revamped its year-old PartnerNet website. O'Hare said that, since then, partner enquiries had increased.

People Telecom was winning about 2000 customers a month. "And in the case of new channel partners, we're getting about 30 a month," he added.

The company, which recently merged with rival Swiftel, now had a revenue approaching $100 million a year. The time would soon be ripe for expanding its offering, O'Hare said.

People Telecom was rolling out voice-over internet and broadband. It was also partnering Unwired's newly launched wireless broadband service.