plan.com's remarkable growth trajectory must lift the spirits of all ambitious channel players with business expansion on their mind.
There is no doubting the drive that propels plan.com. The mobile distributor made its first connection in May 2014 and is already aiming to become a billion pound company, its ambitions fuelled largely by partner recruitment and an all-singing, all-dancing portal. "Our formula when we entered the channel was simple - ask partners what they want, listen to what they say and deliver it," said Chris Smith, Head of Business Development. "We expect to have over 550 partners signed up by the end of Q2 and the rate of recruitment has been consistently high since we signed up our first partner in April 2014."
Smith has no intention of relinquishing his growth objectives, which will soon be bolstered by initiatives to turn whole swaths of prospective partners into enthusiastic mobile, IoT and hosted VoIP providers, two service areas that have proved to be among the richest resources of revenue generation in the company's experience to date. "We expect our mobile base to double in 2016 and again in 2017," he added. "We are seeing strong growth across our other products with the standout areas being IoT and hosted VoIP, both of which are on target to contribute over 25 per cent of total revenues within the next 12 months."
With so many enthusiastic partners working on delivering next generation technologies, plan.com's channel engagement has naturally shifted up a gear. "We have been surprised by the speed of our growth, and impressed by how quickly our mobile partners have been adopting new products such as IoT and Hosted VoIP," commented Smith. "For partners, the first deal with a new product requires some handholding, thereafter they are flying. We have many success stories already, from a two-man business winning a significant IoT contract to a partner going from having never connected VoIP to more than 100 connections per month in less than six months.
"We see opportunities everywhere we look. In the partner channel there is a massive opportunity for dealers, partners and resellers of all shapes and sizes to add new products to their portfolios quickly and easily. We have already seen a large proportion of our mobile partners take up IoT and hosted VoIP and are starting to see IT resellers getting into mobile. The portal enables partners to build out their portfolios, drive revenues and profitability and become suppliers of unified comms. This alone will keep us busy for years."
Traditionally, noted Smith, the partner channel focuses on delivering to the 'one-man band', SoHo and micro to mid-SME space. "However, we have found that our proposition has enabled even the smallest of partners to compete and capture business with customers involving thousands of devices," he commented. "We have mobile partners selling hosted VoIP and IT resellers selling mobile. And we have everybody selling IoT and embracing that opportunity. We all know that IoT is going to be huge, and we have made significant inroads by leveraging the power of our portal to enable partners to quickly build customised IoT quotes and then wrap around a team of experts to support and handhold our partners to help them win business."
Having extolled the merits of a supportive team it follows that 'people power' plays a key role in the company's customer engagement strategy and growth ambitions. To underline its commitment to growth and to support the role of partners in its business plan plan.com has made a trio of important hires as it moves into a new phase of expansion. Angie Ablard joins as Head of Sales this month, Chris Reilly was appointed Training Manager in March, and Dominic Barnes joined from Carphone Warehouse in February where he was one of its most senior and successful BDMs. "We have positioned the team for the next stage of our growth," added Smith. "The fact that we have been able to secure high calibre individuals is also testament to the position we have achieved in the market in a short space of time."
Smith declared himself ready to welcome partners from all backgrounds, and his strong embrace is made possible by plan.com's advanced portal which also functions as a gateway for partners to enter new markets. "We set out to provide a proposition that allows all partners to literally become the network operator," he commented. "The tools put partners in the shoes of the operator, enabling them to offer proactive customer service which drives loyalty and retention.
"At the same time, we give partners freedom and control, allowing them to manage their business from anywhere in the world on a laptop, tablet or mobile. There is a significant opportunity to offer the portal to audiences outside our traditionally mobile-centric base, and get more partners onboard to sell more of our products. We have a high level roadmap and 'one billion pound company' is our destination. We'll write the story as we progress, seizing existing opportunities and creating new ones on the journey."•