Broadview Networks announced in late August that Christopher Eldredge joined the company in a new position — executive vice president of alternate channels and carrier sales — created in part to support Broadview’s nationwide VoIP rollout, which began Aug. 31 and relies heavily on an indirect sales strategy.
Before joining Broadview Networks, Eldredge was vice president carrier sales and service for Frontier Communications. Prior to Frontier, Eldredge held numerous sales, marketing and operational leadership roles for various telecommunications providers, including Cablevision’s Lightpath.
PHONE+ spoke to Eldredge at the end of September about his plans for the Broadview Networks’ indirect sales channel program.
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| Broadview Channel Chief Chris Eldredge |
Your background appears to be primarily is in the wholesale side of the business. Do you have experience with indirect sales?
Yes, while at Comav, a CLEC startup, I developed the alternate channels sales program, which was our top-performing sales channel. Furthermore, in my first role at Frontier I was responsible for all commercial marketing, product management, new product development and alternate channels (non-wholesale), which also included our CLEC Electric Lightwave, which was sold to Integra in 2006. The alternate channel segment provided the largest percentage of customer revenue growth for commercial services.
How does your previous experience help you in your new post?
I have a diverse background, having held leadership positions in sales, marketing and operations in a number of top telecommunications companies. In my last role, I had full P&L responsibility for over $500 million in annual revenue. I revitalized an under-performing team into the top-performing team in the company for the last three years.
In my last job I actually rolled out an IP Centrex product, which is very similar to our Office Suite product, so I have experience brining a product like this to market throughout the country. So, I think if you look at my experience, you could say it’s wholesale the last couple of years, but it’s actually a broad communications background.
How are you going to split responsibilities between wholesale and indirect?
...I would say it’s a 50/50 split. Some days it could be 70 percent agent channel, 30 percent wholesale. And, some days it could flip depending on what we are doing. We view both of these channels as growth engines for the company.
