Orange has announced new revenue sharing plans for its UK dealer network that has failed to inspire its resellers, with even the company admitting the new scheme is not "radical."
The new plan will see dealers take a 90 per cent upfront payment, followed by a 10 per cent cut of customer spend based on ARPU in arrears each month. This structure, according to the head of the indirect channels at Orange, Duncan Hay, was only made after extensive talks with key dealers and distribution partners. "Our objective is to drive value, but also to drive volume and share, but we want good business," confirmed Hay. While accepting the 10 per cent wasn't a major change, Hay said this would remain in place for six months.
However, some dealers criticised the new scheme as "unremarkable," which, given that T-Mobile plans to launch its own version on the same day with an 80 per cent commission upfront and 20 per cent of revenue shared with dealers, would seem to be a fair observation.
Despite these rumblings, Hay stressed Orange planned to step up its push on retention, and reduction of churn by improving its current commissions as well as including the 10 per cent revenue share. "We will be putting more investment in retentions, and we're working in partnerships with dealers and distributors to recruit customers to the Orange base and, importantly, to keep them on the Orange base - rather than continually invest in having to acquire customers on the spin."
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