A survey of marketing and sales executives and professionals in the telecom industry has revealed that an increasingly complex competitive and service environment is combining with ongoing internal corporate pressures to create a perfect storm through which marketing and sales organizations are trying to navigate.

That interpretation is based on the top-line results of the survey "Driving Marketing and Sales Effectiveness," which was conducted by consulting firm MarketBridge in partnership with Telephony and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. The survey collected the opinions of 350 respondents, just over 70% of whom classified themselves as executives, managers or professionals within marketing and sales organizations at either wireline/wireless carriers, dedicated wireline carriers, dedicated wireless carriers or cable TV/satellite providers.

Among external issues, 49% of respondents said current customer revenue retention was their top priority over the last year, while 23% said it was to increase penetration among new customers. However, over the next year, the numbers are expected to shift, with 40% saying retention will continue to be their top priority, and 30% saying winning new customers will become their top concern, the survey found.

"Companies are not taking their eye of the ball of customer retention, but now they are looking at new ways to grow, whether it's through Internet, wireless, IPTV or other services to existing and new customers," said Mark Donnolo, senior vice president of communications and media at MarketBridge. "They're getting very focused on how to get more of the customer wallet."

Donnolo said carrier consolidation and tougher competition among remaining carriers has raised the bar for marketing and sales teams in these companies to tap into new market segments, and for many, the most popular new segment is small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The enterprise market already is the largest revenue market for most carriers, but SMB is starting to play a larger role, as 29% of the respondents from large carriers said they expect SMBs to become their biggest revenue segment within the coming year. More surprisingly, 25% of cable TV company respondents see SMB as a future top revenue segment, while only 6% of those same respondents see it that way right now.

"There has been a focus on high-revenue potential customers for so long, and the SMB is not the last frontier, it is an untapped frontier," Donnolo said. "SMB' is actually a bit of a misnomer because there are really so many facets to this market--it's a whole checkerboard of revenue segments."

Meanwhile, while external pressures mount, a series of internal issues also are making it tough on marketing and sales pros. The increasingly complex variety of services most carriers offer has created very complex marketing and sales organizations, Donnolo said. Single do-it-all sales reps are no longer the standard. "You've now got a lot of experts and layers, rather than just one rep, and their all trying to communicate value," he said.

Add to that more pressure from corporate leaders to increase sales effectiveness while keeping marketing costs under control. Overall, most respondents said their organizations will be increasing sales headcounts and quotas over the next year, but not increasing sales pay levels.

Also, Donnolo said the rapid rate of new service introduction is making it increasingly difficult for marketing and sales groups to translate general corporate strategies into meaningful sales directives and goals.

Listen to a podcast on the MarketBridge survey by clicking here, and look for a follow-up story on the survey results in the upcoming Feb. 19 print issue of Telephony.