Lumen Technologies' Growth Strategy and Sales Improvements
2023-07-30
Lumen Technologies held its first quarter 2023 earnings call, where senior executives provided updates on the company's turnaround plans and discussed their mission to digitally connect people, data, and applications. One of the key topics discussed was the company's efforts to improve sales and revenue growth.
During the meeting, executives expressed satisfaction with the growth they are seeing and emphasized the importance of migrating customers from legacy technologies to newer ones. They acknowledged the need to strengthen their enterprise selling machine and outlined various initiatives to improve sales, including sales readiness programs, digital marketing campaigns, and upskilling their talent.
Positive signs of improvement were highlighted in the mid-market and large enterprise segments, such as increased funnel and deal sizes. However, the executives also acknowledged that there is still progress to be made in achieving their desired growth targets.
The company's growth strategy and efforts to improve sales and revenue trends were the most interesting topics discussed in the meeting. The executives mentioned implementing various initiatives and seeing positive signs of improvement, but also acknowledged the need for further progress.
In terms of the market outlook, Lumen Technologies is focused on growth in the "grow" category. They are working on migrating customers to newer technologies and expect sales improvements to fluctuate. However, specific sales and funnel trends were not provided during the meeting.
The executives also mentioned evaluating options for the company's capital structure and expressed their commitment to communicate any developments to investors. The CEO acknowledged the need to strengthen their enterprise selling machine and is implementing various programs and campaigns to improve sales. Some improvements have been seen in the mid-market and large enterprise segments.
The key drivers of Lumen Technologies' business include a focus on growth products, transitioning to newer technologies, offering security services, prioritizing customer lifetime value, and strategically addressing the decline in legacy services.
In terms of product and service plans, Lumen Technologies aims to migrate customers to newer technologies, improve their sales platform, and upskill their talent. They are focusing on mid-market and large enterprise sales, executing well in every product category, considering options for their capital structure, developing applications internally, acquiring companies with relevant capabilities, hiring people with those capabilities, exploring wholesale opportunities, and generating incremental revenue with healthy margins.
While specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were not discussed in detail during the meeting, important performance metrics such as sales trends, net revenue trends, debt swaps, and growth were mentioned. However, no specific metrics or details were provided for these performance indicators.
Overall, Lumen Technologies' outlook for the quarter and year is positive. They are seeing progress in several areas, have set financial expectations, and are funding change programs to achieve revenue and EBITDA stability goals. The company is also focusing on customer obsession and investing in innovation for growth. The executives expressed optimism about their transformation journey and the progress they are making.
The meeting provided insights into Lumen Technologies' focus on innovation and growth initiatives. They have developed an automated threat detection and remediation capability in collaboration with Fortinet, driven by customer feedback. Lumen's approach to innovation, known as the Lumen Growth Operating System (Growth OS), aims to make the company more customer-focused and aligned with ecosystem partners. They have also partnered with Microsoft to leverage tools like Digital Twins and large-scale 3D environments for edge-to-cloud capabilities. Lumen's network, security, and edge compute capabilities have been recognized by partners and customers, leading to co-innovation opportunities.
In terms of sales and growth, Lumen Technologies has exceeded revenue targets for growth products in the enterprise market and acquired new customers with higher sales value. They have also established a dedicated team to migrate legacy voice customers to modern UC&C platforms.
The participants of the call included Mike McCormack, Kate Johnson, Chris Stansbury, Simon Flannery, Michael Rollins, Philip Cusick, David Barden, Batya Levi, Nick Del Deo, Greg Williams, Frank Louthan, Eric Luebchow, and Jonathan Chaplin.
Overall, the first quarter 2023 earnings call provided insights into Lumen Technologies' efforts to improve sales and revenue growth, their focus on innovation, and their commitment to customer-centricity. While specific metrics and details were not provided for all performance indicators, the executives expressed optimism about the company's progress and future prospects.