As a Sr. Price Strategy / Contract Negotiation Consultant at Verizon Business (ex-MCI), I see a lot of my accounts (global integrators) routinely trying to force our pricing down to the levels of cut-rate providers and I also see them trying to utilize current market conditions and “business downturn” clauses to escape their contracts.

However, where you speak of loyalty, I have only encountered one (1) account out of a dozen or so I have supported where the personal relationship kept them with us, the carrier. Most enterprise accounts are always shopping our contract rates to the rest of the Big Three and increasingly, where they do not see our value, to lesser, Tier 2 providers (Level 3, Global Crossing). Their procurement or cost rationalization objections then lead to a potential price war.

I then have the unhappy chore of trying to enforce contract commitments and slow down price erosion while somehow helping account teams to win new business.

I don’t see much loyalty Pete. I see an increasingly commoditized industry where enterprise customers don’t see much value in Dumb Pipe providers and thus are ruthlessly renegotiations ts and cs as a result.

Regards,