D2DCon 2024 | Revolutionizing Fiber Sales: Whitney Jurgens Explains Kinetic by Windstream’s 8GIG Rollout and Door-to-Door Sales Tactics | The D2D Podcast

In this episode of The D2D Podcast, Whitney Jurgens from Kinetic by Windstream discusses with Clint Root how the company is transforming high-speed internet access through the rollout of its 8GIG fiber service. Kinetic is now one of the leading fiber providers in the U.S., expanding services across 18 states. Whitney shares insights into the "Fiber Fast Start" initiative, which helps streamline fiber deployment, allowing door-to-door sales teams to meet customer needs as soon as new fiber services are launched in an area.

Whitney emphasizes the critical role of door-to-door sales in connecting with communities, helping them understand the benefits of 8GIG fiber, and offering personalized solutions for every household. She also explains Kinetic’s commitment to quality—from the product itself to the customer service experience. Whether you're in the fiber sales industry or just curious about the future of broadband, this episode provides practical sales strategies and highlights Kinetic's leadership in fiber technology.

You’ll find answer to questions such as:

• What is Kinetic by Windstream’s 8GIG fiber service?
• How does the “Fiber Fast Start” program accelerate fiber deployment?
• What are the best practices for selling 8GIG fiber door-to-door?
• Why is door-to-door sales essential for Kinetic’s growth?
• How is Kinetic enhancing its customer service experience?

Learn more about 8 Gig Fiber Internet Provider: https://www.windstream.com/residential/8gig

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Transcript

00:07
Door to Door Con 7 2024. We're here with Whitney Jergens, Kinetic by Windstream. Yeah. I love fiber. Everybody that knows me knows I love fiber. They know I've been heavily invested in it. I'm really excited to talk to Whitney about Kinetic and the state of fiber in the United States right now. Yeah. So catch us up, Whitney. Where are you from? Yeah, so geographically, I'm from Nebraska. So I've been with Kinetic by Windstream for over three years now.

00:37
been in the indirect sales manager role for quite some time. And I'm equally excited to see how far we are going, how far we've gone so far. We cover right now 18 states. So that's a pretty big chunk of the United States. Give us a geographic area, because 18 states, it's give us as far west as and as far east. Give us a little bit of that. Oh, so we're going to challenge me directionally on the podcast? Yeah, we're going to challenge your geography skills right now. OK, well, make sure we're like,

01:07
I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly. We go far up into the northeast and then we go Ohio, Pennsylvania, that region and as far west as Texas and that region over there too. And Nebraska over there too. Where we don't really go is California and that region. That's about where we are. That's the dream. You live in Nebraska? I live in Nebraska.

01:37
before that. Yeah, so I used to do recruiting and marketing for the University of Nebraska. Oh wow, Cornhuskers. Go Huskers. Okay, I gotta tell you, we're here at door-to-door, door-to-door con 2024, and you just mentioned the Cornhuskers, okay? It's pretty crazy here at door-to-door. There is a guy walking around, a Mitch Matthews. If I see him, we'll have him come over. I just talked to

02:07
I think it was like six or seven years ago. Okay. Where BYU comes to town. Okay. Hail Mary. Okay. You remember that? Oh yeah. You do? Oh yeah. He caught the game winning touchdown. He's walking around here and I bring it up every time I see him. We need to find this. We're going to find him. That's right. You brought it up. So I just had to throw that out. You'll see him. He's a tall guy. He's walking around. Let's just start throwing a football and if somebody catches it, it's obviously him. Right? All right. Probably somewhere around here you will catch it. Yeah.

02:37
said that, getting back to it, I love Nebraska. I've been there, beautiful state. So you were doing recruiting, I'm interested in that. Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, absolutely. So my whole job was to, like sales, I mean, honestly, like it's what recruiting is, marketing is. So what I was doing was I was traveling to meet students and their families and recruit them to come to UNL. Why you should love Lincoln, exactly what I do now, right? Like why you should love Lincoln, why you should come to the university,

03:07
it about us that you should love and now I get to do that about Kinetic all the dang time. Like you know like sun up to sundown I'm talking about why our customers should love Kinetic, why our dealer should love Kinetic, why we should get more people to sell it. Like it's just it's just who we are you know we find what we're really passionate about fiber. You said you love fiber. I'll get you a necklace so like a fiber necklace it'd be really thin. I'd wear it. Yeah and it'd work all the time. So yeah I mean that's what we get to do now right?

03:37
So how important is door-to-door to kinetic tube fiber in general? Why not just use radio ads? Why not use traditional marketing? Why is that not a silver bullet to it? To me, it's all about the people. It's all about the relationship that we can create. Creating a relationship at the door, whether there's some idiosyncrasies and if it's kind of off-putting or whatnot, we get that opportunity, right? We are meeting people.

04:07
I always firmly believe that from a marketing perspective in sales. Meet people where they are. Are they on social? Let's go on social. But guess what? People are home. That's why they own a home. They're there. So us being able to mobilize and actually go and meet those people, they have a need. We're just pitching it to them in the way that best suits their family. It is all about the relationship that we get to create. And I think that's the best part of door-to-door is we're in the communities or we're traveling to the communities

04:37
best interest in mind before we get to the door. And then when we get to the door, we learn about their house and their family, we look around and we get to observe what they have and how we can best help them to be better tomorrow. Yeah, okay, great. I love the fiber because it is a new technology. It is something that I think a lot of people, for somebody who's actually knocked doors in Nebraska, I'm very familiar with that, so let's talk about that for a minute. That area is highly underserviced.

05:07
outside of Grand Island, you get into outside of Hastings and some of those areas that are around there. A lot of that even today is running off of some pretty old technology. And on top of that, people are just wanting a faster conduit to get to the Wi-Fi, right? Absolutely. And that's what it's all about nowadays. Absolutely. Yeah, our integration of making sure that we're

05:36
constantly focusing on the new technology or on the fastest or what's going to be the next best is what it's all about. And fiber is that for us and for our company and for our consumers too. In June of 2023, we actually launched 8GIG. So talking about where we're going and where we need to propel our business, we launched 8GIG and now we are the largest 8GIG provider by exchange in America. Wow, that's incredible. That's really fast.

06:06
what 8 gig is but for a lot of people listening that may be new to it or maybe yeah maybe they're they're in a different industry and maybe they're looking to come and be a part of what we're experiencing this land grab but that is fiber right now what what is the speed what is a gig what does that even mean it's a lot is that what no it's a good answer it is a lot it's a lot so really it's all part of like the the multi gig household right like how many how many devices do you actually have you know I have Alexa you know I have an

06:36
I also have seven TVs. I also have two levels of my home. 8GIG is really about making sure that all of those products in our houses and all of the things that we stream and we do are gonna be simultaneously streaming and doing well both up and down, right? So both uploads and download speeds. So making sure that you have that symmetrical speed, the least sexiest word in the fiber or technology community. But symmetrical speeds mean that we wanna make sure

07:06
and your downloads the same, that you don't have to sit there and watch the Wheel of Death and every, you know, all your TV. And the gamers that are listening know what that is. Yeah, yeah, 8GIG gamers, like, holler at me. Yeah, 8GIGs, that's a lot. Right now, what would you say the industry's standard, just to put into perspective, what is it? I think most of the industry's trying to go to 1GIG. 1GIG, yeah, that's what I would say too. Yeah, I feel like everybody's trying to make it, you know, like, 1GIG is going to be the new standard. So, like, we have to.

07:36
as a company and an organization, yeah, we love fiber too, but you have to look for the next step. Yeah, I think eight gigs is a big flex. It's like, hey, I don't know, anybody else is going eight gig already. We're seeing some two gigs, that's out there, you can find it if you're lucky, but eight gigs in Nebraska, that's a flex on the industry, so that's fantastic. What are like, I wanna talk about some of like the successful best practices when you're door knocking, selling fiber, what are some of the things that you would say

08:06
help organizations push a lot of fiber? Maybe the do's and don'ts. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I think I talked about one a little bit was like, is making sure that you listen to the customer when you get to the door, right? So you listen to like what we talked about, you know how many devices they have, how many kids they have, like you look around if there's like little tikes, you know, bikes in the driver or something, you're being mindful of what they might need as a family.

08:36
The other thing is finding out, equivocating that to them as well. A lot of people when I'm talking to them, oh 500 meg or gig, they're like, okay, what does that mean? So bringing down our sales and our tech jargon to really bring it down to a consumer level. If you stream this many devices, I would really recommend this. So I think it's all about caring and also just helping them understand what they don't know. Right. And helping them understand the benefits of going fast.

09:06
and why that is. What's exciting at Kinetic right now? What are you excited about? What, 2024, what are we excited about? Yeah, so a couple things. One of the things is that we just recently have a new CEO who has been harping in the best way about quality. Like quality, quality, quality. Quality in your sales pitch, quality in our product, quality in our customer service and how we interact with not only our customers, but like each other.

09:36
So, you know, Connecticut is built of so many different departments. So you got sales, you got marketing, you have enterprise, you have all these different sectors. And being able to really focus on bringing us together and working towards quality in everything that we do is like number one. So quality for 2024. Fiber expansion for 2024 is my baby. So we have new initiatives out right now.

10:06
take note door-to-door teams if you want to give me a call, is Fiber Fast Start. So we are launching new Fiber Fast Start. So they're basically new exchanges in regions that are launching new fiber and we are guerrilla attacking them. So they are getting from a marketing to a sales you know transition. They're getting marketing beforehand that's telling them when they're going to get it, how they're going to get it, and then our sales team are working coincidingly with them and then we're going and we're knocking and we're selling it. We're

10:36
that when Fabens Texas lights up with Fiverr, we've got people there that are already going to sell them that so they don't have to wait around. And we don't have to hear, oh another provider's already been here. Like we want to be able to sell them and help them as soon as possible. So Whitney, you work directly with door to door teams, right? Absolutely. Okay, what is your favorite part about working with those that go out and.

11:06
in our lunatics, as I would say, they want to go out and actually go out and sell. How much time do we have? Yeah, exactly. No, I'm just kidding. I love that they're hungry. Oh, interesting. They're hungry, and they've got grit. I think in order to succeed in door to door, you have to have those two things, right? Whether they have the hunger and I'm feeding, we're feeding it as a company or with new leads or with however we're doing that, or you're teaching it, right? So you're telling them, this is what we have.

11:36
is how it could benefit you in our communities. I think that's bar none. So I love when a team or our agents are super hungry and they're gritty. They're not gonna, you know, they might make a one pass at a household and then in two months, I'm gonna send them back. I want them to go back because whether they had their conversation and their talk track could totally change within two months. So then being able to be resilient and hungry and full of grit, that's what I love. I love a good hungry sales.

12:05
person or somebody that I can say, hey, I know you have this. Let me help you and propel you to where you should go and Succeed that do that's a great answer. Yeah, that's a really good. I was not expecting that so it's really good answer. Oh, yeah, so Last question, okay, where we wrap this up. All right. What is the craziest thing you've seen here at door to door con seven? Beside some of the outfits or yes, what's the craziest thing you've seen here? I

12:35
Earlier I saw a guy with a camera, almost like a tripod, on a hoverboard. On a hoverboard? Yeah, and I was like, oh man, I would face plant so hard. That's pretty gutsy with all these people walking around. I was kind of thinking of this scene off of, is it Big Daddy where he throws this stick out and the guy falls off his bike? I didn't do that. But like, my intrusive thoughts were like, how big of a stick could I throw and see how far he could go up. But that'd probably be craziest thing.

13:05
All right, good. Whitney Juergens, Kinetic by Windstream, Door to Doorcon 7. 2024. Thank you for coming. Thank you for having me.