Sales and retention indicators in telecom operations
Cross-sell execution, conversion, and conduct in voice interactions, measured from real call quality evaluations, not opinion surveys.
Published by CYF · July 2026 · Ref. CYF-TLC-2026-H1
H1 2026 = first half of 2026 (January through June).
Scope of this analysis: this report brings together 2,449 quality evaluations of sales and retention phone calls in the telecom sector, covering H1 2026. It does not cover other service channels (WhatsApp, chat, email), nor is it a study of the entire telecom market or a multi-company sample.
What the data from this half shows
CYF analyzed quality evaluations of cross-sell/retention and mobile acquisition calls in the telecom sector, during H1 2026. This report brings together the main commercial execution and conduct indicators found in those calls: a picture of how the stages of a sale (eligibility, probing, offer, pitch) play out in practice, by product category.
This is the inaugural edition of the CYF Telecom Sales Benchmark, with updates planned every half-year.
What is the cross-sell funnel execution rate, by product category?
In the retention interactions analyzed, each contact goes through up to 5 stages toward a cross-sell: eligibility, probing, offer, pitch, and objection handling. Share of eligible customers who advance at each stage:
| Funnel stage | Residential internet | Pay TV | Mobile line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interest probing | 55.3% | 36.8% | 34.5% |
| Formal offer | 55.0% | 35.8% | 30.7% |
| Pitch | 35.5% | 19.6% | 14.4% |
| Objection handling | 19.2% | 8.2% | 6.6% |
The pattern repeats across every stage: commercial execution is consistently more complete for residential internet offers, followed by pay TV, with mobile line trailing last. Among customers eligible for a mobile offer, fewer than a third ever receive a formal offer. Most of the drop-off already happens at the probing stage.
"Eligibility" reflects the criterion recorded on the quality form used for these interactions; this study could not confirm whether that criterion comes from system integration (CRM/BSS) or from the agent/evaluator's own judgment at the time of the interaction.
What's the main reason for lost sales when the offer doesn't go through?
The reason for a lost sale is recorded separately for each product category evaluated in a single contact; because of that, one interaction can generate up to 3 reason records. The table below has 5,277 records of this type. The percentages refer to reason records, not to calls.
| Reason | % of records |
|---|---|
| Other reasons (competitors, credit restrictions, pending contract, customer unavailability, among others; none individually above 4%) | 28.7% |
| Agent never made the offer | 28.2% |
| Technical limitation on the call (silent call, no cabling, dropped call, poor call quality) | 26.4% |
| Customer declined for other reasons | 12.1% |
| Customer already has the offered product | 4.6% |
Nearly a third of lost-sale records never even become an active offer to the customer, a point worth attention that has nothing to do with acceptance or price. The "other reasons" category groups together more than 30 distinct reasons logged in the data, each individually under 4%.
What is the formal offer rate in mobile acquisition interactions?
In the mobile acquisition interactions analyzed in H1 2026, a formal commercial offer is recorded in 49.7% of contacts, meaning practically half of all interactions reach the point of an offer to the customer.
Do ethical conduct and customer respect hold up in sales operations?
In the interactions analyzed, the conduct items evaluated show high compliance, regardless of the commercial outcome of the contact:
| Conduct item | Compliance |
|---|---|
| Respect for the customer | 100.0% |
| Ethical conduct | 100.0% |
| Courtesy | 99.7% |
| Security validation (biometrics) | 98.4% |
| Correct sale logging | 97.1% |
| Customer identity confirmation | 91.7% |
One caveat is worth flagging on the items at 100% compliance: the absence of any non-compliance record across hundreds of cases may reflect either a genuinely solid conduct standard or a broader evaluation criterion with less sensitivity to catch subtle deviations.
Methodology and limitations
Sample and representativeness
The indicators come from 2,449 quality evaluations of sales and retention calls in the telecom sector, covering H1 2026, not from a sample representative of the entire telecom sector or of other service channels. This report contains no data from other carriers.
Data collection and evaluators
Evaluations were carried out by named human evaluators. Inter-rater reliability could not be calculated: the data contains no cases of the same call being scored by more than one evaluator.
Monitoring coverage
It could not be confirmed whether the platform monitored 100% of these operations' interactions in the period, or a partial sample, a common industry practice.
Data period
First half of 2026. This report did not test for seasonality effects or regulatory changes during the period.
Operational definitions
"Eligibility" for an offer reflects the criterion already recorded on the quality form used for the interactions analyzed. Conduct items follow the internal rubric of the corresponding quality program. This report did not have access to the detailed definition of those criteria.
CYF. Telecom Sales & Retention Benchmark Report, H1 2026 Edition. CYF Market Intelligence, July 2026.
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CYF is a customer service quality and conversation analytics platform for contact centers, used by more than 140,000 users across 23+ countries, rated 4.8/5 on G2. CYF Market Intelligence brings together periodic analyses built from real customer service quality data.