For many reasons, the old headcount model is beginning to fail for many telcos around the world. Changing market conditions, smarter consumers, aggressive competitors, and enlightened regulators all conspire to make it increasingly difficult for the telco to show profits with the older tried-and-true marketing methods. Clearly, the modern telco needs more than a simple modification of the existing business model. It needs a complete overhaul of its basic assumptions of the business and how it should be organized. Transaction Focuses on the One-Time Deal The main reason why the headcount and transaction-based model of the telco will not work in the long run is that it is based on a one- sale-at-a-time model. This model assumes that the basic nature of the relationship is culminated in the execution of a sale. However, the connection that a consumer has with a telco is much more related to the relationship itself than the to the sale. For the retail customer, the sale marks the end of the relationship; for the telecommunications customer it marks the beginning. The one-transaction-at-a-time - model is the heart and soul of the retail industry, but it is far from the kind of model that telecommunications providers should want to create. For the retail customer, the sale is the end of the relationship; for the telco customer it is the beginning of the relationship. Chapter 18 The preferred model for the telco is an approach that emphasizes the more long-lasting, trust- and relationship-based aspects of the consumer/provider association and one that de-emphasizes the more immediate price- and transaction-based characteristics. Consumer Shopping Cycle and Expectations are Maturing Assuming that the history of the nature of this relationship will continue to dictate how it is managed is a big mistake. The ranks of the old-generation telephone users who cling to the idea "There is only one phone company and all others are simply anomalies" are quickly falling away. In their place we are finding more and more consumers th