Unlocking growth through commercial strategy: How B2B telcos can unlock 4% margin gain within a year without overhauling their business

The B2B telecommunications market is at a crossroads. As legacy products fade and competition intensifies, the task of staying profitable has never felt more daunting. 

We may have one of the answers to help. Baringa’s latest study, covering more than 100 B2B telcos across the UK, Europe, and North America, reveals a stark truth: those doubling down on stronger commercial and pricing capabilities are outpacing their peers on both growth and profitability. This aligns with our findings for B2C telcos, however the drivers slightly differ. Here’s how the best are flipping the script from stagnation to success: 

1. How is data-driven pricing winning the day: for years, B2B pricing lived on guesswork. Poor-quality data meant pricing decisions were often driven by sales instinct rather than insight or value-based metrics. This is now changing. Thanks to years of digital investment – standardised product catalogues, modern CRM systems, and detailed billing insights – telcos are building a new pricing edge: the ability to connect pricing actions to commercial outcomes that were previously out of reach.  

The payoff here can be huge. In fact, 40% of B2B operators in our research identified pricing analytics as their top or second priority lever for driving growth: 

Graph: Most impactful commercial capabilities driving profitable growth, ranked as highest or second-highest importance by B2B telcos 

The implication is clear. Those with mature data foundations are now positioned to act smarter and faster. Best practices we observe include: 

• Value based pricing: Through segmenting the customer base so that pricing reflects the value perceived by each customer segment, not just for standalone products but for bundles and solutions  
• AI enabled pricing: Using AI as a tool to enable better pricing. Almost 60% of interviewees are already piloting or deploying machine learning-driven strategies. However, as the Commercial Planning Lead of a B2B leading global telco put it, “Right now, AI is a speed tool, not a strategy tool. It’s helping us do what we already do just faster and smarter.”

Only 30% of the most advanced pricing teams are using AI to accelerate decision-making, test pricing strategies, and simulate deal scenarios. These tools help uncover hidden patterns, such as discounting behaviours or missed upsell opportunities, and enable faster, more informed responses. 

2. Is margin leakage a quiet opportunity for your business?: even as revenues grow, margins continue to erode. The culprit? Margin leakage. 

Discipline here is critical: telcos must tackle leakage by investing in commercial finance skills and insight tools that build a culture of value creation. We’ve seen that margin gains of 2–4% can be achieved within a year without major transformation. 

Reducing leakage requires action across both revenue and cost levers.  

• Seal the revenue leaks by tightening discount governance, focusing account coverage on high-return segments, and piloting AI-enabled pricing models that offer 80-90% accuracy. 

• Cut the margin bleed by improving billing accuracy and improving cash flow by zeroing in on overdue and uncollected accounts. For example, one B2B telco secured a 3% profit uplift by identifying that 30-45% of overdue bills were linked to poor outsourced collections, and turning this around. 

The message is clear. B2B telcos are positioned to capitalise on their improved data quality and unlock new margin growth with: 

Pricing precision, building value-based and data-driven pricing models that align with customer outcomes. The foundations are already there; it’s time to build on them. 

Margin discipline, identifying and eliminating leakage through better governance and oversight. 

Get in touch with us to find out more about our research, or if you want to know more about our pricing and commercial capabilities.