Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript - Page 4 of 5 - InvestingChannel

Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And we also mentioned it in our prepared remarks, it didn’t get a lot of attention, but we think there’s a lot of strategic value to the REIT status, as we’ve mentioned we were one of the first fiber companies to become a REIT. Subsequent to that, the rules changed that made becoming a REIT a little bit harder. And so we think there’s strategic value to that corporate structure. Michael, on your second question, I wouldn’t want to say whether we think the number of lead cable exposure will be higher or lower. But what I would say is that less than 1% that we use, I think it’s very — I think it’s a conservative number. I’ll put it that way. So we feel like that’s a reasonable way to think about it. And I don’t see us changing that [indiscernible], if you will, on a go-forward basis.

And I think your — that leads to your last question about the mileage versus the percentage. We do have a mileage number that we’ve developed on our own and also communicated with Windstream about and it’s what leads us to believe that, that less than 1% number is conservative, but we’re just not prepared to give that number publicly at this point. .

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Frank Louthan with Raymond James.

Frank Louthan: On the comments on the delays on the enterprise part of the business, how would you characterize that? Is that just sort of normal things we’re seeing everywhere else, where there’s an extra couple of levels of approvals? Or do you think there’s any risk that some of these projects don’t go forward? And any broad themes as to what’s sort of driving that?

Kenneth Gunderman: Yes. Frank, I don’t think there’s any broad themes. I think it’s really customer specific. We asked that question repeatedly of our sales leaders and sales team and get the same response that you go down the list and customer A’s — the delay is for this reason, customer B, the delay may be for that reason. So similar to my comments about carrier spending being down for the year. I think a lot of that is specific to each carrier as opposed to industry-wide. So it’s an important question. It’s one we consistently ask to make sure that there’s not tweets in the business that we need to make or tweaks in our go-to-market approach, but we don’t think any of that — any of the decision-making calls for changes to the business or tweaks, if you will.

I really more importantly, to your point, are we seeing things fall out of the funnel in an abnormal way? And the answer is no. In fact, funnels continue to grow, and it’s one of the reasons why we feel confident about the second half of the year and again, even potentially trending towards the higher end of — or I’d say, over the midpoint of guidance on revenue because the demand is there, it’s just a question of converting it to sign deals and getting it turned up.

Frank Louthan: Just a quick follow-up. Where are you on sales hiring this year? Are you finding it easy to find and retain talent or more challenging? Where should we actually think about growing the sales force?

Kenneth Gunderman: Yes. We’ve made a lot of progress. I’d say our wholesale team, those are the well hunters or, if you will, I’d say that team is fully staffed on the enterprise side and on the wholesale, if there is an opening in that team, we tend to fill it very quickly. That’s just more of a relationship type of sales function, and we’ve got a lot of industry veterans with a lot of relationships. And so filling that team tends to happen very quickly from our standpoint. On the enterprise side, I think as I mentioned, before we churn people out of that team pretty deliberately. If they’re not performing, we turn them out in a disciplined way. And so replacing churn plus adding to the team is a constant focus of ours and we’ve got people entirely dedicated to that.

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