By: Graeme Scott, VP of Advanced Networking and Mobility + Jason Kaufman, Principal
Solution Architect, Telarus
Here’s something that might sting a little: If you’re still walking into customer accounts, quoting a single internet circuit, and calling it a day, you’re basically handing someone a plain hamburger on a paper plate and wondering why they didn’t tip.
Consider this: About 84% of advisors enter accounts through connectivity. That’s a perfectly fine front door. But far too many of us walk in, drop the circuit on the table, and walk right back out—leaving the fries, the drink, and the dessert in the kitchen. In other words, we’re leaving real revenue, real stickiness, and real value on the table for us and our customers.
The fix? Borrow a page from an industry that knows thin margins, brutal competition, and fickle customers: fast food.
What McDonald’s Figured Out That We Haven’t (Yet)
Quick-serve restaurants made the bundle the default—not the exception, or the premium option.
Here’s what happened when they did:
- Average ticket size went up.
- Ordering got faster.
- Revenue became more predictable.
Then digital kiosks and apps also started presenting combos visually, with smart add-on prompts—and the results were significant.
According to Technomic research, average order values jumped roughly 8% in quick-serve and about 15% in fast casual. Not because customers were being tricked, but because the bundle felt like the natural, obvious, complete choice.
Now think about your next customer conversation. Are you presenting the bundle as the obvious choice, or treating it as an afterthought and asking, “Do you want fries with that?”
Network bundling is the practice of packaging connectivity services—such as primary internet, backup connectivity, SD-WAN, voice, and security—into a unified solution that improves reliability, simplifies vendor management, and protects business operations.
For SMBs and mid-market companies, bundled network solutions often reduce downtime, simplify support, and ensure business-critical applications receive priority performance.
Bundling works because of how people actually make decisions.
- Defaults feel natural—ordering à la carte feels like opting out.
- Fewer choices reduce fatigue for SMB owners who are already juggling payroll, shipping, and their own customers.
- Packages frame value better than line items.
- Completeness signals competence.
Ultimately, your customers want to feel like they’re not missing anything.
Your Customers Are Already Asking for This
Research from SMB Group found that SMB technology buyers prioritize:
- Cost-effectiveness (43%)
- Compatibility and integration (34%)
- Ease of use (33%)
And over 56% say vendors need to do a better job explaining how solutions improve their business goals—not just technical features.
More than half of your customers are telling you to stop talking about specs and start talking about outcomes. They’re practically begging for someone to walk in with a thoughtful, integrated package and explain how it keeps their business running.
That someone should be you.
The Four Layers of a High-Value Network Bundle
Each layer builds on the last, and each one ties to a business outcome your customer actually cares about.
Layer 1: Resiliency
Imagine a 20-person accounting firm where employees average $40/hour that goes offline for four hours. That’s $3,200 in lost productivity. Compare that to $80–$100/month for a backup circuit. That’s not an upsell—that’s operational insurance.
Jason tells a great story about a retail customer in a mall who had a primary circuit, SD-WAN, and a cellular backup. When a fiber cut knocked out every neighboring store, this customer kept processing transactions. Within days, three neighbors were asking how he stayed up and running—and each signed up for the same bundle.
The takeaway? Resiliency doesn’t just protect your customer. It generates referrals.
Layer 2: Voice (UCaaS)
When voice and connectivity live under separate vendors, you get what Jason and I call the “finger-pointing carousel.” The voice company blames the network. The network blames the ISP. The ISP blames the voice company. And your customer is stuck playing traffic cop while the phones don’t work.
Bundling voice and connectivity into a single solution collapses that chaos. The customer has one call to make to the advisor who assembles the solution. Whether those services come from one supplier or more, the customer experience becomes simpler and faster to support. Selling as a package makes this decision faster and easier for the customer.
For a business owner who just wants their phones to work, that’s transformational. For the advisor, supporting this solution becomes even easier when you add….
Layer 3: SD-WAN
Every Friday night in retail it’s the same story: the POS system slows down. The store manager blames the internet. But the internet is fine—two employees in the back are streaming video, and nobody’s prioritizing the traffic that actually makes the business money.
SD-WAN ensures business-critical applications get the network resources they need, regardless of what else is happening. It also enables failover, centralized management, and proactive alerting.
Adding SD-WAN immediately elevates you out of the commodity conversation. You’re no longer selling bandwidth—you’re selling application performance and business continuity.
Layer 4: Security
The most common thing we hear from SMB customers is, “I have a firewall, I’m protected.” And every time, our response is the same: “Great—here’s our number; our incident response team will be ready when you need us.”
A basic firewall is not a security strategy. A flat network where a printer, a workstation, and a server all live on the same segment is an open invitation to trouble. Next-gen firewalls with deep packet inspection, intrusion detection, and intrusion prevention are now table stakes.
For a healthcare office handling patient data or a law firm managing privileged communications, this isn’t optional—it’s the difference between a bad day and a business-ending event.
Addressing the Biggest Question: “My Customer Won’t Pay for It”
I hear this objection more than any other. But here’s the question that changes the conversation: compared to what?
Compared to four hours of downtime at $3,200? Compared to the IT manager’s time on hold with three different vendors? Compared to lost transactions because nobody prioritized POS traffic? Compared to a data breach that triggers compliance penalties?
When you reframe the conversation around business loss instead of monthly cost, you’re no longer in a sales conversation. You’re in a business outcome conversation. And that’s where advisors win.
Take Our Advice: Phase It In
We’re not suggesting that you pitch all four layers on day one. The advisors who do this most successfully take a phased approach:
- Phase 1: Stabilize. Primary and backup connectivity plus voice—your foundation.
- Phase 2: Optimize. SD-WAN for application prioritization and network visibility.
- Phase 3: Protect. Security to safeguard everything you’ve built—now it’s a complete platform.
Each phase earns trust, demonstrates value, and makes the next conversation easier.
The Language Shift That Changes Everything
Stop leading with products, and start leading with questions.
Instead of: “Let me quote you a backup circuit.” Ask: “How long can you afford to be offline?“
Instead of saying, “Let me add a security layer.” Try: “If there’s a breach tomorrow, what’s your recovery plan?“
These questions don’t feel like a sales pitch. They feel like someone who cares about the business. That’s what shifts you from vendor to advisor—and once you’re the advisor, you’re not getting replaced by whoever quotes 10% less on a circuit next quarter.
FAQ: Network Bundling for SMBs
Do SMB technology buyers prefer bundled network solutions?
Yes—when the bundles are framed around direct business outcomes rather than technical components. Buyers typically prioritize cost-effectiveness, reliability, and integration. Bundling directly supports each of these priorities.
Are SMB customers willing to pay for bundled network packages?
It depends on how they’re introduced. Customers are generally more receptive when advisors focus on factors like uptime, productivity, and risk mitigation.
What services should be included in a network bundle?
Advisors should start by focusing on primary and backup connectivity, and then strategically layer in services like voice, SD-WAN, and security based on operational risk and specific business priorities.
Does bundling improve customer retention?
Bundling services often improve retention by reducing troubleshooting friction, increasing customer “stickiness,” and improving overall business performance.
The Bottom Line
The advisors who are winning right now—growing wallet share, reducing churn, and building accounts that last—stopped selling sandwiches and started selling combo meals. They now present the bundle as the default. They frame the conversation around outcomes. And they phase in solutions in a way that builds trust at every step.
The opportunity is sitting in the accounts you already have. The only question is whether you keep serving plain hamburgers or begin strategicallytoffering combo meals that actually feed the business.
I’d bet on the combo.
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