NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association
About
NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association represents about 850 independent, family-owned and community-based telecommunications companies that build and deliver broadband in rural and small-town America. Its members serve customers in 44 states, covering about 30% of the nation's landmass. The association advocates for its members in the legislative and regulatory arenas, publishes industry research, runs in-person and virtual events and training, and offers employee benefit programs. It is based in Arlington, Virginia.
NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association’s Story
NTCA was incorporated on June 1, 1954, as the National Telephone Cooperative Association, with eight rural telephone systems in seven states as its original members. It grew out of a telephone committee formed by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, and in 2002 it changed its name to the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association.
In February 2013, NTCA and OPASTCO, an organization of small telcos founded in 1963, agreed to unify as NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, expanding membership to about 850. The association says the word broadband in its new name reflected the technology's growing importance for rural America.
TopCloserR Perspective
What we’d expect selling here to look like
NTCA's members are rural broadband providers, and its site offers exhibits, sponsorships and advertising to the companies that serve them. That implies a relationship-led sale to suppliers who want to reach about 850 provider members, tied to the association's event calendar.
What it builds, by career stage
- Breaking in
- For SDRs and new sellers, the business implies prospecting suppliers that sell to rural broadband providers for exhibit and sponsorship slots at NTCA events.
- Building
- For account managers, it implies growing a book of sponsors and exhibitors across conferences, webinars and publications, and renewing them each year.
- Leading
- For sales leaders, it implies shaping sponsorship packages across the event calendar while keeping the trust of the member providers those sponsors want to reach.
Where it can take you
The experience transfers to sponsorship and exhibit sales at other trade associations, and to sales roles at telecom suppliers that sell to broadband providers.
Questions worth asking
Considering a sales role at NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association? Ask these in your interview.
- How does the sponsorship team divide suppliers across NTCA's events and publications?
- Which comes first in a supplier's year: exhibiting, sponsoring or advertising?
- How do sales goals work alongside the association's member relations managers?
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