SIC Preparation · August 2026 · Vancouver  ·  Grounded in 2025 Actuals (CAD)

Reintroducing Salesforce
to TELUS

Victor Dodig takes the helm of a company at a crossroads: a heavy debt load, a broken growth engine, and an AI ambition that needs an activation layer. This is how Salesforce becomes the partner that turns the turnaround.

Opportunity $15M iACV Target
SF Investment $5M FDE Offer
SELA Renewal May 2027
SIC Reference SIC-143010
2025 Revenue $20.35B CAD
2025 EBITDA $6.42B (31.6% margin)
2025 Free Cash Flow $2.35B (+12% YoY)
Stock (NYSE: TU) $10.43 · −34% YoY
The Burning Platform — 2025 Actuals
TELUS's Turnaround in Progress
2025 full-year results (CAD) confirm the pressure is real — and set the context for what Victor Dodig is inheriting as he steps into the role. These are the numbers he's walking in with.
📉
31.6%

EBITDA Margin — Declining

2025 EBITDA of $6.42B compressed from $6.84B in 2024 — margin fell from 34% to 31.6%. Operating income dropped to $2.36B (from $2.80B). Margin recovery is critical to deleveraging.

⚠️
+1%

Revenue Growth — Barely Moving

2025 revenue: $20.35B (+1% vs $20.14B in 2024). With immigration headwinds killing net add assumptions, organic growth is now driven solely by ARPU expansion and cross-sell. Net income fell to $777M.

✅
$2.35B

Free Cash Flow — Up 12%

FCF improved from $2.10B (2024) to $2.35B (2025) — the one clear bright spot. Interest expense dropped from $1.58B to $1.16B, signalling early deleveraging progress toward the 3.0× target.

🏗️
$66B+

5-Year Infrastructure Commitment

TELUS committed $66B+ over five years for national network expansion including $24B in Ontario, $14B in Alberta, and $8B in Québec — and AI data centre clusters in Vancouver and Kamloops (federal partnership).

🤖
$2B

AI Revenue Target by 2028

TELUS Digital named preferred implementation partner for ElevenLabs' ElevenAgents voice AI platform. Partnership with Cresta for AI agent deployment in contact centres. Joined AI Consortium with Scotiabank and Sun Life.

⚠️
$10.43

Stock Down ~34% (NYSE: TU)

52-week range $10.08–$16.74. Analysts average a 12-month target of $17.33 (+66% upside). J.P. Morgan has a Sell; consensus is Hold. CRTC scrutiny on wireless fees adding regulatory risk.

Victor's Strategic Agenda
Three Priorities. One Window.
Based on management disclosures, analyst briefings, and the prep call with Mark Sullivan — these are the lenses through which every Salesforce conversation must be filtered.
1

Fix the Core: Grow ARPU, Kill Churn

Wireless & wireline — 85% of revenue — must perform. Immigration headwinds make net adds a losing game. ARPU and retention are the only levers left.

Critical Priority

What TELUS Discloses

  • 2024 wireless ARPU under pressure as competitive intensity rises across all Canadian carriers
  • Net subscriber adds slowing; immigration policy reversal eliminates the organic demand tailwind
  • Wireline residential margins under pressure from fibre buildout costs and competition
  • Churn management cited across multiple earnings calls as a key operational focus
  • TELUS had Canada's lowest postpaid churn rate historically — defending this is existential

How Salesforce Helps

  • 360° customer view across wireless + wireline enables intelligent cross-sell and upsell
  • Einstein AI-driven churn prediction and proactive retention workflows
  • Agentforce for Consumer: autonomous retention agents working 24/7
  • Marketing Cloud: hyper-personalized ARPU-accretive offers at scale
  • Service Cloud: reduce cost-to-serve while improving NPS and reducing churn triggers
2

Grow AI-Led Revenue: $600M → $2B

TELUS Digital and Sovereign AI are the growth bets. The challenge: turning data center capacity and AI ambition into revenue-generating enterprise relationships.

Growth Engine

What TELUS Discloses

  • Sovereign AI data center strategy positions TELUS as Canada's trusted AI infrastructure provider
  • TELUS Digital (~$600M revenue base) provides outsourced AI-enabled CX services to global enterprises
  • B2B enterprise pipeline is described as growing; however go-to-market velocity is a disclosed pain point
  • Victor explicitly wants Salesforce's help defining and executing TELUS's AI strategy
  • 2025 partnerships: TELUS Digital named preferred implementation partner for ElevenLabs ElevenAgents voice AI; partnership with Cresta for contact centre AI agents; joined AI Consortium with Scotiabank and Sun Life
  • TELUS is building but needs to sell — the commercial activation layer is missing

How Salesforce Helps

  • Agentforce as the AI activation layer for TELUS Digital's B2B go-to-market
  • Data Cloud unifies customer + usage data to power AI models on TELUS's sovereign infrastructure
  • Einstein Copilot and custom agents built on TELUS's own data — "TELUS on TELUS"
  • Revenue Cloud / CPQ compresses TELUS's go-to-market from weeks to days
  • Slack as the enterprise OS connecting TELUS Digital delivery teams with clients
3

Deleverage: Divest, Streamline, Focus

Targeting 3.0× net debt/EBITDA by 2027. TELUS Health is the likely first divestiture. TAC may follow. Balance sheet discipline is a governing constraint on every investment decision.

Structural

What TELUS Discloses

  • Capital allocation review underway; non-core asset monetization stated as a priority
  • TELUS Health: highest-margin segment — most attractive divestiture candidate for cash generation
  • TELUS Agriculture & Consumer Goods (TAC): strategic fit increasingly questioned
  • Debt levels a direct legacy of PureFibre and international expansion — acknowledged openly
  • Every dollar invested must show a clear path to EBITDA improvement or ARPU growth

How Salesforce Helps

  • ROI is the framing — Salesforce investments must tie directly to ARPU growth or cost reduction
  • Headless 360 approach: augment existing systems without rip-and-replace capex
  • Operational efficiency via AI reduces headcount cost in service and sales ops
  • Field Service optimization (already deployed) as proof of cost-out from existing SF investment
  • Position SF investment as enabling the divestiture readiness of non-core units
Salesforce Value Story
The Activation Layer for TELUS's Turnaround
Every Salesforce capability maps directly to a Victor priority. This is not a technology conversation — it is a business outcomes conversation.
Salesforce Play TELUS Business Problem Outcome for Victor
Agentforce for Consumer Churn is rising as net adds stall; frontline teams can't scale retention outreach cost-effectively Autonomous AI agents proactively retain at-risk subscribers 24/7
↓ Churn · ↑ ARPU
Data Cloud + Einstein Wireless and wireline data siloed; no unified customer view to cross-sell effectively 360° view powers intelligent cross-sell between wireless, wireline, and digital services
↑ ARPU · ↑ LTV
Revenue Cloud / CPQ TELUS takes ~30 days to bring new offers to market — a severe competitive disadvantage Compress offer-to-market from weeks to days; accelerate B2B revenue capture
↑ Velocity · ↑ Win Rate
Agentforce for B2B TELUS Digital needs a commercial engine to convert AI infrastructure capacity into enterprise revenue AI-led B2B sales and service motion; beachhead for Consumer transformation
↑ AI Revenue
Marketing Cloud Personalization at scale is limited; promotions are blunt, not surgical Precision targeting for ARPU-accretive upsell, reducing churn-triggering irrelevant offers
↑ ARPU · ↓ Churn
Slack as Enterprise OS Internal coordination fragmented; TELUS Digital client relationships managed manually Connect TELUS employees, TELUS Digital clients, and AI agents in one operating layer
↓ Cost · ↑ NPS
Headless 360 / AI Strategy Victor needs an AI strategy — fast — without a 3-year rip-and-replace program Overlay AI on existing systems; show results in 90 days, not 3 years
Speed to Value
"Make TELUS the lighthouse agentic enterprise in Canada — powered by Salesforce, built on TELUS's own sovereign AI infrastructure."

TELUS on TELUS, powered by Salesforce. Not a vendor. A co-builder.

SIC Agenda — August 2026
Five Plays for the Day
Each play must land a specific "aha" for Victor and his executive team — connecting a known pain to a credible Salesforce outcome.
Play 01

Headless 360 + AI Strategy Fast-Track

Victor explicitly asked for help defining TELUS's AI strategy. Lead with a framework for deploying Einstein + Agentforce on top of existing systems — not a rip-and-replace. Show 90-day time-to-value. This answers his most urgent ask and differentiates Salesforce from big integrators.

Links to: Priority 1 + 2
Play 02

Telco Transformation Proof Points

BT, Lumen, Rogers — show what Salesforce did for comparable carriers. Quantify ARPU lift, churn reduction, and go-to-market speed improvements. Victor needs to see the pattern before he will invest. Social proof from peers is the fastest path to credibility.

Links to: Priority 1
Play 03

B2B Beachhead → Consumer Bridge

Agentify B2B first (lower complexity, faster ROI), then use the AI + data platform as the gateway to Consumer transformation. This sequencing manages risk and gives Victor a proof point before the larger Consumer investment is committed. Rogers playbook analogy applies.

Links to: Priority 2 → Priority 1
Play 04

Slack as the Enterprise OS

Mark wants to explore this directly with Victor. Position Slack not as a chat tool but as the connective tissue between TELUS employees, TELUS Digital external clients, and the agentic AI layer. With Quip expiring in 90 days, the window is immediate.

Links to: Priority 2 + Quip Urgency
Play 05

CPQ / Order Management: The 30-Day Problem

TELUS takes a month to go to market with a new offer. This is a massive pain point, well understood internally. Revenue Cloud with CPQ compresses this dramatically. Frame it as: every day saved in time-to-market is ARPU captured ahead of a competitor.

Links to: Priority 1 + 2
Play 06

The Investment Model: Rogers Playbook

$5M FDE investment from Salesforce in exchange for a $15M iACV commitment. Frame this as co-investment — Salesforce putting skin in the game. Victor respects partners who share the risk. Lead with the outcome model, not the product catalog.

Links to: All Priorities
The Deal Structure
Co-Investment Model
Salesforce puts skin in the game. This is what changes the conversation from "vendor" to "partner."
Salesforce Invests
$5M
FDE (Funded Development Engagement) — Salesforce resources dedicated to TELUS outcomes, not billed to TELUS
iACV Target
$15M
Incremental Annual Contract Value — primarily Consumer (greenfield outside Field Service) and expanded B2B
Return Ratio
3×
Every Salesforce dollar invested targets $3 in committed iACV — a model Victor can present to his CFO
Know Your Audience
Victor Dodig — CEO, TELUS
VD
Victor Dodig
President & CEO, TELUS Corporation · Effective July 1, 2025
Former CEO of CIBC (2014–2025) — 11 years leading one of Canada's Big Five banks; known for large-scale digital transformation and client-first cultural change
At CIBC, oversaw major technology modernization including CRM and digital banking — has a real mental model for enterprise platform ROI, not just slide decks
Positive prior history with Salesforce from his CIBC tenure — a meaningful anchor that Mark Sullivan activated in their June 30 meeting
Met with Mark Sullivan on June 30 (day before formally taking the role); committed to a full-day SIC in Vancouver in late August
Acknowledged the SF/TELUS relationship has been "transactional" and needs to change — his words, not ours
Committed TELUS to $66B+ in 5-year national infrastructure investment including AI data centre clusters in Vancouver and Kamloops (federal partnership)
CRTC launched 2026 inquiry into TELUS wireless fees — near-term margin sensitivity; Victor will be attuned to cost-out and compliance narratives
The Hook: Victor is one week into the role — he doesn't yet know what Salesforce is doing at TELUS. This SIC is a first-impression moment and a reset opportunity. He comes in knowing the finances are a mess and is looking for trusted partners who can move fast. Lead with ARPU recovery, churn reduction, and EBITDA improvement in his language. His CIBC experience means he already trusts enterprise platforms at scale; he needs to trust the ROI model and partnership intent. Show him what Salesforce did for Canadian and global peers.
KPI Scorecard
Where TELUS Is Today — and Where Salesforce Takes It
Based on 2025 financials, Q1 2026 earnings, internal account team intelligence, Bouygues Telecom proof points, and Salesforce telco benchmarks. Ranges reflect conservative to mid-range outcomes.
KPI Where TELUS Is Today Potential with Salesforce Salesforce Plays
KPI 01
Wireless ARPU
Victor's #1 growth lever. Net adds are structurally impaired by immigration policy. ARPU is the only organic growth engine left.
Current State
Under pressure
"Product Intensity" (migrating single-product customers to 3–4 product households) is TELUS's stated ARPU strategy — but the activation layer is manual and fragmented. No single source of truth for ARPU exists internally; multiple Looker instances with conflicting definitions. Source: TELUS account team intel (Slack)
Potential with Salesforce
+5–10% ARPU
↑ $5–10/subscriber/month
Telco peers using Marketing Cloud + Data Cloud for personalised cross-sell report 5–12% ARPU lift. At TELUS's subscriber scale, +$5/month = ~$300M+ incremental annual revenue. Source: SF telco benchmarks; Bouygues proof point
Salesforce Plays
Data Cloud 360 (single ARPU truth)
Marketing Cloud personalised upsell
Agentforce proactive cross-sell
CPQ rapid offer bundles
Intel TELUS's analytics team explicitly flagged no canonical ARPU definition across the org — teams redefine it independently. Data Cloud as a semantic unification layer solves the measurement problem before you can solve the growth problem.
KPI 02
Postpaid Churn Rate
TELUS historically held Canada's lowest postpaid churn. CRTC 2026-43 just eliminated activation and cancellation fees — switching friction is now near zero across all carriers.
Current State
~1.0–1.1%
Industry-low churn has been a TELUS competitive advantage, but CRTC 2026-43 (eliminating wireless switching fees) came into effect mid-2026 — making every Canadian carrier's churn rate structurally worse. Retention is now purely relationship- and service-driven. Source: Chuck Fairley (Slack), CRTC 2026-43
Potential with Salesforce
−15–25 bps
↓ to ~0.75–0.85%
AI-powered churn prediction + proactive retention workflows at peers have delivered 15–25 basis point reductions. At TELUS's ~9M wireless subscribers, each 10 bps = ~90K retained subscribers annually. Source: SF communications cloud benchmarks
Salesforce Plays
Agentforce retention agents (24/7)
Einstein churn prediction
Marketing Cloud at-risk journeys
Service Cloud NPS-triggered saves
Intel CRTC 2026-43 is a game-changer for the entire Canadian market — zero friction to switch means TELUS's churn moat is gone. The window to build an AI-powered retention capability before competitors do is narrow.
KPI 03
Offer Time-to-Market
TELUS currently takes ~30 days to bring a new offer to market. In a post-CRTC environment where switching is frictionless, speed-to-offer is a direct competitive weapon.
Current State
~30 days
Cited directly by the account team as a massive pain point — TELUS's offer configuration and approval process takes approximately a month. Competitors can respond to market events in days. Source: TELUS account team intel (Slack)
Potential with Salesforce
<5 days
↓ 80–90% faster
Revenue Cloud with CPQ eliminates manual configuration and approval bottlenecks. Telco peers have compressed offer-to-market from weeks to 2–5 days. Every day saved is competitive revenue captured. Source: SF Revenue Cloud telco benchmarks
Salesforce Plays
Revenue Cloud / CPQ
Agentforce offer configuration
Automated approval workflows
Real-time competitive response
Intel Post-CRTC 2026-43, the carrier who can respond fastest to a competitive price move wins. 30 days is not a process problem — it's a revenue problem. Frame CPQ as a competitive response capability, not an IT project.
KPI 04
Contact Center Cost & Agent Productivity
TELUS's contact centers are described as highly manual — high swivel chairing, high attrition, no 360 view. Cost-to-serve is a direct drag on EBITDA margin recovery.
Current State
High & manual
Agents lack a unified customer view — multiple system swivel-chairs per interaction. High attrition (ongoing issue per ride-along feedback). Reps currently take minutes to find answers to customer queries. Source: Anandhi Narayanan, TELUS account team (Slack)
Potential with Salesforce
30s response
↓ 25–35% cost-to-serve
Bouygues Telecom (Agentforce): answer time dropped from minutes to 30 seconds; 95% AI accuracy; 90% rep satisfaction. 6,000 reps + 10,000 field techs equipped. 10,000 additional field appointments/day unlocked without new headcount. Source: Bouygues Telecom customer story (verified)
Salesforce Plays
Agentforce Service Agent
Service Cloud unified 360
Einstein AI answer assist
Field Service (already deployed)
Intel Field Service is already live at TELUS — this is the proven beachhead. Bouygues is the closest telco peer proof point. Frame Service Cloud + Agentforce as the natural extension of what TELUS already bought, not a new investment.
KPI 05
AI-Led Revenue (TELUS Digital)
Victor's growth engine: $600M → $2B by 2028. AI revenues up 22% in Q1 2026. The challenge is commercial velocity — the infrastructure exists, but the sales motion doesn't.
Current State
~$600M+
Q1 2026: AI revenues up 22% YoY — momentum is building. TELUS Digital named preferred ElevenLabs ElevenAgents implementation partner. Partnership with Cresta for contact centre AI. But B2B go-to-market velocity remains constrained by manual quoting and fragmented CRM. Source: Lisa Rundle, Q1 2026 summary (Slack)
Potential with Salesforce
Accelerate to $2B
↑ B2B win rate + deal velocity
Agentforce + Revenue Cloud gives TELUS Digital an AI-native B2B sales motion — faster quoting, automated follow-up, pipeline visibility. Makes TELUS Digital itself a lighthouse for "TELUS on TELUS" AI deployment. Source: SF Agentforce for Communications benchmarks
Salesforce Plays
Agentforce B2B sales motion
Revenue Cloud / CPQ for B2B
Data Cloud for pipeline AI
Slack as client OS
Intel TELUS Digital is both a Salesforce customer and a Salesforce competitor in the AI services market. The play: make them a co-builder and lighthouse reference — "TELUS on TELUS, powered by Salesforce" — rather than competing for the same enterprise AI deals.
KPI 06
EBITDA Margin
Margin compressed from 34% (2024) to 31.6% (2025). Deleveraging to 3.3× Net Debt/EBITDA requires both revenue growth AND cost reduction — Salesforce contributes to both sides.
Current State
31.6%
2025 EBITDA: $6.42B on $20.35B revenue. Down from 34% in 2024. CapEx moderating to ~$2.3B to prioritise FCF. Target: 3.3× Net Debt/EBITDA by deleverage. Every point of margin matters. Source: 2025 annual financials; Michael Ragan (Slack)
Potential with Salesforce
+150–250 bps
↑ toward 33–34%
Combined effect: lower cost-to-serve (AI agents), higher ARPU (cross-sell), faster go-to-market (CPQ), and reduced attrition costs in contact centres. Forrester TEI study (Feb 2026) validates 273% ROI on Salesforce investments at enterprise scale. Source: Forrester TEI (Slack #forrester-research)
Salesforce Plays
Full platform: revenue + service
AI cost reduction across CX
Data Cloud eliminates tool sprawl
Slack replaces fragmented tools
Intel Victor's CFO framing will be: "What does this cost, and when do I see it in EBITDA?" Lead with the Forrester 273% ROI figure and the 10-month time-to-ROI benchmark. Connect every play to a margin line, not a product feature.
KPI 07
Analytics & Data Maturity
TELUS can't improve what it can't measure. Fragmented analytics = fragmented execution. This is a foundational unlock for every other KPI on this list.
Current State
Survival mode
Domo → Tableau migration lost dashboards; teams in "survival mode." Analytics maturity described as behind TD and Rogers — weak visualization quality, no data governance, no canonical semantic layer. Multiple conflicting definitions of core KPIs like ARPU. Source: Shane Hubick, Tableau Intelligence Day debrief (Slack)
Potential with Salesforce
Single source of truth
↑ Decision speed 34%
Data Cloud as the unified semantic layer — one definition of ARPU, churn, LTV across every team. Tableau Intelligence Day (65+ TELUS attendees, 40+ use cases captured in June 2025) demonstrated clear appetite. Benchmark: 34% faster decision-making post-Data Cloud deployment. Source: SF customer success metrics FY26; Shane Hubick (Slack)
Salesforce Plays
Data Cloud semantic layer
Tableau as analytics OS
Einstein analytics for ops
Agentforce data agents
Intel 65+ TELUS data leaders attended the June 2025 Tableau Intelligence Day — the demand signal is already there. This isn't a cold sell. Data Cloud unification is the fastest path from "survival mode" to "AI-ready enterprise."
ARPU Lift
+5–10%
~$300M+ revenue
Churn Reduction
−15–25 bps
~90K subscribers retained/10bps
Time-to-Market
30 → <5 days
80–90% faster offer launch
EBITDA Margin
+150–250 bps
31.6% → 33–34%
Risk & Opportunity Radar
Key Watch Items
Items requiring active monitoring between now and the SIC — each has potential to shift the deal size, scope, or urgency.

TELUS Health Divestiture — Monitor Closely

Victor's Q1 2026 earnings commentary cited "asset monetization" as a key lever. TELUS Health (highest-margin segment) remains the likely first candidate. Anticipate org disruption and budget changes. Protect any Salesforce footprint there now.

Shelfware Sizing (~$4–6M)

Shelfware audit in progress. This is a critical input for the Victor conversation — acknowledging it proactively and proposing a utilization plan builds trust. Do not let it surface as a surprise.

ECI Project Instability

Rocky implementation may be replaced by Momentum or revert to Gong. Monitor closely — this affects the Salesforce integration story and could become a competitive wedge or a trust issue.

Quip Contract Expiry

Contract ends within the year — 90 days to position Slack as the replacement and upgrade. This is a concrete, time-bound opportunity to land Slack as the enterprise OS narrative with Victor.

SELA Renewal — May 2027

This SIC is the catalyst to rewrite the SELA into a large strategic deal. Victor is new, the relationship is being reset, and the 2027 renewal window gives both sides urgency to build something strategic now — not transactional.

TAC (TELUS Agriculture) Divestiture Risk

May follow TELUS Health. If Salesforce has footprint in TAC, assess exposure. If not, this is a non-issue — but be prepared for the question from Victor's CFO team.