A “Gallant” Way to Success

Maureen Laus-Gallant

Today's consumers have a wide array of gadgets on hand, and they are not necessarily expensive. Cheap yet innovative smartphones have mushroomed the Philippine market today, but the idea of having a unit for one-peso seemed far-fetched until this woman touched a mobile retail store with her magic.

Whenever she joins a company, Maureen Laus-Gallant makes sure to infuse and promote a certain lifestyle in everything she does—from IT to Telco and from remittance to insurance.

What makes Maureen successful in her field is her thirst to learn and adopt new and emerging technologies even when they have not yet been introduced. Her ability to open herself to things she hasn’t tried allows her to challenge herself while still giving her best.

She never runs out of creative juices resulting in fresh and hit promos and packages for whatever product or company she handles. She is that good at what she does that each time she decides to leave a company, no sooner is another company inviting her to join its team.

This woman describes herself as a geek who embraces technology as steadfastly as her clothes while remaining very passionate about marketing and sales. And for her, each company is a new learning opportunity.

A ‘Hit’ Venture

Allphones

Today, Maureen’s outlet to acquire new knowledge is a company very new to Filipinos—Allphones, a mobile retail store imported all the way from Australia. This stint with Allphones made her think of ways to get people, especially in the provinces, acquire postpaid plans sans the hassles of documentation and long queues.

Allphones, with a touch of “Maureen magic,” came up with a latest innovation in smartphone and telecommunication industry called the “Piso phone,” a limited edition promo, where people from different walks of life can own a postpaid plan and a smartphone for only P1 by just going to an Allphones outlet to avail the promo. The result was an over-subscription to the program.

Maureen, together with her team, managed a phenomenal increase in just a short period of time in terms of number of outlets. As of July, 66 stores across the country are already in full swing and more are to be added in the coming months.

She is also excited about this venture because Allphones entered into an exclusive tie-up with Globe for the postpaid business. Unlike boutique stores of other telcos, Allphones maintains at least nine known foreign and local brands in each of its stores plus you can try the units on display. Sales staff, which they call Sales Consultants, will also give an expert advice for a good purchase.

With the application process done online, customers conveniently get a line with no need to leave behind documents.

Maureen is even now more excited about negotiating with more suppliers of other brands to provide wider options for the customers.

What She’s Made Of

After earning her Management Information System degree at St. Scholastica’s College in Manila, Maureen already set her goal—to be the best in what she does.

Coming from her on-the-job training at a global technology firm, she was offered to move to the sales team of that company. From there, she has moved from one role after the other. But what makes her effective is her drive to always deliver a “job well-done.”

Maureen has worked with different local telecommunication companies assuming various roles. She was responsible for the launch of local prepaid phone cards and wireless access protocol (WAP) service locally. Gallant was also an erstwhile national sales manager for a premium mobile brand. Under her watch, its market share for the high-end postpaid user has shown significant increase.

Maureen Laus-Gallant

Maureen had a short hiatus in the telecom scene when she accepted an offer to work for a local leading financial institution and later for an insurance company based in Spain, doing marketing and product development. But the telecom industry appeared to be more thrilling that after three years she was back again in Telco, this time as the product marketing head for Globe Business Small and Medium Business Group. Maureen pioneered the various triangle offers for SMEs offering landline-internet-mobile postpaid under one subscription. She also led the launch of different software-as-a-service solutions for start-up companies.

Maureen eventually transferred to Allphones Philippines, an Australia-based company that decided to set up shop in the country last year. Allphones is a partnership between Globe Telecom and Tao Corporation.

What sets Allphones apart from other mobile retail companies in the market is simply because it’s a one-stop shop providing people with a quality customer service while giving them a wide array of choices. The paperless transaction process make it even more appealing to people.


Even though her intelligent “Piso phone” promo has already ended, we can expect even more marketing strategies from Maureen for Allphones.

Since the last time I visited Allphones' 50th store in Robinsons Galleria a few months ago, it has already come a long way.

For someone in her early thirties to be so successful, Maureen believes there is so much more to learn out there. “It’s my personal mandate to find new learning and ideas that I can put into good use whether for work or for conquering life’s daily grind,” Maureen said.
This mother of two adorable kids, 12- and 2-year-old, and a wife to a Canadian business executive juggles work and life with flare, that is Maureen Laus-Gallant.