TELECOMMUNICATIONS CASE STUDY

ShoreTel Adopts Value Selling and Boosts Win Rate by 28%

ShoreTel | Ottawa | 4,000+ employees

The Challenge

After the Great Recession, ShoreTel, an emerging leader in the unified communications market (UC), saw a fundamental change in the telecommunications buying process. Purchasing decisions shifted from the CIO and director of telephony to CIOs, CEOs, and boards. Additionally, more than 50% of customers required quantifiable proof that they were making the right decision when they invested in telecommunications equipment.

The Solution

Recognizing an opportunity to gain market share, ShoreTel launched a customizable Online TCO tool powered by Mediafly. Available in both public and private versions, the tool analyzes the lifetime TCO of various UC solutions and compares ShoreTel head to head with legacy phone systems and competing vendors.

The Mediafly-powered tool also shows customers the cost of doing nothing, helping ShoreTel to engage buyers earlier in the sales process. Its economic messaging is further supported by a Lowest TCO Guarantee Program where ShoreTel will lower its price to beat the competition if the tool or independent third-party data prove another vendor costs less. After five years, only one customer has inquired about the guarantee.

“We’ve developed a reputation for proving – time after time – that we have profound economic advantages. This has shortened our sales cycles, as large customers now give us the benefit of the doubt. I once walked a client through the TCO tool. After 30 minutes, he said that he had all the information he needed and signed a PO the next day.”

Mark Arman, former Vice President of Business Development at ShoreTel

The Result

During a five-year ramp up, 30% of ShoreTel’s deals involved the TCO tool and methodology. The TCO tool consistently demonstrated that ShoreTel cost 50% less than the market leader and 20-30% less than its other competitors. This along with the TCO Guarantee significantly boosted ShoreTel’s competitive win rate and resulted in at least $30 million per year in incremental revenue over the next five years, a 10% increase over projected revenue without the TCO tool and methodology.

Before value selling, ShoreTel had an average win rate of 62%. When sales reps used the TCO tool and methodology, the win rate jumped to 90%. In the first few years of the program, their Mediafly-powered TCO tools had helped close more than several thousand customers with new selling methods. More than 250 sales reps and partners were using the tool, and the self-service version available online received more than 600 unique visitors and created 150 customized reports per month. ShoreTel also increased its margins with reps closing deals at more than half a million dollars over the market leader’s price.