Case Study: New Customer Reference Program Generates Wealth of Case Studies

ShoreTel (formerly Shoreline Communications) is a fast-growing company in the IP telephony/Voice-over-IP (VoIP) space. The company sells its enterprise phone systems and software solutions exclusively through a channel partner network. Private investors have injected more than $100 million of capital into ShoreTel since it was formed in 1996, motivating the company to operate very lean, especially in small departments such as marketing.

When M.O. Partners Founder Gary Katz began working with the company, ShoreTel was in the middle of a corporate re-branding program, on the verge of launching an exciting new IP phone, reengineering its website, prepping for an aggressive press/analyst tour and trying to support a 140-partner sales channel.

Within a few months of Katz' arrival, ShorTel's VP of marketing and its channel marketing manager both left the company, leaving Katz as the only full-time outbound-marketing resource. Despite the lack of support personnel and a modest budget, ShoreTel's marketing programs grew dramatically, thanks in large part to Katz's ability to put enabling systems and processes in place, as well as to effectively select and manage key marketing outsource partners.

ShoreTel marketing was entirely dependent on customer references from its sales force, who were primarily responsible for supporting channel partners for new sales opportunities. In addition, ShoreTel's lead generation and public relations programs were critically dependent on the breadth of customer references and a steady flow of strong case studies, When Katz attempted to qualify these customer references, he frequently discovered the information was unreliable and inaccurate.

In 2004, Katz and   M.O. Partners Founding Partner Dick Heermance launched an aggressive customer reference program that included the following parameters:

• ShoreTel's 1200+ customer database would be categorized, continuously updated and mined for strong reference candidates
• All references would be qualified for use in marketing and sales efforts
• Qualified references would be matched to appropriate marketing, public relations or sales opportunities
• Select customer references would be converted into case studies or e-newsletter articles, or used in webinars, editorial calendars, article, analyst research or speaking engagement opportunities.

Under Katz's direction, ShoreTel also installed a new outsourced telemarketing process to qualify sales leads, and an email marketing system that is now at the core of the lead-generation process. Both were launched for less than the cost of a single webinar.

Result
ShoreTel's revenues have nearly tripled since the Customer Reference Program was launched and continue to climb.

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