Clarktel Telecommunications Uses NEC Partner Portal to Generate Leads, Build Pipeline and Close Sales

Challenges

Clarktel Telecommunications is a communications and IT infrastructure services company providing products and services to small, medium and large businesses from its headquarters in Akron, Ohio. As an NEC Channel Partner, Clarktel is an exclusive reseller of NEC telecommunications platforms, including the UNIVERGE® SV9000 series, UNIVERGE 3C and UNIVERGE Blue Business Cloud Services, which it offers to a variety of industry sectors.

As a small company, Clarktel doesn’t have a marketing department or a formal marketing team. While the company has used marketing consultants in the past, Clarktel decided to try a new tool for generating qualified leads in-house without increasing headcount. That’s when the company began to investigate NEC’s Channel Marketing Automation partner portal, which is a core feature of ZINFI’s Unified Partner Management technology encompassing partner recruitment, engagement, enablement and management. The goal of incorporating the partner portal into their marketing activities was to put the Clarktel brand and NEC product lines directly in front of customers, increase awareness, build customer loyalty, and create interest both in additional products and upgrades of existing solutions.

Solutions

Clarktel began using NEC’s Channel Marketing Automation partner portal about two months ago. To get a jump-start on learning to use the partner portal, they hired a consultant to help. “We could see from the beginning that this was a powerful tool that we could use to help increase awareness and grow our business,” says Terry Clark, CEO of Clarktel, “so we hired a consultant to become familiar with the platform and to execute our first campaign.” After that, the staff received training themselves through the self-help functions of the portal and ZINFI support staff.

Results

So far, Clarktel has executed two email campaigns focused on migrating existing NEC UNIVERGE SV8100 customers to the UNIVERGE SV9100 platform. They utilized NEC’s turnkey campaigns provided through the portal and have generated excellent results. In the first campaign, Clarktel sent out emails to 158 prospects. Of those potential customers, 50 actively engaged with the campaign, 15 are in the sales pipeline, and five have already converted to new sales. Clark estimates that using the partner portal has helped his company achieve an increase of 10% to 15% in lead generation over the first two months using the tool. Pleased by the initial results, Clark met with his team to discuss the tool and encourage its continued use.

As Clarktel moves forward with NEC’s Channel Marketing Automation Program, they plan to investigate ways to integrate data and functionality from GoldMine, a tool they use to manage CRM functions. They are also planning to use the partner portal in conjunction with a planned call center campaign, and are exploring the possibility of an NEC campaign aimed at the healthcare vertical.

Asked to provide advice for other NEC Channel Partners, Clark said, “Definitely make use of this tool. It’s an excellent tool for small businesses like ours. We only have 15 employees, and we can’t afford to hire a marketing person at this time.” In reference to a training session on the partner portal provided by ZINFI, Anitra Taylor, administrative assistant at Clarktel, noted that the training “touched on exactly what we needed to do. They did a good job.”