Overview
Mitel is in the middle of a strategic shift. After acquiring Unify, a division of ATOS, the newly combined company had two sales motions, two customer bases, and twice the headcount. The path forward was clear: get leaner, go upmarket, and build real relationships with enterprise and public sector customers they'd never had to manage before. Jonathan Buckle, SVP Americas Sales, describes it plainly: his team had no data to validate whether they were making progress with customers. They could see if an opportunity existed. They couldn't see if anyone was actually engaged. That blind spot was manageable when Mitel's business ran through channel partners and mid-market accounts. It became a challenge when the strategy shifted to direct enterprise and public sector, where relationships must be built long before a deal is created.
[testimonial]
[list#base]
Before Backstory
- No way to know if messaging was resonating before a deal entered the funnel
- Activity data lived in reps' heads - unverifiable and often incorrect
- Account managers had 50 accounts with no visibility into which ones were going dark
- Deal reviews were stories, not data - the 'hope' strategy in full effect
[/list]
[tag#Use case 01] Engagement visibility
Closing the blind spot that kills enterprise deals
When Buckle first joined Mitel, the lack of engagement visibility was something he recognized immediately - he'd seen it before. The difference this time was he knew there was a solution. The fundamental challenge with enterprise and public sector sales is that everything important happens before a deal is created. You're building relationships, getting your message in front of the right people, figuring out if you have a path to a decision maker. If you have no data on any of that, you're flying blind. Mitel now has engagement data showing up directly on the account page in Salesforce - no extra clicking required. Sellers, SEs, and even service delivery managers are connected to the platform. When someone from a different team meets with a customer, the account manager gets updated automatically. The Microsoft Teams integration recently went live, adding coverage for the service delivery team that uses it alongside the sales team on Zoom.
[testimonial]
The impact isn't just for the sales team. One of Backstory's clearest wins at Mitel is helping managers ask better questions. Buckle describes deal reviews from three years ago: a rep would come in, say the relationship was great, call the deal a commit, and everyone moved on. Three weeks later the deal was lost. Now the conversation starts with data. Managers don't have to ask 'how's it going' - they can see how it's going and spend the time on what moves deals forward.
[list#brand]
AFTER BACKSTORY
- CRM data automatically captured
- Engagement data surfaced directly on account and opportunity pages
- Leaders can see which accounts are getting attention and which aren't
- Deal reviews start with facts, not rep narratives
- MS Teams + Zoom integrations now capture virtual meeting content automatically
[/list]
[tag#Use case 02] Opportunity qualification and stakeholder coverage
Knowing who matters - and whether you've actually reached them
Mitel sells into complex environments. Public sector deals often involve buying committees with 15 to 20 stakeholders. Enterprise accounts have multiple layers between a rep and the actual decision maker. Without data on who's engaged and who isn't, the natural tendency is to fixate on the contacts you know and hope they can carry the deal. Buckle's team uses their own opportunity methodology to qualify deals, with particular focus on champion and economic buyer identification. Backstory gave them something they didn't have before - a visual representation of the deal that shows which contacts are engaged and which aren't.
[testimonial]
The value shows up across all their deals. Buckle recently reviewed a large school district opportunity. The economic buyer was identified. No contact had been made with them yet. The team knew exactly what needed to happen next - not because a rep said so, but because the data showed it. In a deal where a 19-person buying committee showed up to a meeting, Backstory helped the team focus on the three or four people who mattered. That kind of objective view of deal coverage is something reps at Mitel couldn't access before. The other outcome Buckle points to: teams can now pull out of deals earlier. If engagement isn't happening with the right people after repeated attempts, sellers have the data to make a clean, objective decision to move on instead of pushing a million-dollar opportunity through 26 consecutive quarter-end pushes.
[testimonial]
[list#img]
AFTER BACKSTORY
- See engagement levels for every named contact in real time
- Leaders can see whether economic buyers have been reached - not just identified
- Reps have data to support qualification decisions, including walking away
- Leaders coach on live deal data instead of rep narratives
[/list]
[tag#Use case 03] Doing more with less
Covering a large market with a lean team
Buckle's answer was to be ruthlessly intentional about prioritization - and to use data to enforce it. An account manager with 50 accounts can't work all 50 at once. The question is which 10 need attention now, and what's the plan to keep the other 40 warm. That question used to go unanswered. In monthly business reviews with marketing, Mitel could see their pipeline. They couldn't see account coverage. They had no view of which accounts a rep hadn't touched. Now they do.
[testimonial]
SalesAI added another dimension. Buckle describes it as 'opening up the art of the possible' - showing the team, and other parts of the business, what becomes visible when you can ask questions against the data that's already there. Account planning got faster. Reps started generating account summaries with simple prompts. Forecasting came later. The foundation had to be built first: engagement data, account coverage, deal qualification. The forecast is only as good as the activity data underneath it. The next priority is getting more rigorous about measuring the ROI of the platform. Buckle's framing is direct: the annual investment is roughly equivalent to one or two headcount. Given what the team can see now versus before, the math isn't hard.
[list#accent]
AFTER BACKSTORY
- Engagement data shows which accounts are active and which are going dark
- Leaders can flag account gaps in real time, not just during QBRs
- Reps and managers align on which deals to chase and which to walk away from
- SalesAI generates account plans - reps spend time selling, not writing
[/list]
What Mitel achieved
Mitel's story is still being written. The team is lean, the market is large, and the enterprise motion is maturing. But the foundation is solid: engagement data is in the system, deal visibility is real, and the people running the accounts have an objective view of where they are positioned. The cultural shift Buckle describes is significant. His team has a $10 fine for using the word 'hope' in a sales context. That's not a joke - it's a signal that the standard for what counts as a qualified deal, a real relationship, or a legitimate forecast has changed. Buckle's advice to other sales leaders in similar positions is simple: start by asking how you measure engagement with your customers. If you can't answer that question with data, you're building on assumptions.
[testimonial]
Related Customer Stories
See how Backstory gives enterprise sales teams visibility into what’s actually happening.