How Mimecast generated $1.1 million in public sector pipeline with Stotles

Written

April 9, 2026

Clélie

Summary

Mimecast's public sector business development team is three BDRs, led by James Somerville. When James took on public sector, the team struggled to know where to look, and tenders were spotted too late to bid. With Stotles, the team now tracks upcoming renewals 6 to 18 months ahead and takes better-timed, better-informed opportunities to Mimecast's channel partners. By Q3 of its 2025 financial year, Stotles had sourced $1.1 million in pipeline, over a third of Mimecast's public sector total, with four months still to go.

Key results

$1.1 million in pipeline attributed to Stotles by Q3 of the 2025 financial year
Over a third of Mimecast's public sector pipeline sourced through Stotles
Already more than half of the previous year's entire public sector pipeline, with four months still to go
Conversion from meetings booked to sales accepted leads up about 30%

The company

Mimecast is a cybersecurity company best known for email security. Its secure email gateway has been the core of the business from the start. Through recent acquisitions, it has expanded into insider risk and protecting collaboration tools like Slack and Zoom.

Mimecast sells to the public sector largely through channel partners. James Somerville, EMEA Director of Business Development, leads a public sector team of three BDRs.

The challenge

James came into public sector from years of enterprise sales, where his team relied on intent data tools to see which personas were researching what. Those tools worked well in the private sector, but the data was much less reliable for public sector buyers.

"It was probably a combination of either spending a lot of time finding things which were very difficult to find, or actually not looking in the right place at all. And I think that lack of understanding over where to look was a big problem for us on the public sector side." James Somerville, EMEA Director of Business Development, Mimecast

The cost showed up in two ways. Some opportunities were spotted too late, after the tender had already closed.

"I can think of a few right now that we certainly saw far too late. We'd missed out on the opportunity to bid on it. So that was a real frustration for us." James Somerville

Research also ate into the team's week. James estimates his BDRs spent about two-fifths of their time finding the right people, working out the right message and getting prospects into cadences.

Mimecast's newer products added another problem. Anyone can look up who uses a secure email gateway. Nobody publishes which tools an organisation uses to protect its collaboration suite. The team was relying on partner hearsay or conversations from two years earlier.

The solution

Stotles is now the first place James's BDRs check each morning, looking for opportunities they can act on straight away.

"If they can smell that opportunity, it's about acting on it quickly, because we want to get ahead of it before others who aren't utilising tools like Stotles smell those opportunities." James Somerville

The biggest change is timing. The team uses upcoming contract renewals to start conversations 6 to 18 months before a tender is published, often with a channel partner. Mimecast works with a large partner base, and Stotles shows which partner holds which contract. That means BDRs know who to approach and what to bring them.

"What you can control is the quality of what you're bringing to those partner account managers. We do that through tools like Stotles. It allows us to go in more effective on the timing piece and more effective with our value prop, because we know what sort of things are coming up for renewal and what message we need to take to them." James Somerville

Stotles also tells the team what a buyer currently uses before anyone picks up the phone, so outreach can be personalised from the first touch. Research that used to take James hours as a BDR, like digging keywords out of annual reports, now takes minutes.

Results since working with Stotles

$1.1m

in public sector pipeline sourced through Stotles by Q3 of the 2025 financial year

Procurement notices from the UK & EU

1/3+

of Mimecast’s total public sector pipeline came through Stotles

50%+

of the previous year’s entire public sector pipeline, matched with four months still to go

~30%

rise in conversion from meetings booked to sales accepted leads

The results

By Q3 of its 2025 financial year, Mimecast had generated $1.1 million in public sector pipeline attributed to Stotles. That was over a third of its roughly $3 million public sector total, with four months of the year still to go. Across the whole previous year, the team had generated about $2 million in public sector pipeline, and Stotles alone had already sourced more than half of that.

"That is $1 million we would not have had, had we not invested in Stotles." James Somerville

Most of that pipeline came from starting conversations early, before tenders reached the market. The quality of those conversations improved too.

"Our conversion rates from meetings booked to sales accepted leads have gone up about 30% this financial year in public sector. So I think that shows that the quality of what we're converting is stronger. And Stotles plays a role in that, because of the data that we've got going into those conversations." James Somerville

Mimecast was projecting a record year for public sector pipeline, and James is clear on why.

"It's no coincidence that we've invested in a tool like this." James Somerville

His advice for other teams comes back to timing.

"Timing is key. I've never seen a market where it has such an impact. You need to make sure you're having those conversations as and when the cycles are coming round for that budget to be available. Otherwise it's just a non-starter of a conversation. So absolutely invest in making sure you have the ability to get that visibility on time." James Somerville

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Stotles gives sales teams like James’s early sight of upcoming renewals, plus the buyer context to act on them. Book a demo to see what’s coming up for renewal in your market.