It is a source of pride to be recognized by the AA-ISP awards for ZoomInfo’s unique role in helping inside sales professionals exceed their quota and, at the same time, create efficiencies within the sales operations environment.”. Continuing our momentum from the Sales 2.0 Conference in Boston earlier this week, the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals  (AA-ISP) has named ZoomInfo “Provider of the Year” in the SaaS, CRM, Productivity category. . Inside sales is becoming increasingly important for b-to-b growth. For the full press release, please click here. MORE >>

Search engine optimization (SEO) and social media have proven to be effective at helping to drive certain marketing objectives, such as increasing Web traffic and boosting product awareness.  However, However, when it comes to lead generation and sales revenue, SEO and social media are proving less effective at moving the needle. Those are two of the key findings “The 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition.” The report was recently released by  MarketingSherpa. It also examined the impact that social media is having on SEO. There were some bright spots in the study. According MORE >>

Miles Austin is president of Fill the Funnel,  which helps sales execs implement Web tools to spur sales. Guest Blog | Miles Austin. As the dust settles from the challenging times of the last few years, several new realities have emerged in b-to-b sales and marketing: there are fewer sales people tasked with selling more; there is a mandate to do more with less; buyer expectations of quality and predictability have never been higher and, perhaps most important, social networks are not a passing fad, but rather a fundamental change in how buyers and sellers interact. Subscribe to RSS. __. MORE >>

The company publishes four major research reports on these surveys annually, as well as hundreds of smaller reports designed to help organizations formulate sales and marketing strategies. The correlation between sales compensation and driving sales behavior may not be so cut and dry after all. Nearly half of sales executives (44%) said their ability to implement compensation plans to drive selling behavior needs improvement, according to CSO Insights ‘ 2010 Sales Performance Optimization study. About 8% said their compensation plans “exceeded&# expectations. MORE >>

He's not going to help you close the deal. There’s the “poseur,” the executive with a zippy title who confidently assures b-to-b sellers that, “I can buy anything,” and “I’m your guy,” but when it comes to signing an NDA he suddenly vanishes like the New York Knicks the day after the regular season ends.  . You also have the “fan,” the executive who is really rooting for you, but, like any fan, has little to no bearing on the outcome of the game. If you’re selling to one person you’re selling a ‘product,’” he said. Ask for a “meeting” and you’re buried.  . Subscribe to RSS  . MORE >>