Until now, finding sales opportunities has been hit or miss. Sales organizations compiled account lists, made large volumes of cold calls and occasionally got lucky. CRM and sales force automation solutions provided some productivity gains, but the extra data entry steps they impose takes time away from customer engagements.
CRM and SFA systems are effective in streamlining areas such as pipeline management, the tracking, coordination and administration side of the sales function. But in the end, these systems have not fundamentally changed the sales equation to make sales representatives more efficient and effective.
First-generation sales intelligence and lead qualification tools looked promising, but they tend to deliver too much irrelevant information. Even a highly trained web researcher may need an hour or more just to research a single company. That time sink is unacceptable to sales professionals with hundreds of prospects to pursue in a relatively...
