HotTopics: Follow The Money: Sales Performance Solutions Are CRM’s Missing Link

Author: Chuck Richard, Vice President & Lead Analyst

With this HotTopics report, Outsell is introducing coverage of sales performance solutions (SPS)

- the fusion of sales tools with sales-triggering content and related services. This fusion creates effective sales performance solutions and offers content vendors much-needed sustainable new growth opportunities. SPS is gaining momentum on a convergence of factors, including widespread frustration with inadequate payback on investments in customer relationship management (CRM) and sales force automation (SFA) tools; a new emphasis on sales productivity; levels of information overload that have soured salespeople on the open Internet; and the emergence of new content firms with 'e-DNA' that are finding SPS a great market for new forms of content. Outsell's Buyer Market Database tells the story, as fresh data shows salespeople increasingly frustrated with open-Web search solutions, open to tailored content provided by their firms, and eager to find both internal and external information embedded in CRM tools. The HotTopics shows how SPS is the next frontier, as vendors assemble the software, content, and services pieces. No single vendor has all the pieces yet, but this Briefing identifies the front-runners like OneSource and TrueAdvantage, and a number of innovators. It includes a list of essential actions for content providers that want to take part in this booming corner of the information industry.