The Sales 2.0 Conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco is off with a bang. Umberto Milletti, CEO of InsideView focused his remarks on the necessity to synthesize lots of disparate data (company, press, contacts, key events) and serve them up in real-time as meaningful insight that is actionable in the CRM. InsideView and other “data aggregation vendors” focus on information delivery to the sales rep so that time is focused on what you need to know in order to advance the sales conversation.

In the so-called Sales 2.0 world the need to integrate disparate data into meaningful information that sales can use is now becoming a standard process and CRM integration necessity for marketers and sales to drive productivity in highly competitive markets. Companies like InsideView and OneSource, are highly visible vendors at this conference and are talking about the critical importance of getting reps knowledgeable about their territories, accounts, products etc., by serving up data that is “Actionable”. Both firms have compelling ROI statistics they site in rep productivity when using their data aggregation applications compared to not using them, and as someone who has managed inside sales teams for years, I agree that the more specific data that can be served to the rep and eliminate the need for time-wasting company research.