Professional Development Partners

Santa Barbara, CA – December 15, 2008 – Professional Development Partners (PDP), a provider of innovative sales, marketing, service and training programs for technology-focused businesses, today announced the launch of SalesAccelerator sm, a business-building service for VARs and solution providers. Provisioned in conjunction with B2B Contact, an outsourced sales and marketing firm, SalesAccelerator integrates lead-generation services with sales-team coaching in an ongoing monthly program.

“This combination helps VARs and solution providers during tough financial times such as the current recession,” said PDP Senior Consultant, Bob Deschamps. “SalesAccelerator also benefits businesses that plan to sell a new product or service in 2009 as well as those businesses that want to focus on existing core strengths that they need to leverage to a greater extent. ”

Within the SalesAccelerator Program, B2B Contact provides demand-generation services while PDP provides sales-team coaching. This gives VARs and solution providers the unique combination of receiving leads and on-going lead-development from tightly-integrated resources.

“Both components of the program provide valuable feedback to the other component,” said Erik Frantzen, Vice President of Business Development for B2B Contact. “SalesAccelerator interweaves the services rather having two distinct functions, which makes both components more effective and generates a greater overall return for VARs and solution providers.”

As sales leads are generated by B2B Contact, SalesAccelerator sales coaches automatically integrate the leads into the sales training provided by PDP. Results of the sales activity are then funneled back to B2B Contact to improve upon subsequent demand-generation efforts.

“The duration of the program – three months – is a big key too,” Deschamps said. “This gives us enough time for proper strategic planning, lead generation, sales training, and feedback. And then we repeat the cycle to improve the overall results.”

In conjunction with the launch of SalesAccelerator, PDP hired Deschamps to lead the program. “Bob’s 18+ years of channel-related experience will significantly help drive the marketing and sales pipelines of VARs and solution providers that partner with us,” said Paul Freeman, PDP President. “The program and Bob’s experience truly deliver immediate value during economic downturns as well as when new products or services are launched.”

Since 2002, Deschamps has focused on growing product and service revenue for channel partners – first with the US Partner Group at Microsoft and then as an Area VP for national systems integrator DynTek. “Engaging with PDP and driving SalesAccelerator is a natural ‘next step’ to extending the value of this experience to a broader community of partners in a tremendously economical manner,” Freeman said.

120 hours of telemarketing and lead generation over a 90-day period – provided by B2B Contact, an industry-leader in demand-generation and technology-marketing services.
10 hours of remote customized sales consulting and coaching delivery of the webinar “Selling in Tough Economic Times” presented by PDP and available to any size sales-team audience.
Remote one-to-one assistance and customer development sales-team coaching – provided by PDP over a 90-day period.

Launched in 2001, Professional Development Partners (PDP) leverages more than 13 years of experience working with manufacturers, distributors, VARs and other technology solution providers to design and implement innovative and effective sales, marketing and service strategies for the channel and channel partners. PDP provides oversight and coordination of subject-matter experts, technical writers and marketing professionals to assist in the creation and delivery of programs that include training, workshops, business planning and other partner-focused services that assist in the creation of business success and profitability. PDP has provided services to companies such as Cisco Systems, Dell, Ingram Micro, NEC, Microsoft, Sprint, LightPointe, CDW, PC Connection, ASAP Software, Coast Technologies, DynTek and Zones. For more information, visit www.prodevpartners.com.

B2B Contact is an outsourced sales and marketing firm that transforms prospect data into qualified leads. The company delivers continually flowing pipelines of quality prospects so that clients can close more business more efficiently. Specific B2B Contact services include

Lead Generation, Business Development Management, Channel Development, E-Mail Campaigns,

Pay Per Click Demand-Generation, Face-to-Face Meeting Generation, Major Account Penetration, and Service Contract/Warranty Conversion. For more information, visit www.b2bcontact.com.