BOSTON – July 8, 2010 – Companies are turning to sales analytics solutions that provide an organization-wide data flow into the forecasting process, thus creating a more refined snapshot of future revenue and enabling more efficient, margin-driven sales activity, as well as more pure selling time by the sales team itself, according to a new research study published by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS).

Sales Forecasting: Analytics to the Rescue!, which examined 422 organizations’ sales effectiveness, found that sales teams in top-performing companies currently achieve 83% average accuracy in their sales forecasts compared to 67% for sales teams in other companies.

“Limitations on internal visibility into predictive business results are compounded by the changing dynamics of many business environments, and thus affect both forecasting accuracy and, ultimately, an organization’s actual revenue flow,” says Peter Ostrow, Research Director, Sales Effectiveness, Aberdeen Group, the report’s author. “The selection of sales forecasting and analytics solutions and their integration within the daily lifecycle of selling play a crucial role in the ability to turn these strategies into profit.”

The report reveals what leading companies have been able to achieve through deployment of sales analytics tools, such as:

• 12.6% average annual increase in overall team attainment of quota; compared to a 2.3% decrease for other companies
• 9.1% average year-over-year increase in annual gross revenue per sales rep; compared to a 1.5% decrease for other companies

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: Birst, The TAS Group’s Dealmaker Partner Network, Visual Insight. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, click this link.

Visit Research.Aberdeen.com for additional access to complimentary Customer Management Research.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen’s analytical and independent view of the “customer optimization” process of Harte-Hanks (Information – Opportunity – Insight – Engagement – Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen or call (617) 854-5200, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748.

About The TAS Group

The TAS Group (www.thetasgroup.com) provides sales performance automation to companies that want to achieve sustained, predictable and profitable revenue growth.  It exists to guide and motivate global sales teams to win profitable business faster from target customers through a combination of methodology, process and technology.  The TAS Group has helped over 750,000 sales professionals succeed and has global presence serving organizations in all major global economies with native language speaking, culturally attuned sales effectiveness experts, and solutions available in up to 14 languages.  The TAS Group delivers proven sales methodology and process with its Dealmaker on-demand sales performance automation platform, which integrates with popular CRM products from salesforce.com, Oracle, and Microsoft.  The TAS Group hosts and moderates the Sales 2.0 Network (S20N, www.sales20network.com), a global, virtual thought leadership forum to discuss issues relevant to sales professionals in a Web 2.0 world.  The only sales effectiveness organization with continuous multi-million dollar investment in its own methodology and technology R&D center, The TAS Group is headquartered in Seattle, with international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and Reading, England.

Visit www.thetasgroup.com.

###

For further information, please contact:
Steve Stratz (for The TAS Group)
Illuminate Public Relations
206.300.9134
steve@illuminatepr.com

Minou Nguyen (for The TAS Group)
Illuminate Public Relations
206.779.4559
minou@illuminatepr.com

SEATTLE – June 21, 2010 – The TAS Group, the world leader in sales performance automation, today announced Dealmaker Coach Me, which provides intelligent automated deal coaching.  Coach Me encapsulates 17 years accumulated coaching wisdom, the complete TAS Sales Methodology framework, and coaching solutions to thousands of different opportunities, imparting deal strategy and best practices to individual sales people at the click of a button – in the context of the specific deal. In today’s world of scarce time and sales management resources, Coach Me provides just-in-time coaching for every sales person on every deal, freeing up management to focus on the most important opportunities and accounts.

According to the Sales Executive Council, when coaching is added to sales training, sales productivity is improved by 88 percent, and as a result of coaching, Return on Investment in sales goes up 27 percent, according to Gallup.

Dealmaker Coach Me analyzes the information sales people have provided it through the regular use of the Dealmaker sales performance automation application, and provides suggestions on what sales should do next to progress their deal, potential pitfalls and risk areas, and opportunities to further strengthen their position – all designed to optimize the chances of winning.  Its coaching expertise covers assessment of the deal, choice of competitive strategy, analysis of the politics in the deal, uncovering of the issues and solution with the customer, the decision criteria of the key players, and the actions needed to progress the deal.  It also helps with best practices on the sales process that should be followed.

Dealmaker Coach Me comes with a set of default coaching rules ‘out of the box,’ based on the TAS sales methodology and process in use by more than 750,000 sales professionals worldwide.  This allows customers to use it without any further configuration, and instantly benefit from decades of sales coaching experience.  Moreover, Coach Me adapts and refines the coaching over time in each specific deal, taking the specifics of that particular opportunity and the sales person’s progress with it into consideration – just like a sales manager would

“Dealmaker Coach Me represents the fulfillment of the potential that we’ve always seen in sales performance automation – the ability to automate deal-specific coaching,” said York Baur, chief marketing officer for The TAS Group.  “The key benefit here is to deliver coaching on all deals to all sales people all the time, and allow sales management to devote their energies to the deals and organizational issues that really matter.”

Dealmaker Coach Me also integrates with popular CRM systems, adding capabilities that are beyond what’s possible with CRM customization.  Coach Me is available for CRM systems from salesforce.com, Oracle, Microsoft, and SAP.  This enables the day-to-day reinforcement of methodology and process by helping sales people to win, and makes CRM use salesperson-centric, and solves the problem of low CRM adoption by sales.

“The TAS Group is a different sales performance improvement company,” said Al Case, Principal Analyst, ES Research Group, Inc.  “With the solid foundation of a world-class selling methodology, The TAS Group has invested heavily during the past five years on the ongoing development of sales process automation software.  That investment has paid off, keeping The TAS Group in the lead for sales organizations seeking to leverage technology to its fullest.”

Dealmaker Coach Me is available now from The TAS Group as part of the company’s Dealmaker 7.0 offering.  For more information, visit www.thetasgroup.com and the Dealmaker Magic channel on YouTube (www.youtube.com/dealmakermagic).

About The TAS Group

The TAS Group (www.thetasgroup.com) provides sales performance automation to companies that want to achieve sustained, predictable and profitable revenue growth.  It exists to guide and motivate global sales teams to win profitable business faster from target customers through a combination of methodology, process and technology.  The TAS Group has helped over 750,000 sales professionals succeed and has global presence serving organizations in all major global economies with native language speaking, culturally attuned sales effectiveness experts, and solutions available in up to 14 languages.  The TAS Group delivers proven sales methodology and process with its Dealmaker on-demand sales performance automation platform, which integrates with popular CRM products from salesforce.com, Oracle, and Microsoft.  The TAS Group hosts and moderates the Sales 2.0 Network (S20N, www.sales20network.com), a global, virtual thought leadership forum to discuss issues relevant to sales professionals in a Web 2.0 world.  The only sales effectiveness organization with continuous multi-million dollar investment in its own methodology and technology R&D center, The TAS Group is headquartered in Seattle, with international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and Reading, England.

Visit www.thetasgroup.com.

###

All companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
For further information, please contact:

Steve Stratz (for The TAS Group)
Illuminate Public Relations
206.300.9134
steve@illuminatepr.com

Minou Nguyen (for The TAS Group)
Illuminate Public Relations
206.779.4559
minou@illuminatepr.com

SEATTLE – June 14, 2010 – The TAS Group, the world leader in smart sales performance automation, today announced Dealmaker^® Pulse, which provides intelligent social networking for sales, with instant objective deal alerts.  Pulse lets you keep your ‘finger on the pulse’ of critical sales events and customer sentiment by following sales opportunities and accounts, and integrating social network feeds from Twitter and LinkedIn. Pulse is available as part of the Dealmaker Sales Performance Automation platform.

Dealmaker Pulse improves knowledge and collaboration across sales teams.  With permission, anyone can follow any sales opportunity, account or user and Pulse advises them, in real-time, of what’s changing.  Pulse allows sales people and management to interact with each other around deals and accounts, using the familiar metaphor of popular micro- blogging technologies like Twitter.

Additionally, since Pulse is based on the Dealmaker Sales Performance Automation platform, it benefits from the TAS^® sales methodology, and the automated sales process coaching that Dealmaker provides.  For the first time, business-to-business sales organizations are provided with informed, instant, objective deal alerts as part of their social networking conversations.  This automated, high-value content generation is unique, and ensures that these notifications are relevant, timely, and benefit from sales best practices.  Moreover, since Pulse brings the information to you, it dramatically reduces surprises that plague sales management when the status of important deals suddenly changes.

“With Dealmaker Pulse, my sales opportunities, my accounts and my customers, and those of my team, effectively talk to me, and keep me up to date on what is going on,” said York Baur, chief marketing officer for The TAS Group.  “This helps me to sell smarter, and manage my business better.  Pulse’s ability to enable, encourage and extend conversations between sales people around deals and accounts will help make internal social networking truly useful in the corporate sales setting.”

Dealmaker Pulse can be integrated with CRM systems from salesforce.com Oracle, Microsoft, and SAP.  For salesforce.com Chatter users, Pulse complements Chatter adding intelligence with objective deal alerts informed by sales methodology and deal progress.

“Dealmaker Pulse will dramatically improve the way sales teams share information and best practices,” said Jim Ninivaggi, research analyst at SiriusDecisions.  “What is most exciting is how Pulse can automatically provide real-time insights to the salesperson and their manager based on intelligence it gathers from Dealmaker.  For the salesperson, Pulse delivers real-time expertise to help guide them through their deals.  For managers, Pulse proactively alerts them to changes in the deals across their field force, allowing them to provide coaching at the point that it is needed.  This combination of machine and human intelligence and coaching will no doubt have the ability to fundamentally boost sales performance across the enterprise.”

Dealmaker Pulse is available now from The TAS Group as part of the company’s Dealmaker 7.0 offering.  For more information, visit www.thetasgroup.com and the Dealmaker Magic channel on YouTube (www.youtube.com/dealmakermagic).

About The TAS Group

The TAS Group (www.thetasgroup.com) provides sales performance automation to companies that want to achieve sustained, predictable and profitable revenue growth.  It exists to guide and motivate global sales teams to win profitable business faster from target customers through a combination of methodology, process and technology.  The TAS Group has helped over 750,000 sales professionals succeed and has global presence serving organizations in all major global economies with native language speaking, culturally attuned sales effectiveness experts, and solutions available in up to 14 languages.  The TAS Group delivers proven sales methodology and process with its Dealmaker on-demand sales performance automation platform, which integrates with popular CRM products from salesforce.com, Oracle, and Microsoft.  The TAS Group hosts and moderates the Sales 2.0 Network (S20N, www.sales20network.com), a global, virtual thought leadership forum to discuss issues relevant to sales professionals in a Web 2.0 world.  The only sales effectiveness organization with continuous multi-million dollar investment in its own methodology and technology R&D center, The TAS Group is headquartered in Seattle, with international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and Reading, England.

Visit www.thetasgroup.com.

###

All companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

For further information, please contact:

Steve Stratz (for The TAS Group)
Illuminate Public Relations
206.300.9134
steve@illuminatepr.com

Minou Nguyen (for The TAS Group)
Illuminate Public Relations
206.779.4559
minou@illuminatepr.com

SEATTLE – June 2, 2010 – The TAS Group, the world leader in Sales Performance Automation, today announced another customer success with International Turnkey Systems (ITS), the leading provider of cutting-edge integrated information technology solutions of a wide spectrum of industries and government entities across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and beyond.  ITS implemented The TAS Group’s Dealmaker^® sales performance automation platform, including TAS Opportunity and Account Management suite, in late 2009 and saw immediate, increased adoption of its CRM system with the completion of 25 key opportunity and account plan reviews, as well as accurate scientific forecasts.

In 2007 ITS made significant investment in a new CRM system.  By 2008/2009, CRM system logins by the sales force had dropped unacceptably and ITS was finding it difficult to convey to sales the benefits of regular use of the system.  Forecast analysis was also still completed as a manual process and was often not accurate enough.  ITS therefore sought a sales performance automation solution with a solid methodology, consistent process, and better forecasting, embedded into its CRM system to encourage and reinforce selling best practice.

ITS has ambitious goals for 2010 and was looking to increase revenues, win rate and drive a better Account Planning process through the selling organization.  The company was convinced that if it could get the right intellectual property in its CRM system and get sales people to see the benefits of following it consistently through, then top-line revenues would follow.  The TAS Group’s sales methodology, process, account methodology and Dealmaker on-demand software were embedded by ITS into its CRM system to encourage and reinforce selling best practices.

“Dealmaker was the perfect answer to demonstrate to our managers the true benefits of following sales methodology and sales process inside the CRM system,” said Imrana Ghani, sales operations manager of ITS.  “Our business is subject to long sales cycles, so in the early days and weeks following implementation we have really focused on measuring the types of new behavior that will continue to pay us back in the long term.”

In addition to immediate results, ITS is now working with The TAS Group on sustaining the all-important changes in sales behavior. ITS’ Ghani added, “The TAS Group is genuinely different.  They view our sales success as being as important to them as it is to us.  They walked the whole way with us, guiding us on milestones, measuring success, best practice and ultimately on how we can be successful.  This was the extreme difference for us.”

“We are proud to be associated with a cutting-edge customer like ITS,” said York Baur, CMO of The TAS Group.  “Their commitment to sales excellence is exemplary, especially in the face of a challenge, and we’re honored to be seen as a key part to their success since implementing The TAS Group’s technology and methodology.”

About International Turnkey Systems (ITS)

International Turnkey Systems (‘ITS’; www.its.ws) is the leading provider of cutting-edge integrated information technology solutions to a wide spectrum of industries and government entities across the Middle-East, Africa, the Asian region and beyond.  Established in 1981, ITS’s vision is to achieve international standing, and deliver the best IT solutions available to the satisfaction of its customers.  It has achieved this through careful planning, investment in innovation and people, a focus on quality, an implementation of best management practices and a steadfast commitment to the communities it serves.

About The TAS Group

The TAS Group provides Sales Performance Automation to companies that want to achieve sustained, predictable and profitable revenue growth.  It exists to guide and motivate global sales teams to win profitable business faster from target customers through a combination of methodology, process and technology.  The TAS Group has helped over 750,000 sales professionals succeed and has global presence serving organizations in all major global economies with native language speaking, culturally attuned sales effectiveness experts, and solutions available in up to 14 languages.  The TAS Group delivers proven sales methodology and process with its Dealmaker on-demand sales performance automation platform, which integrates with popular CRM products from salesforce.com, Oracle, and Microsoft.  The TAS Group hosts and moderates the Sales 2.0 Network (S20N, www.sales20network.com), a global, virtual thought leadership forum to discuss issues relevant to sales professionals in a Web 2.0 world.  The only sales effectiveness organization with continuous multi-million dollar investment in its own methodology and technology R&D center, The TAS Group is headquartered in Seattle, with international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and Reading, England.  Visit www.thetasgroup.com.

# # #

All companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

For further information, please contact:

Steve Stratz
Illuminate Public Relations for The TAS Group
206.300.9134
steve@illuminatepr.com

The European Tech Tour today announced the 30 selected companies of the 2010 UK and Ireland Tech Tour. Revealed at the organisation’s gala dinner at the Royal Courts of Justice in London last night, the finalists represent the region’s most promising, high-growth, early- and expansion-stage technology companies.

The 30 companies – all of them based or incubated in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland – were chosen from a pool of 250 applications and selected based on detailed reviews by the UK & Ireland Tech Tour’s Selection Committee, comprised of senior global venture capital and technology industry leaders. The reviews assessed the uniqueness of their technology, strength of their business model, vision, capability to execute on the business plan and the quality of management team and track record. Read the article in full here

(Source: www.streetinsider.com)

SEATTLE – Mar. 22, 2010 – The TAS Group, the world leader in sales performance automation, today announced its inclusion – for the second consecutive year– in Training Industry Inc.’s 2010 Top Sales Methodology Training Companies.  Training Industry Inc.’s ongoing recognition of The TAS Group acknowledges its position as an industry leader in providing on-demand sales effectiveness solutions to customers around the globe.

“We’re honored to have Training Industry Inc. recognize our contribution to the marketplace for the second year in a row,” said York Baur, chief marketing officer for The TAS Group.  “Our proven methodology has benefited more than 650,000 sales professionals over the past two decades and we look forward to continuing that growth.”

The Top 20 list recognizes the leading Sales Training companies for their high quality of services, comprehensive capabilities and successful and proven training deployments.  The selection was based on Training Industry Inc.’s proprietary Vendor Selection Capability Model, which defines 12 differentiating capabilities including experience and success in the market, geographic reach, strength and success of existing clients, and recognition as thought leaders in the market and utilization of technology. An important element of The TAS Group’s selection was the company’s leadership in using on-demand technology to deliver sales methodology and process enhancement as well as virtual training to its customers through its Dealmaker platform.

“We are pleased to select The TAS Group again this year for its leadership and commitment to sales performance improvement,” said Ken Taylor, chief operating officer for Training Industry Inc. “The company’s strength in the market, geographic reach and comprehensive capabilities continues to lead the way in sales performance automation.”

About The TAS Group

The TAS Group provides sales performance automation to companies that want to achieve sustained, predictable and profitable revenue growth.  It exists to guide and motivate global sales teams to win profitable business faster from target customers through a combination of methodology, process and technology.  The TAS Group has helped over 650,000 sales professionals succeed and has global presence serving organizations in all major global economies with native language speaking, culturally attuned sales effectiveness experts, and solutions available in up to 14 languages.  The TAS Group delivers proven sales methodology and process with its Dealmaker on-demand sales performance automation platform, which integrates with popular CRM products from salesforce.com, Oracle, and Microsoft.  The TAS Group hosts and moderates the Sales 2.0 Network (S20N, www.sales20network.com), a global, virtual thought leadership forum to discuss issues relevant to sales professionals in a Web 2.0 world.  The only sales effectiveness organization with continuous multi-million dollar investment in its own methodology and technology R&D center, The TAS Group is headquartered in Seattle, with international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and Reading, England.

Visit www.thetasgroup.com.

###

All companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

For further information, please contact:

Steve Stratz (for The TAS Group)
Illuminate Public Relations
206.300.9134
steve@illuminatepr.com

Minou Nguyen (for The TAS Group)
Illuminate Public Relations
206.779.4559
minou@illuminatepr.com

SAN FRANCISCO – Mar. 8, 2010 – Today, at The Sales 2.0 Conference (www.sales20conf.com/SF2010), The TAS Group, the world leader in sales performance automation, announced Dealmaker^® Genius, a free Sales 2.0 application that automatically generates a unique, fully developed sales process for any business.  By answering a few simple questions, anyone can get a customized sales process built on decades of sales knowledge from The TAS Group.  Dealmaker Genius uses over 20,000 core knowledge elements and more than one million possible combinations to help companies create the ideal sales process for a given product, service, and industry, in less than 15 minutes – for free.  Dealmaker Genius is available immediately to users worldwide at www.dealmakergenius.com.

Third party research and The TAS Group’s empirical data consistently shows that companies who use a quality sales process perform at a higher level. To inform its sales process algorithms, the Dealmaker Genius knowledge base combines 20 years’ sales process experience with aggregated usage and success patterns observed through over two million sales cycles processed through the Dealmaker Sales Performance Automation platform. This allows users to get a top-notch sales process without the significant investment usually required in time and money.  Users can modify the output from Dealmaker Genius, or simply use its recommendations – and then share the output with colleagues.

“Better than sliced bread”

“For the experienced sales leader, this is better than sliced bread,” said Dave Stein, CEO and founder of ES Research Group.  “Rather than spending time and money on tips and tricks with little sustained impact, being able to create a customized sales process for their own business can set them on the path to lasting, measurable sales performance improvement.”

To improve sustained revenue performance and increased accuracy in sales forecasting, sales processes created through Dealmaker Genius can be easily incorporated in the Dealmaker Sales Performance Automation platform and made available online for all the sales team.

“Our focus is to help sales professionals succeed, and Dealmaker Genius removes one of the critical barriers by enabling anyone, anywhere, to create a high-quality sales process for their business and elevate their performance,” said Donal Daly, chief executive officer of The TAS Group.  “Through over two million sales cycles, we’ve seen successful patterns emerge, and that continuously informs our insight.  We believe Dealmaker Genius will add considerable value to our customers and sales professional everywhere, and will help raise standards in the sales effectiveness market.”

Today, Dealmaker Genius provides industry specific sales processes for the following industries:

-          High Technology
-          Energy & Power
-          Financial Services
-          Professional Services
-          Healthcare
-          Industrial
-          Materials, and
-          Telecommunications

To further extend the knowledge of Dealmaker Genius, expert users can submit specialized  sales processes for specific industry or market niches.  Leveraging the ‘Wisdom of the Crowd’ Dealmaker Genius’ knowledge base will be continuously improved by the community.

For existing or future customers of The TAS Group’s Dealmaker Sales Performance Automation platform, sales processes created through Dealmaker Genius can be incorporated for immediate use by sales teams.  This considerably shortens the time to revenue benefit, and the ability to measure sales performance improvement.  For further information, please visit www.thetasgroup.com.

About Dealmaker

With its unique combination of sales methodology and process, the Dealmaker on-demand Sales Performance Automation platform can operate in a standalone mode or can be integrated with popular CRM systems from salesforce.com, Oracle and Microsoft.  Dealmaker augments these systems by providing a salesperson-centric set of capabilities that help significantly boost sales performance, including an average 89% improvement in quota achievement.  Dealmaker also offers sophisticated, objective measurement and reporting on that performance that enhances what CRM systems provide and dramatically improves sales forecast accuracy.

About The TAS Group

The TAS Group provides sales performance automation to companies that want to achieve sustained, predictable and profitable revenue growth.  It exists to guide and motivate global sales teams to win profitable business faster from target customers through a combination of methodology, process and technology.  The TAS Group has helped over 650,000 sales professionals succeed and has global presence serving organizations in all major global economies with native language speaking, culturally attuned sales effectiveness experts, and solutions available in up to 14 languages.  The TAS Group delivers proven sales methodology and process with its Dealmaker on-demand sales performance automation platform, which integrates with popular CRM products from salesforce.com, Oracle, and Microsoft.  The TAS Group hosts and moderates the Sales 2.0 Network (S20N, www.sales20network.com), a global, virtual thought leadership forum to discuss issues relevant to sales professionals in a Web 2.0 world.  The only sales effectiveness organization with continuous multi-million dollar investment in its own methodology and technology R&D center, The TAS Group is headquartered in Seattle, with international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and Reading, England.

Visit www.thetasgroup.com.

###

All companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

For further information, please contact:

Steve Stratz (for The TAS Group)
Illuminate Public Relations
206.300.9134
steve@illuminatepr.com

Minou Nguyen (for The TAS Group)
Illuminate Public Relations
206.779.4559
minou@illuminatepr.com

The TAS Group, the world leader in sales performance automation, today announced an upgrade to its Dealmaker platform, Version 6.5, which includes significantly improved account and opportunity management capabilities to help customers better identify goals and prioritize which areas to invest resources.

“Dealmaker is designed to enable sustained revenue and sale performance improvements, and today’s announced upgrade furthers those goals,” said York Baur, chief marketing officer of The TAS Group.  “Dealmaker Version 6.5’s new features are a direct result of our constant learnings and customer feedback, and are an exciting step forward in our continued multi-million dollar investment in our methodology and technology solutions.”

Dealmaker Version 6.5 includes five key new elements:

• Business Strategy Map:  New graphical tool provides visual representation of the customer’s business drivers, initiatives and Critical Success Factors (‘CSFs’).  Using this graphical representation, the Account Manager/Team can work with the customer to increase their understanding of the customer’s goals and confirm potential solutions to address the customer’s business drivers and associated initiatives, allowing the Account Manager/Team to prioritize where best to invest their resources.
• Collaboration Map:  The Collaboration Map is a graphical tool to be used by the salesperson together with their customer to visually link business problems to their associated impact and stakeholders, allowing the salesperson, in collaboration with their customer, to prioritize the areas to address and the solutions to apply.
• Itemized Opportunities:  Organizations can now record the different constituent elements or ‘items’ of an opportunity, such as licenses, services, renewals, etc., for more accurate forecast, analysis and recognition of revenue.  This overcomes the difficulties of accurately forecasting opportunities composed of separate elements which become due at different times, or are subject to different or complex revenue recognition rules.
• Political Analysis improvements:  Improvements include the ability to manage larger maps for complex organizations, collapsing segment of the organization map, and assigning appropriate relationship owners for each buying role in a customer’s organization.

Dealmaker 6.5 is available immediately.

About Dealmaker

With its unique combination of sales methodology and process, the Dealmaker on-demand Sales Performance Automation platform can operate in a standalone mode or can be integrated with popular CRM systems from salesforce.com, Oracle and Microsoft.  Dealmaker augments these systems by providing a salesperson-centric set of capabilities that help significantly boost sales performance, including an average 89% improvement in quota achievement.  Dealmaker also offers sophisticated, objective measurement and reporting on that performance that enhances what CRM systems provide and dramatically improves sales forecast accuracy.

About The TAS Group

The TAS Group provides sales performance automation to companies that want to achieve sustained, predictable and profitable revenue growth.  It exists to guide and motivate global sales teams to win profitable business faster from target customers through a combination of methodology, process and technology.  The TAS Group has helped over 650,000 sales professionals succeed and has global presence serving organizations in all major global economies with native language speaking, culturally attuned sales effectiveness experts, and solutions available in up to 14 languages.  The TAS Group delivers proven sales methodology and process with its Dealmaker on-demand sales performance automation platform, which integrates with popular CRM products from salesforce.com, Oracle, and Microsoft.  The TAS Group hosts and moderates the Sales 2.0 Network (S20N, www.sales20network.com), a global, virtual thought leadership forum to discuss issues relevant to sales professionals in a Web 2.0 world.  The only sales effectiveness organization with continuous multi-million dollar investment in its own methodology and technology R&D center, The TAS Group is headquartered in Seattle, with international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and Reading, England.

Visit www.thetasgroup.com.

###

All companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

For further information, please contact:

Steve Stratz (for The TAS Group)

Illuminate Public Relations

206.300.9134

steve@illuminatepr.com

Minou Nguyen (for The TAS Group)

Illuminate Public Relations

206.779.4559

minou@illuminatepr.com

The TAS Group, the world leader in Sales Performance Automation, today announced the appointment of senior sales veteran Thomas J. Dolan to chairman of its Board of Directors.  Dolan, a director on The TAS Group’s board since February 2008, is a well-known and award winning sales leader through his storied executive career at Xerox, which spanned almost 40 years.  He was recently honored by the Strategic Account Management Association as its 2008 Executive of the Year.  In addition, Dolan was named the winner of a Stevie Award as the outstanding Global Sales Executive of the Year for 2009.

“Tom’s track record speaks for itself, showcasing his outstanding sales and management achievements over the past four decades,” said Donal Daly, CEO of The TAS Group.  “We are extremely fortunate to have Tom on and now leading our board.  His extensive experience in operations, sales and services along with business and technology make him a huge asset to our team.”

Before retiring at the end of 2009, Dolan spent nearly four decades at Xerox.  Most recently, he served as corporate senior vice-president and president of Xerox Global Account Operations where he was responsible for the top 25 most strategic accounts.  He also served as president of Xerox Global Services from 2002-2007.  Previously, Dolan was president of the North American Solutions Group and was responsible for all of North America’s selling, administration and managed services activities.  From 1996-1998, Dolan lead Xerox Business Services (XBS) globally and during his tenure, XBS won the prestigious Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award in the services category.  He joined Xerox in 1970 as a sales representative in Philadelphia.

“I’m excited and honored to be on the Board of The TAS Group and work with one of the smartest teams in sales performance automation,” said Dolan.  “I see a unique opportunity and solution addressing an age old problem.  The TAS Group is poised to take on the challenge of helping companies increase their margins and grow sales while staying within budget.  The Dealmaker Sales Performance Automation platform allows sales teams to reach their goals quickly and efficiently through a proven process and methodology, and I look forward to helping the company expand its reach to many more customers.”

Dolan earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Manhattan College and he attended Brooklyn Law School. He is chairman of the Board of INROADS, Inc., a nonprofit organization that develops and places minority youth in business and industry and prepares them for corporate and community leadership.

About The TAS Group

The TAS Group provides Sales Performance Automation to companies that want to achieve sustained, predictable and profitable revenue growth.  It exists to guide and motivate global sales teams to win profitable business faster from target customers through a combination of methodology, process and technology.  The TAS Group has helped over 650,000 sales professionals succeed and has global presence serving organizations in all major global economies with native language speaking, culturally attuned sales effectiveness experts, and solutions available in up to 14 languages.  The TAS Group delivers proven sales methodology and process with its Dealmaker on-demand sales performance automation platform, which integrates with popular CRM products from salesforce.com, Oracle, and Microsoft.  The TAS Group hosts and moderates the Sales 2.0 Network (S20N, www.sales20network.com), a global, virtual thought leadership forum to discuss issues relevant to sales professionals in a Web 2.0 world.  The only sales effectiveness organization with continuous multi-million dollar investment in its own methodology and technology R&D center, The TAS Group is headquartered in Seattle, with international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and Reading, England.

Visit www.thetasgroup.com.

# # #

All companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

For further information, please contact:

Steve Stratz
Illuminate Public Relations for The TAS Group
206.300.9134
steve@illuminatepr.com

The TAS Group (www.thetasgroup.com), the world leader in Sales Performance Automation, today announced record year-to-date recurring revenue growth of 156 percent in the first nine months of its fiscal year 2009. The company’s results mirror success stories of customeradoption of its Dealmaker software.

Because Dealmaker automates sales process and methodology to produce a sustained revenue improvement for its customers, it has benefited strongly from economic trends over the last year. “Companies are under extraordinary pressure to perform in a difficult economy and must use every tool at their disposal to help them sell more efficiently and effectively,” said Donal Daly, CEO of The TAS Group. “They also have limited capital and resources to invest, and must justify and measure the return on investment for every expenditure.  Dealmaker’s ability to deliver an 89 percent improvement in quota achievement while offering the measurement necessary to provide an accurate ROI picture meets these needs.”

Recent companies using Dealmaker to transform their sales organizations and produce great returns for their shareholders in a difficult market, include AMICAS and FleetPartners:
• AMICAS, the leading independent provider of imaging IT solutions in healthcare, implemented The TAS Group’s sales methodology and Dealmaker software, and has seen 33 percent organic bookings growth over the four quarters ending June 30, 2009.
• FleetPartners, a leading Australia-based fleet leasing and management company that invested in Dealmaker, has recorded a five-fold increase in new business writings for 2009 over 2008 and plans to further double this figure in 2010.

Moreover, travel restrictions due to budget constraints have made it difficult for companies to implement the traditional face-to-face sales training approach that has characterized the market for decades. “This change has forced a shift to technology-based sales performance solutions, and Dealmaker’s ability to provide an on-demand learning environment that is fully integrated into a company’s sales process, methodology, and existing CRM system enables training to take place virtually,” added The TAS Group’s Daly. “It also reinforces the use of these learnings on a daily basis as sales people sell, eliminating the typical 87 percent drop off in skills during the first month following a traditional sales training event.”