Gray Matters and ITSMA Launch One of a Kind Benchmarking Study on Sales and Business Development Practices

The study will explore business development practices across the business/professional services sector in order to enhance performance in revenue generation and client development

Chicago, IL—August 30, 2004—Gray Matters, a leading provider of management consulting services devoted to optimizing the business development operations of service organizations, recently launched a new market research study to identify the best practices and benchmarks for business development in the business and professional services sector. Partnering with ITSMA, a proven services researcher, Gray Matters plans to address an often overlooked and potentially inefficient component of service firm operations - sales and client development.

“There has been significant growth in the B-to-B services sector. This growth has created a more competitive environment and the enhanced need to significantly improve performance of business development operations within services firms,” said David Ryan, CEO for Gray Matters. “This industry is growing up now, and this study will capture and aggregate data to reveal areas of improvement for business development.”

The Gray Matters and ITSMA study will identify relevant best practices in areas such as selling models and effectiveness, cost of sales, sales support practices, strategic alliances, marketing, and personnel management. Study results will provide peer comparisons, support strategic and tactical business development planning, and justify/drive more informed decisions, thus saving organizations time and money.

Targeted participants for this survey include firms in the business and professional services disciplines, such as Accounting, Management and Strategy Consulting, IT Services and Consulting, Outsourcing, Staffing and Law. Market leaders as well as small and mid-market growth firms are expected to participate in the study.

Firms can participate in the study in one of two ways—as a Lead or Supporting Sponsor. Results and data access will differ depending on the level of participation. Published results of the study findings are targeted for January 2005. For more information regarding Gray Matters’ business development research study, please visit the following link on the Gray Matters Web site at www.graymattersltd.com/bottom/Research/index.html.

About Gray Matters
Gray Matters is a management consulting firm focused exclusively on business and professional services firms. The firm was founded on the premise that services firms can ill-afford to continue to be ad-hoc and undisciplined in their approaches to revenue generation and client development. Its sole purpose is to help services firms realize the benefits that come from highly integrated, thoughtful, and finely tuned business development operations. The firm provides a variety of consulting, research, and management advisory services. It takes a systemic approach to the design, alignment and deployment of high impact models, strategies and tactics across the sales, marketing, strategic alliance, and service delivery functions of a services organizations. Learn more at www.graymattersltd.com.

About ITSMA
ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions more effectively. As a membership organization, we work with the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services providers to generate increased demand, strengthen customer relationships, and improve brand differentiation. ITSMA members include business leaders such as Accenture, BT, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and Tata Consultancy Services, among others. Our comprehensive research, consulting, and training on topics including ITSMA Account-Based Marketing ^SM, Brand Positioning, and Solutions Development provide the insight and experience companies need to improve business results. ITSMA is based near Boston, and has offices in London and Tokyo. Learn more at www.itsma.com.