With the energy of Dreamforce in full swing, many in the Marriott Marquis hit their first session of Dreamforce: Shorten Your Sales Cycles with Instant Access to New Leads. 

Host, Caroline Hogan  kicked things off with snapshots of the early days of salesforce.com in founder Marc Benioff’s apartment. Caroline identified the challenges facing small and emerging businesses, such as finding new customers, doing more with the customers you find, and making it easier for customers to find you. She acknowledged that most sales applications start out as an empty box, and introduced Data.com as a foundation for lead, contact, and account data inside Salesforce.

Caroline conducted an in-depth discussion with Mike Damphousse, CEO, Green Leads about the impact of Data.com on growing his business. Green Leads, a small business that delivers pay-for-performance demand generation services, has seen data-driven growth, from two people in a living room to 100 employees in North America and Europe. 

Mike provided colorful commentary around how his reps consume 70,000 contacts from Data.com per month to fill the pipeline of leads for his clients.  They leverage multiple data sources, including Data.com and LinkedIn to find the right contacts for each client.

Key takeaways for sales and marketing: 

• Research your target market and use platforms, such as Data.com, to get to know them better. Segment and understand you market with the D&B account data provided by Data.com.
• Nurture prospects that aren’t ready to buy. Reach out with content that they can use, and become a trusted resource.
• Improve your reps productivity by having multiple screens with LinkedIn and Data.com up at the same time. 

 There are many Data.com sessions throughout Dreamforce.  And don't miss the Data.com Product Keynote on Wednesday, you could win a weekend getaway for 2 to NYC for SuperBowl XLVIII.