Despite the uptick in retail sales and gains in consumer confidence, salespeople have plenty more to do to keep up with their tech-savvy customers, according to a new report.

Office supply retailer Staples is one such company. The $23 billion chain is finding next-generation customer relationship management (CRM) and sales force automation (SFA) software is opening up the front-line staff to a wide variety of data streams.

The company's nearly 1,000 sales representatives use an integrated instance of Salesforce.com Inc. and Hoover's software in support of both existing and new business efforts.

According to Kimberly Cournoyer, system administrator for both products, there are several sales functions that depend on the technology. First, to maintain and grow corporate accounts, she says sales reps need to gain a better understanding of their customer.

"They use the family-tree feature to reach new or undiscovered locations, franchises, or offices associated with customer headquarters," Cournoyer explains, to expand, up-sell, and cross-sell Staples merchandise and make their numbers. "These individuals sometimes are provided by their corporate buyers with lists," she continues, "but this sales intelligence is a better way to make sure they're covering all their bases," and in some instances, adhere to the preferences of headquarters' decision-makers.

If you are thinking that sales intelligence is just another repackaged way of giving your sales team better leads, Staples also builds its business through net-new account acquisition. The company says reps and their managers will use the build-a-list function in Hoover's to determine the best sales prospects according to their own personal criteria. Plus, Cournoyer explains, "we integrate the tool into Salesforce.com, so that search results can be automatically imported into the CRM as a lead or contact record."

In addition, there are certain vertical industry-focused sales reps who rely on the integrated CRM/sales intelligence system to more rapidly identify just those targets that fit into their niche "sweet spots."

As a result, Cournoyer says, sales teams are able to function efficiently and successfully around better identifying exactly with whom they should be communicating in all markets.

Staples is not alone in this endeavor. A recent survey of 528 corporations by Aberdeen Group Inc. found sales intelligence users saw an average of 46 percent of their sales reps achieving quota compared to 26 percent for those who don't. The respondents -- more than one-third of whom were CEOs and presidents -- also found a 9 percent average annual improvement in reduction of the time spent by sales reps searching for relevant company/contact information and a 5 percent average annual improvement in reduction of the sales cycle.

"The selection of sales intelligence solutions, and their integration within the daily lifecycle of selling, play a crucial role in the ability to turn these strategies into profit," says Aberdeen report author Peter Ostrow.

Getting to a level that Staples has achieved, however, will take a bit of work for larger enterprises. Aberdeen's report suggests the first and best thing to do is clean your data.

"Even though the cost-per-unit of marketing and sales messaging has dropped dramatically with the advent of email marketing and auto-dialer tools, companies are missing out on opportunities by allowing their sales intelligence to age," says Ostrow.

So for the retailer out there face with updating systems and intelligence software, the process may not be as easy as hitting the big red button, but certainly more necessary in meeting the challenges of identifying the most likely buyers of their products and services.

— Michael Singer, Senior Editor at Internet Evolution, is focused on executive (Executive Clan) and midmarket (Midmarket Clan) issues.