Digital media services provider vSplash has made inroads with both newspaper and directory/local search organizations with its BuzzBoard sales productivity tool. vSplash is widely known for its website production capabilities, as well as its voluminous data on small-business digital presence, which is marketed (in partnership with BIA/Kelsey) as SMB DigitalScape.

Today vSplash announced deals with the Dallas Morning News and Dubai’s Local Media, which publishes print and digital search products in the Middle East. Both companies have signed on to use BuzzBoard as way to boost sales productivity.

The basic idea behind BuzzBoard is to reduce the amount of prep time sales reps engage in, thus freeing more time for actual selling, hence generating more revenue. Last year, BIA/Kelsey conducted an online survey of local media sales reps, which showed that on average, reps spend less than 30 percent of their time actually selling. The rest of their time  is spent on paperwork, sales prep, training, travel between sales calls and other tasks. BIA/Kelsey is currently running a second wave of its online sales survey, and results should be ready in time for our Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing event, Sept. 11-13 in Austin, Texas.

The data that supports SMB DigitalScape also help make BuzzBoard a powerful sales prospecting and prepping tool. The tool provides automated prospecting, customer and competitive intelligence, which saves the rep timing chasing down this information. The tool also automatically generates sales proposals, and voice records interactions with merchants, which saves time taking and recording notes from sales meetings.

“The data behind the BuzzBoard app is what makes it such an effective tool for opening doors and closing sales,” said D. Brian Ritenour, General Manager, Digital Sales at 508 Digital, The Dallas Morning News. “BuzzBoard not only saves our sales reps hours of time in pre-sales prospect research, it provides the credibility that gives our reps and our customers confidence in the solutions we propose.”