In this post I interview Jim Fowler, the CEO and co-founder of Jigsaw, a leading Sales 2.0 company and directory of free, downloadable company information with more than 11 million business contacts. Jim shares how the sales industry has changed, how sales reps can be more efficient by finding the right people in an account easily and the vision for Jigsaw moving forward.

Q: What does Sales 2.0 mean to you and how does Jigsaw fit into Sales 2.0?

A: Sales 2.0 is the concept of using Web 2.0 technologies like crowdsourcing, wikis, blogs and business networking - and applying them to the sales profession. Founded in 2003, and as the largest directory of business information in existence, Jigsaw is one of the original Sales 2.0 companies.

Q: Over 700 corporations and more than 800,000 members turn to Jigsaw. Why are so many people turning to Jigsaw to help them sell more?

A: Jigsaw provides very simple, but required data that every single sales person needs to do their jobs - company and contact records. Every one of our contact records is complete with email and phone number. Note: 72% of Jigsaw records have a direct dial. The ability to quickly find people in a target organization and contact them directly is an essential part of selling.

Q: How do Sales 2.0 fundamentals help Jigsaw create more leads and sell more effectively?

A: Jigsaw is really a wiki - a collaborative database of user generated content. One of the fundamentals of Sales 2.0 is collaboration (also known as crowd sourcing). Because we have so many members adding and cleaning the directory (for points), the hassle of dealing with dead or incorrect records is kept to a minimum.

Q: How can sales reps use Jigsaw to gain an edge in a very competitive marketplace?

A: Jigsaw is used by sales professionals in two key ways:

• Identifying prospects at target companies
• Mapping all the "buying influencers" as one gets deeper into a deal

The first activity is the best known. I think many sales reps are just now cluing into how valuable the second point is.

"Sales people are going to have to become better marketers in order to get the attention of prospects."

Q: What do you think the next 5 - 10 years will have in store for the sales profession? What changes do you see ahead?

A: Contact records are becoming a commodity. It used to be that you might be the only sales person to get to a prospect. You got a deal done because there wasn't much competition for the deal. Now, because contact records are so easily available, ALL your competitors can get to the contact with ease. Sales people are going to have to become better marketers in order to get the attention of prospects.

Q: How does Jigsaw use social media networks and your blog to connect with customers and prospects?

A: Like Wikipedia, Jigsaw links out to the best possible information. Every contact record has a link to Google and LinkedIn for automated research on the contact - such as looking at a biography. Because Jigsaw is a community of sales professionals our blog and message boards are critical for communicating closely with our community. We also have large followings on Twitter and Facebook.

Q: What is the vision for Jigsaw moving forward?

A: We want to get companies out of the business of procuring and managing company and contact records. We want the Jigsaw database to power every CRM solution by providing all the prospecting data a company could ever need, and keeping those records up to date in real time. We've just released this product in beta and hope to see it take the market by storm!

Thanks Jim!

And make sure to subscribe to the New Sales Economy blog for all the latest Sales 2.0 & Social Media tips to help you connect, create more opportunities and increase your business. You can also connect with me on Twitter @ChadALevitt.

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As Chief Executive Officer, Jim Fowler provides direction and leadership toward the achievement of goals and objectives at Jigsaw. A veteran sales executive, Jim has more than 12 years selling software for marketing and collaboration applications. Before starting Jigsaw, Jim served as VP of Sales at Digital Impact (DIGI), Paramark and TightLink. In these roles, he built sales departments from the ground up focusing on sales strategies and processes. He was able to leverage his experience as an outstanding sales manager at Personify and NetGravity. Prior to his career in software sales, Jim owned and operated Lookout Pass, a ski resort in Idaho. He also served in the US Navy as a Diving and Salvage Officer. Jim graduated from the University of Colorado.