SBDP Elects Jim Dickie of CSO Insights to its Board of Trustees

AUSTIN, TEXAS – August 21, 2008 - The Society for Business Development Professionals (SBDP), the world's premier professional association of large-account sales and business development professionals (BDPs), announced today the addition of well-known corporate sales researcher and thought-leader Jim Dickie to its Board of Trustees.

Currently a Managing Partner with CSO Insights, the leading research firm in corporate sales effectiveness, Mr. Dickie is also a contributing editor for CRM Magazine, CRM Guru, SoftwareMag.com, and Harvard Business Review; he is also the author of The Chief Sales Officers Guide to CRM, Insights into High Tech Sales and Marketing, and the co-author of The Sales & Marketing Excellence Challenge and The Information Technology Challenge.

"Jim is a star in the corporate sales world,” said Jonathan Gilliam, Executive Director at the Society for Business Development Professionals. "His expertise and breadth of knowledge in B2B sales trends, processes, and technologies will be invaluable to our corporate and individual members. We are extremely pleased to welcome him to our Board of Trustees."

Mr. Dickie has over 29 years of sales and marketing management experience, beginning his career with IBM and Sterling Software and moving on to launch two successful software companies. He is a board member for Baylor University's Center for Professional Selling, a guest host on World Business Review, a Trustee for The Morris Animal Foundation, and an often-requested keynote speaker at sales effectiveness, sales management, CRM and E-Business conferences.

“In my opinion, the Society has great potential to impact the large-account business development field in a positive and meaningful way,” said Mr. Dickie. “The standardization of what has been a very fragmented profession is long overdue.”

In his role as an SBDP Trustee, Mr. Dickie and the rest of the Board will be responsible for helping to set membership standards that promote professionalism and ensure the successful future of the organization as a whole. The Board of Trustees has authority over the admission of members and examination standards. The Board establishes continuing professional education requirements, and is also responsible for modifying and enforcing the SBDP Code of Professional Ethics and all other matters necessary to maintain the high standards of the SBDP.

ABOUT CSO INSIGHTS: Over the past fifteen years, CSO Insight's survey of over 7,000 sales excellence initiatives worldwide has become the benchmark for tracking the evolution of how the role of sales is changing, the challenges that are impacting sales performance, and most importantly how companies are leveraging people, process, technology and knowledge to address those issues. CSO Insight's clients span multiple industries and include such firms as 3M, GE Capital, Great West Life, Federal Express, IBM, Accenture, Hewlett Packard, McKesson, Unocal, Cessna Aircraft, Bell South, Fiserv, MasterCard, Barclays, Smith Barney, ADP, Harte-Hanks, Microsoft, and Office Depot, as well as many small to midsize enterprises.

ABOUT THE SBDP: The Society for Business Development Professionals (SBDP) is a global professional association comprised entirely of large account-level Sales and Business Development professionals (BDPs). The Society is the leading source for information, knowledge sharing, community and career development in the enterprise sales and business development profession. The SBDP was founded to give enterprise Business Development Professionals a "professional home" to collaborate and share their challenges and experiences, and gain the sort of perspective that helps them achieve true success and balance in their lives. We are a member-run organization whose focus is on improving the personal and professional lives of our members.

Contact: Amy Jones
Amy Jones Communications
817-735-8957