NEW YORK, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- LivePerson, Inc., (NASDAQ: LPSN) a provider of online engagement solutions that facilitate real-time assistance and expert advice, and Aberdeen Group, a provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results, announce the availability of a new research report entitled, "Inside Sales Enablement: Let Them Drink Coffee!" The report reveals that live chat solutions are among the top technology enablers implemented by best-in-class inside sales organizations.

The research cites several business pressures facing sales and marketing departments, such as too many leads for the field sales team to cover, increased customer demand for better service or value, the need to improve sales forecasting and accuracy by filtering quality of leads through inside sales, and organizational expansion into new geographical territories. It goes on to evaluate how top-performing sales organizations are meeting the challenges of increasing the quality and quantity of leads presented to their "closers," as well as improving their overall sales effectiveness by deploying well-supported and carefully structured inside sales teams and enabling technologies to handle the top layers of the corporate sales funnel.

"Through the research process, we discovered that one of the key enablers of successful inside sales teams is live chat," said Peter Ostrow, Research Director, Sales Effectiveness, Aberdeen Group, and the report's author. "Live chat was deployed to achieve sales effectiveness and improve conversion rates in almost a third of best-in-class companies. For example, one of the world's leading network manufacturers uses live chat to turn marketing-generated suspects into prospects, improving conversion rates by up to 15 percent."

"Our inside sales customers have traditionally reported up to a 20% increase in incremental online lead generation with LivePerson intelligent engagement solutions," said Jim Dicso, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Sales & Service for LivePerson. "Ensuring the right visitor is targeted at the right moment allows LivePerson customers to encourage several of the desired business outcomes cited in this report, including the ability to provide better and faster customer service and support, and improve the quality of leads filtered through to the field, thereby improving overall sales effectiveness and win/close rates."

To obtain a complimentary copy of this report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30411760&cid=6228

About LivePerson

LivePerson (http://www.solutions.liveperson.com/) is a provider of online engagement solutions that facilitate real-time assistance and expert advice. Connecting businesses and experts with consumers seeking help on the Web, LivePerson's hosted software platform creates more relevant, compelling and personalized online experiences. Every month, LivePerson's intelligent platform helps millions of people succeed online. More than 8,000 companies, including EarthLink, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Qwest, and Verizon, rely on LivePerson to maximize the impact of the online channel. LivePerson is headquartered in New York City.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen or call (617) 854-5200, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748.

SOURCE: LivePerson, Inc.

Web site: http://www.liveperson.com/