Target Marketing Systems & The Sales Consultancy

Announce Merger / Combined Company Offers the Most Comprehensive Suite of Sales Training and Consulting Solutions in the World ATLANTA (ots-PRNewswire) - Target Marketing Systems, Inc. (TMS), a global sales training and consulting firm, and The Sales Consultancy, Inc. (TSC), a Dallas and London-based consulting organization, announce their merger. OnTarget, Inc. is the name of the newly formed company. This name was chosen to reflect OnTarget's solid commitment to helping companies stay on target and achieve measurable business results from their investment in training. Together the two companies offer the most comprehensive solution set available to help clients make their sales and marketing strategies work. "At OnTarget we pride ourselves in our 'real world learning' approach to sales training and delivering 'out of this world results' for our clients," said TMS CEO and Founder, Alston Gardner. TSC is comprised of two separate companies, TSC/US and TSC/Europe. TMS has completed merger agreements with TSC/US and signed a letter of intent with TSC/Europe. The European merger is expected to be finalized in early April and will strengthen OnTarget's ability to serve clients in every European country in five different languages. Combined 1998 revenues for TMS and TSC, including both US and European operations, will exceed $40 million, making OnTarget one of the largest sales training and consulting firms in the world. OnTarget provides sales training programs, consulting services and software tools to help companies improve their sales processes. The company has proven solutions for: 1) Winning Major Sales Opportunities 2) Managing Enterprise Accounts 3) Managing Sales Territories and 4) Growing Sales through Channels and Alliances. "Our decision to merge with TSC was based on their strong channel sales expertise and European presence," said Mr. Gardner. "The strengths of our combined companies put OnTarget in an enviable market position and position us for the new millennium." OnTarget Clients Prior to the merger, TMS and TSC shared several mutual clients including: Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, 3Com, and IBM. "The markets in which we compete are driven by remarkable changes," said Cisco's President EMEA/AN Operations, Senior Vice President, James Richardson. "For Cisco to stay ahead, it's critical that we adapt to those changes and continually improve the way we serve our customers in those markets. Both TSC and TMS have helped us do this in the past. We look forward to this merger. The broad suite of solutions offered from one company will help us create more consistent selling processes." About the Merging Companies Target Marketing Systems Founded in 1989, TMS built its practice by specializing in four vertical markets including: 1) Information Technology 2) Professional Services 3) Telecommunications and 4) Healthcare. Clients include: Dell, Lucent Technologies, KPMG, and SmithKline Beecham. TMS' proven sales methodology, Target Account Selling(R) (TAS), has been adopted by more than 350 companies in a variety of industries, and is the cornerstone of its training curriculum. The privately held, Atlanta-based company reported $28.4 million in revenues in 1998. Alston Gardner will lead OnTarget as Chairman and CEO. Other key principals from TMS include: Jeff Muir, Executive Vice President; Nick Nascone, Senior Vice President; Hugh Stevenson, Managing Director, Europe; Fred Burton, Managing Partner, US; and Brad Milner, Managing Partner, US. The Sales Consultancy Since its inception in 1989, TSC has focused exclusively on developing go-to-market strategies for Information Technology companies. Representative clients include: Oracle, Sun Microsystems, SAP and Lotus Development. The company has researched patterns and best practices of sales, marketing and alliance teams in more than 100 global technology and service organizations. TSC is best known for its highly successful flagship program, Channel and Alliance Management Process(R) (CHAMP), which helps companies define, develop and implement partner-based go-to-market strategies. The privately-held company generated $12.5 million in revenues during 1998. TSC President and Co-founder, Phil Rawlins, has been named Senior Vice President of Product Development for the new company. TSC Vice President, Wendy Lea, is Managing Partner of OnTarget's Channels & Alliances Program. TSC Co-founder, Alun Newby, will serve as Managing Partner, Europe. Mr. Rawlins describes the synergies between TSC and TMS as "extraordinary. This merger will provide our clients with the broadest range of consulting and training offerings available in the marketplace today. TMS' leadership in opportunity management processes combined with TSC's leadership in go-to- market, partner management processes will enable the sales and marketing teams of our clients to build and implement the right strategy for their success." OnTarget, Inc. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, OnTarget, Inc. is a privately-held, global training and consulting firm created from the merger between Target Marketing Systems, Inc. (TMS) and The Sales Consultancy, Inc. (TSC). Combined 1998 revenues for TMS and TSC, including both US and European operations, exceeded $40 million. OnTarget provides a complete curriculum of sales training programs, consulting services and field application tools to help companies achieve competitive advantage and strengthen relationships with customers and partners. Primary markets include: Information Technology 2) Professional Services 3) Telecommunications and 4) Healthcare. OnTarget has delivered its offerings to more than 450 companies worldwide. Select clients include: 3Com, AT&T, BellSouth, Cisco Systems, Dell, Hewlett- Packard, KPMG, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, Oracle, Siemens, and SmithKline Beecham. OnTarget will employ over 70 professional sales consultants and 140 employees worldwide. The company will also maintain offices in six other U.S. cities including: Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Philadelphia, Seattle, and San Jose. European headquarters are located in Geneva, Switzerland, with additional offices in Dusseldorf, London, and Paris. Asia Pacific headquarters will be located in Hong Kong with representatives or agents in Australia, New Zealand and Japan. For more information, please visit http://www.tmsnet.com . ots Original Text Service: Target Marketing Systems, Inc. Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Elizabeth Fairleigh of thE Connection, 404-874-4562, or email, EConnection@worldnet.att.net , or Jolie Newman of Jolie Newman & Associates, 407-679-9052, or email, jolie@mindspring.com , both for OnTarget, Inc., or Bill Huff, Vice President of Marketing of OnTarget, Inc., 404-841- 6100, ext. 669, or fax, 404-841-9717, or email, bhuff@tmsnet.com Web site: http://www.tmsnet.com Upozorňujeme odběratele, že materiály označené značkou PROTEXT nejsou součástí zpravodajského servisu ČTK a nelze je publikovat pod její značkou. Jde o komerční sdělení zadavatele, který je ve zprávě označen a který za něj nese plnou odpovědnost. PROTEXT