As an analyst at the Aberdeen Group, I'm privy to a constantly refreshing set of data that captures market pressures, intentions, best practices and technology adoption trends in sales and marketing. This data provides insight about key trends and best practices that top performing organisations are leveraging to maintain a competitive advantage in the current economy. I thought I would share a few of the most poignant insights from the data archives in the Customer Management Technology Group and perhaps shed some light on a few best practices for allocating marketing and sales resources more efficiently (to maximize customer acquisition) in these tough times.