Over the course of the past year, we have been collecting survey responses from those interested in trying out Gist.  We asked a lot of questions and really appreciate all the thoughtful responses.  Now that we are on the verge of open beta, we wanted to share what we learned with everyone.  Here are the highlights:

Prep time is either rare or too burdensome

• Almost 60% of those surveyed reported spending less than 10 minutes searching the web ahead of an important meeting
• Over 40% of those surveyed reported spending an hour or more searching the web ahead of an important meeting

Favorite sources of information lean toward new sources

• All use some type of search engine (Google, etc.)
• 75% reported spending time on LinkedIn
• Almost 50% use Facebook
• 15% use Twitter
• Less than 15% of those surveyed reference their CRM system
• Other sources include Hoovers, Zoominfo, Jigsaw, & company websites

Personal email stores continue to grow

• 75% of those surveyed by Gist reported having 2,000 or more emails saved with almost 40% having over 6,000.
• Almost 30% reported receiving between 40 and 100 emails per day
• Number of inboxes multiplying (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.)

We learned a lot of things about how people communicate and where they go (or don’t go) to get information to prepare for a meeting, call, or other type of interaction.  Mostly, what we learned reinforced what we are doing here at Gist.

Here are more detailed slides on the questions and responses.