The explosive growth of the internet has been nothing but a boon for savvy salespeople across the globe, spawning countless resources and tools for optimizing your sales process. Unfortunately, that same growth has created at least as many awful websites as it has gems, including scams, hubs of bad advice, and tools of dubious worth. Fortunately, this list of five helpful websites should give you a good jumping off point for information and handy tools:

Data.com

Information makes the sales world go ’round, so any salesperson looking to optimize and improve their bottom line should invest in a Data.com membership. Part of CRM provider Salesforce.com’s network of products, Data.com provides a wealth of business data from a multitude of top tier resources in a single user-friendly interface. It integrates seamlessly with a number of websites and products, including those under the Salesforce platform and many third party programs. If you need business data and you don’t want to dig through mounds of outdated, low grade information, Data.com is an excellent solution.

LinkedIn

If you’re not already leveraging LinkedIn to its full potential…why not? Networking plays a close second to information in most forms of sales, and LinkedIn is one of the biggest social websites on the internet. If you’re in the business to business market, or you work regularly with outside companies, you should be on LinkedIn. There’s no excuse not to. For those doing more with their networking, a premium membership might be worth the expenditure, but the basic free service will work nicely for most purposes.

Quora

Like LinkedIn, Quora provides excellent networking opportunitiies, but unlike LinkedIn you will also have the opportunity to reach out directly to consumers. Being a valuable, helpful member of the Quora community can get an individual salesperson or their company the attention they need for effective sales and establish valuable contacts with other businesses. Users of the website can, of course, use the website from the ‘Asker’ end to find useful information and tips from other salespeople should they ever need it. Quora is also a great place to spot ‘needs’ begging for a solution that a current or future product may provide.

Postwire

The ability to share information quickly and reliably can make or break relationships in sales–few websites match Postwire for getting information where it needs to be. Whether you need to share audio, video, text, or any other form of information with a client, consumers, or other salespeople, Postwire makes the process painless. The ability to see who accesses what when will improve communication effectiveness and efficiency, and might just give you insight into where to focus future efforts.

Salesforce Search

The SalesForce Search website brings salespeople and businesses together, but that’s just a portion of what the site offers. Any salespeople looking to improve their techniques, find out about useful resources, or learn what big new thing may be on the sales horizon can visit the SalesForce blog and get a concentrated dose of sales knowledge.