The business school of The Catholic University of America built ZoomInfo into its Sales Practicum course to close the gap between conceptual coursework and the hands-on skills new sales reps need.

ZoomInfo (NASDAQ:GTM), the all-in-one AI GTM platform, has reported that The Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America built ZoomInfo into its Sales Practicum course, and 72.5% of the prospects its students generated were judged outreach-worthy by corporate partners, up from 58% the previous semester without it, according to the school.

Founded in 2013, the Busch School runs a sales program built to prepare students to compete virtuously in the world of sales. It had a problem common to sales education: most of it is conceptual, teaching the strategy and leadership skills a rep needs years later rather than the foundational work of landing the first job and ramping fast. Strong graduates were entering the field without hands-on reps in the tools and daily tasks of modern selling.

The school set out to close that gap. A Catholic University alum and former sales rep, who joined as a lecturer and the school's Sales Partnership Program Manager, built the Sales Practicum course and went looking for tools that could teach real technical skills and carry a credential. Drawing on his own years selling, he put ZoomInfo at the top of the list.

The course is experiential by design. Students complete projects on prospecting, cold emailing, and cold calling, all modeled on real-world scenarios. They search verified contact and company data to find the right people, and read company news and event signals to spot timing and qualify a prospect. It is the same mechanism that helps working sales teams. Accurate data points a seller at a real buyer, and a timely signal gives a reason to reach out now. Applied in a classroom, it means the lists students build hold up when a real company inspects them.

The proof came from a course project. Students built prospect lists for hypothetical verticals and territories tied to companies in the school's corporate partnership network, and those partners graded the lists. The first semester with ZoomInfo, 72.5% of the prospects students generated were judged outreach-worthy, compared with 58% the previous semester without it, according to the school. The school also reports the practical skills have accelerated students' onboarding during internships, cutting ramp time significantly. The course closes with a professional certification students can list on LinkedIn and resumes.

The lecturer sees a small but growing community of schools offering sales-specific training, and rising interest in bringing sales technology into the classroom. His advice to other educators is to find the gaps in a curriculum, get input from corporate partners, and build a partnership around putting real tools in front of students.

About ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo (NASDAQ:GTM), the all-in-one AI GTM platform, enables sales, marketing, and customer success teams to execute their go-to-market strategy with confidence. Powered by the industry's most comprehensive B2B data, including more than 100 million companies, 500 million contacts, and billions of signals, ZoomInfo delivers the intelligence, automation, and integrations that modern revenue teams need to identify, engage, and convert their best buyers.

Learn more at zoominfo.com.

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