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Gaining access and connecting to executive decision makers is a challenge of most sales professionals. Here are seven common challenges that sales professionals need to resolve in order to effectively engage the executive suite.

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Just as understanding the requirements of your market is important in selling a product or service, understanding the needs of the relevant media is critical in a successful public relations effort.

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Why are companies constantly changing their advertising message? Why do 95% of all new product introductions fail? Why is so much money wasted on poorly conceived marketing programs when research could illuminate the way? What prevents so many marketing people from using research effectively is one of three things.

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When it comes to promoting technological devices, it helps to focus on the product's benefits. But, sometimes, promoting a complex menu of benefits isn't easy. Here's how to approach the issue so that prospects can quickly understand how benefits come into play.

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Mention the words "consumer empowerment" to marketers, and most will shrink away from you like a vampire from light. Conjuring up all sorts of evils, consumer empowerment is considered a stake in the heart of marketing. PVRs, pop-up blockers and on-demand media empower people to avoid advertising and make a mockery of advertising scheduling. Consumer blogs, forums and review sites give consumers a global voice that can determine the fate of a brand. The myriad product and service choices available empowers consumers to switch products on the most fleeting of whims. So consumer empowerment means bad news for marketing, right? Surprisingly, no.

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Women age 50+ constitute a market force to be reckoned with. These women are in their prime—this is the healthiest, wealthiest, most influential generation of women in history, and terms like mature (overripe), middle-aged (frumpy) and senior (out to pasture) fail to convey their vitality and potential. These women should be the primary marketing target for a host of industries, including travel, autos, real estate, finance services, technology and home improvement. Yet they are all too often ignored by marketers, who retain an outdated obsession with youth. This group has money and the time to spend it, and those who recognize its potential will prosper.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

As the evidence shows, a white paper can be a powerful and persuasive marketing vehicle. Provided, of course, that the reader actually reads it. Here's how.

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While a marketing webinar is the most common use of one-to-many Web collaboration services, it is by no means the only way of leveraging Web events. Webinars, which offer a lower cost-structure than live seminars, can be used in diverse ways to cut marketing, sales, and product development costs and drive top-line growth. A great Web collaboration and webinar strategy can even create competitive or strategic advantage.

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RSS is getting much media coverage. But very little is being said about the full circle of RSS marketing power. The truth is that RSS goes far beyond "simple" blogging or news delivery. RSS can be fully integrated in most marketing activities, having the power to extend them and increase their results.

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Marketers always have to adapt to changing consumer demands, consumer tastes, shifting customer priorities, economic downturns, economic upturns, savvy consumers and buyers just looking for something new. But before marketing can affect a change with either a new product offering, or reinvigorate a new brand, there's one constant that remains. In marketing it's the "Four Ps."

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Despite being little known in the North America and Europe, Chance Discovery has groundbreaking implications for Western marketing analytics. It endeavors to solve a longstanding paradox of standard quantitative marketing analysis: how to find new opportunities in our data that have yet to be realized. In other words, Chance Discovery moves our analysis of marketing data from standard description or modeling into a formal approach for seeking inspiration from within these data.

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Very often, the people who first recognize the potential benefits of professional SEO are not the key decision makers. They are the people on the front lines of the organization—the ones who deal with prospects and customers every day. But proposing professional SEO as a new marketing initiative to the people higher in the chain of command can be a frustrating process—very often leading to disenchantment and a general sense that the marketing decision maker doesn't "get it." The real problem, however, may lie in a flawed approach.

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Although companies have for years relied on marketing research to better serve customers and identify new markets, the way they are seeking research today has changed. For those of you who (for better or worse) are becoming involved in research requests concerning customer, employee and/or general marketing issues, consider the following primer as a way for you to move through the process more confidently and efficiently.

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Is there a better way to support sales? Is there something you can leave with prospects that's just a bit more memorable—and more effective—than the standard brochure with its forced march through company "visions," product descriptions, and corporate bios? Yes, indeed. Here are eight suggestions, not as comprehensive answers to every sales-communications situation, but as inspiration and provocation for creating material less likely to gather dust—and more likely to draw your company closer to a sale.

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As an alternative to email, RSS is becoming an increasingly important content delivery channel that allows marketers to deliver all of their content, fully upgrade all of their marketing initiatives and establish lasting client relationships. From direct marketing, PR, e-commerce, internal communications and online publishing to SEO, traffic generation and customer relationship management, RSS brings the power of delivery back to the hands of marketers. But most marketers still do not know how to actually get started with RSS, especially when trying to take its power beyond basic blogging. Here's a seven-step plan to help get you started.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Communications

If your sales cycles seem to be dragging, it may be time to revamp your communications plan. Done well, your communications programs can generate demand for your solutions, create a sense of urgency, attract prospective buyers' attention, and keep you high on their radar—all without sales intervention. Your communications program can even encourage prospective buyers to "raise their hands" when they are finally ready to purchase by offering the right enticement. The key is getting the right message to the right person at the right time.

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While business executives quite correctly view that innovation built into new products and services is important, few have understood that the cornerstone of groundbreaking innovation is design. And even more importantly, design encompasses far more than the development of innovative features to products.

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Turning online lookers into buyers takes work. You have to ensure the site is intuitive, in that visitors can find what they want and there's a clear path of for them to follow.

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Link building is arguably the most challenging aspect to search engine optimization. It's anything but straightforward; the process is fraught with landmines; and the outcome is largely outside of your control—since you can't dictate who links to you and who doesn't. Here's where to start.

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Never before in history has such a large demographic group as the Baby Boom generation experienced major life-stage transitions en masse. Now in their 40s and 50s, Boomer women are grappling with one of the most challenging stages they have faced to date: the empty nest. A critical juncture in a mother's lifecycle, the empty-nest phenomenon represents an opportunity for marketers sensitive to the evolving needs, challenges and aspirations of this demographic. Not just a one-time marketing opportunity, the emptying of the family's nest is often a layered experience across the coming of age of several children, and their progressive separation from college to graduation and beyond.