Dear Dave:
Every time I write something for my company, I end up resorting to jargon: words and phrases like synergy, leverage, spot on, scalable, best of breed, etc. Is this okay? Or is there a better way to write?
Signed,
Stuck in a Cliche

Dear Stuck:
The reason people use business jargon in their speaking and writing is [...]

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Dear Dave:
My company is considering using a cold call campaign to help generate leads. But it seems that everyone is so busy and also using Caller ID, and no one answers their phone these days. Can cold calling still work?
Signed,
In the Dark about Cold Calling
Dear In the Dark:
The name alone gives me the chills and [...]

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Dear Dave:
How can we keep prospects from filling in junk on our landing page forms, which prevents us from generating a lead and contacting that person again?
Signed,
Can’t sell to zzzyyyggyg
Dear ZZZYY …
Every company that drives prospects to the Web and offers valuable content such as white papers in exchange for contact information has met up with Ima [...]

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Dear Dave:
An executive at our company came into my office and dropped a magazine on my desk and said, “I want you to place an ad in here,” then turned and walked out the door. The magazine covers our industry and target market, but will running a single ad in a single issue of a [...]

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Dear Dave:
My colleague at work says you’re only supposed to put one space at the end of a sentence before starting another sentence, but I learned you should put two spaces and that’s how I write documents. He’s always changing them. Who’s right?
Signed,
Two Spaces are Better
Dear Two Spaces are Better:
You call this marketing? What are [...]

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Dear Dave:
Our company sells this nifty project management tool to small medical device manufacturers and we’ve got good market share. Then just last month we closed our biggest deal ever selling the PM tool to a telecommunications service provider, where the decision maker there knew our VP of Sales through a previous personal relationship. Now [...]

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Dear Dave:
My boss keeps talking about guerilla marketing. She wants our marketing department to scale back our budget and ”attack” different markets with little campaigns to see where we get the most traction. What does this mean?
Signed,
Fatigued by War Metaphors
Dear Fatigued:
It means your boss doesn’t know your target audience or how to reach them. In fact, [...]

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Dear Dave:
My company has big ambitions about growth but a very limited marketing budget. How can I best allocate my marketing to get the greatest return on investment?
Signed,
Working on a Shoestring
 Dear Shoestring:
Focus on one market sector, one customer segment only. The benefit of focusing on one market sector is that you can create a complete and [...]

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Dear Dave:
I head up both sales and marketing in my company. I’m trying hard to close this important deal and can probably do it if I lower the price more.  However, my budget is tight. What if I re-allocate some money from my marketing budget to make up for the few points I’ll lose by lowering [...]

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