Companies usually consider their customer database to be among their most valuable proprietary information. How do you begin to expand that list to find new sales leads?

One method that marketing professionals use is to purchase quality mail, phone and email lists from list brokers and publishing houses. Insist on features such as a large pool of valid names, the ability to sort by demographics and business classification codes such as SIC or NAICS, and list output that you can incorporate into your existing customer relationship management (CRM) software.

After you have defined your audience, the next step is to locate the right list for your needs. Here are but a few examples of the many vendors you could consider:

The time and expense involved in months, sometimes years, of product planning and development may be compromised if a product's launch to the marketplace isn't executed in an integrated manner. What is an integrated product launch? Ideally, it consists of coordinated activity intended to align the goals of Sales and Marketing in order to capture those important early sales as well as establish future growth.

M45 has extensive experience in planning and implementing integrated product launches, including the following print and interactive media pre-sale communications and post-sale tools:

• Press releases
• Promotional flyers and brochures
• Advertising
• Product specification and installation information
• Communications with Sales channels

M45 also conducts pre-launch market research to help establish product positioning and launch objectives and gathers post-launch information in the form of customer satisfaction surveys, thereby completing the cycle of a successfully integrated product launch.