This week, we released our May newsletter, which includes two new articles: What's the Value of Branding? and

The professional services market is unique because not only do professional provide services (instead of products), their services often require a complex sale. That is, it's often not immediately clear where and how the professional service applies best to the client. For this reason, selling professional services can be particularly challenging. And when selling is complex, so is marketing.

It's a common idea. Before you do any execution, do the strategy. Maybe it's too common. Because almost no one follows this simple advice.

Why Searchers Don't Go Past the First Page. Or the first half of the first page. We've seen lots of data about how searchers process search pages. The current rule of thumb is that 50% look at the second page of search results, and 25% at the third page. And almost no one looks at any other pages. This is probably true, as far as it goes. I believe, however, that there are two kinds of searchers, one of whom is not usually discussed.

This time we'll talk about how the Web can be used in B2B sales. You may not think that the Web is relevant to your B2B business, but it is very relevant to your customers. Download the podcast.

Traditional marketing and branding has an inside-out approach. Understanding the customer or client is now the central challenge to B2B companies. This means that companies should adopt an outside-in perspective.

I just heard a podcast of Maureen Blandford and Michelle Nichols (BusinessWeek) on reasons why business-to-business organizations should spend less on marketing and more on sales to increase revenues. I think Blandford was not only inaccurate but illogical.