CEO selling.

Seasoned marketing professionals agree that successfully reaching a CEO – or any senior executive in a FORTUNE 500 company – is a daunting mass communication challenge.

First, you have to sneak past white fang, the gatekeeper. Then you must make a terse but compelling sales argument to hold the attention of decision-makers universally suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder. Then you must entice them to take action.

How do you do it? Tactically, it's the same as reaching any decision maker — by employing the tools of direct mail, trade advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and PowerPoint sales presentations. Strategically, it's a whole different animal.