I am on the plane now reading the Wall Street Journal, watching CNBC and responding to email. It seems to be a productive flight so far and a bit later I will be working on my presentation which I will give in Montreal later this week.

I will be speaking at a Sagem-Interstar Partner Conference where I will be talking about advanced lead generation.

As part of my talk I will delve into all aspects of marketing. I will be discussing the benefits of integration, and how integration can actually increase lead close rates.

I am excited about this talk because it gives me a platform to discuss how technology companies can be most successful. Most tech companies are run by techies who generally do not understand branding or positioning.

In my career I have seen hundreds of companies with fantastic products fail. They fail in many cases because the company execs don’t understand the importance of customer communications. What needs to be driven home this week is that people rarely buy products, they buy the perception of a product. They purchase what they think the product does and what the company making it stands for.

People in tech don’t think enough about how Apple took a commoditized industry and increased margins, sales and market share by using among other things, superior branding and marketing.

I am really pumped about this presentation and hope to see you there.

Blogged via wireless handheld.