Hi

I help my clients to obtain meetings with senior executives in various
industries/sectors. Usually my clients want the meetings because they
are offering a product or service.

In order to obtain the meeting and "bond" with our chosen target, it
is useful for us to know what issues or "pain" the targeted executive
is likely to be experiencing (hopefully in an area related to what my
client is promoting).
1. Are there websites that provides the current pain/problems/issues
being faced by different various sectors/industries?
2. Are there sites that categorise these issues into different areas?
So for example, lists the logistics issues faced by retail, or sales
issues in the IT sector etc.

I would be more than happy with 1 above though 2 would be incredibly
useful.

Many thanks

Max

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 12 Jul 2003 06:05 PDT

Hello maxb_max-ga,

You've posted an interesting question.  I'm not aware of any sector
"pain" sites, and there may well be a market gap to be filled, as you
suggest.

In the mean time, though, my experience has been that these issues are
usually raised in two forums:

--sites or publications focused on particular industry sectors, such
as "Airport Magazine", a publication of the American Assoc. of Airport
Executives

--sites or pubs focused on types of executives, such as WorldTrade
Magazine, which targets shipping and sourcing executives, or
Government Executive magazine (guess who they target....).

And of course, there are also the general business publications like
Forbes, Business Week, etc.

My suggestion would be -- prior to each of your meetings -- to post a
reasonably priced question here at Google Answers specific to the
industry sector and type of position (CFO, CIO, chief of security,
etc) you are interested in.

A well-focused question can usually be answered in the space of just a
few hours, especially if you make clear that time is of the essence.

And with every new question you post, the researchers here will have a
history of your prior questions that will help make clear exactly the
type of information you are seeking, and the types of answers that
best suit your needs.

Just a thought....

pafalafa-ga

Maxb_max --

Google Answers researchers often face similar situations.  For
example, customers have asked about leading information technology
issues of concern to corporations:
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=122690

Here's how most researchers would prioritize organizations that would
highlight these issues:
1.  industry publications (in the IT industry, CIO Magazine is
particularly good, tracking key issues with special sections on its
website)
2.  trade associations
3.  market research companies that follow the industry.  Often one
particular analyst will be more visible than others; once they're
found Google is a powerful tool for tracking speeches, papers and
interviews.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

Thanks. I can't believe that there is not a single web site that
consolodates/lists issues across various industries. If there is not,
what a market gap to fill!

I'm still hoping that such a site does exist though.