Reviewed by: David Leonhardt, MyShelf.com
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If you buy just one marketing book this year, Sold On Seniors could be your best bet. Written in no-nonsense prose, author and marketer Gary Onks lays out the case for focusing on senior customers and gives readers strategies to target that market.

He makes a good case, pointing out that Modern Maturity is far and away the most read magazine in America, that seniors spend two trillion dollars annually (can you count the zeroes?) and that they form the fastest-growing demographic. Some other statistics he offers are that seniors buy 43 percent of new vehicles and that they read almost ALL promotional material they receive.

One of the best strategies Onks recommends is showing seniors you care about them and their success with your product. Seniors miss their families (you never call, you never, visit, you never write) and they have a heightened need for security, which ripens in most of us as we age. Showing you care is a great way to win their trust.

Gary Onks takes this philosophy one step further. He tells customers he personally guarantees to refund one's money if the customer is not satisfied--even if the company won't. He has never had to follow through on his promise, but he claims to have made many sales because of it. Of course, you have to really believe in what you are selling. But if you don't really believe in your product, why would you sell it?

I love the writing: down to earth and conversational. Here's an example: "Whoa, Nellie. Looks like mature means nowhere to go but downhill, since you have reached your peak, and like a ripened fruit can only 'rot' or get worse. Could this be the adjective that seniors want used on them? No way!" I love this kind of writing. If there is a weakness, it is in the layout. It seems confusing, with quotations and sidebars not clearly marked in a single style and separate from the main flow of the text. But that's a minor issue.

All in all, a very real book, written like he was talking to us on the front porch, full of useful advice and motivation.

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David Leonhardt is the author of Climb Your Stairway to Heaven: The 9 Habits of Maximum Happiness.