Does economic recovery hinge on them?

• Position: Baby Boomers

As a statistical demographic, they control over half of all discretionary spending while holding more than 70% of the country's weatlh and a behavioral trend indicating they still are spending that money, even during the recession--which is why they hold the key to the U.S.'s economic recovery and why the wisest move businesses can make right now is marketing to baby boomers, says Steve Howard, author of Boomer Selling.

"When the American economy recovers, it will be on the backs of baby boomers. Consumer spending is the backbone of our economy, and boomers are still spending--they are simply being more selective than before the recession. When selling to them, you can't 'quick close' them; you can't corner them into buying something they don't want; and you can't trick them into buying something they can't afford. So, the best thing any business in America could do right now is to learn how to sell to boomers/'

He adds: 'When it's crunch time in the ball game, you field your best players. In a recession, the bast spenders are the star athletes and, right now, they are boomers:'

Howard describes the characteristics of boomers, and how they decide to buy:

* They are smart, insecure, caring, direct, confident, and suspicious.

* They have witnessed every sales trick in the book and hate most of them.

* They are the vanguard of the modern consumer culture, so marketers and salespeople have been trying to sell to them since they saw their...