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Me the Data: Compiled Lists Aren’t Commodities
By Bill Singleton
There are roughly 55,000 lists for rent today. About
24,000 lists are business and government focused;
response, subscription, and compiled files. The
mailers and list brokers I have worked with often
talk about the compiled files as commodities. Come
to find out-- compiled lists are not commodities.
Different business-to-business lists characterized
by similar demographics such as: standard industry
classification (SIC) codes, employee sizes, annual
sales, and geographic regions are expected to
perform equally well.
Early in my b-to-b career I learned how inadequate
that view of compiled lists can be. I rented a
compiled list of mid-sized businesses for a sales
team to call to gauge the list members’ immediate
needs to upgrade their office technology. The broker
and I carefully checked the employee sizes and the
validity of a sample of the firms’ addresses and
phone numbers. The names and phone numbers came in
and were loaded for calling.
I quickly heard about the quality of the list. The
first reactions I got did not come from the business
contacts on the list, but from the sales manager who
stopped me as I walked across the sales floor and
shouted in my face: “Your list stinks!” When he
calmed a bit I was able to find out what had
happened.
This list of businesses with 100 to 500 employees
across all industries was not a commodity. Rigorous
examination of the list showed that it included
retail stores, restaurants, warehouses,
consultancies, and legal firms, as well as a few
state and local governments. The legal and similar
firms with high proportions of office workers were
just right for the salespeople to address. But the
retailers, restaurants and warehouses needed very
little technology to support large numbers of
employees. It was these businesses that frustrated
the sales team and made them question the list’s
quality.
If you want to try marketing product or service
categories for which you have not used compiled
lists, I suggest you use some simple tests. Average
sales per employee are likely to vary widely for
service based businesses: warehouses, restaurants
and stores, compared to professional firms such as
hospitals and law offices. Look at your current
customers to see their average annual sales and
employee sizes and screen samples of the compiled
files you want to use.
I remember that confrontation whenever I read the
datacard for a compiled list or hear a direct mailer
suggest that their mailing will attract all
businesses of a certain size, certain industrial
segment, or certain geography. I was able to find
more carefully qualified lists that brought those
salespeople the opportunities they wanted. And they
taught me that compiled lists are not commodities.
---Source:
Reprinted from Multichannel Merchant Magazine’s List
and Data Strategies. Bill Singleton writes “Show Me
The Data” each month for Lists and Data Strategies.
He recently joined the Allant Group in Naperville,
IL as a Manager of Analytics and Consulting
Services. He can be reached at: bsingleton@allantgroup.com
and 630-579-3448.
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