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Your Best List is Closer Than You Think
By Tim Adams

Featured in RainToday.com Here

If you have ever purchased a list only to feel like you have thrown money away, you are not alone. I speak with marketing professionals almost every day who have trouble finding a good list.

They have dealt with list brokers, paid thousands in subscription fees to online databases, and even tried contact-swapping communities. Finding a real contact who is a decision maker for what they are selling is rare. Finding that same contact with a direct-dial almost never happens. This leads us to asking, “What is the problem? Where are all the good contacts?”

The Problem With Lists

To answer these questions we must first understand how contact data gets into lists. There are a number of ways: Public information stores offer contact names for officers of corporations. Magazine and other types of subscription services sell their subscribers’ contact information for a few cents each.

Some companies use web crawling technology similar to that used by Google to search tens of thousands of websites a day for any and all contact data. This results in a mix of information that is only as good as a contact wants their information to be. Most senior executives never submit any of their real contact data for anything, nor will they carelessly post it online. Top executives at large companies often are listed on websites or investor-related material and this is most often how their names make it into information databases such as Hoover’s or OneSource. This is also why you will never find their direct contact information in these systems.

How To Get Good Data

Due to the lack of direct dials and working e-mail addresses, most lists are used today for direct mail and e-mail campaigns with a successful conversion rate of less than 2%. Is there a better way? Yes, there are good and accurate lists. In fact, you most likely have one yourself: the contacts in your sales contact relationship management (CRM) system. This list is data that you and your selling colleagues created, whether by networking, calling around accounts, or from successful web marketing campaigns. It has most likely been verified more than once and consists of your exact targeted contacts. So you see, good lists are made in the trenches, not leased in the open market.

Here Are 3 Things You Can Do To Start Building A Better List:

1) Make sure you are capturing all relevant contact information into your CRM. Don’t get lazy by entering only one contact using a couple of fields. In most complex selling environments there are often multiple decision makers. Make sure you and your colleagues understand the value in this.

2) When offering a newsletter or other content on your website, require more than just an e-mail address to subscribe or download. If someone is willing to give you their e-mail address in exchange for your content, they will most likely not mind giving you their name, title, and company as well. Personally, I stop short of asking for a contact number, as this sets the expectation that someone will call.

3) I know clients that have thousands of contacts in their database that they have not touched in a very long time. It is quite common now to contact people simply to “stay in touch” and verify their information. This is a good excuse to e-mail or call old contacts and let them know what your firm is up to now. More importantly, this is a good opportunity to gather fresh intelligence. As such, plan any “stay in touch” campaigns wisely.

A Higher Conversion Rate

Once you have valid contact information for targeted prospects, you can then launch new marketing efforts by mail, e-mail, or phone and expect much higher conversion rates - as high as 20% or more, in my experience. By honing your resources and budget into a more targeted approach, you will assure much better results securing long-term relationships that produce revenue.