Lists... schmists.....
Let's see, if a company has been in business over 3 years, same location, same phone number, does 'freshness' matter?
If a company went out of business last month, would a 'fresh' list reflect this? Probably not.
The accuracy of the list is vital when you are doing a direct mail campaign. The costs add up quickly. I'm not convinced it's as important on a phone campaign. Time is valuable, but, with current technology, you overcome disconnected numbers pretty quick. Besides, I tend not to want to market to brand new businesses.
I recently bought a list of realtors in my area. I chuckled when I got it. The list was longer than the number of realtors around here, it was old, before the real estate bust. I bought a new 'fresh' list, it had virtually the same data. Decided to update the 1000 records I needed myself.
Both lists had incorrect phone numbers, well, they had switchboard numbers, which are meaningless for realtors. They didn't accurately lists companies, etc. Cleaning up the mess of the list is amazingly a waste of time. I hired someone overseas to do it for me, couple of hundred bucks and life is good.
My point is in todays markets, accurate lists are tough, but why keep buying them? Get 1000 companies in your area and work that list to death, keep it updated as you go, grow it with changes in your community. Know what happens in your area and make changes as you see fit.
What I've learned the hard and expensive way is if you try to farm to much area, you don't take care of the harvest. No need for multi-thousands on your prospect lists, that you barely skim the surface with. Go deeper with fewer and build relationships.
Dan
P.S. The realtor lists are to build a solid base of center of influence referrals, not to market to directly. Obviously, if you didn't know already, I'm primarily a P&C agent. And yes, being in the Bay Area in California, there are 1000 agents in the local area (within 15 miles of my office). Used to be MANY more than that. The lists I bought had around 20000. Actual counts I think are more like 3000.
Let's see, if a company has been in business over 3 years, same location, same phone number, does 'freshness' matter?
If a company went out of business last month, would a 'fresh' list reflect this? Probably not.
The accuracy of the list is vital when you are doing a direct mail campaign. The costs add up quickly. I'm not convinced it's as important on a phone campaign. Time is valuable, but, with current technology, you overcome disconnected numbers pretty quick. Besides, I tend not to want to market to brand new businesses.
I recently bought a list of realtors in my area. I chuckled when I got it. The list was longer than the number of realtors around here, it was old, before the real estate bust. I bought a new 'fresh' list, it had virtually the same data. Decided to update the 1000 records I needed myself.
Both lists had incorrect phone numbers, well, they had switchboard numbers, which are meaningless for realtors. They didn't accurately lists companies, etc. Cleaning up the mess of the list is amazingly a waste of time. I hired someone overseas to do it for me, couple of hundred bucks and life is good.
My point is in todays markets, accurate lists are tough, but why keep buying them? Get 1000 companies in your area and work that list to death, keep it updated as you go, grow it with changes in your community. Know what happens in your area and make changes as you see fit.
What I've learned the hard and expensive way is if you try to farm to much area, you don't take care of the harvest. No need for multi-thousands on your prospect lists, that you barely skim the surface with. Go deeper with fewer and build relationships.
Dan
P.S. The realtor lists are to build a solid base of center of influence referrals, not to market to directly. Obviously, if you didn't know already, I'm primarily a P&C agent. And yes, being in the Bay Area in California, there are 1000 agents in the local area (within 15 miles of my office). Used to be MANY more than that. The lists I bought had around 20000. Actual counts I think are more like 3000.
