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From Jeremy Saul

List managers in today's marketplace

The list management marketplace is becoming an increasingly competitive one.

To prosper in this marketplace many list managers need to focus more on their customer service skills. This means being attentive, flexible to clients needs, proactive in providing solutions, and constantly looking for the best way to maximise a client's ROI.

Secondly, list managers need to look at making best use of the in-depth knowledge they have of the lists they manage, combined with their general data knowledge, to really sell and drive value from these lists. Successful list management today is about providing proactive insight and intelligence on lists/data to prospective buyers. Such an approach, as well as benefiting list buyers, will boost sales of the lists they administer, profiting their own list owning clients.

Furthermore, many list managers need to brush up on their sales and marketing knowledge and expertise to maximise revenue from the lists they manage. Too many are reactive with their sales and marketing activities. List managers need to develop proactive sales and marketing plans for the lists they manage - this means picking up the phone and generating new tests in the marketplace - an approach list owners are looking out for.

List managers must understand today's marketplace, and learn and develop the appropriate skills required to successfully prosper within it to ensure their long term success.

Archived views
Ronel Schoeman, Databases for retail uplift
Richard Roche, The times are a changing
Jeremy Saul, Holistic
Richard McCann, Friday's of Piccadilly
David Harrison, WSPS
Russell Loarridge, Firstwave Technologies
Alan Joen, Touchstone
John Whittingdale MP

You can contribute on any subject but you may like to add to debates that DM Business will be featuring throughout 2005.

Some topics that we think will be stimulating in 2005 are as follows:

Consumers who love direct marketing are the unspoken majority. Discuss in relation to any channel of communication.
To focus on ROI is to undervalue DM in order to satisfy simplistic FDs: Discuss.
Call centres in India will inevitably lead to a better deal for the consumer: Discuss.
The direct mail industry should pay no more than lip service to environmental issues. Discuss
The corporate consumer needs about as much protection from cold calls as a successful lawyer needs government grants. Discuss.
Data quality concerns are a hindrance to creative campaigning. Discuss.

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