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Developing A Qualified Prospect List
Posted By: Promo Dave* on 8/27/2004 8:32 AM (CST) 500 Points
We have effective campaigns and a successful sales closure process but our most time consuming activity is finding THE QUALIFIED prospects to target. Our best prospect would be defined as:

A Corporate Marketing Contact with significant purchasing power or influence.

Contact is involved in the development of corporate branded merchandise and or significant corporate promotions.

Contact has the power to develop, implement and oversee programs that solve the repetitive promotional need of a corporation "Such as a company store".

Contact has ability to coordinate high volume promotional product purchases and entertain overseas production.

Contact works for a company with 5,000 + employees and min 500,000,000 in sales

Our company specializes in the customization, production and distribution of promotional products. We are requesting strategies (internal and outsourced) for the quickest and most effective identification of 200-400 very qualified prospects. All suggestions are welcome.

Posted by: Inbox_Interactive Member Response
8/27/2004 9:04 AM (CST)
Try this:

http://thelistonline.com/

Seems like it might be good fit.

Paul
 
Posted by: psimone Member Response
8/27/2004 9:47 AM (CST)
Hi Promo Dave,

Outsourcing to a list company is the fastest, most reliable way of finding the select group of executives you want to reach. Know there are lots to choose from, but several you may want to check out are:

http://www.Inforefinery.com http://www.bestpricedlists.com
http://www.edithroman.com

Pattie
 
Posted by: aosterday* Member Response
8/27/2004 9:58 AM (CST)
Try hoovers.com or dandb.com. Purchase a menbership, then look up any company you want and you will get a wealth of information, including names of executives and others in power positions, including marketing.
 
Posted by: SteveByrneBranding Member Response
8/27/2004 12:32 PM (CST)
Hi Promo Dave,

Paul gave you a good resource. I worked with The List using their Agencies & Design Firms list and it was a quality updated list of best prospects.

good luck,

- Steve
 
Posted by: Wiglaf Member Response
8/29/2004 6:58 PM (CST)
Promo Dave -

From your question, it appears as though we disagree with the definition of an effective campaign. Effective campaigns are those that develop qualified contacts at the least effort. Perhaps we need to explore this issue instead.

From the nature of your questions, it appears that you sell trinkets for marketing purposes. If this is correct, you have well defined your target market but may need more focus in contacting them. Have you tried the following:

Direct Mail
Targeted Advertising
Tradeshows
Outbound telemareketing

http://www.wiglafjournal.com/Articles/2004/2004-06-09-High-Five-DM.htm

http://www.wiglafjournal.com/Articles/2004/2004-07-07-NetworkingInvest.htm

http://www.wiglafjournal.com/Articles/2003/2003-09-03_Smith_Illuminate_Lase...

http://www.wiglafjournal.com/Articles/2002/2002-04-17%20Trade%20Shows,%20Pa...

http://www.wiglafjournal.com/Articles/2002/2002-04-24%20Advertising,%20Part...

Good luck.
Tim
 
Posted by: bsocransky* Member Response
9/1/2004 10:36 AM (CST)
Use a database service like Selectory Online to find companies with 5,000 + employees and a minimum of $500M in sales. These types of databases are good at helping you target the right companies but not necessarily the right people at those companies.
In order to find qualified prospects you need to do lots of heavy lifting. Once you have your target company list you need to call them (or hire a 3rd party to do this) and find out who the relevant decision makers are for your products. eg. Director of Marketing, Tradeshow Manager etc...Then you can start a marketing campaign targeted at these people such as direct mail and follow-up with outbound telemarketing.
 
Posted by: thinkmor Member Response
9/6/2004 6:15 PM (CST)
Hi Promo Dave

Talk to your current customers - preferably your most profitable, what sort of referral system do you have in place? Simply ask them, do they know anyone that can benefit (like they have) from your services?

Do you find 20% of your customers bring you 80% of profits? If so, what sort of relationship programme do you have in place for looking after your most valuable customers?

Can you provide value added services workshops/seminars that your current customers will find helpful and bring a colleague?

What opportunities do you provide in your communication with your customers to refer other clients?

Do you take part in key trade events that are recgnised within your industry? If so, do your key personnel speak at these events?

What sort of Corporate social responsibility programmes are in place, do you sponsor high profile community initiatives or charity events that are ideal for networking?

Do you have a networking strategy and can you levarege this with your PR?

Do you use brand advertising to remind and inform of your specialist expertise and benefits you deliver to your target audience?

Do your customers perceive YOU to be 'the specialists' you claim? how do they compare you with your competitors?

A few questions off the top...


thanks

Zahid
 
Posted by: jose04 Member Response
9/7/2004 12:38 AM (CST)
Hello PromoDave

I guess you need results!

You could think seriously about the Content-Traffic building-Presell-Monetise (CTPM) cycle as promoted by Ken in his sitesell.com business.

The most ideal situation for you would be to make these 'Contacts' get to you, because you have the 'content' and they have seen or heard about you. Sitesell raves about 'google adsense' and 'web traffic statistics' and 'demand-supply statistics' for your product. All this is obviously for a fee. about $400/month. You could check out more details from:

http://buildit.sitesell.com/main/home.html

You could ofcourse content paraphrase the CTPM logic to draw the attention of these Corporate Marketing Biggies out there. Maybe getting your team to research more on the media habits of your potential target will be a start. Parallel development of your own inside stories of success and quality related to your services (developing / confirming 'content') must be shared with all the relevant marketers in your zone of coverage. A useful newsletter with high retention value contents should be your mouthpiece. Another strategy you could explore is instituting awards for competence and calibre periodically for marketing achievements. Such ceremonies do attract the best marketing brains, particularly if you have affiliates who make marketers sit up. THe idea is to do things which will show your target world that you are there, and they should recognise you when you sent them the direct mailer, after all the hard work of screening the chaff from the wheat.

Hope these thoughts help!
 
Posted by: jstiles* Member Response
9/7/2004 4:31 PM (CST)
From your question it sounds like you know who you want to contact and have a method in place for conatctin g them. I'll just add some additional sources:

Dun & Bradstreet publish the Million Dollar Directory which is reliable and would help you ID and reach your stated targets. D&B also offers custom list services.

InfoUSA is another list company that would be able to help you.
 
Posted by: telemoxie Accepted Answer
9/11/2004 1:23 PM (CST)
Can we break the task down into two phases: identifying the target companies, and identifying the relevant contacts.

In order to identify target companies, as I've built lists for clients, I have found the best prospects by aggregating lists from various sources. For example, it would be a trivial matter to run a list (e.g. from Dun & Bradstreet) of companies who match your demographics. But these will not neccessarily meet other criteria - and so you look for sources of other lists (such as lists of exhibitors at trade shows, member companies of marketing associations, etc. ) which might be a clue that the company might be a target for your product or service. Merge each list (including any rented lists) into an Excell spreadsheet where the first column is the company name and second column is the list it's from, sort by Column A, and Voila, companies with highest probability of being prospects (because they appear on multiple lists) will become evident.

Once you know the companies you wish to pursue, it's plain and simple hard work - looking at the web sites, resarching the D&B MDD, ReferenceUSA, Hoovers, etc. for an intial point of contact, and making the calls.

It's hard work - but the right person has a need for what you do, and sometimes appreciates the call and the effort you put in to find them. And, you will have a reason to speak with them (I see you exhibit at... your company is a member of...) which may help start your conversation.
 
Posted by: ASVP/ChrisB Member Response
9/12/2004 11:07 PM (CST)
http://thelistonline.com/thelist.php has around 5,000 companies with revenues >500M PA, although the list conatins LOADS of duplicates so the real number is probably way less.

Might be worth calling in Dun & Bradstreet and asking your rep for a summary of the companies with the parameters you seek in the geographic and market segments most useful to you.

FWIW my personal experience with D&B (In Australia, via clients) is their information can be very out of date. They usually offer a straight credit for every contact you tell them is wrong, which just gets you cleaning up their database at low cost to them. Before you finalise a deal with anyone, I would construct a deal that gives you, say, 100 free extra contacts for every one that is out of date or wrong. Might give them more incentive to give you freshest possible data.

Hope this helps

ChrisB
 


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