The Gary Halbert Letter, Exact Name Mailing List

The other source for those names, is your handy, dandy list broker. A list broker works very much like a real estate broker except his product is names and addresses rather than homes. Once again, your phone book is the first place you should check to find a list broker in your city. If there aren't any in your local area, I suggest you go to your library and see if they have, as many libraries do, the phone books from major cities all over the country. If they do, then simply check under "Mailing List Brokers" in the yellow pages of the phone book of the largest city near you.

And, just for instance, I'm going to give you here the names and phone numbers of five list brokers in different parts of the U.S. Here they are:

1. Los Angeles - Thulin Communications, Inc.

Jim Thulin at (213) 930-1919

2. New York - The Specialist

Shelly Newman at 212 677-6760

3. Chicago - Aggressive List Management, Inc.

(312) 577-4455

4. Oklahoma - Direct Media, Inc.

(405) 348-8650

5. Ohio - Professional List Service

(216) 333-6070

Now, once you decide which lists you want to mail, you should also give some consideration as to how you are going to eliminate "deadwood" names which probably will never become one of your customers. Some of the ways you do this are very simple and only require a little common sense. If, for example, you are selling something that only appeals to women, you instruct the list broker or list owner to simply eliminate all men from the list.

However, it's not always that simple. Suppose, for example, you are selling an upscale product with a big price tag... and... you know lower income people are not good prospects for you. Well, what you need to know here is some of the bigger list companies like Donnelly & Polk use what is known as a "demographic overlay." What this means is each name on their files is "coded" with info about the aggregate value of the vehicles they own, their education and income level, their marital status and a dozen or so more "life-style indicators" which enables you to select only those people who are most likely to purchase your goods or services.