Meet the Broker: Gary Phillips

Today we meet Gary Phillips, president of Power Prospecting LLC in Eden Prairie, MN. Phillips loves technology and trivia—as well as list brokerage, of course.

Phillips never cringes at the thought of self-service automated list ordering systems. He actively promotes it. Besides brokering lists, he's a licensed reseller of data flowing from Experian.

He monitors Web site list orders placed by small businesses for local mailings of postcards and flyers. Geographic targeting is done by drawing lines on interactive maps and demographically by entering list selection criteria.

"The online system is great for small mailers because it eliminates some phone calls, so I have more time for real brokerage work," says Phillips.

All told about 80% of the lists he deals with are postal files and the rest e-mail lists. "There are about 74,000 lists on the market and I'm trying to sell all of them," he quips.

His larger brokerage clients include American Family Insurance, Coldwell Banker Real Estate, RE/MAX International Inc., Wells Fargo, local banks and telemarketing agencies.

Phillips spends most of his time dealing with requests for specialty lists and vetting data sources. "I get involved in every list order," he adds.

He says his personality and sales background suit him for list brokerage. Before he got into the list business in 2003, he sold computers for 15 years.

Phillips is married and has 10 grandchildren under the age of 9. Besides playing with his grandkids, he enjoys boating and reading about history.

"I'm a trivia nut. Having a passion for trivia is good for a list broker. I'm the kind of person who if anyone asks, I can tell them that George Washington had a dog named Sweet Lips."

How do you read between the lines on data cards?

"Everyone claims they have a good list, but it's important to look into the counts and ask how often lists are updated, he says. Over time a good broker finds out who the reputable list owners are."

One way that he assesses counts is to compare the figures on data cards with census data. It's not unusual for counts to exceed what seems reasonable based on SIC codes and other census data reports, he says.

Some data cards bury or exclude specific information about the actual number of buyers, often including many names of inquirers in the total count, rather than breaking it out, which is more useful for brokers.

If counts seem too low that factors into his list recommendation decision. If counts seem too high it raises a red flag for him. "That data has been inflated and I won't recommend that list," he says.

What's the best source of lists?

"The best and cleanest lists you can buy are subscription lists. That's an easy question," says Phillips.

Know someone you'd like to suggest for Meet the Broker? E-mailJim.Emerson@Penton.com