Meet the Broker: Ruben Leon

Today we meet Ruben Leon, president of Spectrum Data in Carlsbad, CA. Leon batches list orders together for maximum leverage in price negotiations. He finds clients through trade associations and agencies when he’s not working with other brokers.

“I go after small mailers and bundle big orders to bring to list managers,” Leon says. The largest co-op order I’ve done involved 1.8 million records.”

While it’s not unusual for brokers to aggregate orders for compiled data, Leon does the same for managed response lists, a much less common practice. He typically works with other brokers, combining list orders for between eight and 150 mailers at a time.

“It’s a bit stickier to do it with managed data, but list owners and managers are willing to do it, as long as there are no conflicts of interest,” he says.

Besides the inherent negotiation edge, brokers turn to list rental co-ops when individual client orders would be too small to meet minimum-order requirements. Leon adds that “some mailers are so small they couldn’t access managed list data any other way.”

He also participates in list rental co-ops organized by other brokers: “If I’m looking for something in an area I don’t know well, I’ll go to other brokers so I can get what my clients need for a better price.”

Most of Leon’s clients are agencies or small mailers, but he also provides list brokerage services for financial institutions like Bank of America, ING Group, Union Bank of California, Wachovia and HSBC.

Another area Leon specializes in is the education market. He makes list recommendations for the University of Southern California, National University and California State University, San Marcos. Leon also brokers lists for 24 Hour Fitness and the American Automobile Association.

By the end of his work day spent sitting behind a desk Leon says he aches for outdoor adventure, either on his bicycle or in the sea. “I live on the beach and I love ocean sports. I surf, free dive and spearfish,” he says.

How did you get started in the list business?

“I started in 1987 at my father’s business Accurate List Co., working mostly with compiled lists and doing list brokerage.”

In 1991, Leon founded Spectrum Data with an investment of $1,000 and rented office space from his father. “I learned the business from him,” he says.

What kinds of lists do you work with in the financial services sector?

“Mostly I work with specialty data, everything from lists of bankruptcies to tax liens, real estate foreclosures and notices of defaults,” he says.

The data he uses is derived from credit bureaus.

“Right now there are a lot of companies that want to make offers to people who are having a major financial event in their lives,” Leon notes.

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