Meet the Broker: Patricia Coe

Today we meet Patricia Coe, senior account executive in the list brokerage division of Kroll Direct Marketing. Coe owned and operated a men's hair salon before she began her career in the list business.

Coe started as a part-time brokerage assistant in 1994 at Kroll. Her hours and responsibilities increased from part-time to full time assistant before she moved up to broker eight years ago.

Much of her brokerage experience has been in the software and high-tech markets. Her client roster includes Autodesk, Astoria Software, MathWorks, BoardSource, Elsevier and Coface Insurance.

Besides being a broker, Coe is a Red Cross volunteer. On Wednesday evenings she delivers meals to elderly shut-ins and sick people. "A lot of them have nurses, but they really appreciate someone bringing them a meal and having a two or three minute visit."

Coe spends free time with family and her many nieces and nephews. She goes to the movies every week with her eightysomething mother. Coe, who is single, enjoys nights out at live theater too. Most recently she saw the Broadway musical "Tarzan." For vacations, Coe likes to travel to Caribbean destinations or any place warm.

What's required of list brokers to work effectively with list managers?

"Brokerage requires diplomacy," said Coe. This means asking questions and figuring out a way to find out more about lists, especially when detailed source information is not always available from list managers, she explained.

Brokers' routine requests to list managers that go awry often become topics of conversation when brokers commiserate privately amongst themselves.

Coe outlined some of the "frustrations" that brokers encounter. Such scenarios include brokers receiving incomplete responses to specific requests or inquiries, mistakes in list orders, concerns about data sources and data accuracy.

Depending on the company and the person inputting the data, the actual quality of list orders delivered can vary greatly. When problems do occur it often involves missing or inaccurate data and orders with wrong selects.

Brokers and managers frequently "go back and forth" to get information for clients, added Coe. "We're really talking about the level of customer service. There certainly are diligent companies out there too."

Data card quality and service varies from company to company, with the quality of descriptions for files and sources ranging from sketchy to professional and complete. The names and definitions vary for the same types of data—for example, some companies offer "hotlines" as a selection, while others describe it as "recency."

List brokerage and management happens in an environment where commonplace business practices are non-standardized, which is what makes looking out for clients challenging, according to Coe.

Diligent brokers may follow a line of questioning with list managers that includes revealing some information about the lists and data sources are already used by clients. It's how brokers avoid duplicate list recommendations, tests and rentals, as many files with the same names are offered under different list titles.

For example, a broker can say my client uses a particular list from a specific source. Then, they can ask if the names on a file under consideration come from the same source and try to learn whether the same names on available from multiple lists.

It's an indirect way for brokers to get some assurances from list managers about data sources, when the managers cannot provide such specific information upfront.

 "I'd be curious to know how many orders are lost due to a lack of current information for specific lists," Coe said.
 
How have you seen the e-mail list rental market evolve?

Coe said she has observed growing numbers of selections become available on e-mail lists, with a corresponding increased interest in testing e-mail files.

Differences between selections available on postal lists and e-mail lists are now disappearing. The most requested selections on e-mail lists usually are for job titles such as engineers, industry and geographic selects in general, she said.

One of the most difficult selects to find on e-mail lists that clients are asking for is one for identifying importers and exporters, said Coe.

Know someone you'd like to suggest for Meet the Broker? E-mail Jim Emerson at jim.emerson@penton.com