Email/List Brokers

Using Business Specialty Lists
Business specialty lists are useful for business-to-business (B2B) sales. Salesmen can purchase lists of businesses and professional contacts in the specific industries to which they sell. Here are some examples of business specialty list categories:

Attorneys
Doctors
CEOs
Hospitals
Insurance agents
Real estate agents
Small business owners
Female executives
Fortune 500 companies
Home businesses
The companies that sell business specialty lists gather public information into a database, analyze it and break it down by several searchable criteria, including job title, geographic location, annual revenue, number of employees and something called a SIC or NAISC code.

Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes and the newer North American Industry Classification System (NAISC) codes are used by the government to classify businesses for census and tax purposes. Greeting cards, for example, are 2771 and dental equipment is 3843. With this information, salesmen can request business specialty lists for companies in their geographical area that file taxes with certain SIC or NAISC codes.

The advantage of a business specialty list is that a salesman can quickly gain access to thousands of targeted sales leads. A possible disadvantage, depending on the list compiling company's quality, is that a certain percentage of the leads may be outdated [source: startupnation]. Unlike real-time and opt-in sales leads, business specialty lists may have been sitting in the database for years. Even with this long list of leads in hand, a salesman will need to verify and analyze each lead to see if it fits well with the product or services he's trying to sell.

Real-time and Opt-in Sales Leads
Dozens of companies sell real-time and opt-in sales leads. These companies collect leads online through Web ads, surveys and affiliate programs with online retailers. Let's look at some important differences between real-time and opt-in sales leads.
Real-time sales leads are more expensive than opt-in sales leads because they are sent to salesmen seconds after the lead has filled out an online form or survey. This way the salesmen can contact the lead while the product or service is fresh in the lead's mind. A disadvantage of real-time leads is that there's little time to verify if the lead is a legitimate lead with real contact information and a demonstrated interest in the product or service being sold.

A new development in real-time sales leads is something called voice leads. With this technology, voice mail inquiries from leads are sent directly to salesmen so they can call the lead back immediately.

Opt-in sales leads cost less than real-time leads because they aren't as fresh. But the advantage of opt-in sales leads (or even double opt-in sales leads) is that the lead not only filled out an online form or survey, but responded to a confirmation e-mail. Even if the lead is a couple of days old, at least the salesmen know they have a real name with a real e-mail address. The opt-in process also allows for additional product promotion in the opt-in e-mails.

The prices of real-time and opt-in sales leads vary significantly depending on the industry and type of lead. Real-time real estate leads can cost as much as $60 per lead, while dozens of opt-in leads for a home business like Avon can cost as little as $40.