Meet the Broker: Jim Hall, All That Marketing

Today we meet Jim Hall, vice president of Oklahoma City-based All That Marketing. He specializes in the outdoors market and telemarketing lists.

“It’s kind of weird how I got into this business. I was a police officer with a degree in sociology from Oklahoma State University,” Hall says.

“My policeman’s salary wasn’t enough to own a house and raise a family. So I decided I should try the list business, because like sociology it involves the study of groups of people.”

Hall joined Chilcutt Direct Marketing in 1985. He left in October 2006, so he could take charge of the marketing department at a family-owned software company. But, some list brokerage clients had other ideas.

“Much to my surprise, some clients called me and wanted me to continue doing list brokerage for them. So I branched out and started All That Marketing,” Hall says.

His brokerage clients include the J. Peterman and National Ropers Supply catalogs, Security Cameras Direct and BuckMaster Magazine, a title for deer hunters.

Hall devotes about three-quarters of his time to brokerage and the rest to list management. “About 40% of my brokerage work involves telemarketing,” he adds.

Hall is married and has a son, 14, and a daughter, 11. Besides playing basketball with friends after church on Sundays, Hall enjoys attending his children’s basketball and soccer games. He also likes donning camouflage outfits and a mask on weekends to play paintball.

“We had a big family shootout right after Thanksgiving. It was fun. We went out in the woods and shot each other and nobody got hurt,” says Hall.

How do telemarketing list regulations affect brokers?

The do-not-call list regulations have made it more difficult, but not impossible, to find lists for telemarketing.

The task is bigger than finding telephone number selections on data cards, he notes. It invariably means appending telephone numbers to multiple files. Then all the data must be run against the federal Do-Not-Call (DNC) Registry to omit all numbers that legally cannot be called.

“By the time everything is run against the DNC, telephone numbers may only be available for 20% of all the records,” Hall says.

What do you say to list owners reluctant to release data for telemarketing?

“First, I tell them that a reputable telemarketer will abide by all federal and state regulations. So the list owner can be assured they won’t mess with their list. Next, I point out that they’re missing out on a revenue stream,” says Hall.

He relishes telling mailers that telemarketing lists routinely pull response rates in the 2% to 4% range, which he says catches their attention because many mailers believe a 1% response rate from a postal list is good.

Persistence is his ultimate weapon. “If a publisher won’t release telephone numbers for current subscribers, I’ll ask for the expires. If a mailer won’t release phone numbers for buyers, I’ll ask for the inquirers’ phone numbers,” he says.

Know someone you’d like to suggest for Meet the Broker? E-mail
[email protected]