Meet the Broker: Jim Walters
Today we meet Jim Walters, senior account executive at Advanced Marketing Direct, a printing and list services firm in Buffalo, NY. Walters makes list recommendations for student enrollment and lead generation programs.
Walters focuses on the adult education market to find professionals interested in returning to school. “I’m mainly involved with education and training programs at for-profit educational institutions,” he says.
Walters keeps busy with monthly mailing programs. Some of the clients that he works with include Education Management Corp. and Sylvan Learning Inc.
“I’m involved with a lot of tweaking and making adjustments in list strategies,” he says.
Demand in the education sector seems to shift easily with the economy and keeps growing. Walters’ target audience ranges from job seekers and career changers during economic downturns to professionals pursuing additional training in boom times.
List brokerage is only one aspect of his job. He’s also involved in mail planning and coordinating print and production for direct mail and other list-related services. He estimates he spends about a third of his time actually doing brokerage.
When Walters joined Advanced Marketing Direct in 2000 he initially worked in printing and production. Later, he learned how to target direct mail using lists and variable printing technology to segment based on career interest and geography.
Walters began his direct marketing career in 1995 working for a Dutch direct marketing agency with offices in Poland. He speaks fluent Polish.
His extracurricular interests include European travel and foreign languages. Walters can speak some Russian, Czech and Slovak. “I’ve traveled everywhere in Europe from Estonia in the Baltics to Croatia in the Balkans,” he says.
What kinds of lists work in the education market?
Walters prefers association membership lists and response files that indicate specific career interests, while avoiding compiled lists.
“I might order 30 lists for a single mailing. I want response lists. I want to know about the career interests of prospects based on response data,” he adds.
“Survey lists and lists of people with a propensity to do something don’t cut it for me. Large compiled lists and list modeling are not very relevant.”
How can brokers best work with list managers?
“Brokers must know the strengths and weaknesses of their list management counterparts. The quality of list management account executives is all over the place and not consistent,” says Walters.
Some list managers provide reliable counts and fulfill orders on time—and some consistently make errors in counts and have problems keeping to schedules. “It’s good for brokers to share this information amongst themselves,” he says.
He recommends that brokers beware of list managers who are quick to blame problems on list service bureaus. And, they should admire those who are willing to organize lists geographically, and can provide accurate counts and fulfill orders on time.
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