Meet the Broker: Marlene Scarlett
Today we meet Marlene Scarlett, sales manager at Listdata Management Services Inc. She’s too young to know what list brokerage was like before computers. Moreover, she believes all brokers are destined to work with Internet media.
“The Internet is evolving and I expect all brokers will be working more with online media in the future. I’m seeing a lot of companies offering more e-mail lists and services for online advertising,” says Scarlett.
Although she has worked with Internet media before, her focus of late has been on postal lists in the consumer health products market. Most of her list orders are for companies selling dietary supplements and vitamins. Her main client is Goldshield Healthcare Direct.
Scarlett got her start in the list industry in 1995 at Jami Marketing Services Inc. Next she worked for Edith Roman Associates Inc. and then Worldata, before joining Listdata.
She did e-mail list and Internet banner ad placement work for the first time while she was with Worldata. She was assigned to the CareerTrack account during her tenure there. However, she left Worldata and the list industry for a few years to pursue a career in accounting.
Scarlett returned to the list realm in 2004, taking a job as an accountant for Listdata. Her job expanded to include list brokerage and management, after the company closed its New York office earlier this year.
“I started doing list brokerage again in February, since I had prior list brokerage experience and I already knew a lot of list managers.”
Scarlett knows all too well about multi-tasking as she has three job functions to juggle. “I’m busy. I do list brokerage, list management and accounting.”
Her home life is busy too. She and her husband have an 8-month old boy. The couple lives midway between Disney World and Busch Gardens, her favorite diversion destinations. Scarlett’s other interests include listening to gospel music, floral arranging and making pillows.
How has the economic downturn affected you?
Clients of course have become pickier about the lists they’ll rent. List rental volumes have decreased as some companies reduce mailing frequency from monthly to quarterly.
Likewise, Scarlett has noticed list managers are trying to be more competitive by offering cleaner lists and matching files against the National Change of Address list more frequently. “This is good,” she adds.
There’s the free pen surge too. Attendance at industry events has thinned to put it politely, which has curtailed networking opportunities and created a glut of freebies that someone has to carry away.
Sales reps are loath to bring giveaways back to the office. So they’ve getting more aggressive
