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