The list expert has all of the following business list sources at his or her command. Some of these are excellent sources and are worth using or testing; others are not. It pays to get expert help.
Directories
Business and classification. These directories report on businesses by industry, market, state, community, and usually include names, addresses, personnel (by name and title), and some demographic data, which can include the size of company, number of employees, telephone number, and products sold or professions employed
Telephone book classifications. There are over 4700 separate local classified directories published in America that have formerly been compiled by several major compilers into a universe consisting of virtually all businesses, institutions, and offices of professionals. This universe includes over 13 million individual records, about 7.5 million independent establishments, and over 3500 separate classifications. Today, only one firm utilizes the classifieds (or Yellow Pages) in this way.
City. There are several thousand city and local directories, many of which provide the only or main source of occupational data with at-home addresses.
Rosters. These include membership rolls of affinity groupings such as associations, societies, clubs, industry leaders, and so on.
Trade Show Registrants
Trade show registrants are of two types– those who register at individual booths at a given show, with a specific interest in a particular product or source, or, more likely, those who register for the trade show itself, a listing of whom is later published by the trade show manager, coded according to such functions as sales, engineering, finance, design, plus a means to select or omit students, librarians and the like.
Attendance Rosters
Some of the best small lists available are of attendants of meetings, seminars, or shows. If a meeting is worth attending for you or one of your people, it stands reason the list of all attendees can be a valuable list source.
Magazine Publishers
There are a couple of thousand industrial magazines that cover one hundred classifications. Most of the publishers now rent names of their subscribers or recipients.
Newsletter Publishers
There are thousands of newsletters circulated in America. All but a small number serve individual specialized business markets. Those which make their lists available for mailing usually work on an exchange only policy.
Multiple Magazine Master Files
Virtually every publisher of three or more magazines offers an unduplicated master file of all recipients.
Business Public Data Banks
There are several lists of names ranging from millions of executives that are compiled lists, mail order buyers, and magazine recipient files.
Dun & Bradstreet
In addition to providing about 70 million of this country’s 8 million business establishments, D&B also makes names available of multi million dollar executives, business owners, doctors, lawyers, and insurance agents.
Standard & Poor
This is the key directory to major manufacturers, which lists most of the 45,000 largest companies in America with 250,000 executives by name and title.
Business Mail Order Buyers
There are over 600 known mail order buyers that sell to other businesses by mail, primarily by catalog. They can be selected by catalog.
Compiled Business Mail Order Buyers
Direct media has combined a number of business mail order lists into a data bank of known mail order buyers. The list totals at least 2.5 million and is selectable by SIC classification.
Specialized Sources
While there are multiple sources for almost every classification, there are specialists (both compilers and publishers) who have established themselves as primary sources for given classifications, including: banks; libraries; schools and school teachers; colleges and college professors; nurses; hospitals; lawyers; dentists; stock and bond brokers; and advertisers found in magazines.
