Sales Firm Gets 35% (And Higher) Reponse Rates With Targeted Lists From Hoover's

Business Roadblock

When you enter the editorial department at Hoover's, the first thing you'll see are rows and rows of periodicals. Newspapers, magazines, trade journals, and on, spanning cities, industries, current events, and more. Next, suspended above, you see a score of televisions tuned to every conceivable news channel; interviews, ticker tapes, breaking stories, and commentary steadily streaming down.

To ensure that it has the most applicable business data from which to execute its campaigns, Miller Heiman turns to Hoover's.

Solution

In 2003, Miller Heiman planned a campaign to reach pertinent executives at FORTUNE 500 companies. Jennifer Vodehnal, marketing manager, went to Hoover's and built a list of those companies using Hoover's Build Executive List tool.

List in hand, the company first sent a mailing to these executives and then followed up with phone calls.

According to Vodehnal, the campaign resulted in a 35% response rate.

"That was substantially better than we'd been able to do before with these kinds of prospecting campaigns," Vodehnal said. "That was one of our best lists to date at that point."

Vodehnal says she pulls lists from Hoover's about once a month. The information is then downloaded to Excel. Once a lead becomes a customer, the data is added to a CRM system. To add value, Vodehnal will also augment lists from other sources with Hoover's data - for instance, a company name list will be supplemented with Hoover's address and contact information.

"Where Hoover's really helps is just the speed and consistency of putting these lists together," Vodehnal said. "With Hoover's, I can develop lists with the common factors that I need, with a consistent format, so that regardless of what list it is, the business development team is familiar with the format. We can pull those lists very quickly and get going on our campaigns."

Vodehnal said that being able to target potential customers by geography, industry, or their inclusion within the FORTUNE 500 supports her company's business operations and is a valuable resource.

"Our regional VPs are responsible for sales consultants who cover certain cities or states. When we have a new sales consultant join us, we want to ramp them up quickly. I'll download a list that is specific to a particular city so this new person can hit the ground running with new appointments. It helps get them ramped up faster."

Bottom Line

Since its initial FORTUNE 500 campaign, Miller Heiman has seen even greater success with its list targeting. Vodehnal gave as an example a list targeting the transportation industry that performed at around a 70% response rate.

Vodehnal said she depends on Hoover's for its ease of use and consistency.

"We've really embraced Hoover's as a business resource for a lot of different people in our organization. Being able to segment by employees, revenues, or other criteria is extremely valuable."