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Today we meet Bert DesRosiers, a list broker at Glaser Direct Inc. DesRosiers sold his graphic arts wholesale supplies business in 1994. He then spent the next three years doing part-time consulting work until he joined Glaser in 1997.

"I was semi-retired and I discovered that I needed more structure in my life," DesRosiers says. "Before I got into this industry I didn't even know it existed."

Nor did he plan on beginning his new career as a broker—twice. When referrals from his original client were pouring in DesRosiers enjoyed booming brokerage commissions, but not for long. All his clients then were dotcom startups, so he had start over again when the bust followed that boom.

"I was doing one million names a month, but none of those companies are still in business," says DesRosiers. "I was negative on my draw again, like everyone who's just starting out in this business. I had to rebuild my business, starting from scratch a second time."

The boom and bust taught him the importance of having a diverse mixture of clients in different industries, he says.

DesRosiers focuses now on business-to-business list brokerage in the technology and education markets. He's involved with trade association membership development, business-to-business catalogs and consumer magazine subscription work.

Some of his brokerage clients include DePaul University, University of Missouri, National-Louis University, B & B Electronics Manufacturing Co. and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Besides making list recommendations, DesRosiers keeps busy as a volunteer managing a community theater. He has three adult children and six grandchildren. He and his wife travel to Japan at least once a year to visit their daughter who lives there. "My hobby is coffee, finding and importing exotic beans from all over the world," he says.

Have list strategies changed much in the education market?

With the growth of online education programs, list strategies have changed dramatically for targeting prospective graduate students, says DesRosiers.

Graduate students no longer limit their choices to programs within a 100-mile radius of where they live, which means universities no longer rely primarily on SCF list selections.

"My daughter is working on her master's degree [at a school in] California and she's living in Japan," he adds.

Universities use more lists sourced via Web sites, where prospective students search for information about programs and fill out forms to report specific career interests. "More and more of these types of lists are becoming available," he adds.

The number of lists for brokers to evaluate has increased greatly. When specific interests can be selected, all kinds of lists can work for education offers, from large databases to small files, according to DesRosiers.

What's your opinion of lists sourced from Web site co-registrations and Internet search engines?

"I see it as an exciting and new way to use media," he says.

Marketers can use co-registration lists like they use insert media for lead generation and customer acquisition, adds DesRosiers. E-mail offers can be placed at the bottom of online questionnaires or the postal addresses gathered can be used for subsequent mailings.

When data for specific interest selections, job title/function or ZIP codes are gathered online, search engines can automatically generate lists for targeting offers online, which are tailored to individuals making Internet search inquiries.

Search engines are more cost effective for marketing than renting postal lists, since both lists and offers can be targeted online and marketers only pay for names when a response is generated, he says, and transactions are completed online.

The challenge for brokers is that list search engine directories and list managers are still focusing on postal lists and offline marketing, while paying too little attention to new online list media potential, he says. So brokers have to do all the research themselves to find the opportunities out there.

Know someone you'd like to suggest for Meet the Broker? E-mail Jim.Emerson@Penton.com