Finding Geographic Hot Spots for Deeper Prospecting

| Jim Coogan

Have you looked for geographic hot spots where you have pockets of buyers? If you can find geographic hot spots you can prospect deeper to these states, sectional center facilities (SCFs), or zip codes because they will respond profitably to marginal prospecting lists.

Abacus Indicator: Shift to Online Sales Increases

| MCM staff

According to the Abacus 2006 Multichannel Trend Report, the shift from call center sales to Website sales continues. In a benchmark group of multichannel merchants, 25% of direct sales were conducted via Websites in 2005, compared with 20% in 2004–a 25% increase year over year.

As Congress Adjourns, Postal Reform Stalls

| Mark Del Franco

Though legislators and mailers worked past midnight on Saturday night–the session adjourned at 12:25 a.m.– an agreement was not reached on a conference bill that resolved the differences between the Senate (S. 662) and House (H.R. 22) postal reform bills.

Show Me The Data: When Did You Last Talk To Your Customers?

| Bill Singleton

Some customer data systems have wonderful table structures listing accounts and the contacts that make them up: items, orders taken, and orders shipped. The wonderful table missing from some elaborate, enterprise resource planning systems is the one that will tell the company how many times they have contacted their customers since those customers