Meet the Broker: Steven Keats

Today we meet Steven Keats, executive vice president at Macromark Inc., a broker who’s immersed the business opportunity, health and seminars markets.

Although Keats no longer does list management-related work, most of his 20-plus years in the list business has been on the management side. It’s only been for the last few years at Macromark that he has focused exclusively on list brokerage.

He’s a veteran of several list companies, including Prescott Lists, Dependable Lists and VentureDirect Worldwide. And, he’s worked for a mailer’s in house list department.

His active client roster includes the product liquidation firm Zaken Corp., Palm Associates Group and several publishing companies. “Probably 60% of my brokerage work is in the business opportunity market,” said Keats.

Keats normally devotes weekends to family activities. He rides a three-seat bicycle with his wife and five-year-old son. On Saturdays he often takes his son swimming or rollerblading. Keats is a member of a bowling league and recently joined the PTA. His quieter pastimes include playing chess and collecting stamps.

What challenges are brokers facing in the opportunity seekers marketplace?

“The numbers have been dropping as far as the quantities of names available,” Keats said.

During periods of low unemployment, demand in the opportunity seekers market typically diminishes and other changes normally occur. Brokers like Keats adapt by diversifying and finding responsive segments on out-of-category lists.

Keats’ observation is that the current crop of customers is typically more educated and not necessarily looking to get rich quick. “They’re not out looking for the brass ring,” he added.

The motivation for many opportunity seekers has become more modest with goals like putting children through college or simply earning some additional income through the Internet or otherwise, said Keats.

“The lists being used are not necessarily lists of opportunity seekers,” he said.

Mailers are increasingly overlaying income and education data on health-related or compiled lists to reach opportunity seekers, according to Keats.

The biggest change has been the collapse in demand for telemarketing lists, with companies relying more on a combination of postal and e-mail lists to target offers.
“Telemarketing has dried up,” he said.

Can you share a recent experience involving a challenging brokerage deal?

A client in the seminar market needed 1.5 million names in a small geographic area of Texas with a low population density. Keats said he quickly realized there weren’t nearly that many names available on lists of seminar attendees.

“And seminar companies are very specific down to the Zip code level,” he added.

Keats is accustomed to recommending 15 to 20 lists for a typical seminar offer, but this time he had to find more than 80 lists to come up with 1.5 million names.

“I went into a lot of new areas for different types of mailing lists. We ended up using financial and investment list files not normally used for seminar offers,” he said.

The extra work involved included coordinating a numerous demographic overlays and negotiations for special pricing, but in the end it was worth it, because the campaign was successful, he said.

Know someone you’d like to suggest for Meet the Broker? E-mail Jim Emerson at [email protected]