Meet the Broker: Wayne Roimisher, List Strategies Inc.
Today we meet Wayne Roimisher, senior account executive at List Strategies Inc., New York. Roimisher has a business-to-business focus, specializing in the healthcare and publishing markets.
He joined the direct mail agency in 1994, soon after receiving a B.S. degree in economics with a concentration in marketing from the State University of New York at Oneonta.
“It’s been my only job, which is very rare nowadays,” says Roimisher.
Among the clients that he works with are Elsevier, Thomson Reuters, Advanstar Communications, Practising Law Institute, American Psychological Association and the American Association for Clinical Chemistry.
Roimisher considers himself fortunate because his professional and personal interests naturally mesh. Besides working with companies in the healthcare industry, he’s a volunteer emergency medical technician (EMT).
“When I make list recommendations in the healthcare market, I usually know the terminology. And if I don’t know something I ask my wife, who’s a nurse practitioner,” he adds.
With respect to the economy, Roimisher says it seems like some companies are putting first quarter mailings on hold, waiting to see how the new Obama Administration deals with current economic woes.
Budget cutbacks and postponement of mailings that accompany recessions are counterintuitive to mailers’ objectives to generate business, he says, but all brokers can do is to fight harder for good list prices to keep clients in the mail.
“The only way to make money is to keep your company’s name out there. The ones who keep mailing will be the ones who keep market share,” he says.
Roimisher has plenty of outside interests too. Besides being a volunteer EMT, Roimisher serves as president of the South Orangetown (NY) Volunteer Ambulance Corps. He plays softball and hockey in local men’s leagues and enjoys his season tickets to New York Jets games. He also has an 8-month old son and two daughters, ages 4 and 5.
What ethical concerns are there in the list business?
Misleading data sources might be the number one concern, he says.
Roimisher notes another big issue involves smooth operators who’ll markup list prices in excess of the rates published on data cards. But that’s an easy one to check up on using NextMark, SRDS and other directory sources.
It’s more time consuming for him but very important to verify data sources. Some list titles include the word “association” for example, but the organization may be bogus—invented simply to market list data, he says.
“I check phone numbers and make phone calls, look for Web sites, ask for membership applications, request sample direct mail pieces and ask lots of questions. I’ve never been burned by checking all the information.”
“If I recommend a file that turns out to be bogus there would be no reason for a client to ever do business with me again,” Roimisher notes.
Are there concerns about mailers?
It’s not unheard of for some mailers to ask brokers to give up a portion of brokerage commissions.
Some brokers unfortunately will agree to discount their commissions, especially if they need the business, but Roimisher says brokers work hard to earn commissions and should never agree to so-called brokerage discounts. He calls such arrangements “kickbacks.”
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