It’s perhaps the most common conversation I have with prospective clients, and it goes something like this: Tim, I really need to communicate with potential new customers, but I don’t have a database list to send to. Where’s the best place to buy a list? Oh, and by the way, I need it fast and I don’t have much budget to work with.

As I interrupt the question, I respond that there is no place to safely buy/rent/gather/assemble a safe email list at any price. A look of despair ensues. 

Huh?

I repeat: There is no place to safely buy/rent/gather/assemble an email list at any price.

The acronyms have evolved, and you should too.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know how drastically our buying habits have changed. We all shop like consumers now, so the lines between consumer and business buying have blurred considerably. Still, the old acronyms were useful in helping us categorize communications…except that they never did much to help us understand the people in the second part of the equation.

A few months ago, I was up to my eyeballs in a demanding project for a historic retailer. I was pouring myself into it, staying up late, bringing my kids to after-hours meetings, racing to meet weekly deadlines—and honestly, I figured I was failing.