CEO
SPOTLIGHT - Vinod Gupta, Founder and Chairman, infoUSA, Inc.
This month, the editors of
Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine spoke with Vinod Gupta, the founder
and chairman of infoUSA, Inc., a provider of sales and marketing support for
products for all types of businesses, from small 'mom-and-pop' shops to
large corporations.
CIS: Can you provide us with a bit of history and an overview of infoUSA?
VG: I started the company 32 years ago in my garage with a $100 investment.
The basic principle of my company then is the same as today ' to provide
business owners, salespeople and marketers with the best possible
information to research, understand and grow their business. That simple
idea has launched us into what we are today ' a $350 million publicly traded
company. Our databases are the best in the world: 14 million businesses and
200 million consumers. I'm happy to say that we have four million customers
who have used our products to find new customers, cut their selling costs
and increase their profits.
CIS: How have recent privacy and accountability, not to mention
telemarketing, restrictions and laws changed the way that infoUSA does
business?
VG: The majority of infoUSA's revenue comes from our business
database, where there are no privacy restrictions. On the consumer database
side, it hasn't affected us that much because infoUSA has always been
dedicated to protecting consumer information throughout our compilation and
sales process. For example, we registered to receive the FTC do-not-call
list on the first day it became available and have been using it ever since.
Prior to the FTC do-not-call law, we received all available state
do-not-call lists and suppressed those phone numbers from our database.
While the sources of our databases come from publicly available information,
we also take steps to help ensure the protection of sensitive data. We go
through the exercise of finding out what company the caller works for and
then reviewing a copy of the telemarketing script or direct marketing letter
that they will be using before we sell them the list. In addition to
infoUSA's responsibility to abide by privacy legislation, our customers need
to understand the various laws and restrictions that impact their business.
I see infoUSA's role as a guide to help our customers through that often
confusing process. We can help companies make sure they are in compliance
with federal and state do-not-call legislation by processing a company's
current database against all do-not-call lists and then flag or remove
persons who have registered. We also need to represent our customers'
interests when appropriate as well, especially when laws are passed that
might negatively affect their ability to grow their business.
CIS: What kinds of specialized processes do you undertake to make
sure you're providing the freshest possible data to customers?
VG: Our entire compilation process is dedicated to exactly that '
providing the most accurate, relevant information to our clients. For
example, we make over 20 million phone calls a year to verify the
information in our business database. Nobody else in the industry does that.
We also gather data from multiple sources to ensure our customers get
nothing but the best, most accurate information. While other companies focus
on businesses outside data compilation, infoUSA has re-doubled our efforts
to improve database quality. Last year, we spent over $30 million in
compilation expenses and continue to evaluate and add appropriate sources to
our vast library of information. I believe that information is the
underpinning of any enterprise ' and if you start with inaccurate data, the
foundation of your business is weak. infoUSA is dedicated to helping
businesses build a strong foundation by providing highly accurate
information about their customers, suppliers and prospects.
CIS: What trends are you seeing in how companies are doing direct
marketing?
VG: Business is up. Companies are doing more direct marketing,
especially through e-mail and online channels. Believe me, every business
owner, sales manager and vice president of marketing needs new customers.
Today, buyers are more sophisticated and competition more fierce, which is
why more companies are using targeted database information to improve their
marketing efficiency and measure their return on investment.
CIS: What do you foresee in the future for this industry?
VG: I foresee further integration of marketing information through
multiple marketing channels. Businesses are starting to recognize that
multichannel management is an essential part of their business operations.
You now have e-mail, postal, mass advertising, search engine; all these
channels that need to have the same message, the same offer, the same
branding. Each one of those channels represents an opportunity to understand
your customer better. infoUSA's data have become an integral part of that
process by offering insight and analysis into your customer information.
CIS: What exciting new things are happening at infoUSA?
VG: We're always finding new ways to help our customers use the
information in our database to increase their sales and improve the quality
of their customer relationships. For example, our Caller ID++ service allows
businesses with call center operations to display key information on agents'
screens before the call is answered. Benefits of this include reduction in
data collection time, increased accuracy of data entry errors and more time
for customer service.
A new product that infoUSA is very excited about is Sales Genie. With this,
our customers get unlimited business and consumer sales leads and mailing
lists with 12 different databases to choose from. They can select their
criteria, sort, preview, select and download their sales leads and mailing
lists within seconds ' however many they want, whenever they want.
If you are interested in purchasing reprints of this article (in either
print or HTML format), please visit Reprint Management Services online at
www.reprintbuyer.com or contact a
representative via e-mail at
[email protected] or by phone at 800-290-5460.
[
Return To The
September 2004 Table Of Contents ]
|