I was talking with a representative from Sales Genie at a conference recently, and our conversation turned to the roots of list making.

My first prospecting list, in the days before information was online, was a labor of much labor. Having identified my target market (at the time, Washington offices of large companies in the agriculture and/or energy sectors), I spent several days at the public library meticulously writing down on index cards contact names, titles, addresses, company data, and any other information that I thought might be useful.

It turns out that Sales Genie, in its early days, used pretty much the same process. Which makes sense, of course, because why should everyone reinvent the wheel?

Has the process changed today–or is it just easier to access data? What does your list-making process entail?

Photo by rocknroll_guitar (Flickr).