The Puzzling, Frustrating 1 Percent Response Rate

If you’re a venture capitalist or a loan officer considering investing in a catalog, you should compare the catalog’s prospecting results with the 1 percent rule. If they’re beating it, try to understand why—is it a transient effect, or something you can count on? And if results are less than 1 percent, that’s a red flag to investigate. There are many good reasons why prospecting results may legitimately be under 1 percent (for example, they’re mailing a very small catalog)—just be sure you understand why you’re seeing response under 1 percent before you invest money in this catalog.