Reverse messaging is a 'light' form of Request for Proposal/Permissions Management. Under Reverse Messaging individuals signal their willingness/wish to receive messages about specific items/brands at specific times. A reverse message says 'I am currently in the market for a ... new credit card/lawnmower/washing machine ... and I am willing to receive messages from suppliers of these items'.

In most cases, these reverse messages are collated and aggregated by intermediaries who sell them on to suppliers as leads. A key part of this service is the user's ability to turn messages on and off ('I am no longer interested in offers about credit cards'). Users may also specify e-mail or IM addresses which have a life span designated and controlled by the user.

Business case, for individuals

• convenient access to information and offers from the right suppliers about the right things at the right time
• the ability to monetize the value of their attention, as intermediaries pay individuals to keep on uploading their latest reverse messaging/permission profiles

Business case, for suppliers

• The ability to reduce waste in their go to market processes by talking to the right people about the right things at the right time.
• Data for analytics regarding the user interest and action cycle (how long between request and buy, how much data required, geographic or other determinants of real user data).

Necessary infrastructure

• Easy reverse messaging specifications for users
• efficient aggregation and passing-on of signals of interest to relevant suppliers
• ability to efficiently filter and present resulting information back to users in convenient easy-to-use formats