4 Dirty Data Types: How To Clean Your CRM

This blog covers: 

• Why updating your CRM is valuable 
• Problematic data types 
• Ways to clean up dirty data
• Benefits of clean data 

54% of B2B businesses say poor quality data is their biggest challenge – ZoomInfo 

This is dirty data. 

Think of your CRM as a garden. 

Dirty data are the weeds killing your plants (opportunities). 

You want to fill your garden with fresh plants (leads) which are going to bloom into flowers (revenue). 

When it comes to clean data there are two factors you need to maintain to ensure your data is clean as possible: 

• Consistency 
• Accuracy 

Why? 

High-performing companies update their data on a daily basis resulting in 23% higher win rates than low-performing companies. 

This results in higher accuracy as high-performing sales reps are updating their CRM as and when things are happening. 

As opposed to bulk updating and tweaking things to fit the picture they are painting for their managers. 

More accurate data allows managers to provide their sales reps with specific and timely feedback. 

Sales reps are now equipped with the information needed to push deals to a close. 

This is a win-win situation for sales leaders as well as sales reps! 

Spring clean your CRM today: 

The Marie-Kondo Method 

This method follows the rule of discarding everything that does not spark joy. 

For example, an inactive user from 7 years ago is not sparking joy so what do we do? 

Bin it! 

Here are things that are NOT ever going to spark joy for your sales team: 

1. Too much data 
2. Duplicate data 
3. Incomplete data 
4. Inaccurate data 

These types of data are problematic because they present an incorrect picture of your pipeline. 

Whilst you might not discard all of this data, you DO need to clean it up. 

Too much data 

Large amounts of data can be overwhelming and it can be difficult to make sense of everything. 

Concise information that is organized well becomes empowering. 

It helps you do your job better. 

This then drives alignment between departments. 

You want to begin to purge data. For example, inactive users or outdated data. 

40% of email users change their email address at least once every two years. 

This is the type of data you want to remove or update to maintain a sleek database. 

To prevent this from happening in the future, define what information is required and essential to begin looking at a deal. 

Standardize data entry across all your teams. 

For example, contact information, the stage of the opportunity, best-case amount, commit amount, expected close date, etc. 

Duplicate data 

Duplicate data could look like one employee with two job titles. 

Problems caused by duplicates 

• Reps could spend time following the wrong prospects leading to missed sales opportunities.
• When your sales reps reach out to an employee with two job titles, for example, their outreach may be catered to the incorrect job title. 
• Duplicate records lead to duplicate messaging. This could harm your brand’s perception and negatively affect the customer’s experience. 

The solution? Automation! 

Give reps 8 to 10 hours back by reducing admin so they can do what they do best. Sell. 

Ebsta automates CRM health by; 

• Automatically enriching your CRM with contacts and their up-to-date contact details 
• Syncing contacts and calendars to capture all activity
• Identifying when contacts have changed job roles, have left the organization, or are out of office

Your CRM should be your single source of truth and provide you with end-to-end visibility. 

Eradicate error-prone admin and give reps more time to close deals with Ebsta. 

Incomplete data 

40% of business objectives fail due to inaccurate data – ZoomInfo 

Data gaps make the job of sales reps a hell of a lot harder. 

Without information on the industry, common problems they are facing, or what their tech stack looks like, it can be incredibly difficult to personalize outreach. 

This can reduce the chances of grabbing a lead’s attention. 

Automatically capture any contact that you or your team engage with using Ebsta. 

No stone will be left unturned when you sync your email and calendar. 

In fact, we worked with Lean Data, a go-to-market execution platform, to implement Ebsta into their sales process.

Ebsta plays a key role in capturing data, syncing it with the CRM, and helping to ensure it’s available and ready for all teams across the customer lifecycle. 

They were able to save 2,600 admin hours and sync 12,420 key contacts. 

Inaccurate data 

Incorrect data = Incorrect decisions 

Every decision made from when you capture a lead to closing an opportunity is an important one. 

Inaccurate data affects all go-to-market teams. It results in incorrect reporting, poor decisions and can hinder the progression of an opportunity. 

For example, marketing teams may use this data to run large campaigns with a lot of money behind them. 

If this information is inaccurate, the whole campaign could be a flop. 

Encourage sales reps to update as and when things are happening. Why? 

• Reduces chances of information being forgotten by sales reps 
• You capture more information
• Managers can provide more specific coaching to their sales reps
• Prevents deals from slipping 

We analyzed 122,236 opportunities and found that the number of weekly changes made to the CRM and won opportunities are related. 

More updates = higher win rates. 

Benefits of a squeaky clean CRM 

Shorter Sales Cycles 

With accurate and up-to-date data, sales reps can better understand their leads. 

It allows you to recognize WHO has a need for your product or solution as well as HOW you can sell to them with more of a personal touch. 

With data on how your lead operates and their pain points, you can sell your solution with their goals in mind. 

This is what will help to shorten your sales cycles. 

In fact, we found that opportunities with strong relationships took 58% less time to close. 

Improved Pipeline Visibility 

Accurate data means you have your finger on the pulse of your pipeline in real-time.

You can effectively track opportunities from start to finish, all the way through to when they are closed won or lost. 

Managers can easily spot deals at risk, better coach their sales reps, and prevent deals from slipping.

Have Confidence in Your Decisions 

A clean CRM allows you to accurately predict your sales forecast. 

Accurate forecasting means you can plan for the future as it provides you with actionable insights.

For example, it indicates to financial teams how the budget should be allocated. 

If your forecast indicates that there are a lot of opportunities in your pipeline next quarter, an accurate forecast gives business leaders confidence in hiring temporary salespeople to better target growth. 

Or if there are not so many opportunities lined up, finance teams can adjust the budget to ensure they don’t overspend. 

Customer Experience 

With access to correct and accurate data, sales reps are better able to target leads in a personalized way. 

80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that provides a personalized experience. – Epsilon 

From the perspective of customer success, they are better able to support the customer and help them to fully utilize your product as they are equipped with all of the data related to that particular account. 

Still not convinced? We’ve got the data to prove why updating your CRM is so valuable. 

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