It’s been said many times but there is no harm mentioning it again: Data is now a commodity at the center of all business operations. Whether you plan to expand to new markets or looking to discover and engage new prospects, you need data to make informed and effective decisions. The question is- which data?
[bctt tweet=”Data, after all, isn’t a monolith.” username=”LeadGenInst”] It keeps changing and while good data enables businesses to make informed decisions, bad data can mislead them into making blunders.
33% of marketers believe they can rely on CRM data to make business decisions but at the same time, 27% of business leaders aren’t sure how much of their data is inaccurate. What this reflects is the utter state of confusion where companies simply can’t run at their potential because they don’t have the required data.
The next obvious question is, what exactly is bad data and where does it come from? Simply put, any incorrect, inconsistent, incomplete or misleading entries your database can be referred to as bad data.
The reason it is really tough for companies to keep their CRM insulated from bad data is that they can creep in from many different sources. Still, of all the causes, manual error and redundancy remain the root cause of most bad data instances.
So, is bad data that bad for businesses? More than you might think. By some estimates, an average company loses 12% of its revenue due to bad data. So, even if you are a small-sized firm with annual revenue of $10 million and think data doesn’t have much impact on your business, think again because you might be losing a million dollars every year!!
If you add to it reputational damage, the overall impact is even bigger in the long run.
Finally, what can businesses do to mitigate the risks of bad data? Well, a lot. But keep in mind that cleaning data isn’t an event but a constant process. B2B data on average decays at around 70% every year. So even if you do all you can and clean your data to achieve 70% accuracy, a significant portion of it would go stale in a matter of months.
So while it is always good to take concrete measures to clean your data, the best strategy is to just follow the best practices or simply outsource the data needs to skip all the trouble.
Jason Hubbard, VP of Growth at SalesIntel
Jason has literally grown-up in startups, including helping to grow three top 100 Inc. Fastest Growing Private Companies. Most recently, Cirrus Insight was number 41. He now serves as the VP of Growth for SalesIntel.io. SalesIntel is the most comprehensive contact and company data provider that helps you target your ideal prospects and accelerate revenue growth.SalesIntel is the top provider of accurate and affordable sales and marketing contact data.
With 95% accurate, human-verified contacts, 60+ Million machine processed data, and the most direct-dial contacts in the industry, SalesIntel is your resource for contact data. SalesIntel’s new method is to have every direct dial number and email tested and re-verified every 90 days. Our combination of automation and researchers allows us to reach 95% data accuracy for all our published contact data while continuing to scale up our number of contacts. With the most comprehensive contact & company data and our excellent customer service, SalesIntel is your partner in growth!
