According to a 2019 statistic from a prominent data compilation company, “the average company is losing 12% of its revenue” as a result of poor data, “costing US businesses more than $611 billion each year”. And a 2018 Global Data Management report stated that “US organizations believe that 33% of their customer and prospect data is inaccurate in some way” which, they also noted, was a 5 % INCREASE over the previous year’s findings! 

How much time and money are YOU and YOUR Cold Calling team wasting by relying on inaccurate, outdated and/or poor-quality data? In our effort to help YOU get the most out of your Cold Calling dials, here are some tips on how to check the data you have and clean up the data you work with. 

Gather your lists 

First, gather your data. If your info is in multiple places, try to consolidate it all into a single database. Your choice of CMS (Client Management Software) is important – use one specially designed for sales prospecting. We recommend VanillaSoft for its CMS functionality and ease of use. (Click HERE to learn more about VanillaSoft) 

WHERE was that data compiled? 

Did you BUY your data? Was it compiled by YOUR people? Was it brought in by a salesperson you know and trust? Be cognizant of the source of your data, using only reliable sources or data which has been ‘cleaned’ by people or services you trust.  

Review the data – what is in there? 

Generally, we can realistically expect that up to 20% of leads may be inaccurate or obsolete but a Data Quality Index study on B2B data quality found that 40% of leads contained BAD data! If you are unsure of the status of YOUR data, there are services such as Salesgenie and others which will add to, clarify, clean up and de-dupe your data for you.   

Data is NOT ‘evergreen’. Assume that data collected over 1 year ago is probably inaccurate. We have our callers check, correct and add to the database on every call so we can trust that it is, and stays, up to date.  

The first month of calls made from a new lead list often results in a major clean-up and a serious PURGE of contacts. But that is OK! The callers are also ADDING info, removing old data and identifying the CORRECT people to contact.  

 Are there HOLES in your data?  

As you review your data, HIGHLIGHT what is missing so you and your people can gather this info the next time they reach out to the prospect. 

But do not OVER do it! We know that people, when prompted for personal info too early in the sales process, tend to provide INVALID data. Wait until the prospect is ‘warm’ and even then, only request the info you really NEED. 

We all seem to think that MORE is BETTER. In this particular case, it probably ISN’T! Stick to getting ACCURATE information. In addition to the basics like first and last name, push for direct dial phone numbers, mobile numbers and critical data such as renewal dates or how long the prospect has been with the current provider. 

After implementing these data scrubbing steps your lists may be a bit smaller but they will be more ACCURATE and that will lead to better conversations, more appropriate targeting and MORE QUALIFIED APPOINTMENTS.  

If you and your team are not setting enough qualified appointments, give US a call at 908.879.2911 or email me at LEADS@OneofaKindSales.com We LOVE Cold Calling and can set qualified appointments for YOU!