Building and maintaining a quality database is not for the faint-of-heart.
MPI has built proven best practices in list management to set our client appointment setting and lead generation campaigns up for success. These five database strategies will result in a high-quality CRM database that improves the effectiveness of your sales and marketing investments.
1. Audit your current database
Start by ensuring you have a well-defined target market. If not, take time to identify your target prospects to focus your sales efforts on reaching the right audience. Creating buyer personas is an excellent exercise to ensure everyone on the team understands your target prospects’ values, motivations, and challenges.
Then, audit your sales database:
- Remove any records that do not match your target market
- Identify holes in your data, including missing fields or inaccuracies
- Ensure existing data is current
2. Identify and utilize lead sources
After you have properly taken the time to cleanse your prospect list, you are ready to identify the areas you may have holes. To ensure the success of your list, you must compile enough contacts to work through so you can fill in the gaps. A hundred-person prospect list is not a big enough scale to work from. Building and maintaining a quality database will take time and consistency. Discipline is key in data management because it is an ongoing task that will take follow-up and creative thinking.
To garner results, you will have to work through every event, list broker, association, membership, industry publication, marketing campaign, and lead source to make sure you are compiling the best data possible. Sometimes you can find yourself at a standstill after exhausting all your contacts. If you still need additional help in building your pipeline, purchasing a list from a credible broker would be a great resource to utilize.
To continue promoting sales efficiencies, create a process for gathering and verifying leads, ensuring only qualified data is imported into your database.
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Do you know?
Industry reports suggest up to 70% of B2B sales data can become outdated every year.
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3: Work your list
Did you know a list that is not used regularly becomes outdated almost immediately? Industry reports suggest up to 70% of B2B sales data can become outdated every year.
Sales reps should nurture their prospect lists by cold calling, sending marketing emails, and direct mail campaigns. Consistent outreach provides an opportunity to qualify your leads and ensure contact information is accurate and updated in the sales database.
4. Measure list metrics
Effective database management requires measurement. Identify a few metrics that show progress in your database and represent key wins in your sales process. Consider the size of your database, appointments set, or other factors relevant to your organization. Sample metrics include:
- Click through rates on a call-to-action
- Conversion rate (how many leads move onto the next stage in the buyer journey)
- Time to conversion rate
- Cost per lead (CPL)
- Leads per channel
Once you decide on your key metrics, you can track and measure them regularly to follow your sales database management process.
5. Identify who is in charge
To keep the four previous pillars running smoothly, you must have someone in charge of your database along with metrics for accountability. In order to properly track the health of your pipeline, designate someone with the big picture in mind and authorize ultimate ownership.
They will need to have the time to manage all the data continuously. Measuring your metrics is not something you can do once a year or whenever someone has time. It has to be monitored and tracked regularly. To see if you have accountability sufficiently covered, ask yourself these questions:
- Who is in charge of your sales and marketing lists and database?
- Are they focused on it all the time?
- Do they have the tools they need to clean, merge and assess your database?
- Do they have too many other responsibilities that can distract them from database management?
- Have they assessed the value of your data in the past?
The facts are clear; using data correctly can be a total game-changer. The right data and metrics contribute to long-term business success. The key is knowing how to apply and use the information effectively to generate the most significant impact.
Need help figuring out the best approach to generating leads for your company? We can help – Let’s Chat.