Dealing With Imperfect CRM Data

Everyone has issues with their CRM data, but not everyone has to suffer from it. Instead of treating poor data hygiene as a fatality, forward-looking sales organizations can make use of artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing to make sense out of their data in ways that were previously impossible. Here are four of the most common issues that come up when dealing with imperfect data:

#1: Missing Updates

Sales people typically miss entering in activities and stage changes that would have reflected the true state of a specific deal or lead. When implementing sales productivity apps such as Cien into your sales organization, it can detect the reps propensity to do this and scores them so you can easily find those reps and coach to make better selling decisions.

#2: Incomplete and Untimely Updates

Sometimes the entry screens in your CRM are not conducive for complete entries of data records.  Some reps understand the importance of proper record keeping, but are too busy to update during the day. Instead they keep loose notes and enter it in later, usually on Friday afternoons. AI can fill in data to complete the record as well as detect these lagging entries and adjusts weekly activity levels to accurately reflect the entire week’s efforts.

#3: Inconsistent Entries

Many free form entry fields, like lead source, will quickly have hundreds of unique but very similar entries. This can make meaningful analysis difficult. By using Natural Language Processing (NLP), organizing data and making it consistent becomes a lot easier, so you still understand the true value of different leads.

#4: Changes in Data Methodology

Changes in data definitions are very common in organizations as they mature. That makes time based comparisons difficult to perform, and causes confusion in reporting. Data driven apps like Cien, automatically adjust and understand changes in your data methodology. So if you used your CRM’s lead module in 2017 and the account module in 2018 to prospect, Cien will detect and account for that. You can then have a consistent prospecting report for both periods.

For more information on dealing with imperfect data, download Cien’s Guide to Solving Performance Traps.

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