How to Enhance Sales Performance - Data Quality

The Power of Quality Data 

Bad data is like having a car with three gears, you will get to your destination eventually but it will take you longer and it will be a more frustrating journey. Why settle for the slow lane on the M6 when you can go through the toll without the stress and get to your destination in less time. Great quality data helps you take the fast lane and helps you enhance your sales performance. Delegates on our ISMM endorsed Generating Leads and Appointments course state poor quality data as one of their biggest challenges and de motivators when calling prospective customers as well as getting past gatekeepers to decision makers.

The quality of data is often overlooked and updating your CRM (Customer Relationship Management Systems) or client files is seen as an unnecessary and low priority task to a sales professional. If you are reading this and are thinking yes it is then you are not alone. Success driven sales professionals will admit they put admin at the bottom of their to do list, their number one priority is to meet and speak to customers. We agree with you,it has been proven that those sales people who have 2.5 times more contact with their customers or prospects than their competition have greater success in winning and retaining business. To do this well you need quality and up to date data in your system.

What happens when you:

• ask prospects and customers about their holiday, an event or something personal to them that they shared with you
• reference back to the last meeting or call and you explain your reason for the call which links to this
• you call the customer back when you promised and conduct the agreed actions
• avoid the customer getting un necessary calls from someone else in your organisation

All the above develops stronger customer relationships whilst helping you with those starter conversations to keep people engaged and interested in talking to you. This is critical to enhancing your sales performance and ensuring you are more productive with your time. By keeping your systems up to date then you can easily achieve the above. Good examples of CRM systems are Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce.Com. If you are a small user or business then look into Zoho as a low cost entry level which is very comprehensive and starts at $12 per month.

The other benefits to sales professionals of high quality data is you will know who to call, when and why so you always have a good reason to call, this will increase your sales conversions and sales performance.There is nothing more frustrating than calling dead numbers, dead people (it happens!), calling people by the wrong name or arranging a meeting and going to the wrong location because the address has not been updated and the information was not confirmed on the call. The more data you have the more informed, professional and prepared you are for every sales call. Make every sales call a successful call and enhance your sales success, motivation and sales conversion rates.

Everyone in an organisation should update the company systems so all data is kept up to data and accurate. We strongly recommend that address and telephone number data is verified and updated periodically, the most cost effective way to do this is to use an organisation such as data-8. They use a range of data sources and automatically cleanse your customer records to achieve this. Gain a free data audit to assess the quality of your data and assess how this can be enhanced. As sales professionals you will then only need to update the contact level information and other sales or opportunity related information which will enhance your sales success and help you manage your opportunities.

Going back to cars. Like you have premium cars that deliver first class performance, enhanced speed, enjoyable driving experiences, you have CRM systems and data cleansing companies who can help you take control of your sales success and enhance your sales performance and your customer's experience. Time is money, keep your data clean and up to date and this will help you achieve great sales success. If you want to be Lewis Hamilton in your organisation and industry then this will help you achieve this.

Free data audit to fast track the quality of your address and telephone level data.

Enhance your sales success with our one day Generating Leads and Appointments course. All of our courses are endorsed by the ISMM (Institute of Sales Marketing and Management) so you can be assured of the highest standard of content and delivery.

This is article is provided by Debbie Sweeney (Lead ISMM course designer and trainer)