Salesforce Data Quality Challenges, Priorities and Lessons

In our research study The Sales vs. Credit Control Battle, we found that only 31% of respondents rated their CRM data quality as “excellent.” But about half said they believe the quality of the data in their CRM is “very important” (another 44% believe it’s important or somewhat important). What does that tell us? Well, sales and finance teams both understand that data quality can make or break a company’s revenue cycle. But not all of them understand what they can do to make their existing sales data work better for them and, ultimately, improve their sales performance.

With b2b data decaying at up to 70% per year, it’s easy for your CRM to become cluttered and inefficient. And Sallyport was no different. “The data we had in our CRM was rubbish,” Williamson shared. “There was about 10 years of garbage that needed to be cleaned up – we needed a system that meant we had good data for now and for the future.”  

When your CRM is disorganized, it’s all too easy to make mistakes when it comes to choosing which leads to chase and, ultimately, who to work with. If your data isn’t up to date, your sales team could spend hours chasing a deal that, ultimately, won’t benefit your company – if it even gets past finance in the first place.  

Bad CRM data has a knock-on effect on nearly every aspect of your revenue cycle. Remember the example we used before, about the finance team squashing a deal because the sales team wasn’t able to perform in-depth credit checks on the potential customer? That’s just one way bad CRM data could hurt you. There are other, smaller ways that outdated or inaccurate data could nip deals in the bud.

Think about it: you could have the best product in the world and know exactly who you’d like to sell it to – but if your CRM data has the wrong name or contact information, it never even has a chance. Now, your sales team is spending time figuring out why their emails are bouncing and leads aren’t calling back. Plus, if they can find the right information, now they have to spend the extra time updating your CRM with it.  

“We ran into plenty of last-minute issues when it came time to close deals,” Williamson says. “Sales would pursue a lead and nearly make it over the finish line, but then we’d find out that the company had multiple tax liens that made them too much of a risk to work with.” The time spent working on that lead, that ultimately didn’t end up amounting to anything, would have been much better used working on deals with businesses that were in a strong financial position. And the way to find those businesses? By making sure your CRM data is accurate and up-to-date.

It’s no secret that the cost of doing business is steadily increasing. In our research study Perils of Rising Debt and DSO, 74% of respondents said their operating expenses have increased in the last 12 months, with another 58% saying their long-term debt has increased. We’re seeing that play out in a rising DSO, with 57% of businesses reporting their DSO has increased in the last 12 months.  

When companies overall are more likely to pay you back late, it’s more important than ever to make sure that your business only works with customers in good financial standing. Checking a business credit report is a great first step, but you need to make sure you’re looking beyond the credit score. Look at metrics like Days Beyond Terms (DBT), which will tell you how many days, on average, the company pays their invoices late. As Calum said during our webinar, it’s also crucial to check out legal filings – if a business is tied up in litigation, or in trouble with the tax man, it could be a sign to steer clear.  

It’s great to avoid working with companies whose financial status is questionable, but the way to really increase sales performance and revenue is to make sure that information is available from the very start. When sales teams have access to clean, accurate data, they can make smarter decisions about which leads to pursue and, ultimately, close more deals with confidence.