Is Your B2B Lead Database Like Your Attic?

Today, I received an email from LinkedIn informing me that 86 of my contacts have started something new (read changed jobs or titles). That's about 17% of my total contacts - and that's ocurred since the first of the year, in less than 7 months.

How long have your leads been in your database? What percentage of them do you think have changed jobs, invalidating the information you have on file?

DemandGen Report conducted a survey in October of 2010 and, "found that more than 62% of organizations rely on marketing/prospect data that is 20 to 40% incomplete or inaccurate." Their CRM records are also pretty messy as respondents estimate that between 10% and 40% of the information is not worth the form it was entered from.

Just this year, I helped a client develop and launch nurturing campaigns only to discover that approximately 45% of the emails in their database were undeliverable because the list had sat dormant for nearly 2 years.

According to Sirius Decisions, lead databases double every 12 to 18 months. This means there's a lot of opportunity for bad data to buiild up like the clutter in your attic.

It's bad enough that such high levels of dirty data exist, but what's really concerning is what the DemandGen Report survey found when they asked about how B2B companies planned to declutter their databases:

• 30% have no strategy
• 34% "ask" their sales team to update records
• 15% append to complete or update records each quarter

The no-strategy folks need to wake up to the smell of a musty attic. Especially if they don't even bother to eliminate the bad records altogether.

The more than a third who ask salespeople to update the record during their interactions with the contact need to stop and think. If buyers spend 70% of their time with marketing, how many will ever make it to a sales conversation that allows their record to be updated? A long-term buying cycle for a complex sales leaves plenty of time for change to occur before sales ever steps into the picture.

Appending the records is at least a worthy try, but I also wonder how great appending services are at keeping up with the speed of data change?

Data hygiene is becoming a necessity that we can no longer ignore by closing the attic door and hoping it will happen miraculously on its own. Marketers spend a lot of time, money and resources generating leads. We need a better plan for keeping those records intact with valid information.

Marketing automation with progressive profiling in play may be one way to more efficiently address this issue. Inside sales teleprospecting as an integrated component of lead nurturing programs may also be a great choice.

But beyond dirty data, marketers should also consider the implications of how fast roles can change. For marketers who segment their databases and/or use personas to create marketing programs, you cannot leave those tools sitting in the attic along with your database.

Can you answer the following questions in relation to the changes that may be happening in your database?

• If one contact leaves, is the job filled by someone new or did that job get merged with another? (If the latter, this is a new persona and a new market segment if it happens often enough)
• If the change is due to layoffs, how might that impact the target market's interest in acquiring what we sell? (Do they need you more or less?)

In other words, are the people you thought were your prospects, still your prospects? Or are they now someone you really don't know? And have the reasons why they need what you sell changed?

The attic is only good for things past their prime. This should not include your leads.

Comments

[Mike Deuerling]

Ardath - Great article. I can't even count the times I've stood on my soapbox and preached the value of an updated database.
I've compared the data in the database to money and even gaming chips to show true value.
I try to get managers to consider it as an asset that in time grows like a blue chip stock. (That may not be a good example today!)
I've begged people to use simple segmentation, test it and look at the results.
But alas, even with results, people fall back into old habits.
When I bought my first house, my father warned me not to keep anything in the attic. You'll regret it when you reach my age.
MD

[Matt Smith]

Ardath,

You make such an important point. It's almost worth saying that UNLESS the databases are clean and maintained there is no point in starting an MA program.

Another variation to this challenge we're watching one of our larger clients fight is silos of lead data around their company. They have multiple MA efforts running in various places, purchased databases, sales data, CRM data and telemarketing data - none of which is reconciled with the other.

We recommend data management become an upfront, assigned responsibility (much like content itself); not just a random task that gets left to happen or not down the line.

Keep up the great posts!
- Matt Smith, 3FORWARD

[Shay]

Very good point. Many people think that collecting the initial email address is enough. And it is enough if the only goal is to just fill a database. Some people would rather keep invalid or duplicate emails to boast about a longer list of contacts.

If the goal is anything more, then it is necessary to clean and validate the list. And depending on the individual or company, it could be very beneficial to build a valid connection with that individual or company so they will keep you up to date on contact changes.