Clean Data, Better Results: Strategies for CRM Data Cleansing

Dirty CRM data is frustrating. It’s hard to search. It’s hard to trust. And it’s near-impossible to get any kind of insights from. But worst of all, it hurts your bottom line. That’s why CRM data cleansing isn’t just a nice-to-have in today’s data-driven sales world.

Maintaining clean and accurate data in the CRM is a challenge that Salesforce admins, sales ops professionals, and RevOps agencies face on a daily basis. But, it’s not insurmountable, and the benefits are enormous. With a little bit of elbow grease, some careful planning, and solid execution, you can start reaping the benefits of a clean, up-to-date CRM in no time.

Read on to see how CRM cleansing can increase sales, improve Salesforce reporting, and enhance contact management. Plus, understand the various challenges in data cleansing you might encounter and how to overcome them.

Understanding the Importance of CRM Data Cleansing

CRM data is the foundation of a successful sales team. It helps them understand their customers and prospects, make informed decisions about their team, glean valuable revenue intelligence, and offer better customer service. However, when this data is incomplete or inaccurate, it can have a significant negative impact on even the most basic business operations, not to mention higher level decision-making and strategy.

Impact of Incomplete and Inaccurate CRM Data on Business Operations

Incomplete or inaccurate CRM data can have a domino effect on your business. It not only obscures the real picture of customer interactions but also leads to missed opportunities and misallocated resources. The result? Bad predictions, bad decisions, and bad strategies. 

For instance, you might be investing a significant amount of resources and effort into selling to a specific demographic based on inaccurate CRM data. This means ineffective campaigns and unnecessary expenditures.

Invalid contact information in your CRM could lead to wasted time as your sales team reaches out to non-existent leads. And inaccurate customer history may result in bad customer service, leading to poor customer satisfaction and loyalty. In the worst-case scenario, incorrect CRM data can even result in legal issues if it leads to compliance failures or fraudulent activities.

How CRM Data Cleansing Enhances Business Performance

CRM data cleansing refers to the process of identifying, then fixing or removing, the inaccurate or irrelevant records from a CRM database. It plays a crucial role in enhancing business performance by improving the accuracy, consistency, and relevancy of the CRM data. A solid foundation of sales data also paves the way for effective sales AI, including signal-based selling, AI sales enablement, smart deal alerts, and a host of use cases for ChatGPT in sales.

Clean CRM data ensures that businesses have the correct and relevant information about their customers and prospects. With accurate CRM data, companies can make more informed decisions, formulate more effective strategies, and achieve better results. This is why CRM data cleansing should be an essential part of your data management strategy.

Signs Your CRM Data Needs Cleansing

As a business, it's important to recognize when your CRM data needs cleansing. Some key indicators that your CRM data might be due for cleaning are:

Duplicate Records

The existence of duplicate records in your CRM system can be a clear sign that your data needs cleansing. These duplicates can lead to confusion, wasted resources, and potentially create a disconnect in your customer interactions. We recommend regularly auditing your CRM for duplicate contacts, accounts, and opportunities. 

Inconsistent Data

Inconsistent data entry can create difficulties in deal analysis, sales activity tracking, and working deals with methodologies like MEDDPICC. Be on the lookout for variations in formats, misspellings, or empty fields that should be completed. 

High Bounce Rates

A high email bounce rate may be a sign that your CRM data is outdated or incorrect. Regularly review your email analytics to identify and rectify such issues.

Unorganized or Unused Fields

Unused fields or unorganized records can clutter your CRM system. Regularly review your CRM records for such issues to ensure accurate and efficient data use.

Opportunities and accounts without any contacts aren’t particularly useful. That’s especially true on high-value opportunities or deals that are closing soon. Check if you have deals like this in your CRM with SetSail’s free CRM Health Grader.

Strategies for Effective CRM Data Cleansing

Effective CRM data cleansing involves several strategies that you can use to maintain CRM data hygiene. These strategies include:

Implementing Data Validation Rules

Data validation rules help ensure the accuracy and consistency of the data entered into your CRM. This can prevent issues like missing data and inconsistent formats.

Regularly Removing Duplicate Data

Eliminating duplicate data on a regular basis can keep your CRM system clean and running efficiently. Consider setting up periodic checks for duplicates.

Automating the CRM Data Cleansing Process

Automation can greatly simplify the data cleansing process. It can help identify and correct errors, remove duplicates, and ensure data consistency, all without the need for costly human involvement for more than minor oversight.

Implementing an Automated Data Capture Solution

To mitigate future issues, consider implementing an automated data capture solution. This can ensure that all incoming data is automatically cleaned and structured correctly.

Best Practices in CRM Data Cleansing

After cleansing your data, it’s imperative that you keep it clean going forward. Some best practices for CRM data cleansing involve:

Establishing Standard Data Entry Protocols

One of the best practices in CRM data cleansing involves creating standard protocols for data entry. Uniform data entry ensures more streamlined and efficient data analysis. When everyone in the organization inputs data in the same way, it reduces the chances of errors and inconsistencies. Ideally, data entry should be automated and with a standardized Salesforce data sync whenever possible.

Encouraging User Adoption and Training

Ensure all users within your organization understand the importance of data hygiene and are properly trained to manage CRM data. Regular training sessions and workshops can empower your team members to identify and rectify data inaccuracies.

Maintaining a Regular Data Cleansing Schedule

Periodic data cleansing is necessary to maintain the accuracy and relevance of your CRM data. By setting a regular data cleansing schedule, you can prevent data bloating and ensure your CRM system remains efficient and reliable.

Utilizing CRM Customization Options

Leveraging CRM customization options can help maintain clean data. Custom fields that cater to your specific business needs can be created, reducing the chances of irrelevant or unused entries.

‍Overcoming Challenges in CRM Data Cleansing

While CRM data cleansing is essential to the health of your CRM system and the success of your business, it can present several challenges. Finding strategies to overcome them is essential for your business running smoothly. Some problems to look out for include:

Time and Resources

CRM data cleansing can be a time-consuming task, especially for large databases. However, this challenge can be overcome by automation and using third-party data cleansing tools. These tools can help you save time and resources by performing tasks like duplicate removal, format correction, and data validation on your behalf. Overall, it’s just well worth the investment to ensure that your database is clean, as it will save even more time in the future.

Technical Know-How

The data cleansing process often requires a certain level of technical expertise. This hurdle can be overcome by training your team members on how to manage and cleanse CRM data effectively. Moreover, there are many data cleansing tools available that are user-friendly and require little technical knowledge.

Risk of Data Loss During Cleansing

Much like a Salesforce data migration, there’s always a risk of losing important data during the CRM data cleansing process. To mitigate this risk, ensure you have a proper data backup and recovery system in place. This way, you can retrieve lost data if something goes wrong during the cleansing process.

Measuring the Success of Your CRM Data Cleansing

Once you've implemented a CRM data cleansing strategy, it's important to measure its success. You can do this by:

Setting Clear and Measurable Goals

Start by defining what success looks like for your CRM data cleansing efforts. This could be a reduction in duplicate records, improved data accuracy, or increased CRM system efficiency. Whatever the standard may be, make sure it’s clearly outlined to make it easier to measure how well your cleansing efforts have lived up to it.

Monitoring Improvement in Data-Related Metrics

Track metrics like bounce rates, email open rates, and conversion rates to see if your data cleansing efforts are improving CRM hygiene. All of these things can be easily measured, so if you’re seeing the necessary increases or reductions, you’ll have a clear sign of whether or not cleansing was successful.

Tracking the Reduction in Data Errors

The reduction in data errors and inconsistencies is a clear sign that your CRM data cleansing efforts are working. Regular data audits can help you track these improvements.

CRM Data Cleansing and the Role of Salesforce Admins and RevOps Professionals

Ensuring data hygiene is a collaborative process that requires commitment across different departments. Both Salesforce admins and RevOps professionals should work closely together to maintain the quality of CRM data. In an increasingly data-driven business environment, these roles often intersect in their shared goal of maximizing the accuracy, efficacy, and usability of CRM data.

Salesforce admins, with their technical skills and system-level control, can oversee the creation and enforcement of data entry and cleansing protocols. They can also play significant roles in identifying areas of automation and periodically checking the system for errors or inconsistencies.

On the other hand, RevOps professionals are vital in defining the business requirements for the CRM data, ensuring the data captured is relevant and valuable to the end-user. They can also ensure the data is structured in a way that aids in better sales performance analysis, churn analysis, and pipeline analysis.

Both roles can significantly contribute to developing a culture of data hygiene in the organization by regularly communicating the importance of clean data to the team and reinforcing the implications of dirty data on sales performance management.

Keep Your Data Clean With Regular CRM Data Cleansing

Keeping your CRM data clean isn’t just about efficiency; it's about making the most of your customer data to drive business success. Remember, it's a continuous process, not a one-time event. By following the right strategies and best practices, you can overcome CRM data cleansing challenges and ensure the quality and reliability of your CRM data.

CRM data cleansing is a key element in ensuring that your CRM system continues to deliver value and support your business growth. In the end, clean data leads to better results, and who doesn't want that?