CRM Data Enrichment: Give Your Data A Makeover

When it comes to sales, marketing and looking through good CRM data there is a quick acid test that I use. If you can look at a record and it helps you completely visualize the company/customer and instantly help you profile or score it as a good prospect or not...then you have good data. It may not be as comprehensive as a lead profile created by having conversations with a target account but good data gives you enough key information points for you to answer a few questions with a quick glance and give you a fairly clear idea of what kind of an account it is. When you look at a target account, the least it should answer is: 

• What is the name of the organization?
• Where is it located?
• What is the website URL?
• What vertical is it in and what do they do?
• How many employees does it have?
• What's their annual revenue?

From these data points, you can conclude the kind of company, where they are located and its size in terms of revenues and employee strength and see if it fits your criteria. However, based on your product or offering, there are always other questions that you can have answered by adding additional data points to your CRM data. For example:

• Is the company listed on an exchange?
• Does it have a holding company or what is the company structure like?
• How many outlets or locations does it have around the world?
• How many locations does it have operating within the United States?
• What were the last major press releases and news events related to this account?
• What are the divisions and product lines of this organization?
• Which countries does it operate in?

The data points for each account can be endless and what is important is identifying which ones are most important for your sales and marketing efforts in order to make quick decisions and recognize your clients and then make them an integral part of your account data within your CRM. There are a number of data enrichment services which can carry out a custom effort on your existing data to add these additional points and leave you with a healthier and more valuable database. So if you find your data lacking some key points which would benefit your efforts consider giving your data a makeover. Data enrichment or enhancement is the way to go.