3 Ways You Can Improve CRM Data Accuracy Today
Here’s an all too common scenario: You’re sitting in your Monday morning sales meeting with your CEO and CFO going over forecasts. You present numerous graphs and pipelines to show the figures that you forecast your sales team to bring in over the next few months when your CEO stops you mid-sentence. “Weren’t these projections off by 35% last quarter?” That’s a difficult situation to be in, and one that sales managers can avoid by improving the accuracy of the data they are basing their projections on. Whether it’s sales stage, close date, or deal value–opportunity information needs to be as up-to-date as possible, or you’ll continuously find yourself in the above scenario. Fortunately, Sugar Connect understands the importance of user adoption in improving data quality. Below are three simple steps you can take to improving overall data quality in your CRM.
Go Mobile
If you haven’t noticed, cell phones are a big deal. Cell phones today can do almost all of the things that a sales rep would do on their laptops, and they let them do it while on the go. It’s important to let your sales team input data wherever they are by implementing a mobile CRM. Sales representatives can update and record data while in meetings or right after a meeting while the information they need to log is fresh in their minds. This will lead to more accurate and more robust data. The benefits of adopting a mobile CRM reach even beyond data accuracy. A mobile CRM will also help with things like user adoption and call logging.
Let Reps Input Data Where They Live: Their Inbox
When your sales team gets back from lunch, conducting demos, or talking to clients, what do you think is the first thing they do when they finally get back to their desk? If you think it’s your fancy CRM application, you’re probably wrong. Sales reps live in their inboxes whether they are mobile or in front of their laptops. So why not let them access and utilize your CRM from Gmail, where they spend so much of their time? You can increase CRM utilization by using a tool like Sugar Connect to bring your CRM into Gmail so they can do things like view contact information, create tasks, and update opportunities without having to leave their inbox.
Empower a Data Accuracy Champion
The most important thing you must do when working to improve data accuracy is to create a culture where accurate data is expected. This takes a concerted effort by management to instill the importance of data accuracy into their sales representatives and managers. By establishing a data accuracy champion within your sales organization, you can quickly begin to take steps towards building that company culture. A data accuracy champion doesn’t have to go around yelling at people about their data inaccuracies like Terry Crews the Office Linebacker. They should, however, set an example for the entire team to follow while making data accuracy feel fun (or at least not horrible). Whoever you place in this role can help hold your sales team accountable in a way that doesn’t feel overbearing by utilizing gamification and contests. Your company has invested a lot of time and money into your CRM. Make sure that you are getting the most out of your investment by keeping data up to date and as accurate as possible. (You can even help your data accuracy champion with Sugar Connect!)
So what are some of the tactics your company uses to improve data quality? Let us know here.
