Is your database a clunker?  Is it sputtering to a stop just short of the finish line?   Taking a look at the contents of your clunker can have some huge benefits for you, it not only helps you save some green, it also can stimulate the revenue engine for your sales team.   Drag your clunker out of the garage and see how it measures up:

1. Do you know how many of your contacts are duplicated? Saying you have 45,000 contacts is one thing, but if that is three copies of 15,000 people it’s not really a 45,000 contact database.  You aren’t reaching the number of people you want to be with duplicates in your database and you’re probably missing out on other contacts and companies who are ripe to hear your message.
2. Are you marketing to the entire DMU (decision making unit)? Marketing Sherpa says that for purchases of $25k or more:
   • Companies with 100-500 employees, the DMU consists of 6.8 people who make buying decisions
   • Companies with 501-1000 employees, the DMU consists of 13.5 people
   • Companies over 1000 employees, the DMU consists of 21 people

   So the question is which, if any, of the 6.8/13.5/21 people are in your database?  Which ones are you missing, which ones are over a year old?

3. How many email addresses are you missing? I’ll bet that’s an easy number for you to find, now can you tell me how many of the existing addresses are right or wrong?  Of those that are wrong, is it because there is something structurally (i.e. they are missing the ‘@’ sign or a ‘.com’) wrong or are they hard bouncing?  If you’re relying heavily on email marketing these are important things to know.  Having thousands of contacts is great, but thousands of contacts with only a few hundred accurate email addresses, not so great.
4. According to Gartner, more than 30 million people out of the 138 million employed in the US will switch jobs in the next 12 months.  Do you know which of your contacts have been sitting in your database for 12 months or more? Do you know which of those are still employed with the same company, doing the same job?
5. Do you know which companies in your database are in your target market? Is it easy to segment your database by company level information? If you’re missing industry information on your records you’re probably missing opportunities to include the right people (or companies) in your messages.

If you’ve been left with a few too many questions after reading this, that’s ok.  The good news is that a good data cleansing/appending service can fill in the gaps and help you turn your clunker into cash, or some serious elbow grease from an in-house team can really get the wheels turning.  SiriusDecisions reports that companies marketing to a database that is routed through a healthy data-cleansing routing can realize nearly 70% more revenue than an average organization, based purely on data quality.  Next step for you – get that clunker rolled out of the garage and get cleaning!

Need help updating your clunker of a database? ReachForce has a special Cash for Clunkers offer for Q3 to help you get in gear for Q4.