How to get rid of CRM clutter by “spring cleaning” sales data

It’s time to clean out your closets, make room in the garage and—most importantly—tidy up your sales database. Here are some tips on how you can make your sales database more than just a junk drawer.

Should it stay or should it go?

Think of a sweater that you’ve had for a very long time. When you’re trying to thin out your closet, give that sweater the Yea or Nay test: Have you worn it even once in the past year? If the answer is no, you can probably ditch it.

Opportunities are the same way. Even though they may be near and dear to your heart, if you haven’t had any contact with the prospect in over a year, it’s time to close it out. If you love something, set it free. Your pipeline and sales forecasts will thank you.

Double trouble

It happens to the best of us: One day you realize you have 4 coffee makers in your cupboard. No one needs 4 coffee makers.

Sales data is the same way. Acme Manufacturing and Acme Manuf. are, in fact, the same company – why do they need 2 separate accounts? Rid your database of duplicates so you can get a complete and accurate picture of what is going on with your opportunities.

Scrub out the grime

Pull out the gloves for this one—things are going to get nasty. Any marketer can tell you that people like to fill out forms with fake information. First name: afadsdad, last name: hadfjoashq. Every database is full of fake leads from forms filled out be people who want to get access to resources without entering real contact info. Break out the bleach and hit delete. You don’t want those mucking up your otherwise spotless data.

Hand-me-downs

Your big brother just gave you a bunch of his clothes (Sweet!), but they all have his name stitched into the collars. Time to pull the threads and claim them for your own. If the opportunity is yours, why does it have your coworker assigned as the owner? Scrap the confusing reports and mismatched responsibilities by staking a claim on your opportunities.

Boxes, boxes, boxes

One day, you were rushing to get your things packed. The moving van was there, your kids had already started singing “99 bottles of milk on the wall”…It was time to go! So you grabbed arms full of miscellaneous junk, threw it all in a box and off you went. Five years and two moves later, you realize you haven’t opened that box since that day.

It’s time to get organized. Segment your opportunities by industry, size, revenue… whatever is most relevant for your company. Take it a step further and segment your customers by persona. Once your CRM data is nice and tidy, you’ll be able to see what you have and where the gaps lie. Then you can start making informed decisions about how to be most strategic with your sales and marketing efforts.

These are just a few of the ways you can give your sales data that fresh and clean smell. If you want an even easier time keeping your CRM clutter-free, learn how sales enablement software can help by requesting a quick, personalized demo.