Dirty Data: A Silent Killer of Quality Leads

There are some key pillars necessary to build a strong foundation for your B2B sales efforts. Amongst other things, the ability to develop a constant flow of quality leads tops the list. Without quality leads – and with standard attrition – your B2B sales figures are bound to come crumbling down. Generating a quality lead list depends on the quality of your data, especially when targeting Ontario manufacturing companies

Avoid Dirty Data and Develop Stronger Leads

Statistics rarely lie, but they do paint a bleak picture at times. Take the hours lost by sales departments that wind up chasing bad leads as a result of using dirty data – as much at 600 hours a year, and a loss of over $30,000 for every sales rep building their sales strategy using it. If you’ve managing a team of 10 sales people, do the math. If you’re team is targeting manufacturing companies in Canada, for example, you want to make sure the data you’re using is accurate; in other words, it’s important to know if the company you’re planning on presenting a sales package to is actually still operating, or hasn’t moved location, or hasn’t been bought out by another company. You want to make sure the Marketing Manager’s name you put on the proposal is still employed there; you want to make sure you spell that person’s name correctly. Dirty data can compromise all those elements of your B2B sales efforts, and compromised data leads to poor performance.

The Cost of Bad Data

Subscribing to an up-to-date online database of manufacturing companies in Ontario is a smart way to avoid using bad data. The magnitude of profit lost to sales initiatives sunk by bad data is demoralizing. For sales people who work on commission, bad data can reduce their compensation and leave them frustrated. It can also waste huge amounts of time, researching and analyzing data that has been out of date for months. From an organizational standpoint, not connecting with the right contacts as a result of using bad data could result in missed opportunities; it can also hurt the reputation of your company if potential buyers wind up thinking you’re sloppy or lazy due to the inaccuracies of your sales pitch.

Scott’s Directories online database is updated regularly, providing B2B sales teams with over 580,000 accurate company listings, including a detailed list of manufacturing companies in Ontario and across the country. Avoid the trap of using bad data and instead put your trust into Scott’s Directories.