I know I blogged on this just a few weeks ago, but seriously, given the time of the year this is a topic worth revisiting.
The New Year period can be sluggish and stressful for many businesses. Staff holidays and shutdown time can take a big toll on company finances, so it’s always critical to get back to business-as-usual as quickly as possible.
With your sales team back in the office and feeling invigorated after a break, there couldn’t be a better time to have a pile of appointments ready and waiting for them to attend. Or a 100% accurate and complete list of prospects to start off your first lead gen campaign for 2018.
Dust off your data, now!
Many of our clients provide us data which has, to be honest, seen better days. For example:
- Existing client and prospects lists that haven’t been consistently loved and maintained. People change jobs, businesses move, expand or even stop trading. If you did an audit on your CRM today, how accurate do you think your data will be?
- Purchased lists. OK, we know you paid good money for this, but how long ago? And was it a ‘good’ list to start with? Does it have the right contacts, are the companies the right size and sector to make great prospects? If the data is full of holes you need to make a hard call – will your investment ever pay off, or should you walk away and start afresh?
While I may sound like a broken record when I talk about data, it truly is the star on the top of the Christmas tree, (or the Central Otago cherry on top of the trifle). It’s just likely that it needs a good polish up before it pays off!
Existing lists
This is a great example of how to do it right!
We maintain a fund-raising list for one of our not-for-profit clients. When we run the telemarketing component of their annual corporate sponsorship campaign, they realise a $15 return for every $1 they spend with us.
That makes them very happy. And our team love working with clean, up-to-date lists.
We’re not wasting precious campaign time on cleaning up their database. When we start calling it’s all business – and it’s paid off big time for them and the New Zealanders they support.
Purchased lists
List buying is an art.
There are plenty of options, and the quality of information ranges dramatically from one source to another. (Tip: Only use highly reputable list procurement companies who invest in maintaining their data – that way you get a higher ROI. We can help you with this).
If you’re unsure about whether it’s worth pouring more money into a list you’ve purchased, spend an hour doing random calls to check on the quality of the data. This will give you an overview of how much work is required to get the list to a useable standard before committing to using it. You may decide to dump the data, but that’s a decision better made at the beginning of the process than the end.
Quick tip
Don’t put off dealing with your data until after Christmas, do it now.
Start 2018 as you plan to continue, with a strong pipeline well fueled with accurate data. While you may not be keen to work over the traditional Christmas holiday period, we are – and experience has taught us that the people we call at this time are more relaxed and chatty. We have better conversations with them, which leads to better 2018 pipelines for you.
