I’ve often talked about the importance of having a Data Plan for a healthy CRM. A data plan is simply a set of standards for CRM data. For example, review the following ways to write:
Director of Human Resources
Director, Human Resources
Director of HR
DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Director HR
Human Resources Director
HR Director
Lack of standards is a problem. Why does it happen? These examples are from a live CRM. What were the sources of data?
- User entered data
- Web form connected to CRM
- D&B
- Jigsaw
- Trade show directory
- Broadlook
- InsideView
- NetProspex
Each source provides valuable data, but what is the indirect cost? For example, the data tagged “source= D&B” had the title in ALL CAPS. The data from Broadlook was standardized to “HR Director”. Jigsaw and NetProspex had the title in different formats. The worst case scenario: each source provides titles in different format.
This is a CRM nightmare.
The solution is to provide a system that enforces data standards. Some companies get by with an agreed-upon set of standards, but that is not enough. Enforce is the key word. Having an agreed-upon data standard is a great idea, but in reality you:
- Can’t control how your vendors deliver data
- Can’t force your sales reps to enter data correctly
- Can’t force users filling in web forms to change what they type
- Can’t prevent marketing from importing that latest trade show directory
So, again, the only answer is *enforced* Data standards. How do you do this?
The only way to accomplish true standards is via technology enforcement. One example of this is Broadlook’s CRM Shield, which simply allows you to pick a set of standards. Once a standard is built, then all data passing through the CRM is standardized.
So what is the debate?
Recently, one of my partners pointed out that his clients “Don’t want to change the titles”. He believed to save the titles in the way that they were provided. A “Vice President of Sales” did not want to be listed as “VP Sales”. Thus the debate began about Normalization/Standardization of titles.
Now if the client is always right, we want to accomplish this, but what is the true, best solution?
First, there are two types of Normalization, destructive and non-destructive. Destructive means that when the data is changed, something is lost and the change cannot be reverted from. An example would be truncating a title from “Director of Systems Automation” to “Director of Systems”. Once the “automation piece is gone, it cannot be recovered. A non-destructive example would be changing “Vice President of Sales” to “VP Sales”. The litmus test for non-destructive normalization is whether the change can be reverted. Starting from the shortest form, “VP Sales”, normalization rules would allow any variation of the title to be modified and re-modified without any loss.
The Counter-Argument
“If someone lists themselves as ‘Chief Executive Officer’ on their business card or email signature, they don’t want to be listed as ‘CEO’.” This is the counter-argument; to maintain the original state of the data. This is a valid point. Yes, we can change ‘CEO’ to ‘Chief Executive Officer’ and back again, but once it is changed, how do we know what the original title was? The answer is you don’t know.
Personally, I don’t believe in the counter-argument, but my job is not to judge what my clients want, but to deliver results that help them run their businesses more efficiently. I don’t believe in it for two reasons. (1) Really? someone is that vain that they get miffed about their title being correct, but not in the exact format? (yes, opinion only). (2) Non-standard data is a culprit in creating Dupes in the CRM. Dupes are ugly. Dupes costs companies millions of dollars each year in lost efficiency, data cleanup costs, skewed KPI’s and failed analytical reports. You can’t report on non-standard data. Just think about it.
The answer
Take my advice and normalize your data. However, if you must retain the original source of titles, you are THAT fickle CRM admin, here is what you should do.
Have 2 title fields in your CRM.
Field 1: The normalized title. Use this for search, KPI’s, reporting and deduping. Having a single standard by which to measure. This will keep your CRM tuned and your sales and marketing teams will love you.
Field 2: The Original title. Use this for display, mailing and client/suspect/client outreach. If you mail, use this field.
Caveat
Even the Original title should be normalized to a certain degree. Example: “Vice — President of Sales.”. This example has extra spaces, dashes and a period at the end. A simple clean up would yield “Vice President of Sales”.
Last word
Regarding Normalization. I am right, the detractors are wrong (especially Gregg) and eventually they will come around to my way of thinking. Until then, I’ve done my job and outlined best practices that can make everyone happy.
Donato Diorio
Chief*** Executive***Officer!! , Data Guru (yes, Normalization can fix this too)
In mid October 2010, my friend David Perry called me and shared some of his insight.
“Donato, in the Detroit area, there are hundreds of Exhaust System Engineers, yet when I do a Google Search, I can only find a handful of them. ”
David was explaining this while speaking to a group of recruiters. “This is a problem, these engineers are not on the radar of recruiters.”
The Back story: A recruiters first step in finding a candidate is his own database. Next, recruiters leverage the Internet for candidates. Job Boards, Social Media and open web searches are the tools of the trade. Only after the immediate sources are exhausted do recruiters start the process of “direct recruiting”; looking for new candidates via referrals and many, many conversations.
Most job seekers don’t understand this.
If you are not in the recruiters database and you are not present on the Internet, to the recruiter, you don’t exist.
David had impeccable timing. Over the previous year, I had been absorbing all I could in the realm of search engine optimization (SEO). In my own initiatives, I had earned the top spot in Google many times. “How can SEO help job seekers”? I thought.
While on the phone, I did a quick Google search for “Exhaust System Engineer”. David was right; few of these engineers were available via a search engine query. Next, I proposed an hypothesis to David. He liked it.
On October 19, 2010 I registered ExhaustSystemEngineer.com. It cost about $8 from GoDaddy.com.
Using WordPress.org, I set up a blog and hosted the domain for an additional $20 for the year. No technical knowledge is needed. If you don’t know how to do it, the people at Godaddy are very helpful. Total cost $28.
Next, I added a few excerpts from articles about exhaust systems. The single paragraph had links to the original article. After adding some content to the site, I found some articles about exhaust systems to comment on, leaving my blog address. (it is important here to leave real comments and show an interest in someone else’s work, otherwise it is seen as comment spam).
As the last step I signed up for Twitter and created the username ExhaustEngineer. My first Tweet was an announcement of my blog, ExhaustSystemEngineer.com. The total time spent to do this exercise was about 1 hour. If you were doing it for the first time, it may take you 2-3 hours to get familiar with WordPress.
On October 21, 2010, 2 days after registering the domain, creating a blog and adding some content, a the first Google search result for Exhaust System Engineer was ExhaustSystemEngineer.com.
If I was a real Exhaust System Engineer, the next step would be to add my resume and contact information to blog and keep it updated with fresh content.
After 3 years: If you google: Exhaust System Engineer, the site I created almost 3 years ago is still #1.
Remember, if you are not present on the Internet, you don’t exist to most recruiters. The difference between being found or not is taking action.
I’m at a talk about marketing at a conference, sitting in the audience, blending into the mix of SEO students and experts. Unlike most conference, I am not speaking, not helping with sales at a booth and not scheduled with back-back meetings. This is a chance for me to sit and learn.
At the end of a fantastic panel discussion on SEO tools, demand generation and technology, the panel went into the Q&A section of the talk. One panelist was asked what made her technology better than the next tool.
“We spider the entire Internet, every day. Every site and keyword, everything, so we have more data to work with.” She said.
Looking around me, I saw eyes wide and heads nodding. They swallowed it. What happened next was like an out-of-body experience.
“Buuuuullshit!” I said, just-loud-enough for the group in the small theater to hear. I just couldn’t help myself.
I was then asked by the moderator to, basically, explain myself. I proceeded to talk about why “spidering the entire Internet” was not possible. This is an area that I am a subject matter expert. I won’t explain it hear, but if Google can’t do it…well, you get the idea… I then asked if she borrowed Google’s new quantum computer and got a few laughs. My goal was not to ridicule, but to recover from my sightly louder than expected comment. Next, I basically said that I was impressed with what their technology did, actually do, but it shouldn’t be misrepresented as “everything on the Internet”.
Her comment was that she was not the “techie person” and that she got over-enthusiastic. People laughed and that was the end of it.
The point is that Marketing does not need to lie, it would have been just as impressive if she portrayed, accurately, what they actually do and how. This is a problem in many technology companies. The process starts very much like a myth or legend.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
— Arthur C. Clarke
The technologist creates something that looks like magic and Marketing tries to explain it and the legend grows. Soon, Sales is fabricating any explanation that sounds good and a technology myth is born.
Don’t do this. Technology, Sales and Marketing need to be on the same page. If you don’t achieve unified messaging someone else is going to call bullshit and you will lose a sale.
I recently refused business from a new prospective client. I’ll call him Harry.
Harry wanted to update 1.2 million company records with fresh contact data. In the process of understanding his sales process, I discovered that he would be working with about 100,000 accounts per month.
I told Harry “No, I won’t sell you that data”.
The prospect of losing a Fortune 1000 account set my Director of Sales, who was also on the phone, into some deep breathing exercises.
Harry did the typical “but I’m the client”. He ranted, he raved, he cussed, asked to talk to my Manager. I laughed, told him I was the company founder… and he cussed again. I made a joke about him being a Buffalo Bills fan (the Profiler found it in his bio) and we connected. I am a Bills fan too. He got nice and we talked some football. Harry pleaded. “I heard you have the best data.”
“We don’t have any data…who have you been talking to?”, I pressed. Harry told me the referral source. “Yes, what an excellent client example. They are killing it.”, I teased.
“So, Mike bought data from you, but you don’t have any data?”, Harry asked. The question was thick with sarcasm.
“That’s right. You’ve got it. ” I said.
At this point, I think he said something like “Who’s on f*ing first Donato”, through sardonic laughter.
I explained that Broadlook really doesn’t store any data, that we generate it, on demand, from across the Internet, so the information is fresh.
Now, if I kept teasing him (he deserved it), I really would have lost his business, it was time to get serious.
I told him “Selling you data that you won’t use for a year, is a disservice”.
I explained. “You will love me the first 60 days, then data will start to decay. By month 9, I’ll look like every other data vendor. At the end of the 12 months, when it is time for a contract renewal, you will talk to your sales team and they will tell you the data is crap, outdated, inaccurate. You will blame Broadlook and you will not renew”.
“It’s your fault if the data is bad…isn’t it?”, said Harry.
“It’s not”, I elaborated. The day I deliver the data, it will be fresh, but if you let it rot, it’s your fault”.
At this point, Harry realized I was looking out for him. Instead of taking a big dump of data that would sit and age inside his CRM, we worked out a subscription plan. 100,000 accounts updated per month. Fresh data every time.
This is the concept of Just-In-Time data. I’ve had many conversations with companies just like Harry’s.
The lesson: Don’t buy data if you are not going to immediately use it. Buy just what you need, when you need it, and no more. Your sales reps will love this decision.
![Eating muffins, Starbucks and Interviews]()
I was in Starbucks this morning after a 2am return flight from Boston yesterday. When I lose sleep, it upsets my normal schedule. Things that I wouldn’t normally notice, I get fixated on. While waiting for my latte, I had the chance to observe three people standing and eating muffins. They were waiting for a table to become available. One guy had no care about spreading crumbs all over the floor. Mr Clueless. Guy number two would drop crumbs and push them under a table with his boot. Mr Sneaky. The third guy was hyper-careful to not make a mess, armed with a napkin. Mr Careful. Who would I hire as a sales-rep and why?
You can learn much about somebody based on how they eat a muffin.
