Ben Bradley, managing director of Macon Raine, spoke with SPS about the problems of using outdated CRMs and how he solved those problems with his company's unique workflow-driven CleanMyCRM process.
It is a relatively simple concept: It is difficult to sell anything to anyone without accurate contact information. Yet, Salesforce.com estimates that 91% of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) data is incomplete and 70% of data in CRM goes bad annually. CRM contact data, like milk and produce, has an expiration date. When CRM data expires, the end result is email campaigns with lots of bounces or sales reps spending too much time “turning over rocks” looking for the right person.
Usually when a company wants to update their CRM data, they opt for one or a combination of two options. The first, utilize a data append service to automatically review and update their data by matching it against existing databases. However, this service can miss pieces of data and are expensive. They usually opt for option two; hire an intern to update their CRM. However, interns would probably rather mop a floor than manually research and update thousands of contacts in a database that they have no context for understanding. Additionally, interns will usually not have the experience necessary to determine which pieces of information and which customers are valid to keep, especially if a company has thousands.
So what does a small to medium sized business do if they need to update thousands of contacts without breaking the bank…or their intern? I spoke with Ben Bradley, managing director of Macon Raine about a third option he developed specifically for companies who fit this need.
Macon Raine, an Aurora-based inbound marketing agency, recently released CleanMyCRM, a unique product and process to help companies clean their databases.
When asked how he came up with the idea for CleanMyCRM, Bradley stated, “All of our clients had data problems. We decided to help them by creating an inexpensive, easy-to-use way for them to solve a very basic problem” – an old, out-of-date CRM.
So how does it work and is it actually easy to use? Sales reps upload their incomplete contact records to CleanMyCRM.com. A team of analysts then reviews each record manually and uses a custom-built workflow, a proprietary database, and internet searches to research each contact record. When information about the contact is available, the incomplete contact record is updated. Like a data append service, CleanMyCRM still uses proprietary databases to “fact check” CRM entries against known good contacts, however; the system Macon Raine has developed completely fills in CRM data by implementing a “fact finding” workflow that adds another layer of reliability to their process. After that process has run, the Macon Raine team manually sifts through data to ensure all contacts are completely updated.
By implementing a specially designed, in-house workflow within their CleanMyCRM process, Macon Raine can update CRM data quickly and efficiently without bankrupting clients.
More info on Macon Raine and CleanMyCRM can be found at the following links: