By focusing on the number of prospects in our funnel, many of us in sales have lost sight of the importance of quality targeting. This has led to a significant spike in irrelevant offers muddying the waters, making it harder to reach our actual ideal customers and maximize selling time.
We’re reaching out to real people who will never buy from us, we’re wasting our time, and we’re turning prospects into victims.
In this special webinar, we break down the very real cost of bad data and what to do about it with our partner, DiscoverOrg. They’ve been connecting companies with their ideal prospects for decades. Rex Biberston and DiscoverOrg Director of Partnerships, Krystan Resch, cover the following:
- Why spending less on data almost always costs you more
- Why “rich” data is so much more affordable than you think
- How to maximize your selling time by building the funnel above the funnel
Watch the recording here:
Key takeaways:
Why spending less on data almost always costs you more.
So you’ve bought a large list for “cheap”. You’re staying within your budget, but now what? If you look at a typical day in the life of a sales rep, there are dozens of steps they’re taking just to prospect and validate a lead in order to get to a conversation. All of these steps add to the cost of the list you bought. Your reps end up wasting a lot of time and money on prospects who might not respond to the channel you’re trying to work, or they might not even end up having the pain you’re trying to solve. This is why it’s crucial to consider buying rich data to bypass wasted cost and time.
Why “rich” data is so much more affordable than you think.
Rich data means data has gone through research, enrichment, and validation processes in order for each record to match the exact specifications for your swimlane and ideal persona. Someone has to do this type of work, whether it’s your rep or an outsourced partner. If you can buy rich data at a higher cost per lead, but were guaranteed they were in your swimlane, this is much more affordable than buying “cheap” data, then paying your reps to waste the majority of their time validating lists.
How to maximize your selling time by building the funnel above the funnel.
Getting data right means prioritizing non-sales activities. We think of validation and enrichment processes as the funnel above the funnel. Building this funnel means starting with the right target and putting processes in place to ensure you’re always filling that with accurate data. This can include hiring the right people to coordinate this, outsourcing data validation to a capable partner, or establishing a clear line between process work versus project work for your reps. According to research from SiriusDecisions*, if it costs $1 to verify data and $10 to cleanse and de-dupe each error, then it costs $100 per error to operate a system with bad data. It’s important to get the funnel above the funnel right so that sales can be more successful with meetings and follow-ups and you don’t end up wasting money on data filled with errors.
Let us know in the comments what measures you take to validate your data. Do your reps do it or do you outsource?
If you have questions about building the funnel above the funnel or want to know about our next webinar, contact us here and we’ll fill you in on the details!