Sales & Marketing Data Quality Benchmark Report

Executive Summary

The quality of customer and prospect data that resides in sales and marketing systems has long been a concern. Quality issues in this data show up a number of ways:  incorrect data, missing data and duplicate data are perhaps the top three concerns. These data flaws are more than mere annoyances; they directly impact the ability of an organization to communicate with its buyers, and ultimately, the revenue they can generate from them. There is a real cost to low levels of data quality, but what is it?

In October 2013, Demand Metric conducted a benchmarking study, with 227 respondents, to understand the relationship between data quality and revenue growth.  Furthermore, the study examined:

• Where sales and marketing data resides
• How much data exists and at what rate it is expanding or contracting
• How data enters sales and marketing systems
• The prevalence of cleaning processes, techniques, tools and methods

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary
2. Research Methodology
3. Data Systems
4. Data Quantity
5. Data Entry Paths
6. Data Quality
7. Data Cleaning
8. Conversion Rates & Revenue
9. Benefits of Cleaner Data

10. Analyst Bottom Line
11. Acknowledgements

12. About Demand Metric

Research Methodology

The Demand Metric 2013 Sales & Marketing Data Quality Survey was administered online during the period of October 15th through October 31th, 2013. During this period, 227 responses were collected, of which 207 were qualified and complete enough for inclusion in the analysis.

Members of the Demand Metric community received email invitations to participate in the survey, and participation was encouraged through a random draw incentive for one of two Pebble smartwatches. While respondent email addresses were collected in order to facilitate the prize drawing, no identifying information was retained or considered in the analysis of the survey data.