Update on data

Databases can be powerful marketing tools, but are yours up to date?

Most companies I  have dealt with over the years have acquired a form of mission creep when it comes to databases in so far as they don't have one database, they have several. In fact if you count in those held by individuals there could be dozens. And it all happens innocently enough. Lets look at some of the reasons why.

There is the salesman's personal customer list that in pre-computer days would be held on a card index and it has to be said jealously guarded, considered a private set of records not to be shared with anyone. At the other end of the sales process were the records held by the Accounts team of Invoicing contacts. Although working for the same organisation the accounts people generally had little say in the specification  and choice of goods to buy - that was more a relationship between the sales engineer and the specifying engineer for example. However into this equation has come the buyer and this role can be a problem for companies providing technical support to the end user at product prototype stage to fine tune their product, all secure in the hope that low orders for prototypes would transfer into high volume orders year on year as production ramped up. This cosy situation was under pressure once the professional buyer started looking to suppliers in China. So customer contacts could be different according to where in the sales process they were and databases proliferated.

Then there are the social events databases of people considered important enough to invite to events whether it is the launch of a new product or a hospitality suite at a sporting event. And of course there is the Christmas card list, the newsletter list, the technical bulletin list ... need I  go on?

Another frequently encountered problem was dealing with the database technology. There were one or two brand names in the world of sales databases that cropped up again and again. The usual problem was that someone, often at a senior level in the company had been impressed by the sales presentation and signed up for the system. The job of looking after it was frequently given to a junior member of the team and not only did they struggle to use it, but nobody else wanted to take on some of the work and the database soon became a mess. Nobody knew what data was good and what was outdated or just plain wrong.

The thing is sending marketing communications to the wrong people - left, deceased, moved away, new job etc - is not only a waste of money, but can be counter productive if people think you don't know what you are doing.