SALES & MARKETING

DATA QUALITY
TABLE OF CONTENTS

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 62% of study participants report that their volume of sales and marketing data is growing, and for over one-third,
the volume is growing 10% or more per year.

 The dirtiest data resides in Marketing Automation systems.

 Organizations that are experiencing revenue growth are almost three times more likely to have clean data than
organizations with flat or declining revenue growth.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Annual Revenues: Type of Organization:

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 Primary Role of Respondent:

Revenue Growth: 
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DATA SYSTEMS

A clear majority of study participants indicated that

most of their sales and marketing data resides in a
CRM system.

Sales & Marketing Data Quality Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, November 2013, n=227

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DATA QUANTITY

The number of records stored in systems is growing

for 62% of participants in this study, and over one-third
report that their record counts are growing at least 10%
per year.

Sales & Marketing Data Quality Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, November 2013, n=227 Over half of the participants indicate that new records
are added to their sales or marketing systems on a
daily basis
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DATA ENTRY PATHS

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72% of all respondents report using it to get data into

systems.

Sales & Marketing Data Quality Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, November 2013, n=227

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DATA ENTRY PATHS
It is no surprise that 90% of Marketing Automation users are getting data into their systems via direct integration with
lead capture forms, because after all, Marketing Automation was developed to track leads from their source.

For CRM and email solutions, data entry is the most frequently used method of populating these systems with records.

This study did not investigate the reasons why data entry is not producing dirtier data, but we can speculate: those
who are entering the data are also users of the systems.

The longer dirty data is allowed to reside in a system, the higher the probability that its quality issues will negatively
impact the campaigns, people or other systems that try to use it.

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DATA QUALITY

It’s important to understand the value of having clean

data: the dirtier sales and marketing data is, the harder
it is to communicate with prospects and customers.

Intuitively, marketers understand there is a direct

Sales & Marketing Data Quality Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, November 2013, n=227 connection between data quality and conversion rates.

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DATA QUALITY – BY SYSTEM

For most companies – 62% in this study – the number

of sales and marketing records is growing.

This analysis hovers on the edge of statistical

significance, however, it is the opinion of the
Sales & Marketing Data Quality Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, November 2013, n=227 researcher that these results are representative of the
total population of users of these systems.

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DATA QUALITY

By definition, data that is not clean is dirty, so for this analysis, we put this data in the “dirty” quality category. Using
this view, Marketing Automation systems house the dirtiest data (76%), followed by CRM (60%) and then email systems
(50%).

Whatever the reason for the data quality issues, finding ways to clean data is a more urgent requirement for Marketing
Automation users.

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DATA CLEANING

Given that 63% of data in this study is “dirty”

There were no statistically significant differences

between the presence or usage of data cleaning
processes across different system types.

Sales & Marketing Data Quality Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, November 2013, n=227

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DATA CLEANING - APPROACHES

For those study participants that do clean their data,

one-third clean it daily or weekly, 23% clean it monthly,
23% clean it quarterly with 19% cleaning it annually or
at some other interval.

Sales & Marketing Data Quality Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, November 2013, n=227

These statistics verify an obvious assumption:

cleaning processes produce cleaner data.
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DATA CLEANING – REASONS FOR ABSENCE

The cost of cleaning data, however, is not preventing

most organizations from doing it – it simply isn’t
important enough.

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Sales & Marketing Data Quality Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, November 2013, n=227 
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CONVERSION RATES & REVENUE

Sales & Marketing Data Quality Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, November 2013, n=227

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CONVERSION RATES & REVENUE

Organizations that experienced revenue growth were

almost three times more likely to have clean data
compared to organizations with flat or declining
revenue growth.

Sales & Marketing Data Quality Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, November 2013, n=227

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BENEFITS OF CLEANER DATA

However, over one-third of those that did respond

estimated a revenue impact of plus 10% or greater.

Sales & Marketing Data Quality Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, November 2013, n=227

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BENEFITS OF CLEANER DATA

Sales & Marketing Data Quality Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, November 2013, n=227

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ANALYST BOTTOM LINE
With only four percent of organizations in this study reporting data quality that is “very clean”, almost everyone has
room for improvement when it comes to the quality of sales and marketing data.

Like flossing or rotating one’s tires, addressing data quality is acknowledged as important, but not urgent for most
organizations. It therefore doesn’t get the attention is deserves

Organizations that experienced revenue growth were almost three times more likely to have clean data compared to
organizations with flat or declining revenue growth.

This study confirms what most sales and marketing professionals have long felt: better data quality is related to an
organization’s ability to grow revenue.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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ABOUT DEMAND METRIC

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 Benchmark Report

© 2013 Demand
© 2013 Demand Metric Research Corporation. Metric Reserved.
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