How to reset a database with verified data


The problem: The company is too busy to update their contact data in a timely fashion. As a result, the database becomes outdated. New sales people ultimately are hired, but the existing data have become useless. The sales team loses time, energy, and confidence. The best people are leaving. The company enters an ensuing death spiral.
 
The solution: Assign a capable project manager who can coordinate the details with methodologies and relentless drive. Set up a task force to reset the most important data in a few weeks, or hire a data provider to do it for you.
 
 
Steps
 
Set up an ID number for each of your accounts and for each of your contacts to keep track. Why? The corporate world, especially when it comes to corporate organizational changes, moves fast. In a year, seven out of 100 companies will not even be operating under their current organizational name, and 35 prospective contacts out of 100 will have another job.
 
Grant to each ID the attributes necessary to make your matching easier. Why? Your data will most likely come from multiple sources. To size the challenge, try to match the Fortune 1000 companies with the companies listed on the S&P 500. This is stunning…
 
According to our experience, the five most useful attributes to help matching company data are the company’s name, the company’s website, the company’s switchboard phone number, and the company’s state of registration. Many other attributes exist such as industry, stock trading symbol, address, DUNS, key executives. None are as effective.
 
Prioritize the data to be updated. Not all data are created equal. Some are simply more relevant and impactful for your company. Prioritize the segment or segments that matter most and then iterate. Keeping data current is a journey.
 
 
Using an external data provider
 
Understand its sources, its collection, verification processes, and who is effectively doing the work. Updating data is an industrial process requiring smart, trained teams. Corporate data do not magically pop out from the web with magic algorithms.
 
Match your data provider ID with your internal data ID. How? Send your prospective accounts under NDA with your attributes. You likely will find that some of your accounts have disappeared, and others have merged.
 
Do not seek to do this on the cheap. It is a prerequisite to the success of your data reset and the route to update seamlessly over time.
 
After running the matching accounts, your data provider will understand whether it can help and, at that point, give you a credible and market competitive quote.
 
Verify its data deliveries through samples. This is a win-win situation. An excellent data provider will appreciate your understanding of its business. An underperforming data provider, on the other hand, will be required to adjust.
 
Think of your collaboration as working together to resolve a jigsaw. Most of the information you need are semi-public. What matters most is to have the most accurate information. Helping your data partner provide some information will assist them in providing better, faster information.
 
 
Budget
 
As an example, our annual pricing for a data feed agreement starts at $9,990 for unlimited internal annual use within a small company.

To know more, please email us at [email protected].