What Is a CRM? And How Do GTM Teams Use It?

CRM, or customer relationship management, is a database and software that helps companies manage and analyze customer data throughout the customer lifecycle, with the goal of improving customer relationships and driving business growth.

Almost every company uses a CRM to support the sales, marketing, and customer success functions by storing and organizing customer information and interactions in a central database.

Maintaining an up-to-date and accurate database allows teams to make customer information actionable – segment prospects or customers, automate marketing campaigns, and analyze the data to inform GTM strategy.

Simply, a CRM is the system of record for data across the entire customer lifecycle. With a CRM, GTM teams can gain a better understanding of their customers and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their sales and marketing efforts.

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The Challenge: Contact Data Decay

Despite the vital role that the CRM plays, most company CRMs are at best only 70% accurate. While high-quality data is mission-critical for GTM teams, maintaining an up-to-date and accurate contact database is a constant challenge.

Specifically, contact-level data decays at a much higher rate than other data elements like company or account data points.

Many companies attempt to circumvent these challenges with a hybrid approach – shotgunning sales emails, using catch-all audience targeting, and broad-stroke account-based marketing strategies. This approach often means settling for subpar outcomes, missing key revenue opportunities, and incurring extra costs.

For most teams, keeping their contact database up to date is an entirely manual task that drains resources. Historically, it has just been too hard or too costly to keep the valuable contacts in databases and CRMs clean and up-to-date.

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Why GTM Teams Need Accurate B2B Contact Data

Accurate contact data is crucial for go-to-market teams, as it enables them to more effectively target the right prospects and customers. Some of the key benefits of accurate contact data for go-to-market teams include:

• More efficient prospecting: Quickly and efficiently identify and target the right prospects – generate more leads and save time and resources that would otherwise be spent on low-quality leads.
• Better lead qualification: Access the information needed to effectively qualify leads. This includes data such as job title, company size, and industry, which can help teams prioritize leads based on their intent and potential value.
• Personalized marketing campaigns: Increase engagement, conversions, and loyalty by creating targeted marketing campaigns that are more likely to resonate with your audience based on the attributes of prospects, customers, companies, and industries.
• Improved customer relationships: Establish stronger customer and account relationships that turn one-time buyers into lifetime buyers and future product advocates.

With accurate contact data, GTM teams can target the right prospects and customers, create personalized marketing campaigns, and improve customer relationships – increasing efficiency, effectiveness, and revenue generation.

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How to Supercharge Your CRM

Your CRM or database is only as good as it is accurate. It forms the basis for the insights and actions taken by sales and marketing teams. If the data in the CRM is inaccurate or outdated, it can lead to poor decision-making, hurt results, and increase costs.

Companies need to ensure the accuracy of their CRM data and can take specific steps to improve the data quality, including:

1. Establish clear processes for data entry: Train employees on how to properly enter and update customer information, and establish rules for what information is required and how it should be entered.
2. Monitor the data: “If it can be measured, it can be improved.” GTM teams should regularly review and analyze their contact data to identify any issues or trends that may indicate a problem with the data.
3. Regularly clean and update the data: De-duplicate records, fill in missing information, and ensure that all contact information is current.
4. Use data validation tools: Leverage built-in or external tools that can help ensure the accuracy and freshness of the data.

By taking these steps, companies can ensure that their CRM data is Live, which is essential for the success of sales, marketing, and customer success efforts.