Chapter 6: Getting the Data You Need From Others
Chances are you depend on data created by others to do your job. If you are a salesperson, you need leads from the marketing team. Or you may roll up financials and depend on data from business groups.
You probably spend a lot of your time correcting errors in the data you receive. It is a time-consuming chore. Worst of all, you’re paid to make sales, not corrections!
It doesn’t have to be this way. Invest a bit of time with data creators and you’ll save yourself a lot of time and trouble. I hinted at this earlier. You should see yourself as a data customer. As such, you have rights, and responsibilities, to explain what you need.
Before jumping it, ask yourself this, “Why do you think people send you bad data?” Do you think people in marketing say to themselves, “Let’s send the sales team leads with the wrong contact details. They don’t have enough to do?”
“NO! Of course that’s not it.”
So what is it then? Here’s what I find: In most cases data creators have no idea what you need. They may not even know you use their stuff!
THIS MATTERS TO YOU BECAUSE IT SIGNALS OPPORTUNITY. Most people take pride in their work and building communications channels with your data suppliers enables them to do a better job.
So here’s what you do. First, sit down with your team and figure out what data you need most. Start small. If contact details are most important, then focus on those. Now assemble some examples of recent errors and draft a simple story that explains why you need high-quality contact data and what happens when it is not.
The next step is to reach out to the creator. Set up a meeting aimed at opening a dialogue. Make it clear that you value their data and explain your current situation. Tell them you’d like to work with them to root out the causes of error.
Most creators respond positively. Over and over, I hear them say, “We didn’t know you needed that. We’ll get it for you.”
A few will be defensive. But they will come around once they see that you’re not trying to establish blame.
Once you’ve started off in this way, I’m certain the two of you will figure out how to proceed. You’ll be getting better data pretty darn soon!
Over time you’ll have to work with all your important data suppliers and you may even want to put a formal program in place. But don’t think about that yet. Focus first on gaining experience with one data creator. I promise you will be glad you did.
Have you been following along? In case you missed any of the previous chapters you can find them all here.