Working with data, even if its data you already have in-house, can quickly become overwhelming if you try to do too much all at once.
“There’s a learning curve, and some (distributors) try to start with boil-the-ocean projects like master data management projects, when instead they maybe should be focused on cleaning up two parts of data: your customer data and your product data,” says Real Results Marketing's Jonathan Bein. “And that’s going to give you some large percentage of the value of doing the master data management project for a fraction of the cost.”
Bein spoke with Modern Distribution Management for the 2014 Distribution Trends Report.
A great way to start qualifying customer data is to add industry codes to each customer. SIC and NAICS codes are a great way to start to understand not only your customer base, but also your sales in comparison to the market as a whole. Economic reporting is usually classified by industry. Without this industrial classification, it becomes impossible to compare your data with external sources.
Adding this information may seem overwhelming in large CRM databases. The good news is that it only takes a few pieces of information about your customer to append an industrial code. Usually you will need the company name, address and phone number. Business databases like Dun & Bradstreet or Hoovers can easily append your customer information with these qualifiers.
Once you have sales data that is comparable to the rest of the industry, there is a new world of strategic decisions that become available.
