Data is King

I recently received several direct mail pieces.  It reminded me of how important it is to make sure your direct mail list is scrubbed and up to date.  With so many resources today for updated contact information, it is a lazy practice to simply buy new lists that are potentially outdated.  It is also expensive.  These folks sent three sets of the same mailing piece to my company.  It was sent to the attention of an old employee (she left 3 years ago), and she was my admin assistant — I have no idea why she was on this list.  The postage for each envelope was $1.  The cost to print these brochures was probably about $1.25.  So $6.75 was wasted on printing and postage alone!

One of the most important assets at any company is the inhouse contact list.  If you’re like most companies, that data is spread out everywhere.  Your financial system has contacts, but only the accounts payable clerks.  Your help desk has contacts in their system, but only the end users, not the decision makers.  Your marketing department has contacts, but half are from raw inquiries and tradeshow lists, none of which were ever qualified and are now all dated.  Your contracts department has contacts, but that list is probably comprised of attorneys and contracting officers. The most important lists – the actual names of your prospects and clients (i.e., the BUYER), reside on the laptops of your salespeople.  And these are the people who seldom backup their data and are more protective of those lists that a mother lion is about her cubs.

As we increase the number of applications we use in our companies, we exponentially increase the number of databases that we have within the organization.  Each of these databases have pockets of important information.  The problem, of course, is that none of these pockets are talking with the other.  The end result?  The CEO decides to send a letter to all current clients announcing a new acquisition.  And nobody in the company is able to produce a comprehensive list (email or snail mail) to use in the mailing.

This phenomenon has driven the rise of a new specialty called “Master Data Management” or MDM.  MDM is the practice of creating a single, unified view of all your company data.  Developing this process requires involvement from every single department in your company.  Quite often, a task force is created for the sole purpose of understanding how data flows into your company, how it is used, and how it needs to be managed, stored, and maintained.  It sounds like a lot of work, and it is.  However, your data, your lists, and how you use this information is one of the keys to your success.

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