Is your company struggling with keeping your CRM data clean and accurate?
If not, I would be concerned no one is using the CRM!
I’m half kidding there. The reality is CRM data management is a challenge to every growing organization. In their State of CRM Data Management Report, Validity tells us more than CRM admins rate their data integrity at less than 80-percent.
Improving your CRM data management is not especially difficult, but it does require some know-how with your tech stack along with dedicated time and clear protocols for your team to follow.
Full disclosure – we are top-tier ZoomInfo and HubSpot partners, and many of the insights I’m sharing here are the result of years of experimentation with those tools. Even if you aren’t using those platforms right now, you’ll find the same principles likely apply to your CRM.
Regular CRM audits go beyond simple data cleaning—they help identify systemic issues that could lead to data quality problems in the future.
Quarterly or semi-annual audits should focus on checking for duplicates, missing properties, and outdated information. A well-executed audit not only cleans the data but provides insights into why inconsistencies are popping up and whether current processes and tools are contributing to the problem.
Regardless of the frequency of your audits, it’s important to be proactive with them.
If certain types of records (like contact information properties) are consistently missing, this may signal a problem with how data is entered or sourced.
We had a client once who exported a large contact list from ZoomInfo to HubSpot, and they didn’t see phone data showing up in the right properties on the records. They thought the information hadn’t ported over to HubSpot, when in fact the data had synced to “ZoomInfo phone” properties in HubSpot. Sometimes the data is fine, but the mapping between the source and the CRM system needs to be adjusted.
One of the most common pitfalls of CRM data management is inconsistency.
Without a consistent approach to how data is captured and entered into the CRM tool, discrepancies start to emerge—especially in large, cross-functional teams.
Think about the enormous benefits of systemizing data gather on prospecting calls. When your sales reps are calling prospects, do they confirm the following:
1. Am I speaking with the decision maker? Who else is on the buying committee?
2. If the prospect is under contract with a competitor, when is the renewal date?
If you have six reps on your team and they confirm that information with five people a day, at the end of the month you will have a list of 600 decision makers your marketing team can go after!
Playbooks are another key way to systemize data capture during prospect and client meetings. In HubSpot’s Sales Hub, playbooks are a set of questions and data fields reps need to capture on discovery calls. When they use these questions to guide the call and capture key structured data in the process, you can vastly improve the quality of your CRM system data.
Automating CRM processes isn’t just about saving time—it ensures greater accuracy and consistency.
The marketing automation capabilities in HubSpot allow for flexible data management, using triggers to update, copy, or remove data from CRM software records.
You can also automate the flow of new prospects into HubSpot by setting up a workflow in ZoomInfo that recognizes buying intent signals from a target account, which then pushes the data into HubSpot. The creation of that new record can then be used to automate an alert to a sales rep.
These are just a few ways you can automate data capture and enrichment.
Many CRM platforms offer integrations that automatically pull updated contact and company information from external databases.
You can also automate sales processes like deal stage updates or lead scoring, based on predefined parameters. This helps prevent records from becoming stale or inaccurate by automatically ensuring that they reflect the latest status without requiring manual intervention.
Duplicate records are a common challenge for companies with dynamic CRM systems, especially if you are automating data imports from a third-party tool.
If you’ve ever run a search query for customer information and gotten four or five records for the same individual or organization, you’ve seen this before.
1. CRM Software Features: Some CRMs offer built-in duplicate management tools, flagging duplicate records during data entry by comparing key fields like name, email, and phone number. HubSpot auto-deduplicates records by:
Data Import Validation: Ensuring duplicates don't enter the CRM in the first place is a good first step.
Many CRM systems allow users to set rules for data imports, such as checking for existing records before new ones are added.
If your company uses automation to import new data or enrich existing records in your CRM, it’s important to ensure the unique identifiers are mapped correctly between the tools. For example, HubSpot uses email addresses to identify contact records, domain names for company records, and record IDs for all entries to create a unique “fingerprint” for each entry in the CRM.
Without governance and accountability, CRM data can become a mess.
ZoomInfo stresses the importance of assigning ownership of data to people or teams. This includes defining who is responsible for entering, reviewing, and cleaning data.
Whether it's a CRM admin or a small team, appointing a dedicated group to oversee data management ensures that the system is consistently updated and maintained. This team should monitor data quality on an ongoing basis and implement changes to policy or processes when needed.
HubSpot offers settings that allow you to limit user permissions in regards to what data they can access and edit. By limiting who can make changes to critical records, you reduce the risk of mistakes. A strong governance framework also includes a process for dealing with issues such as data duplication, incomplete records, or outdated contact information.
Ensuring CRM data integrity is an organizational effort, not just the responsibility of the CRM admin.
Establishing a culture of data integrity means that every team member—from sales to customer support—understands the importance of maintaining clean, accurate data.
HubSpot highlights the importance of regular training and knowledge sharing, especially as your CRM grows in complexity. Encouraging all teams to adhere to data standards and making them accountable for the quality of data they contribute ensures that errors are minimized across the board.
Incentivizing data hygiene across the organization strengthens the overall commitment to accurate records. Consistent training, setting clear expectations, and ongoing feedback will ensure that data integrity is sustained over time.
Maintaining CRM data integrity isn’t a one-time effort—it requires a continuous commitment to monitoring, cleaning, and updating data.
Senior leadership should prioritize data quality as a strategic asset. Adopting a structured data governance framework, using automation for data entry and maintenance, enriching data from reliable sources, and nurturing a culture of responsibility will ensure that your CRM remains an accurate resource.