CRM Case Study 1: CRM Data Cleanup & Segmentation
Industry:
B2B SaaS – The client, a SaaS company with a growing customer base, relied heavily on Salesforce to manage leads, accounts, and customer engagement. However, years of inconsistent data entry and a lack of standardized processes had turned their CRM into a source of confusion rather than clarity.
Problem:
The client faced significant challenges with CRM data quality, including:
- Duplicate and outdated records cluttering Salesforce.
- Inconsistent field values and missing critical data points.
- Poor segmentation, which limited targeted outreach and campaign performance.
- Low trust in CRM data among sales and marketing teams, leading to reliance on manual spreadsheets and workarounds.
These issues not only slowed down operations but also led to lost opportunities, misaligned reporting, and ineffective campaign targeting.
Solution:
We led a comprehensive CRM data cleanup and segmentation project to restore trust in the system, enable accurate reporting, and improve campaign performance. This involved:
- Conducting a full audit of the Salesforce environment.
- Establishing data governance standards and deduplication processes.
- Enriching lead and account data using third-party sources.
- Designing dynamic segmentation frameworks for better targeting and personalization.
Execution:
- Salesforce Data Audit – Identified duplicates, incomplete records, outdated fields, and inconsistent naming conventions.
- Deduplication & Normalization – Used automated tools and custom scripts to clean, merge, and standardize records.
- Field Mapping & Governance Setup – Defined required fields, implemented validation rules, and set up audit logs.
- Data Enrichment – Integrated third-party data providers to fill in missing firmographic and demographic data.
- Segmentation Framework Design – Created flexible segmentation based on buyer personas, lifecycle stages, industry, and deal size.
- Training & Documentation – Provided CRM best practices and governance playbooks to ensure future data integrity.
Challenges & Roadblocks:
- Legacy Data Complexity – The CRM contained several years of legacy data with inconsistent formatting and owner attribution.
- User Adoption – Users were resistant to new data entry requirements and validation rules.
- Tool Limitations – Some deduplication had to be done manually due to limitations in the client’s Salesforce tier.
- Change Management – Required strong collaboration between RevOps, sales, and IT to implement governance policies.
Results:
- Removed over 60% of duplicate or low-quality records, increasing CRM usability.
- Improved segmentation accuracy, leading to a 20% boost in email engagement and campaign performance.
- Reduced manual lead qualification by implementing cleaner data workflows.
- Increased trust in Salesforce data among sales and marketing teams, leading to wider adoption of CRM-driven processes.
Dashboard:
Key Takeaways & Learnings:
CRM trust and usability are foundational to building a scalable RevOps infrastructure.
Clean, governed CRM data is essential for scaling sales and marketing operations effectively.
Segmentation is only as good as the data behind it—investing in quality upfront pays off in downstream performance.
Change management and training are critical for long-term data hygiene.