The road to a clean CRM data is fraught with challenges, especially for SaaS companies juggling intricate usage-based business models and diverse contract types.
Challenges:
1. Diverse Data Sources: SaaS companies, with their multifaceted offerings, often integrate data from various sources. The challenge lies in harmonizing this diverse data into the CRM, especially when dealing with usage metrics tied to complex business models.
2. Usage-Based Business Model Challenges: In a usage-based model, where revenue is directly correlated with customer utilisation, tracking and managing varying levels of consumption become critical. The intricacies of these models can lead to inaccuracies and discrepancies if not handled with precision.
3. Contractual Complexity: SaaS companies engage in a spectrum of contracts. Each contract type introduces its own set of data intricacies, making uniform data entry and management a formidable task.
4. Stale data:One major challenge is that salespeople don’t update the CRM regularly or update inconsistent information making the CRM data unreliable. It also makes it difficult to understand information on specifics like renewals, multi year contracts, etc.
Ways to Maintain Clean Data in SaaS CRM:
1. Unified Data Entry Standards: Establishing standardized data entry protocols is foundational. This is particularly crucial in a usage-based model where data consistency directly impacts accurate tracking of usage metrics. Define clear guidelines for naming conventions, data formats, and essential fields in the beginning itself and convey that to the team.
2. Dynamic Contract Management: Implement an agile contract management system capable of adapting to the nuances of various contract types. This includes the ability to accommodate custom terms, different billing cycles, and evolving contractual obligations. A good CPQ can help.
3. Incentivizing users to update the correct information:A lot of companies link incentives of salespeople to the information in the CRM which acts as an incentive for them to update the information timely and correctly.
4. Integration of Data Cleaning Tools and conducting regular audits: Leverage specialized data cleaning tools tailored for SaaS CRM. These tools can identify and rectify issues specific to usage data, such as inconsistencies in metrics, ensuring that the CRM reflects an accurate representation of customer interactions. You can also have a deal desk to ensure cleanliness on regular intervals.
The insights you can generate with the clean CRM information can be really valuable and thus, it is worthwhile to invest time in cleaning it up.Let me know if there are other ways that have worked for you in the past to ensure a clean CRM.
