How Lead-to-account matching issues are a data quality problem

In our next installment, aligned with The trailblazer’s guide to marketing, sales, and RevOps excellence, we delve into lead-to-account matching. This process is crucial for helping sales reps identify which leads are linked to specific accounts, allowing for more targeted and effective outreach and ensuring that no leads are overlooked.

Previously, we discussed how improving data quality can help overcome ideal customer profile (ICP) challenges, enhance segmentation, address data governance issues, and improve routing accuracy. We also highlighted the importance of managing duplicate accounts and records to ensure clean data and accurate reporting for better-informed business decisions.

The importance of accurate data in lead-to-account matching

So, maybe it’s not your lead-to-account matching; maybe it’s your data quality.

When new leads are added to a database, sales reps always want to know if they are associated with one of their key accounts. RevOps teams do their best to match these leads so they can be assigned to the right rep and further any opportunities with the accounts, but sometimes data issues get in the way.

Examples of data quality challenges in lead-to-account matching

For example, the following leads might have attended an event:

Our account data for these companies looks like this:

If we try to do a simple exact match on account name, we’ll have a problem and only get two matches out of six:

Improving matches through data standardization

If we clean up company names for the purposes of matching, we do a little better and get three out of six. Bolded records show the fields that were standardized:

But if we match on website after we do an exact match for company/account name, we’ll get all six:

The impact of data quality on lead-to-account matching

After cleaning data and running multiple matching processes, we get a much higher match rate and can more easily recognize leads that belong to accounts.

Obviously, this is a very simple scenario, but with standardization and multiple matching processes, we can not only match all these leads, but also make a good guess that Ms. Strozzi’s corporate email address is b.strozzi@wildcomposers.com as a pattern match with Mr. Stravinsky’s corporate email address, all because of the improvement in data quality.

Want to learn more about improving your data quality and lead-to-account matching? Download The GTM guide to data quality to ensure your data is prepped for matching, or watch the Openprise Master Class: Lead routing: the art of agility and accuracy.

If you’re ready to take the next step, schedule a demo today!

Recommended Resources