An Out-Of-Date Database Can Cost You Potential Earnings.
What Should You Do?

Instructor-led training materials for all popular software applications.
Printed and electronic formats with plenty of hands-on exercises. Sample guides available online.

Email: books@dgl.com
Training Express: http://dgl.com

An Out-Of-Date Database Can Cost You Potential Earnings. What Should You Do?

Clean it up by bringing the company names, addresses, contacts and phone numbers all up to date. Here’s how:

Start by doing a first class mailing instead of your normal bulk mailing. By doing a mailing this way, the Post Office will return the inaccurately addressed mailings to you.

Next, task the new sales rep to call everyone on the database and verify addresses and correct contacts. (Helpful Hint: Have the rep start with the ‘Z’s and work alphabetically backwards toward the ‘A’s. It’s an effective motivational tool. The end of the alphabet should go quicker and the rep will feel like he or she is getting more accomplished much sooner.)

Be sure to delete any records that are not fully mail-able or callable. If there is no contact name or no street address, the record is of no value to you and should be purged from the database. If the record is important enough to keep, have the new sales rep track down the proper address, contact, etc.

Purge all the records that don’t fall into your geographic territory. Do this by running a zip code sort, keeping only those records that are in your service area.

Rid you database of any duplicate contact names. (Another Helpful Hint: Run your find and sort according to last name. Often times, non-updated databases will have one contact with three or four different versions of a first name such as Richard, Bob, Rich or even Richard, Jr.)

Rid your database of any duplicate companies and then have your new sales rep (just when he or she thought the task was over) call to find the “right” contact person.

Now that you’ve gotten rid of all old, out-of-date and out-of-territory records, add all the past leads and customers that need to be added. Once you’ve completed all this, you have a more useful tool, an accurate database for your mailings and contacts that can earn you money.

Some Finer Points:

You’ve gotten your database up to date. Now the trick is to keep it that way by updating your database on a regular basis. Here’s how often:

For large businesses and organizations, update your database every nine months.

For small businesses and organizations, the general rule of thumb is to update your database once a year. This varies, however, depending upon the types of businesses in your database.

For military contacts, update your database every six months.

(By keeping your database up to date according to this schedule, your new sales rep will always have something to look forward to.)