Relationship intelligence is essential to modern prospecting. This applies to investment banks seeking clients, Enterprise sales teams trying to connect with C-suite decision makers, and others. The data your teams use to connect with these individuals are key contributors — or detriments — to their success.
But countless organizations still lack data accuracy, consistency, or robustness in their CRM. Their customer and contact data often reside in silos. Teams are unable to access data in a centralized way. These factors inhibit teams’ abilities to prospect successfully, lose new business, and miss new opportunities.
Modern data enrichment tools that integrate directly with enterprise CRM systems can resolve these issues. “Organizations may want to enrich their existing data so that they can put better information in front of their revenue – generating teams,” says Emmanuella Modilim, VP, Global head of Client Success at Altrata. “Timely, robust information is very valuable, especially when it’s accessible through an organization’s existing CRM.”
In this article, we identify common shortcomings in existing CRM use cases and prospecting efforts. We share insights from experts on data enrichment, people intelligence, and CRM integrations. Finally, we explore data enrichment opportunities that help you build relationships, boost efficiency, and effectiveness, and maximize the value of your CRM investment.
The problem with generic relationship data
Most organizations work with siloed data that grows more inaccurate over time. Their teams lack data that reflects the real, active lives of their connections. These teams have implicit biases or “blind spots” that are difficult to uncover. For example, a target’s crucial contacts and relationships may not be clear. These make it difficult to connect with clients or prospects in a genuine way that closes deals, faster
This is costly. Gartner estimates poor data quality leads to an average of $15 million in losses each year. Organizations need to get more accurate, consistent data to drive real value from their connections. They need to quickly identify valuable relationships between parties within their existing CRM system if they hope to create new business opportunities.
What is relationship intelligence?
Relationship intelligence is a deeper understanding of the ecosystem of relationships beyond one’s known network.
Successful organizations create these opportunities using relationship intelligence.
“Relationship intelligence is about relationships between, for example, a global technology firm and a prospective C-suite buyer,” says Daniel Garcia, Solutions Engineer at Altrata. “But also, it’s about the relationships that these C-suite prospective buyers has with other potential customers.”
Practical people intelligence begins with data enrichment within a company’s existing CRM. “That’s what everyone strives for—ensuring data in their system actually reflects what is happening in the real world,” as Jeremy Neumann, Director of Data Operations at Altrata describes. “Then through relationship mapping, business development professionals can glean unique insights into how people are connected to one another in a variety of contexts.”
Beyond direct connections and general market mapping, business development teams can explore:
- Personal data (e.g., family, wealth, education, interests, achievements, spending and philanthropic giving details)
- Professional data (e.g., companies they currently or historically work(ed) for)
- Relationships data (e.g., type, context, strength)
- Organization or entity data (e.g., size, type, recent deals, legal standing)
- Conflicts of interest
- Back-channel references
This critical insight provides more actionable intelligence for warm introductions, new opportunities, and better ways to connect with clients and prospect.
Data enrichment through CRM integrations
In practice, prospecting teams need this data in in way that complements their existing workflows. These most often include CRM systems. “The reality is that most of our clients are actively working within their CRM,” says Garcia. “They love it—they just want to see useful data within that solution.”
That’s why data enrichment from Altrata includes APIs and CRM integrations and data feeds. Direct CRM integrations and data feeds enhance an organization’s original data for improved insights. Immediate advantages include:
For example, Altrata’s BoardEx Developer API provides instantaneous people intelligence based on an organization’s existing relationships. Teams can immediately identify target organizations that are connected to their clients and other contacts. They can even expedite prospect qualification through the information contained in BoardEx database records.
Lasting business results
Organizations that continue to enrich their CRM data with Altrata realize lasting improvements to their prospecting workflows, workloads, interactions, and business outcomes. Business benefits include:
People remain the true power of business
True power in business continues to reside in relationships — between colleagues, prospects, clients, and influential connections. But it’s organizations with a data-driven culture around building relationships that see the greatest value. In this way, relationship intelligence through CRM integrations can become foundational to prospecting and organizational success.
About Altrata
Altrata and its suite of solutions represent the preeminent source of people intelligence. Organizations use our CRM integrations and data-enrichment capabilities to keep their people intelligence relevant and up to date for all their prospecting activities. Contact us directly to learn more.