What is Salesforce Duplicate Management?

Salesforce duplicate management is a cause of worry for most businesses. It fills up the CRM with untrustworthy data. And the insights drawn from that data become questionable.

Duplicity in Salesforce is when customer data is entered multiple times in the system leading to confusion, inefficiencies, and inaccurate reporting of leads. Sales duplicity management is an issue that leading companies of the world are dealing with. 

Duplicate data in Salesforce describes a situation where two or more records in your database describe one unique real-world entity. For example, suppose you possess a contact named Ariana Grande, but your CRM comprises several contact entries representing Ariana Grande, each with some differences (A. Grande, Ari Grande).

Duplicate data often results in lead ownership and sales commission confusion. The customer, on the other hand, gets conflicting messages and redundant calls, causing a negative impression of the organization. 

The problem of duplicate data in Salesforce is huge, with most CRMs having 15-30% duplicate records. New records coming from integrations are almost 80% duplicate on average!

How Duplicate Data is killing your Salesforce Effectiveness

Let’s have a detailed look at how duplicate data might be hindering your Salesforce CRM’s effectiveness. 

1. Poor customer experience

Imagine receiving identical emails twice or having to repeat your issue to customer support because they are looking at different records. Such experiences can be frustrating and hamper the customer experience, which Salesforce aims to provide seamlessly. Duplicate records in Salesforce create the opposite effect, disrupting the smooth customer experience and undermining customer satisfaction.

2. Wasted sales opportunities

Duplicate data in Salesforce can lead to wastage and frustration for the sales team. For instance, if a salesperson contacts a lead that another salesperson is already engaging in, it can result in wasted time, added frustration, and a poor experience for the lead. 

An excessive number of duplicates can also erode salespersons’ trust in the data in Salesforce. Consequently, they may either extensively verify each contact before reaching out or skip checking background data altogether.

3. Unnecessary costs

Businesses that utilize physical marketing materials like brochures, sample kits, and direct mail might suffer financial losses by sending the same materials to a person twice. This practice is not only wasteful but also harmful to the environment. 

Moreover, certain software licenses are tied to the total number of records. Removing duplicates can minimize the number of records and associated costs.

4. Inflated forecasts

The process of forecasting involves evaluating the number of prospects that are likely to progress through the marketing and sales funnel. However, inflated numbers caused by duplicates in the data can result in overly optimistic forecasts, which may be unattainable. 

For example, if two sales representatives work on the same opportunity and enter the same data into Salesforce, the opportunity will be counted twice in the forecast. When there are multiple records for the same customer or prospect, it can be difficult to get an accurate view of the customer’s history, preferences, and needs. This can lead to misinformed sales strategies and missed opportunities.

5. Bad decision-making

Effective decision-making begins with a unified view of the customer, consolidating all customer data into one view. This view can comprise various types of data, such as click data, transactional data, and contact information, and can enable cross-channel marketing and other capabilities. Measuring the impact of actions across all channels is crucial for making informed decisions. However, duplicates in the database can prevent a comprehensive analysis of specific customers and make the aggregated data unsuitable for analysis.

With duplicity in Salesforce hurting organizations so viciously, companies are trying to find solutions to this common problem. One such solution is – Automation. 

Automation in Salesforce can be used to prevent duplicates by implementing data quality rules, identifying potential duplicates, and automating routine data management tasks. This can improve data accuracy, reduce the risk of errors, and ensure consistency in customer data.

What are the various ways in which Automation can mitigate the issue of duplicate data in Salesforce? Let’s have a look. 

How Automation Can Resolve the Problem of Salesforce Duplicity Management

What are the various ways in which automation can mitigate the issue of duplicate data in Salesforce? Let’s have a look. 

1. Automated data entry instead of manual work

Automated data entry can help prevent duplicate data in Salesforce by reducing the likelihood of human errors that often occur during manual data entry. With automation, data can be extracted from various sources and integrated into Salesforce without manual intervention, thereby minimizing the risk of creating duplicates. Automation can also check for duplicates in real time, and if detected, the system can either merge or delete the duplicate record automatically.

2. Audit before importing data

Auditing data before importing it into Salesforce can identify and eliminate potential duplicates before they are introduced into the system. This involves thoroughly reviewing existing data and cross-referencing it against the new data to be imported. By doing so, businesses can identify any existing records that match the imported data and take the necessary actions to merge or delete them.

3. Implement validation rules to enforce data standards 

Implementing validation rules in Salesforce can help prevent duplicate data by enforcing data standards and ensuring that new data being entered meets specific criteria. These rules can be set up to validate different types of data, including names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses.

For example, suppose a validation rule is set up to prevent the creation of multiple contact records with the same email address. In that case, any attempt to create a new record with an existing email address will trigger an error, preventing the duplicate record from being created. This can improve data accuracy, reduce the risk of errors, and ensure consistency in customer data.

4. Proper validation on all CRM-connected forms

Implementing proper validation on all CRM-connected forms can help prevent duplicate data by ensuring that new data being entered meets specific criteria before it is added to Salesforce. This can include validation rules such as required fields, data format, and unique identifiers. 

For example, suppose a form requires a unique email address for each user. In that case, any attempt to submit a new form with an existing email address will trigger an error, preventing the duplicate record from being created.

5. Invest in a Salesforce deduplication solution

Investing in a Salesforce deduplication solution like Nektar can help solve the problem of duplicate data by identifying and removing duplicate records from the system. These solutions use advanced algorithms and matching logic to identify potential duplicates and merge or delete them automatically. By using a deduplication solution, businesses can reduce the risk of errors, improve data accuracy, and ensure consistency in customer data across the system.

These solutions can also save time and effort by automating the deduplication process and freeing up resources that would otherwise be required to identify and merge or delete duplicates manually. 

Nektar automates your sales processes and avoids duplication in Salesforce with improved CRM data. You can supercharge your CRM by automatically capturing valuable contact and activity data scattered across tools. Nektar allows you to leverage unified revenue data to create more pipelines and close more deals consistently.

Let’s have a more detailed look on how Nektar solves the issue of duplicate records in Salesforce.

Salesforce Duplicate Management With Nektar

Nektar uses machine learning algorithms to automatically identify and merge duplicate records in the CRM, such as contacts, leads, and accounts, to ensure the data is clean and accurate. Using external data sources, Nektar also enriches the CRM data by automatically updating and appending missing data, such as job titles, phone numbers, and email addresses. This helps sales teams save time on data entry, avoid duplication, and get a more complete and accurate view of their prospects and customers.

Related Blog: Read How Nektar Puts CRM Data Hygiene on Auto Pilot

Here is a detailed look at how Nektar can help with duplicate data in Salesforce:

1. Improved contact lists 

You can obtain more complete contact lists for every Account in your CRM by extracting them from your representatives’ email inboxes, calendars, and Zoom meetings. Nektar can extract and organize this data, allowing sales teams to focus on engaging with prospects and customers instead of data entry. With this approach, sales teams can better understand their accounts and make more informed decisions.

2. Clearly segment accounts

Segment Account contacts and Opportunity Contact Roles (OCR) based on each contact’s level of engagement and interest. This will allow for a more clear and organized categorization. Nektar uses machine learning algorithms to analyze various engagement metrics, such as email response rates, meeting attendance, and website activity, to determine the level of interest demonstrated by each contact. 

Based on this analysis, contacts can be categorized into different engagement segments, such as hot, warm, and cold leads, making it easier for sales teams to focus their efforts on the contacts most likely to convert into customers.

3. Automatic buying committee map

Nektar.ai provides an automatic mapping feature that reveals valuable information about the relationships between buyers and sellers in the buying committee. Nektar analyzes various data points, such as email exchanges, meeting attendance, and contact data, to identify the key decision-makers involved in the buying process. 

By mapping the buying committee, sales teams can clearly understand the organization’s decision-making structure, identify potential roadblocks, and develop a more targeted sales strategy.

4. Enrich contacts with more information 

Nektar’s advanced contact enrichment feature allows users to automatically enhance each contact’s information by adding their job titles and phone numbers. The platform utilizes external data sources to append any missing contact information and keep it up-to-date, ensuring that sales teams always have the most current and accurate information about their prospects and customers. 

5. Track leading indicators

Nektar provides actionable insights and recommendations to help sales teams optimize their sales strategies and improve their chances of success. 

For example, the platform may recommend specific actions that sales reps can take to move a deal forward or highlight potential risks that could prevent the deal from closing.

By monitoring these predictive factors and leveraging the platform’s insights, sales teams can increase their win rates and reduce their sales cycle times. 

6. Increase qualified pipeline

Nektar’s advanced data analytics and machine learning algorithms enable sales teams to boost their qualified pipeline by adding marketable, first-party contacts. The platform utilizes various sources such as email inboxes, calendars, and CRM data to identify and extract high-quality, marketable contacts.

Conclusion 

Salesforce duplicate management can help you eradicate several sources of revenue leakage in your business.

However, automated tools like Nektar are mitigating these issues. With Nektar, you can:

• Automate data entry
• Audit data before importing
• Implementing validation rules to enforce data standards

To understand Nektar’s automated solutions better, book a call with us today!