It is not always easy getting the attention of the business executives—especially when it comes to selling data quality. Data quality enables your systems, such as marketing automation platforms, customer relationship management, etc., to run smoothly and effectively. So, how can you convince the leaders in your organizations to invest in data quality?
Scott Taylor (The Data Whisperer), Principal Consultant at MetaMeta Consulting provides some great advice on getting executives to listen to your data needs and resource those needs appropriately.
1. Change your vocabulary – oftentimes, issues around getting buy-in from leadership revolves around miscommunication. Executives don’t want to hear that they have ‘dirty data’ – you need to use phrases that align with their concerns. For example, instead of saying ‘we need to cleanse data’, try saying ‘we need to set clear standards’
2. Talk about strategy – leaders care more about strategy and less about data. Tie the discussion in to the overall company strategy and make sure you align data quality concerns to specific areas of focus, such as AI, IOT, digital transformation, etc. The main point here is in order to be successful in those focus areas, companies need high quality, well-governed, master reference data.
3. Master data is the enabler – Master data is the enabler – When master data is of high quality, it can team up with powerful software, like a marketing automation platform, to truly deliver business value. This is why software looks great in demos—the demo data is incredibly accurate and clean. However, when a company purchases the software and plugs in their own—often dirty—data, the software doesn’t perform as well. It’s like putting terrible food into an amazing recipe. It doesn’t matter how great the recipe is if the food isn’t the right quality. Master data doesn’t do anything on its own, but it makes digital transformation possible.
If you’d like to learn more about data quality (including selling data quality to the business), please check out the iData Quality Academy; Scott Taylor is also an instructor at iData Quality Academy.
Kate Strachnyi, Instructor at iData Quality Academy