The importance of data quality in HubSpot CRM - clean data, clear results

How to identify and fix common HubSpot CRM data issues to supercharge your sales and marketing efforts

"The problem," said Neo in Matrix Reloaded, "is choice." Sales and marketing teams are nodding agreement; success depends on making the right choices... and that starts with having high quality data to guide those decisions. Without it, even the most sophisticated tools and strategies can fall flat. According to Gartner, poor data quality costs businesses an average of $15 million per year in lost revenue. For your sales and marketing teams, having clean, accurate data means knowing exactly who your customers are and how best to reach them.

But with the growing role of AI in customer relationship management, the importance of quality data has reached new heights. Modern CRMs like HubSpot don't just store structured data like email addresses and company names — they also hold unstructured data such as meeting notes and email conversations. Both are essential for powering advanced AI tools, which can analyse interactions, predict deal success, and suggest strategies for closing sales. However, without clean, well-organised data, AI can’t deliver its full potential.

In fact, the future of AI-powered CRMs will rely even more heavily on data quality. AI tools will only be as powerful as the information they're fed. If your CRM is cluttered with duplicates, incomplete records, or missing fields, these intelligent systems won’t be able to provide the insights and recommendations your team needs to succeed.

And the cost of ignoring it? IBM estimates that bad data costs a staggering $3.1 trillion annually, a figure that reflects how poor data management can cripple even the largest organisations. If you're losing 45% of your leads due to invalid or duplicated data, you're not just missing opportunities — you're burning through potential revenue.

As we prepare for the AI revolution in sales and marketing, now is the time to get your CRM data in shape. Let's look at how.

Data quality - the never-ending quest for perfection

Let’s face it, keeping CRM data clean is like doing the dishes — you know it’s important, but it’s just not fun. Keeping up data quality is one of those tedious, thankless tasks that nobody’s really motivated to tackle, even though it has a huge impact on the success of your sales and marketing efforts. So why does data quality remain such a common problem in organisations?

1. Human nature: The struggle is real
   As humans, we’re wired to prioritise what’s directly in front of us, the task that needs to be done right now. Updating contact records or correcting outdated job titles? Not so much. Data entry often feels like busywork, and let’s be honest, no one wants to spend their day chasing down phone numbers or fixing postal codes.
   
   In the words of one frustrated sales rep, "Why should I update the city or industry when it doesn’t help me close a deal today?" And that’s the heart of it — keeping data tidy seems like a low-value task in the hustle and bustle of daily operations.

2. The 'Mount Everest' effect
   The sheer scale of the problem is another big issue. When you’re staring at a database with thousands of records, it can feel like climbing a mountain. "We've got about 8,000 contacts, and we’ve had a few goes at cleaning it," someone once told us. "But it’s just such an enormous task, and it fades away after a while."
   
   Even with the best intentions (and maybe a few holiday interns), it’s easy for data cleanup to slip down the to-do list as other priorities take over.

3. Lack of immediate benefits
   Unlike a shiny new marketing campaign or closing a big sale, the rewards of data cleansing aren’t immediate. The benefits are long-term — better targeting, more accurate reporting, and eventually, higher revenue. But the instant gratification just isn’t there, which makes it hard to motivate teams to stay on top of it.
   
   
4. Fragmented systems and unstructured data
   It’s not just about missing job titles or outdated phone numbers; sometimes the problem is deeper. With modern CRM systems like HubSpot, you’ve got both structured data (like names and emails) and unstructured data (like meeting notes, emails, and conversations). If you’re only focusing on one type of data, the full picture is lost. And guess what? AI can only work with the data it’s given — so if your CRM isn’t organised, neither are your AI-driven insights.

Data quality issues aren’t just about laziness or neglect. It’s a combination of human nature, the daunting size of the task, and a lack of immediate rewards. But tackling it is crucial if you want your CRM, and your AI tools, to perform at their best.

Outdated, incomplete, and just plain wrong: The usual suspects of bad CRM data

These can pile up faster than unread emails on a Monday morning. Whether it’s a case of neglect or human error, bad data creeps into every corner of your CRM. Here are some of the most common culprits that lead to a messy database:

1. Outdated information
   Remember that huge list of contacts you imported from last year’s trade show? Well, half of those people may have switched jobs, moved cities, or even changed industries by now. But without a regular process to update this data, your CRM is stuck in a time warp. You're still sending emails to the VP of Sales who left the company two years ago.

• • Job changes and role shifts that go unnoticed
  • Contacts who have left their company altogether
  • City, industry, or company updates that never make it into your system

2. Duplicates everywhere
   Nothing’s worse than realising you’ve sent the same person three emails because they exist in your CRM under slightly different variations of their name. Duplicate records lead to confusion, skewed metrics, and wasted effort.

• • Multiple entries for the same contact
  • Different email addresses or phone numbers for the same person
  • Duplicate companies with slightly different spellings (or worse, typos)

3. Incomplete records
   Ever try to reach out to a qualified lead only to realise you don’t even have their phone number? Incomplete data is a constant thorn in the side of sales and marketing teams, preventing them from doing their jobs effectively.

• • Missing critical details like phone numbers or job titles
  • Blank fields where crucial information should be (like email addresses, you know, the thing you need to actually contact someone)
  • Partial or incomplete notes that don’t provide a clear picture of past interactions

4. Invalid or incorrect data
   Sometimes data is just plain wrong. Whether it's a mistyped email address or a phone number that's off by one digit, invalid data wastes your team’s time and hurts your outreach efforts.

• • Incorrect email addresses that bounce back
  • Invalid phone numbers that lead to dead ends
  • Formatting issues that make data difficult to sort or segment

5. Zombie leads
   These are the leads that have gone cold and stayed cold. Whether they were never really interested in the first place or simply fell off the radar, zombie leads clutter your CRM and make it harder to focus on the real opportunities.

• • Contacts who haven’t engaged with your content in years
  • Leads that were never qualified in the first place

6. The 'forgot to update' syndrome
   We’ve all been there. You meet a great lead, quickly pop their details into the CRM, and move on to the next task. But weeks or months later, you realise you never updated their record after they changed companies or roles. Oops.

• • Leads with outdated information because nobody updated the records after the initial entry
  • Data that hasn’t been touched in months (or years)

If you’re nodding along to any of these, it’s time to clean house. Bad data might seem like a small issue, but when it piles up, it can lead to lost revenue, missed opportunities, and a lot of frustration.

Data detective mode: How to spot CRM data gone rogue

So, your CRM is starting to look more like a data junkyard than a well-oiled machine. But where do you begin to clean it up? Before you start pulling your hair out over incomplete phone numbers and misfiled company names, let's talk about how to identify those sneaky data issues — and, lucky for you, HubSpot has some tools up its sleeve to help.

Start at the bottom of the funnel
Think of your sales funnel like building a house; you’ve got to start from the bottom and work your way up. Your customer data is the foundation, and that’s where you should focus your detective efforts first.

• Customer records - are all your customer names, company names, and contact details correct? These should be rock solid because these are your paying customers.
• Sales opportunities - once you've got customer data nailed down, move up the funnel. Are your sales team members recording all interactions properly? Do you have all the info you need to manage and close deals?
• Top-of-funnel contacts - if someone downloaded your eBook with their Gmail address, don’t sweat it too much. You don’t need to have a fully fleshed-out profile for every single lead that’s casually browsing. Focus on quality data where it really counts first.

Data enrichment to the rescue
This is a concept that HubSpot is starting to provide - where AI swoops in and does the heavy lifting for you. HubSpot’s latest data enrichment feature takes your existing company records and scours the internet for extra details. If you only have basic info like a company name, AI can fill in the gaps by finding their revenue, city, number of employees, and more — just by reading their website. AI can also trawl LinkedIn to update contact details.

Prioritise and focus
Trying to clean up everything at once is like trying to reorganise your entire house in one day — it’s overwhelming and doomed to fail. Instead, prioritise based on what matters most. With the right strategy and a bit of AI-powered help, you’ll have your CRM data cleaned up and ready to roll.

The power of a polished database

You’ve rolled up your sleeves, tackled those gnarly data issues, and whipped your CRM into shape - what’s next? Well, welcome to the land of opportunity, where clean data does more than just look good; it delivers results.

Better targeting, bigger wins
With healthy contact data, your sales and marketing teams can finally stop shooting in the dark. Now you can:

• Target the right audience - personalised campaigns reach the right people at the right time. No more awkward emails to ex-CEOs.
• Shorten sales cycles - with clean, accurate data, your team spends less time fixing mistakes and more time closing deals.

Empowered AI, better insights
Correcting your CRM data powers up your AI, too. Accurate data means smarter recommendations, deeper insights, and predictive tools that can help you:

• Spot opportunities you might have missed - AI tools like HubSpot’s deal scoring feature provide actionable tips on how to seal the deal.
• Forecast more accurately - trust your data and AI to give you a clearer picture of what’s coming down the pipeline.

In short, a clean CRM doesn’t just fix problems; it identifies new possibilities for both your sales and marketing teams.

Keep your CRM data in check

Managing contact data is a critical but ongoing process, and while HubSpot CRM offers powerful tools to help you stay organised and on top of things, it’s not a cure-all for every data issue. That’s where tools like Concentrate’s HubSpot Contact Health Report come in. This report gives you a clear overview of the state of your contact properties by lifecycle stage, helping you spot errors and inconsistencies that might otherwise go unnoticed.

By combining insights from the Contact Health Report with HubSpot’s capabilities, you can tackle data quality issues head-on, so that your CRM stays up-to-date and ready to support your sales and marketing efforts. A healthy database means smoother operations, smarter marketing, and fewer missed opportunities — so give your CRM the attention it deserves.

Sign up to Concentrate’s HubSpot Contact Health Report and get it working on your contact properties.