Add a layer of complexity - there is a constant change in the elephant after each quarterly forecasts and esp. after year end results. And not that it matters here but the elephant could be blind too. It could be so big that the animal is not clear about his own parts.
But what if the blind men were to sit together in a room and piece their understanding of the elephant in a collaborative way. A constant conversation spanning quarters and financial years. All data points and information about the elephant getting into one place. The function of organization charts in Contactous helps these men to put together their experience and construct a unified description of the elephant. As all touch points (i.e. contact records) are already in the system, the collaborative function of creating and sharing the organization charts lets the seller define the buyer's organization to the best of their knowledge. The "blind men" can add the contacts to the chart at the right hierarchy based on their knowledge. Others within the company who had only heard of the elephant can now begin to see the image and the web of relationships their team has with the buyer. Not just an elephant but more domesticated animals and few of wild species can be added in the story. It is easy to write the sequel around blind (and wise) men in a petting zoo!  Studies show that 3 out of 5 CRMs fail after implementation. Absence of data within these systems has been agreed as one of the critical reason. Forrester Research's study concluded that companies analyze a mere 12% of data that they have. Results of our own 2016 survey from 38 companies resulted in similar results that 9 out of 10 contact records received by the organization does not reach its CRM. With 90% of the data hidden from view, the problem is compounded by the fact that this data is usually increasing at a rapid rate. Not only it could be messy, the bigger question is if it is still relevant. Here we propose a simple approach to arrest the problem - in 3 steps. The answer lies in consolidation outside CRM into a Pre-CRM database, as not all data needs to be there. The steps are Discover, Consolidate and Migrate. Discovering the sources of data is the first step. From our experience, some of usual data sources are:
Consolidation is the next step. A Pre-CRM contact database with all custom fields needs to be created and all the discovered data from first step needs to be exported to this repository. At Contactous, we have had three observations after this step has been carried out - First, it is shocking to everyone on how much data they had within the organization. One medium sized organization which manufactured IT peripheral products saw its Pre-CRM database balloon to a near million records! Our second observation was to see creativity breaking loose within the team who saw this database - patterns emerged, leads surfaced and possibilities on what can be done in campaigns went high. The third observation was in the sudden effectiveness of marketing automation programs who had to rethink the weight and warmth of leads in view of this Pre-CRM database. Migration to CRM is the final step. Now that leads start to surface, the owners of the contacts selectively transfer the records to their CRM. Tens of thousands of handpicked records find their way into CRM within days, increasing its effectiveness and giving the intended CRM benefits back to the organization. The functionality of Pre-CRM's native connection to the CRM is critical, without which the approach will fail at this step. This Pre-CRM could be as simple as a carefully designed spreadsheet or a purpose-built application like Contactous. The tool is secondary. Acting on those 90% contact records is the key. 
The reason why business cards have survived the new age “Go Paperless” movement is the human factor involved. This millennial marketing tool is not likely to be sucked into the turbine of digital grinding for as long as people believe in importance of handshakes in business meets. Beyond this, there are some clear-cut reasons why business cards still matter in today’s time and how they continue to provide business a forward propulsion, notwithstanding the other marketing strategies and methods in play. Have newsletters and call to action emails, if you must, but do not bid adios to this oldest friend of businesses. Here are some points underscoring the argument.
A business card is not an office door plaque on paper. It is the ticket to good business. It is a valuable medium of sharing contact data with a potential business partner that does more than wearing just the names and numbers. Even a slip or a text message can do that. All the furor about quality business card content is pivoted on that consensus. There are three things in a business card that are of pivotal importance. It should make a lasting impression at the first, momentary glance. Second, it should be graphically powerful to register itself in the minds of the recipients. And third, it should deliver the message in a meaningful way. The discussion that follows will make sense to what’s been just said.
One of the mainstay investments of a business house is mailing lists. Third party companies accumulate and compile these databases from the market that businesses buy for networking. But, did you know that your organizational archive already has a bulk of contact data to connect you to new prospects? Just pause the payment to third party providers for a month and do a little digging in places to mine out enormous contact data from your in-house documents. This bulk of contact information can last you for months and reach you to a network of new prospects many of whom are high-value leads.
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