Data analytics company 

Dun & Bradstreet

has announced that its latest report highlights the importance of data quality in sales and marketing success.

The seventh annual B2B marketing report reveals the opportunities and challenges facing marketers and sales decision-makers, with 94% of those surveyed highlighting investment in data quality as important to sales and marketing performance.

Despite the focus on data quality, Dun & Bradstreet claims that respondents from sales and marketing teams across both the UK and US say they are failing to connect good quality data with advanced martech tools. Less than 10% of those surveyed invest in personalised marketing, account-based marketing (ABM) or aligning online and offline activities as their first choice.

According to the report, there is a clear disconnect between what marketers want to do, and what they are able to realistically achieve. Other key findings from the report include the following:

• Every survey participant who increased their investment in data quality reported performance gains.
• When asked to rank the biggest barriers to investing in data quality, the three challenges that topped the list were: cost (37%); better ROI with other initiatives (27%); and a lack of understanding (27%).

Adam Leslie, European sales & marketing solutions leader at Dun & Bradstreet, claims that the need for alignment between internal and external data has continued to be an issue for marketers. This is compounded by the increasing amount of online information available.

Commenting on the findings, Adam said: “Our survey revealed that, although advances have been made and data [is] being used to support basic marketing strategies, many organisations are yet to fully utilise their data as a competitive asset, leaving an untapped opportunity for marketers and sales teams to create a strong data foundation to fuel advanced applications. Teams that are able to prioritise data quality will be better able to align their efforts and improve performance. This focus on data quality will enable businesses to harness and benefit from the full power of their martech stack with more unity and return on investment.”