When to delete a lead

Some people may think that there is an easy answer to this question. I have heard it said that you never delete a lead. For a few reasons, I beg to differ. First of all, some leads are clearly better than other. Some leads are not leads at all. It is not uncommon to receive fake information on a lead that simply filled out false information on a web form. I believe that most people would agree that these are not really leads and should be thrown away. But I do think there are times when leads should be deleted. Just like a motor, lead response management systems only work as well as their upkeep. It does no good to keep dead leads in your system that are not interested or that you are not allowed to contact by law.
I do not mean that you need to rub out every trace of the information forever, but maybe you should purge it from your lead management software. Keeping unnecessary data in your system only has negative effects. First of all, too much of it can slow down your system. It can do this in various ways. For one, searching or any other will be slower because the system has to sift through bad data to get to the data you are looking for. Also, your system users may be slowed down because they will have to sift through obsolete data as well. They will not have to run advanced searches all the time just to see standard data just to avoid pulling up bad leads.
Second, excess data on your systems will have the tendency to incur excess storage fees on most lead management or marketing software suites. This is an unnecessary expense that you might be paying simple because you insist on keeping bad data.
If you are absolutely adamant about keeping bad data, than do yourself a favor and at least remove it from your LRM suite. Just request a backup of all your data into csv files or manually export the data into spreadsheets and then purge it from your system. You will notice an improvement in the speed of your system. You will also notice that you, as well as yours systems users, will be more organized and efficient in their lead management and it may become easier. It may be difficult at first to clean your system, but but habits become easier them more often you do them, and it will pay off in the long run.

Tags: demand generation, Dialer, Insidesales, Lead, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Lead response Management, Management, Marketing, Marketing Software, Sales, Salesforce