B-to-B Cataloging: CLIMB Into System Fundamentals
Cumbersome. Awkward. Do you say this and worse about your order management system, your CRM package or whatever you call your central repository of data? If so, you’re not alone.
Changing your system is expensive and time- consuming. So before you make that leap, step through the CLIMB process first. It’s a proven system to get more benefits from your database.
Clean: Clean data begins with standardization. Do you consistently place the same data in the same field, or do you find company names in address fields and other wrong places? Standardization improves deliverability of your mail, but the benefits don’t stop there. Standard addresses also improve the results of dedupe processes, which improves the quality of your transactional data and marketing efforts.
Learn: Software is a tool to help perform tasks better. No order management software teaches us how to manage inventory or run our marketing programs. The software company’s trainers don’t teach any of those functions either; they teach how to use their software. This is an important and often misunderstood distinction. Provide training to help your staff members do their jobs better, and they’ll discover how to use their tools more effectively.
Inventory: Pull a sample record layout and walk through a data inventory with your database manager. Ask questions, and make sure you know what every field means.
Once, while conducting this exercise with a client, we had a lively debate about a heading labeled “quantity.” No one in the company knew whether it meant number of orders or number of products. This type of discovery is not an isolated incident.
One CEO voiced his frustration that this cataloger couldn’t track lifetime value. On the surface, it didn’t appear that cumulative data was tracked. But the record layout displayed the number of orders and the average order value. The cumulative data and all its details were in hidden fields that no one knew existed.
Manage: Regardless of which order management system you use, you need a database manager to run your system. This person consolidates duplicate records, updates the file with NCOA changes, understands platform requirements, runs complex queries, keeps your database in working order and understands everything about running your system. Your database is the lifeblood of your company. Don’t trust it to just anyone, and don’t let it run on autopilot.
Borrow: Leverage the expertise of outside firms for one-time database projects. One cataloger client of ours realized that it needed to overhaul its marketing segmentation. The people in charge assigned a study to one firm and the implementation to another. They effectively supercharged their database at a fraction of the cost of implementing a new system.
If you’re frustrated with your order management system, work through the CLIMB process. You may find that your current database provides everything you need.
George Hague is vice president at J. Schmid & Assoc. Inc. You can reach him at (913) 236-8988 or at GeorgeH@JSchmid.com.
A columnist for Retail Online Integration, George founded HAGUEdirect, a marketing agency. Previously he was a member of the Shawnee Mission, Kan.-based consulting and creative agency J. Schmid & Assoc. He has more than 10 years of experience in circulation, advertising, consulting and financial strategy in the catalog/retail industry. George's expertise includes circulation strategy, mailing execution, response analysis and financial planning. Before joining J. Schmid, George worked as catalog marketing director at Dynamic Resource Group, where he was responsible for marketing and merchandising for the Annie's Attic Needlecraft catalog, the Clotilde Sewing Notions catalog, the House of White Birches Quilter's catalog and three book clubs. George also worked on corporate acquisitions.
