Why go-to-market leaders need to secure their CRM from invalid traffic and bad data

For all of these purposes, an effective CRM is not just nice to have, it’s critical. Without proper CRM software, hot leads go mismanaged or undetected, and processes can become clunky, slow, and even counterproductive. Smart organizations know this, and consider CRMs to be one of the most essential tools in their tech stacks.

But what if you discovered that a large portion of leads that were entering your CRM were actually bots and fake users? For many businesses, this is not just a hypothetical scenario, but a concerning reality. In fact, research has shown that about 40% of all web traffic is invalid. Invalid Traffic (IVT) is made up of various bots, suspicious users, and malicious users. While IVT cannot convert into legitimate paying customers, that doesn’t stop it from flooding CRMs with bad leads.

Letting IVT into your CRM poisons your entire sales operation. IVT unfortunately causes sales teams to waste valuable time, resources and budget nurturing and trying to sell to leads that in many cases aren’t even real people. Email drips and remarketing campaigns also become hijacked by invalid users, and success metrics become skewed. Not to mention, many CRMs are priced based on the number of contacts, so IVT can also inflate bills and lead to wasted budgets. In this article, we’ll discuss what you can do to protect your pipeline and ensure maximum efficiency.

What you can do to protect your pipeline:

1. Build a culture of data hygiene: First and foremost, sales organizations should be built on the understanding that CRM data should not be entered haphazardly, and all salespeople should be entering data in the same format. Additionally, reps should ensure each lead and opportunity is being updated regularly, and that the information in the CRM reflects the reality of where someone is in the sales process. When everyone in the sales organization is doing everything they can to keep data clean, and has access to the most robust lead intelligence tools, they are set up for success.
2. Check lead sources for suspicious activity: Campaigns, website conversion points, and external programs should all be carefully looked at for any signs of poor quality traffic. There are certain patterns that can indicate a user is either a bot or has malicious intentions. For example, if a user appears to be clicking around randomly on a site and not following typical user browsing patterns, there

is a chance they are a bot. Additionally, when users try to mask their identity, geolocation, or source of traffic they might be coming from a suspicious source and should be carefully evaluated. If a team notices that there is an abundance of unusual traffic or behaviors coming from a particular campaign, maybe it is time to reevaluate the resources being poured into that campaign.

3. Deploy Go-to-Market Security: Once a team has ensured data is clean, teams are following the proper processes, and lead sources and behavior are being evaluated, it might be time to also take a look at how marketing security technology can benefit a given business. Go-to-Market Security (GTMSec) is a business strategy and cybersecurity driven technologies that helps go-to-market teams identify and block harmful sources of traffic from IVT.

Summary: The CRM is the barometer of the entire go-to-market operation. Businesses use it to determine sales success, projections for future quarters, and where to allocate resources. But since IVT is becoming a growing issue for marketers and sales teams, it can seriously poison these critical functions. Because of this, it’s important for teams to keep their CRMs clean to ensure future organizational success. To learn more, visit CHEQ.ai.

—
Kerry Coppinger | Senior Manager, Brand Marketing @CHEQ

Kerry is the Senior Manager, Brand Marketing at CHEQ. CHEQ is the marketing team’s security suite, trusted by over 12,000 customers worldwide to protect their funnels, sites, and analytics from bots and fake users. Powered by award-winning cybersecurity technology, CHEQ offers the broadest suite of solutions for securing the entire funnel, from paid marketing to on-site conversion, data, and analytics.