It's OK Your House Is Dirty
...Everyone else's is too
Have you ever had a guest come over to your house when it wasn’t in tip-top shape? Maybe there were toys out. Maybe there was some food on the counter. God forbid there were some clothes laying around. You profusely apologized:
“I’m so sorry for the state of our house.”
“You caught us on a bad day.”
“The cleaning service comes tomorrow”
But your guests don't care. Your house just looks lived-in, same as theirs. They also have kids. They also eat food. They also own underwear. Now they just wish you’d cut the awkward apologies and chill out.
Sure -- if you’re going to host a party or something -- clean it up. In that scenario the house needs to function as a restaurant, bar, or hotel. But the primary function of a house is to be lived in. Expecting perfection is getting you into trouble.
Similar expectations (and similar apologies) keep creeping into our world. It’s awkward. So we wrote this post.
We’ve talked to hundreds of sales organizations in the last few years. The same phenomenon occurs. Right before we look at CRM data together, we get hit with the embarrassed apologies. It’s like we were going to film an episode of Cribs, but when the door opened, utter disappointment.
“I’m sorry. You’re not going to believe the state of our CRM.”
“The people before us…we just inherited such a mess.”
“We can’t get our data enrichment right. The connectors don’t work and we have too many relationships.”
But guess what, we do believe it. We have talked to some of the most advanced data companies in the world, even some CRM data providers…and it’s always the same unnecessary apology. Reset your expectations. CRMs are dirty. That’s life.
Your CRM data was either procured from a vendor (and they got it by scraping the never clean public web), automated from a customer interaction, or manually entered by someone. Your CRM has been alive for years and owned by various people with various ideas. To expect this to be a house ready for a party is only going to make you mad.
If there is a party, you’re welcome to invite us over. We were born in the darkness, spend all day in the weeds, and thrive in the muck.
If you embrace the dirt, it might contain some minerals. Find gems where you can. Throw shit away that’s not useful, and tell everybody to chill out and listen to Mitch Hedberg: