SEMA News—March 2015

SEMA DATA CO-OP
By Jon Wyly

Driving Sales with Higher-Quality Product Data

Stuff CEOs and Sales Managers Really Need to Know

Think about the last time you personally went to the web to research a potential purchase—and remember that, according to the latest Google research, more than 77% of potential buyers of our products do just that. What were the things that led you to a particular product, brand or even place to buy?

Chances are, you began eliminating options based on the amount of good information available. Can’t find enough detail about Brand X? Let’s take a look at other options. Technical specs on Brand B lacking, but Brand C has lots of great detail to help you make a decision? You start to gravitate away from Brand B. Does Website A have tons of choices with great information while Website Z struggles to present the most basic info and images? I know which direction I would lean.

These are the dynamics of web research, brand recognition and, ultimately, purchase patterns that go on every day in the consumer world. Stats support them, consumers confirm it, and sales verify it.

“But I have my data set in PIES and ACES,” you say. “What more can I do?”

Well, as an old friend in the business, Jerry McCabe, told me some years ago, “It’s all about the data.” If he were updating that statement today, he would tell us, “It’s all about the quality and completeness of the data.”

The Data Quality & Completeness Project is designed with the goal of advancing data quality one sensible step at a time.

Product data management can no longer be relegated to a part-time, occasionally thought-about, “when we get around to it” status. It is a journey, not an event. And it’s a journey that must be taken seriously—especially if you expect to continue to grow sales as our industry and its consumers become more and more technology dependent.

The good news is that the SEMA Data Co-op now has a special initiative in place to help you make the most of that journey. The Data Quality & Completeness Project is designed with the goal of advancing data quality one sensible step at a time. New score-carding levels of Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum set carefully defined targets, and the SDC’s experienced staff of data experts can guide you through to real results. In the end, you have a bird’s-eye view of how your product data stacks up against the rest of the industry and how well you will perform in those important, sales-generating searches that consumers perform every minute of every day.

As a leader in your company, it’s time to set the bar, rally the troops and go for the Gold (or Platinum) standard in product data quality. It’s a great investment in time, costs you nothing at the SDC and will produce lottery-style results over the long run! 

To learn more about how you can take control of your product data and manage it at the lowest possible cost, contact SEMA Data Co-op Director of Membership Jim Graven at jimg@SEMAdatacoop.org or 888-958-6698 x4.