Data is at the heart of all relationship marketing programmes, yet I find it difficult to understand why there is such a careless approach to data sourcing, particularly in an economic downturn.
Given the increasing challenge of acquiring and retaining customers, the quality of data available should be on the top of everyone's agenda.
But far from seeing clients receive the impartial advice needed to help them achieve their business objectives, we are increasingly witnessing a number of data owners ignoring what is right for the client and instead introducing incentives schemes to progress their own personal agenda.
This potentially unscrupulous behaviour, while allowing the data owner to flog lots of data, can cause untold damage to a client's business and reputation.
But do clients operating in the B2B arena actually care about supplier data independence? Or put another way, are clients clear about what they are getting, or more importantly about what they are not getting?
In this context would a client feel comfortable with the likelihood that its list broker will be accepting financial incentives from data owners?
The truth is that many data suppliers in this industry offer personal incentives to individual brokers and data planners for using their data. Not volume-based rebates that can be passed on to clients, but vouchers, bottles of champagne and even skiing trips.
This is something I found out to my own cost last year. I uncovered a case where data owners were paying significant sums of money to my planners -- without having the courtesy to seek the permission of my company to introduce their incentive scheme.
Their data may be great, and we might argue that we'd choose that data source anyway, but how can we retain authority and credibility with clients when a consultant is paid money directly or indirectly in incentives with every purchase made?
In today's economic climate, it is clear that the industry is facing a challenging time. Of course, the offer of a holiday in exchange for completing a deal can seem all the more attractive at this time.
The temptation to bolster sales for data owners is great -- even Experian has introduced a scheme. However, this practice will damage the industry's reputation in the long term. And that is why I am proud of our position of independence.
We regularly deal with over 50 data suppliers worldwide -- on merit alone and we take no backhanders. In fact, it is in our terms of employment as a matter of gross misconduct that no such schemes will be tolerated.
I also recently committed tens of thousands of pounds in swapping data suppliers because our previous supplier's data had attracted a number of complaints about quality. It is an investment that I know is worthwhile in protecting our valuable independence.
Professional data planning is about helping the clients to define what they really want as outcomes and achieving those outcomes in most cost effective manner, and with the most appropriate tools -- including the right data.
Data is not a commodity -- it is the main success factor in any DM campaign.
Above all else, clients need to know that their chosen consultant is truly independent and only focussed on finding the right solution for them, rather than selecting the data on the basis of how many vouchers they can earn.
Simon Lawrence is CEO at Information Arts