Bad CRM data is a rep-confidence problem as much as it is a data quality problem. When a rep calls and the title is wrong, the company name is stale, or there's no note about last contact — they're starting from zero on a live call. That hesitation shows.
This checklist covers the 10 fields that make the difference between a rep who walks into a call prepared and a rep who's figuring it out in real time. Use it to audit your CRM, onboard new team members, or set the minimum standard for imported lists.
The 10 fields
Verified email address
Not just any email — a verified one. An email that bounces is worse than no email: it hurts your sender reputation and flags your domain. At minimum, run an MX check. On paid tier, run ZeroBounce or equivalent. Mark unverified addresses clearly so reps know the risk before they send.
Direct or mobile phone number
A switchboard number is not a direct number. If a rep has to navigate a phone tree before they can pitch, the call is half over before it starts. LinkedIn, company websites, and enrichment tools like PDL and Cognism are the fastest paths to direct dials. Flag if it's a switchboard so reps can adjust their approach.
Accurate, current job title
Titles change. Someone who was "Sales Manager" six months ago might now be "VP of Sales" — or gone entirely. A rep who opens with the wrong title loses credibility instantly. Verify titles on LinkedIn before outreach, and set a 90-day stale date on any title that hasn't been confirmed.
Seniority level
Not the same as job title. Seniority level (IC, manager, director, VP, C-suite) determines how you pitch, what pain points you lead with, and how long the decision cycle is likely to be. An IC-level contact needs a different conversation than a budget holder. Map it explicitly — don't let reps infer it from the title.
Company name and verified domain
Obvious — but frequently wrong. Abbreviations, legal names vs trading names, and parent/subsidiary confusion all cause issues. The domain matters because it's the basis for company research, email validation, and CRM deduplication. Use the trading name reps will recognise, and store the domain separately.
Employee headcount (or band)
Headcount determines deal complexity, likely budget, and which persona to target. A 12-person startup has one decision-maker. A 500-person company has a buying committee. Getting headcount wrong means wrong expectations going into a call. Bands are fine (1–10, 11–50, 51–200, etc.) — you don't need the exact number.
Industry / vertical
Not "Technology" — that's 40% of your CRM. Be specific: "B2B SaaS", "logistics tech", "financial services", "professional services". Industry drives which case studies a rep leads with, which pain points are most relevant, and which competitors are likely already in the account. If your ICP spans multiple verticals, this field is what segments them.
Last contact date and outcome
The single most abused field in any CRM. A contact with no last-contact date is a contact that might have been called 40 times by three different reps over 18 months. Or never. "Last contacted: 6 months ago, outcome: not right timing" is information. Blank is not. Make this mandatory on every touch.
Assigned rep / contact owner
Unowned contacts get worked by everyone and followed up by no one. Clear ownership prevents the two worst outcomes: the same prospect being called by three different reps in a week (embarrassing), or a warm lead going cold because everyone assumed someone else was handling it.
Lead source
Where did this contact come from? Inbound request, imported list, LinkedIn outreach, referral, event? Lead source affects how you approach the call. An inbound lead gets a different opener than a cold LinkedIn connection. It also tells your RevOps team which channels are actually producing pipeline worth working.
The rule of thumb: If a rep can't answer "who is this person, what do they do, and have we spoken before?" from the CRM record in under 30 seconds, the record isn't ready to work.
How to use this checklist
On import
Every time a list is imported into your CRM — from a CSV, an integration, or a tool export — run it against this checklist before assigning contacts to reps. Fields 1–7 should be present and validated before a rep touches the record. Missing fields should be flagged, not ignored.
For an existing CRM audit
Pull a report of all contacts where "last contact date" is blank, or where email is unverified, or where job title hasn't been updated in 12+ months. These are your highest-risk records. Prioritise cleaning them before your next campaign, or exclude them entirely until they're verified.
In rep onboarding
New SDRs often default to whatever's in the CRM without questioning whether it's accurate. Train them to verify fields 1, 3, and 8 before any first touch — even if the data looks complete. A two-minute LinkedIn check before a call is faster than recovering from a bad start.
Setting team standards
Turn this into a written policy: which fields are required before a record is workable, who is responsible for maintaining them, and what happens to records that don't meet the standard (quarantine list, not main pipeline). Written standards make the conversation easier when data quality slips.
The fields that cause the most problems
Email (field 1)
The most dangerous bad field. An unverified email that bounces at scale damages your sending domain, which affects every email your team sends. The cost of email verification is pennies per record. The cost of a damaged domain reputation is weeks of recovery and lost deliverability across the board.
Last contact date (field 8)
Most commonly left blank because reps forget, the task system isn't integrated, or logging activities is seen as admin overhead. Fix this at the process level, not by hoping reps remember. Either automate activity logging from your dialler and email tool, or make it a hard CRM requirement before moving a record to the next stage.
Job title (field 3)
Titles change constantly. People get promoted, change companies, or take on new responsibilities that their title doesn't reflect. A 90-day stale window is aggressive but correct for outbound. Set an automated flag in your CRM for any title that hasn't been verified in the last quarter.
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