Introduction to Data Profiling
Data profiling should be the first tactical step in any data assessment, quality, or reliability initiative. It consists of a series of statistical analyses that provide insight into the shape and state of CRM data. You can use these statistics to evaluate data usage trends and identify field and value usage differences within a Salesforce object.
Data profiling statistics provide valuable insights into profiled Salesforce Objects’ consistency, completeness, correctness, and timeliness — helping users identify, prioritize, and address data quality issues.
These statistics allow users to make informed decisions about improving data quality and reliability for better business outcomes. Anyone responsible for CRM outcomes can benefit from the insights profiling statistics provide. These insights offer a grounded perspective on the state of CRM data. They also help identify inefficiencies in business processes, integrations, and user behavior.
Types of Data Profiling Insights
Athorough data profiling initiative should provide three levels of profiling statistics: the Object Level (ex., an Account), the Field Level (ex. Account Name, Number, Type, Source, and Billing Address), and the record Level (ex., all records, All Person Accounts, or records created in the last week).
Hover over each data profiling statistic to learn what it measures and its key benefits.
Salesforce Object Insights
Record Volume
Record Volume
Object Storage
Object Storage
Field Usage
Field Usage
Salesforce Object Field Insights
Field Utilization Rate
Field Utilization Rate
Distinct Value Tracking
Distinct Value Tracking
Default Value Tracking
Default Value Tracking
Salesforce Object Field Value Insights
Value Frequency
Value Frequency
Most Used Field Values
Most Used Field Values
Least Used Field Values
Least Used Field Values
Use data profiling to establish a baseline set of profiling statistics for the Salesforce objects that drive your business. Aligning field usage and value distribution insights to human behavior and business outcomes will accelerate data quality realizations. The initial set of statistical insights should inform conversations and curiosity about data quality and reliability.
Use Data Profiling Insights to Improve Business Outcomes
Profiling a Salesforce object’s data is crucial in determining whether it meets business expectations. Salesforce Research’s Trends in Sales Ops Report reveals that sales organizations spend a lot of time on operational tasks related to data management. The amount of time spent on these tasks leads to a decrease in sales professionals’ efficiency. To optimize sales outcomes, it’s necessary to measure the usage and reliability of Account, Opportunity, and Lead data via profiling. Without the statistical insights profiling provides, using this data to power business objectives can lead to undesirable business outcomes.
Drawing on their expertise in process and efficiency, sales ops professionals dedicate considerable time to helping reps focus on their primary responsibility: selling. Sales teams spend only 28% of their week selling. The rest of their time comprises critical but tedious tasks like deal management and data entry.
Over 50% of the non-selling data-related tasks performed by sales professionals are influenced by data quality. Prioritizing Leads and Opportunities, researching prospect Accounts, and generating sales proposals depend on the customer and sales data manually entered by sales professionals. This kind of data is vulnerable to volatility. Sales and data collection processes often change, and sales teams frequently have turnover or restructuring. Maximizing sales requires a commitment to understanding data’s impact on a business. This commitment begins with the regular profiling of sales data.
Review the three sales optimization scenarios for practical examples of how profiling insights improve efficiency.
Improve Forecasting and Pipeline Optimization
Profiling the Opportunity object helps sales teams more accurately predict revenue and manage pipelines.
If Opportunities often stall at the “Proposal” stage, this might indicate a bottleneck in the sales process that requires attention. Similarly, if many opportunities stall at the “Negotiation” stage, sales leaders might introduce new training on negotiation techniques or think about modifying the sales process. This targeted action helps to move opportunities through the pipeline more efficiently, potentially leading to increased revenue. Accurate forecasting enables better allocation of resources, supporting the sales team’s focus on high-value deals.
Increase Lead Conversion Efficiency with Targeted Follow-Up Strategies
Profiling the Lead object reveals insights into the most effective lead sources and the speed of lead conversion.
Suppose data profiling reveals that LinkedIn leads have a high conversion rate. Sales teams can use that insight to redirect the marketing budget toward LinkedIn campaigns or train the sales team to leverage LinkedIn for sales. This focused approach saves time and increases the chances of converting high-quality leads. Accurate data profiling enables more effective resource allocation, optimizing lead conversion rates.
Maximize Strategic Account Management Outcomes
Profiling the Account object can give sales teams a clearer understanding of their optimal revenue sources.
If most high-revenue accounts come from the same industry, teams can tailor the sales strategy to focus on acquiring or upselling within that vertical. Profiling the Industry field often yields data-driven insights that can guide strategy and decision-making — allowing for more focused and potentially lucrative sales efforts.
Start Profiling Your Salesforce Org Today
Salesforce customers intent on improving their data reliability should first embrace data profiling. Profiling the Salesforce objects closely aligned with the business outcomes creates data points informing the next steps. The statistical insights produced by data profiling will foster the curiosity necessary to measure data quality and improve data reliability.
Data profiling is a necessary first step in a company’s data reliability improvement experience. Before you can assess the quality of your Salesforce data — you MUST profile the business data at its source to understand record volume, field usage, and value distribution trends. These statistical insights will inform and accelerate all future data quality discussions.
Business Considerations Often Prevent or Delay Action
While data profiling insights can improve decision-making and optimize processes, Salesforce customers often hesitate to invest in it due to its cost-intensive nature. Profiling has traditionally required specialized tools and potentially dedicated personnel — making it expensive to implement.
Data profiling often requires specialized software tools or custom implementation approaches tailored to profile data within Salesforce objects. The complexity and volume of data stored in Salesforce often require dedicated engineering, IT, and business analysis personnel who can execute and interpret the profiling tasks. This combination, coupled with the speed at which data changes and the perceived inability to generate ROI from this effort, makes data profiling cost-prohibitive for most companies.
When done well, data profiling often brings to light data quality issues that require remediation. Companies must conduct data profiling regularly to adapt to changing business requirements and data landscapes. As companies increase their business reliance on data and lean into AI, understanding and measuring the reliability of their data is critical. Adopting a data profiling capability is the first step in understanding data reliability.
Take Action and Start Profiling Today with Cuneiform for CRM
In today’s AI-driven era, data reliability is vital for all organizations — from businesses to non-profits. Many companies often settle for “probably right” data due to their struggles with data management budget, time, and expertise constraints. As AI and data drive the next wave of digital transformation, what was “probably right” yesterday will most certainly be “definitely wrong” tomorrow.
As a 100% native Salesforce solution, Cuneiform® for CRM offers modern profiling capabilities, unprecedented scale, and a familiar interface with all the data management insights necessary to assess and monitor CRM data and metadata reliability. It profiles millions of records in minutes and provides the most comprehensive collection of data management insights in the AppExchange. It also allows users to measure the data quality of profiled records via customizable KPIs — and correlate those KPIs to business impact metrics on Salesforce objects.
If you don’t know the shape of your CRM data, have data quality issues with no way of measuring them or prioritizing them, or don’t have the resources to conduct a data assessment on your own — try Cuneiform® for CRM today.
