Research
Original reports on the time and cost of getting data into a CRM. Every figure says where it comes from, and every method is published.
The cost of CRM data work
What it costs to get one list into a CRM, why the person given the work falls behind, and what a company can change without hiring.
Daniel Pank, lead author
Published October 4, 2026
- Someone new, list from someone else$266
- Experienced person, list from someone else$162
- Experienced person, list they built$70
Experience saves about $104 a list. Building the list at the source saves about $92 more.
What the report found
- 01
About $266 of staff time per list
For a list someone else made, when someone new does the work. The same list costs about $162 when an experienced person does it.
- 02
More lists than one person can handle
At 25 lists a week, a company needs 2.1 to 3.4 people. Most outbound companies of 25 to 100 people give the work to one, so the checks get skipped.
- 03
Two-thirds of the time is spent moving data
On a list of average quality: sending it to data providers, merging the results back and importing it.
Coming next
A timed test
Outside people will clean three realistic messy lists by hand and with several tools, including free ones. We will publish the lists and the answers.
A survey
The people who do this work will tell us how long each step takes, to test the first report's time estimates. We will publish the questions and the data.
Stop importing lists by hand
Operelio cleans, formats and pushes your lead data into HubSpot, Salesforce or Pipedrive, and holds anything that needs a look.