Year-End Data Cleanup How to Prepare Your CRM for 2026 Using Phone Validation
Dec
18

Year-End Data Cleanup: How to Prepare Your CRM for 2026 Using Phone Validation  

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December is when a CRM tells the truth.

Not the dashboard version. The real version your reps feel on the dialer and your team sees in opt-out logs.

  • Dead numbers that never connect
  • “Wrong person” replies on texts
  • Leads tagged as hot that now belong to someone else
  • Records missing state or timezone, so outreach drifts into restricted hours
  • Consent notes scattered across fields, inboxes, and call notes

If your 2026 plan includes more cold calling and more SMS, those cracks get expensive fast.

2025 made the gap between “good enough data” and “usable data” much wider.

  • Cold call connect rates remain low, so every bad number hurts more
  • Consumers are more open to business texts, so SMS volume rises and so does the need for better controls
  • The FCC’s revocation and opt-out rules took effect on April 11, 2025, with part delayed until April 11, 2026
  • Texas expanded its mini TCPA style rules through SB 140, effective September 1, 2025, and it covers marketing texts
  • Apple’s iOS 26 added call screening that can intercept unknown callers before a person answers

So a year-end cleanup is not “admin work.” It is the foundation for better connect rates, fewer dead-end dials, fewer wrong-number texts, and cleaner TCPA posture going into 2026.

This guide lays out a practical cleanup plan that uses phone validation and reassigned-number checks to turn your CRM into something your team can trust again.

2025 Sales Outreach Statistics

Sales teams are already fighting the odds.

Salesso.com reports that the average cold call connect rate sits between 3% and 10% in the U.S. market. It also notes it can take 18 or more dials to connect with a single prospect and that dial-to-meeting success rate sits around 2.3% across attempts.

That is the baseline. Now add bad data.

Every disconnected number forces extra dials, every wrong number adds frustration and complaints, every missing timezone creates “we called too early” risk.

Salesso also shares timing patterns that matter once your list is clean enough to act on them.

  • Calls made between 4 pm and 5 pm are much more effective than late morning for booking appointments
  • Wednesday is reported as the best day for cold calling, with Monday and Friday performing worse

Those insights help only if your list is reachable and your dialing windows are correct for the recipient’s location.

If your CRM has stale numbers, you end up “optimizing” the wrong thing. You do not need a better script. You need fewer bad numbers in the first place.

SMS Marketing Most Recent Statistics  

SimpleTexting’s 2025 survey highlights how much consumers and businesses have leaned into texting.

  • 84% of consumers are opted in to receive texts from businesses
  • 66% of businesses use SMS marketing software, and many are increasing SMS budgets
  • 82% of consumers check text notifications within five minutes
  • Many businesses see SMS click-through rates commonly landing in the 21% to 35% range

That is great for engagement. But it also means more outbound texts, more opt-outs, and more ways to accidentally contact the wrong person.

If your number is reassigned, you can be “perfect” on messaging and still end up texting someone who never asked for anything.

So SMS growth makes phone validation and reassigned-number checks more important, not less.

2025 Telemarketing Changes That Should Reshape 2026 Outreach

1) FCC revocation and opt-out rules took effect April 11, 2025  

The Federal Register summary of the FCC’s “Strengthening the Ability of Consumers To Stop Robocalls” action describes requirements to honor revocation and do-not-call requests within a reasonable time that may not exceed 10 business days.

Legal summaries aimed at businesses stress that consumers can revoke consent by “any reasonable means,” which changes how teams must handle opt-outs across channels.

What this means for your CRM cleanup:

  • Opt-out handling must be trackable, fast, and consistent
  • Your “do not contact” logic must work across both calling and texting where applicable
  • Consent and revocation cannot be stored as free-text notes only

A clean database is not just about reachability. It is also about traceability.

2) Part of the revocation rule was delayed until April 11, 2026  

In April 2025, the FCC issued a limited waiver delaying a specific part of the consent revocation rule until April 11, 2026, tied to treating revocation requests as applying to unrelated matters across an entity.

What this means for 2026 planning:

  • Some businesses will treat 2026 as the year where cross-unit opt-out handling must be fully unified
  • Your CRM architecture should already assume “one request can affect many workflows”

A year-end cleanup is the best time to fix the structure before volume ramps up again.

3) Texas SB 140 expanded mini TCPA style obligations, including marketing texts  

Texas SB 140’s took effect September 1, 2025.

Legal and industry summaries describe SB 140 as expanding Texas telephone solicitation rules to cover text messages and increasing consumer rights to bring claims.

What this means in practical terms:

  • Your CRM needs state and timezone accuracy, not guesses
  • Your outreach tools need state-aware rules, especially for restricted hours and message types
  • You need cleaner suppression logic for states with stricter rules

Even if your business is not in Texas, your list almost certainly includes Texas residents.

4) AI voice is treated as artificial or prerecorded voice under TCPA rules  

The FCC confirmed that TCPA restrictions on artificial or prerecorded voice cover current AI technologies that generate human voices.

What this means:

  • If you use AI voice, treat it as regulated outreach, not “just a normal call”
  • Your consent tracking and proof storage needs to match your automation level

This is another reason to tighten data governance before 2026 campaigns start.

5) iOS 26 call screening can intercept unknown callers  

Coverage of iOS 26 notes Apple added call screening that answers unknown callers, asks for details, and shows a transcript to the user before they decide to pick up.

This does not end cold calling. It changes how easy it is to get a person to answer when you appear unknown.

A cleaner CRM helps because it supports smarter prioritization.

  • Call your highest-confidence records first
  • Call at the right local time window
  • Use a consistent calling identity where possible
  • Reduce wasted attempts so your best calls happen when you are freshest

6) Supreme Court opened the door to district-by-district TCPA interpretations, and texts vs DNC is now less predictable  

On June 20, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court held that district courts are not required to follow the FCC’s statutory interpretations of the TCPA in private enforcement cases under the Hobbs Act framework.

Why this matters for SMS and the Do Not Call angle:

  • The FCC has taken the position that the National DNC Registry’s protections extend to text messages, and that view was formalized in recent FCC actions and related Federal Register material.
  • After the Supreme Court’s decision, some district courts have started reaching different conclusions, including rulings that a text message is not a “telephone call” for DNC claims.

Because district courts can diverge, the safer operational choice is to treat marketing texts to numbers on the DNC Registry as high-risk unless you have clean consent and strong suppression controls, then document your process so you are covered in either direction if interpretations shift again.

How Phone Validation Helps in CRM Cleanup  

Phone validation is not just “is this number real.” A strong phone validation workflow typically checks things like:

  • Line type, such as mobile, landline, VoIP
  • Live status signals such as active, disconnected, and unreachable
  • Geographic indicators such as state and timezone
  • High-risk phone numbers that are in National DNC, State DNC, DNC Complainer, TCPA Litigator
  • Basic formatting and carrier patterns that catch obvious bad records

Even without touching consent yet, this alone improves productivity because reps stop dialing junk.

And it supports compliance because many rules depend on state, timezone, and whether your outreach is a call or text to a mobile number.

Why You Should Add Reassigned Numbers Database in CRM  

A reassigned number is one of the fastest ways to get a “wrong person” problem.

A lead fills out a form, you store the number, and months later, the carrier reassigns that number to someone else. Your CRM still thinks it is the original person.

As a caller agent of FCC’s Reassigned Numbers Database, Searchbug’s RND API exists to help callers avoid contacting the wrong person by checking whether a number has been permanently disconnected and reassigned.

What RND helps you prevent:

  • “You have the wrong person” texts and calls
  • Angry callbacks and complaints
  • Wasted sequences sent to a new owner
  • TCPA risk tied to contacting someone who never consented

This matters more now because SMS volume is rising and phones are better at screening unknown outreach.

Year-end CRM cleanup checklist for 2026  

This is a practical order of operations. It keeps the work clean and prevents your team from “fixing” data twice.

Step 1: Build your cleanup segments first  

Do not start by validating everything blindly. Segment first.

Common segments:

  • All leads not touched in 90 to 180 days
  • All records with missing state or timezone
  • All records created from purchased or partner lists
  • All records with high complaint or opt-out rates
  • All numbers that failed delivery or bounced in SMS

Step 2: Standardize phone fields and duplicate records  

Before validation, fix structure.

  • Normalize formats to E.164 where possible
  • Split “main phone” vs “mobile” vs “work”
  • Merge duplicates based on email, name, and phone rules
  • Track data source and date captured

Step 3: Run phone validation and write results back as fields  

Do not bury results in notes. Create fields your sales and marketing tools can act on:

  • Line type
  • Status, such as active or disconnected
  • State
  • Timezone
  • Last validated date
  • Validation result code for reporting

Step 4: Run reassigned checks where it matters most  

You do not have to run RND checks on every record every day. Use it where it cuts the most risk.

High-value targets:

  • Numbers scheduled for automated SMS sequences
  • Numbers about to enter an autodialed call campaign
  • Numbers older than 30 to 60 days since last confirmation
  • Numbers with prior “wrong person” outcomes

Step 5: Fix consent and opt-out record-keeping

Given the FCC’s focus on revocation by reasonable means and honoring requests within set timelines, treat consent status like core CRM data, not a marketing add-on.

Minimum fields many teams track:

  • Consent status for calls
  • Consent status for texts
  • Consent capture source and timestamp
  • Consent language version
  • Opt-out status and timestamp
  • Opt-out channel such as SMS keyword, email, call, and support ticket

Step 6: Enforce state rules and quiet hours at the system level  

Texas is a clear example of why this cannot be left to reps. SB 140 summaries call out compliance requirements, including quiet hour concepts and an expanded scope for texts.

System enforcement examples:

  • Timezone-based dialing windows
  • State-based suppression lists
  • Rule-based routing, like do not text landlines
  • Audit logs for changes to consent fields

Step 7: Set a revalidation rhythm for 2026  

This is what keeps January from becoming another cleanup month.

Simple rhythm options:

  • Validate at the point of entry for every new lead
  • Revalidate active pipeline weekly or monthly depending on volume
  • Revalidate dormant leads quarterly before reactivation
  • Run reassigned checks before any large SMS blast

How to Know if CRM Cleanup Worked  

After cleanup, track a few before-and-after metrics.

Sales metrics

  • Connect rate
  • Conversations per rep per day
  • Meetings booked per 100 dials
  • Time spent dialing vs time spent talking

Marketing metrics

  • SMS delivery rate
  • SMS opt-out rate
  • Complaint rate
  • Reply rate for two-way texting

Compliance signals

  • “Wrong person” outcomes
  • DNC-related flags and suppression
  • Timezone violations
  • Missing consent proof incidents

If those numbers move, you will feel it in January. Less frustration. More real conversations. Fewer surprises.

Key Takeaway  

2025 showed that outreach performance and TCPA safety now depend on clean phone data, not just better scripts. With connect rates already low, every disconnected line, wrong number, or missing timezone wastes dials and increases opt-outs and complaints, especially as SMS volume keeps rising.

A year-end CRM cleanup fixes that by validating numbers, flagging high-risk records tied to National DNC, State DNC, DNC Complainer, and TCPA Litigator datasets, and adding reassigned-number checks before high-volume calling or texting.

Want a simple next step? Register for a FREE API Test Account and try Searchbug’s Phone Validation tools to separate active numbers from invalid ones and strengthen your TCPA compliance going into 2026.

Are you a Zoho CRM user? You can install the Searchbug for Zoho CRM Phone Validator app inside Zoho Marketplace to validate phone numbers and key TCPA compliance signals without leaving your CRM.

Sources:

Salesso. (2025, October 27). SDR cold calling stats 2025: Success rates & best times. Salesso. https://salesso.com/blog/sdr-cold-calling-statistics/ Salesso

Wilkinson, D. (2025, May 16). SMS marketing statistics 2025: Key insights. SimpleTexting. https://simpletexting.com/blog/2025-texting-and-sms-marketing-statistics/