Import contacts from a spreadsheet

The fastest way to fill a workspace, and the fastest way to fill it with duplicates and undialable numbers. Ten minutes of preparation prevents both.

Admin about 12 min to do · 8 steps

Import is where most workspaces get their first real data, and where most data problems are created. Three of them account for nearly everything.

Phone numbers without country codes, which will not dial and are tedious to fix afterwards. Duplicates, because the file overlaps contacts you already have. And unmapped columns, which is data silently discarded.

All three are much cheaper to prevent in the spreadsheet than to fix in the CRM.

Before you start

Your contact schema defined first — you cannot map to a field that does not exist.
A file with one row per person and a header row.
Phone numbers with country codes.
Confirmation that you are permitted to contact these people.

Define your schema before importing

The importer maps columns to attributes. Attributes you have not created cannot be mapped, and re-importing to fix that creates duplicates.

Clean the file first

One person per row, no merged cells, no totals row at the bottom, consistent date formats. Ten minutes in the spreadsheet saves an afternoon in the CRM.

Fix phone numbers above everything else

Every number needs a country code. This is the single biggest cause of a campaign that will not dial, and it is trivially fixable with a formula before you import.

Align dropdown values to the schema

A dropdown attribute will not accept values outside its choices. Align the spreadsheet to the schema rather than adding twelve one-off choices to the schema.

Import a sample of twenty first

Check how they landed — fields in the right places, dropdowns matched, numbers dialable. Then delete those twenty and import properly.

Map every column deliberately

An unmapped column is data thrown away silently. Decide about each one, including the ones you plan to ignore.

Set owner and lead stage on import

Contacts with no owner are in nobody's calling list. Contacts with no stage may not behave as you expect in filters or campaigns.

Check for duplicates afterwards

Search a handful of names and numbers you know were already in the system.

Import sits beside Export in the toolbar. Export before a large import, so you have a before state.

Check it worked

Pick five imported contacts at random and check each is dialable, owned, staged and not a duplicate. If all five pass, the import is sound. If one fails, fix the cause before importing anything else.

Worth knowing

The parts people get wrong

Import is available on every plan.
Importing a purchased list is where consent and DND obligations bite hardest. Confirm your position before, not after.
Export before a large import. It gives you a before state you cannot otherwise reconstruct.