A common reaction for anyone that has been tasked with importing data into Salesforce is how to go about it, and most importantly, where to start? There is a lot to do, and hard work becomes a necessity when it comes to importing data into Salesforce. High quality salesforce import data is vital for driving salesforce user adoption as it helps in creating accurate dashboards and reports. That also allows all users of salesforce to gain better insight into the sales pipeline and into their sales performance.
We understand how important it is to get clean salesforce import data, and therefore we are going to be sharing our best practices to help customers import data into Salesforce, while avoiding duplicates and keeping their records clean.
1. Remove Commas from CSV Files
CSV stands for Comma Separated Values. If a comma is in a cell, the import is going to move everything that comes after the comma into the next cell. So, every comma is going to shift data into the next cell.
To ensure that there are no commas in CSV files, run a ‘Find and Replace’ search, which will help you in identifying and removing commas before importing. This is important because if you don’t remove commas, your data could end up in the wrong field.
2. Remove All Duplicates
It’s important that you get rid of duplicates from the spreadsheet, since it is easier to remove them at that stage than it is to remove them after they have merged with Salesforce. If you’re using the important wizard, it is going to merge all duplicate accounts, leads, and contacts. However, if you clean them yourself, it is going to help increase the chances of a clean import leads in Salesforce.
3. Import Small First
The best way to go about importing data into Salesforce is to do a small import first. Try importing around 5 to 10 records to ensure they’re uploaded as expected before you import all records. Make sure that you check that all the phone numbers and zip codes have been correctly formatted and the data is in the right fields.
Once you’ve confirmed that everything is in the right order, you should conduct your main import. Remove the first imported records from the main list before you import them again or you might end up getting duplicate data records.
4. Search Before Manually Creating Records
You can conduct a quick search of the records before you import data into Salesforce, which is going to tell you whether an account or a contact already exists. This way you will avoid creating duplicates and have a clean data record in Salesforce. If you do go about it in the right manner, there is no reason to worry about facing any difficulties in Salesforce import data.
