Importing leads and contacts using a CSV file

You can add multiple leads, contacts, and opportunities to Sell by importing a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file with customer data. If you prefer, there is also the option to import leads, contacts and opportunities separately into Sell. See Leads, Contacts and Opportunities on Zendesk Sell.
Note: It is possible to import most field types. However, there are some fields that cannot be imported (see Field types that are not supported on import).

The following article explains how to upload your prepared CSV file. If you need to create a CSV file, see Creating a CSV file to import leads, contacts, or opportunities.

This article covers the following topics:

CSV file upload
Importing settings and mapping
Importing options from your data
mapping
Review of import selections
Reverting an Import

Related articles:

Creating a CSV file to import leads, contacts or opportunities
Importing Opportunities Using a CSV File
Batch update using a CSV file
CSV file upload

Once you've prepared the CSV file, you're all set for you to import contacts, leads, and opportunities.

How to import data into Sell

In the sidebar, click the Settings () icon and select Data > Import.
Click Import new data.
Click CSV as the file type you want to import.
Select Import Leads, Import Contacts or Import Opportunities and Contacts.
Drag and drop the file or click Select file to manually upload your file.
Click Next.
Note: depending on the size of the file, Sell may take a few minutes to process it.

To ensure the data in the multiselect custom field you are importing is recognized by Sell, it is important to note that Zendesk:

Divide values ​​with a comma separator
Sets all provided options that have been selected
Adds all possible options that don't exist in the custom fields, before adding all possible options that were also selected
Importing settings and mapping

Under Import your data, you can provide additional details on how you want to handle the data.

If you are only updating fields on existing leads and contacts by replacing existing fields with new data (empty or not), perform the following settings:

From the drop-down menu While importing, I want, choose Add new leads or contacts and update old leads and contacts.
From the drop-down menu If the current Sell data does not match the data from the import, I want to choose update all existing Zendesk Sell data with new data from the imported file.
Importing options from your data
The options for importing data are explained below:
Add new leads or contacts and update old leads and contacts. Use this option if you are adding new leads or contacts while making changes to leads or contacts that already exist in Sell.
Only add new leads or contacts that don't exist in Sell. Use this option if you are importing new data, for example adding leads or contacts that have never been imported into Sell before. If you select this option, Sell will create duplicate companies. He will not attach the person to every company.
Only update old Sell leads or contacts with the new data from the imported file. Use this option if you already have leads or contacts in Sell that you're working with, but there's other data you want to add to their records. To avoid duplicates and ensure that new data is added to the right lead or contact, only select fields that are present in existing leads or contacts in Sell. In this way, we can combine the new data with the corresponding record.
Note: When choosing the first and third options, remember that reversing an import does not remove data merged with existing leads and contacts. Rolling back an import only removes new leads and contacts (see section Reversing an import below).
If the current data from Zendesk Sell does not match the data from the import. (When you select an option that includes updating existing leads or contacts, this option appears). This option indicates that you are making changes to leads or contacts that already exist in Sell. The fields that appear in your leads or contacts may have an old value or be empty. This indicates that you have the option to have the new data from your file replace the old field values ​​or fill in an empty field.

You will be prompted to choose one of the following options:

Only update blank Sell fields with data from the imported file. Use this option to fill existing empty fields with data from the import file without replacing fields that have a current value.
Update all existing Sell data with new data from the imported file. Use this option to replace the values ​​of all fields, empty or not, with the data from the import file.
Automatically create a custom field to hold both values. Use this option to create new custom fields (commonly called Address). If you're importing leads, you'll see one more option that doesn't appear when importing contacts or opportunities:

If a lead from the imported file already exists as a Sell contact, I want:

May it not matter.
Import and create duplicate leads.
mapping

On the mapping screen, you can choose the fields you want to map each column of data to. If you use the default fields as described above, the importer automatically makes suggestions based on the column headers.

How to map data to a field

In the Sell sidebar, click Settings > Data > Import > Import your data.
Under Select a field to import..., click the drop-down menu to choose the correct field to map each column.

You can also map to custom fields already created or add a new field if needed.

Sometimes (most common in a contact import) you need to choose whether to import a contact as a person or a company. If the header doesn't specify this, you'll need to clarify whether you want this data to apply to the person or company contact.

Note: If you want data to be imported for both the person and the company, have two columns in the CSV file so that it is imported for both contacts.

If the importer doesn't have a suggestion, such as a tag field, you can click the drop-down box to find the relevant standard or custom field in the list. You can also type the field name and the importer will automatically filter the list.

After mapping a field, you can edit the import settings.

How to change import settings

Click Edit to edit the column.

If you do not want the data to be imported, click Ignore to have the entire column ignored and not imported. If you mistakenly select Ignore, simply click Import this column to return to the Mapping Settings.

Review of import selections

When all fields are mapped, you can review the import settings and field mapping parameters.

Under Import your data, review all fields being mapped and sample values ​​from your CSV file.
If something is wrong, return to Mapping Settings to make a change.
To complete the process, click Import.

Reverting an Import

If by any chance you need to go back for any reason to the previous import, you can choose which import you want to revert to.

How to reverse an import

In the Sell sidebar, click Settings > Data > Import.
Under Import history, you will see a list of all your completed imports by date.
Click Revert Import on the import date to remove the data that was included in this file from your account.
Note: Reverting an import does not remove data merged with existing leads and contacts. Only newly created leads and contacts are removed.

Make sure of the following when reversing an import:

Only an administrator can revert an import.
When an import is rolled back, the custom fields and tags created during the import remain intact in your account.
If you convert an imported lead to a contact, it will not be rolled back.
If during the import two records are merged, or an existing record is updated with new information, the record will not be separated or deleted.
Reassigning responsibility for an imported record does not prevent the record from reverting.
If you create a lead from an imported contact in the CSV file and try to reverse the import, that contact will not be deleted as the lead requires a primary contact.
If you create a contact and an opportunity simultaneously through a CSV import and reverse the import, the contact and opportunity will be deleted.
The Revert Import option is not available when performing a batch update of existing data (see Batch update using a CSV file).
Note: in the case of an import with more than 1,000 entries, it may take up to ten minutes to remove all data from your account.