How to prepare a business contact list for CRM import
A CSV export is a useful hand-off, but your CRM decides how rows become companies, people or locations. Before importing a business list, make a backup, define your field mapping and test how the CRM handles duplicates.
Keep an untouched source export
Save the original CSV separately. Work on a copy and record the research request ID in your own notes. If you later change phone formats, remove rows or merge businesses, you will still be able to compare the edited file with its source.
Map company and person fields separately
| Source detail | Possible destination | Check before import |
|---|---|---|
| Business name | Company name | Do not put it in a person's first-name field. |
| Website | Company website | Consider whether several branches share the domain. |
| Public email | Business email | A general inbox is not necessarily a named person. |
| Phone and postal code | Text fields | Preserve leading zeroes and international prefixes. |
| Categories | Tags or custom field | Check how the destination expects multiple values. |
Protect phone numbers and text
When opening a CSV in Excel, use the import workflow and explicitly treat phone and postal-code columns as text. Avoid automatically converting an international phone number into a formula or a numeric value. In any spreadsheet, review automatic conversions and unexpected formula-like cells before using external data.
Set your duplicate policy
Decide whether a row should create a new company, update an existing company or be skipped. Name-only matching can merge unrelated businesses. Domain-only matching can merge branches you intended to keep separate. Use the CRM's preview to inspect a few likely matches before confirming the import.
Do not turn blanks into facts
A blank contact name means no usable name was supplied, not that the business has no staff. Leave unknown fields empty. Do not invent first names from generic inboxes or label discovered email addresses as verified unless you have separately checked them.
Run a five-row trial
- Choose a few representative rows, including one missing contact information and one possible duplicate.
- Review the field mapping and import preview.
- Check phone numbers, addresses, company/person separation and tags after import.
- Confirm how to undo or identify the trial batch.
- Import the remaining data only when the trial looks right.
Lead Atlas provides CSV downloads; CRM-specific mapping and import behaviour depend on your destination software. See how to export your business list and how to manage exclusions.