How do I import contacts from a spreadsheet?

SalesManager makes it easy to import contacts from a spreadsheet.  The SalesManager import function is very powerful, allowing you to generate custom templates for importing contacts with preset attributes, reservations and other data to ensure accuracy.  In addition to the template based import, SalesManager has a new import function that allows import directly from your spreadsheet without a template. We will cover that and advance template imports in a separate article.

This guide will cover the most common import from a base contact import template. 

How to import contacts from a base contact import template

To ensure accuracy, SalesManager uses an import template file, attached in the attachments section of this article.  

1. Download the base import template file. This can be found in the Contact Import section or attached to this article.
2. Prepare your import file by copying the data from your spreadsheet into the appropriate columns on the template.  
   NOTE: the following fields are required for contacts:First Name, Last Name, Campaign, Lead Status, Relationship, Sales Agent, ActionCycle.   When assigning campaign, lead status, relationship, sales agent, or ActionCycle, please ensure those values are already in SalesManager prior to import and use the exact same name in the spreadsheet.
3. Once you have your spreadsheet ready, login to SalesManager and go to Admin
4. Click Contact Import
5. Click Add New Batch
6. Type in a name for your import batch
7. Click Choose File and select the Import spreadsheet you set up in step 2
8. Click Save

You now have a batch of contacts ready for review and committing to your database!  If there were any errors or missing values, you should receive a message letting you know where the missing fields are.  

Let's ensure everything looks good and commit them to your database.

1. Click on the batch name you created above
2. You will see a list of contacts from that batch.  If the batch contains possible duplicates, you will see a red icon next to those names. You can merge, delete or work with those contacts as we will discuss in a separate article but for now, we can move on with new contacts only.
3. If you provided all the required fields in your uploaded spreadsheet, you can skip to step 6. If you need to set any or all of the required fields move to step 4.
4. Click "Set Missing Fields" to  set up default values for this batch
5. Select values you want to set. All fields are required and must have a value but if you already had a value in your spreadsheet for that field you do not have to set it. If you had a value for some contacts but not all, it will only set that value for contacts that did not have one. For example, if you had a campaign names "website" for 5 of your contacts and the rest were blank, if you set a campaign on this screen it will only update those that are blank.
6. Click save.
7. Click Commit Non Duplicate Contacts

You now have new contact imported into your database!