Import People into SalesLoft

Before you can engage with any Person from SalesLoft, they have to actually exist in your SalesLoft instance. That may sound complicated (and a little existential), but it simply means the Person needs to be added or imported into the platform.

SalesLoft offers multiple import methods so you can add People to your sales engagement platform in the way that best suits your needs. Do you work primarily with leads or contacts from a Salesforce instance? Do you gather prospects from mailing lists or conferences? Maybe you prefer to engage a limited number of contacts, so manually adding people keeps you on top of your tasks? 

In this article, we will walk through the different importing methods and the steps to complete your import into SalesLoft, including how to:

• Add a Person
• Import People from a CSV
• Import People from Salesforce
• Manage Your Import List
• Finish Your Import
• View Your Import History
• Undo an Import in Bulk

Add a Person

If you are on a call and learn about a new manager you should be communicating with, would you rather go through the bulk import steps or manually add that Person and their primary contact information so you can engage with them quickly?

That's why SalesLoft's first importing method is adding a single Person. Manual adds let you create the Person in SalesLoft using their contact information (phone number and/or email address). 

Things to Note: When adding a new Person to SalesLoft you must have either an email address or phone number associated with that Person and a partial name (like J. Smith).

To add a new Person to SalesLoft, follow these steps:

1. From the People page, click People Actions in the upper right-hand corner.
2. Select Add Person.
3. Enter the First Name, Last Name, Email Address, and Phone Number.
4. If you would like to add more details, click Show More for additional fields.
5. Click Create Person.

To Import a Person Manually

The Import People button under People Actions tab offers multiple ways to import into SalesLoft. Aside from bulk import options, you can also add a single Person to SalesLoft manually.

To import a Person manually, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the People page and choose the People Actions tab.  
2. Use the drop-down and choose Import People.
3. Select Enter A Prospect Manually.
4. Enter your prospect's information and select Add Person.

Import People From a CSV

Whether you are working on an entire leads list or a particular campaign, entering every single Person manually is not the best use of your time. This is why SalesLoft allows you to add People in bulk via CSV files. 

Things to Note: Imports from CSV files will import a maximum of 1,000 people at a time. If your list contains more than 1,000 people, you will receive an error message informing you of the 1,000 people limit.

When you are ready to import from a CSV, follow these steps:

1. Create a spreadsheet with the list of people. Include column headers to designate field types (i.e. “First Name,” “Account Name,”).
2. Save your list as a .csv file.
3. From the People page, click People Actions in the upper right-hand corner.
4. Select Import People.
5. From the Choose Your Import Source page, select CSV Spreadsheet.
6. Click Choose a CSV file.
7. Select your CSV file. Click Open.
8. Map your CSV column headers to the appropriate field in SalesLoft. Things to Note: Only map column headers that exist as SalesLoft fields. Learn how to create custom fields in the Manage Salesforce Field Configuration article. 
9. Click Next.
10. Finish your import.

Import People from Salesforce

The People Actions tab also shows the option to import People from your Salesforce instance. However, you’ll notice that if you click the Salesforce option on the Choose your Import page, you will be shown instructions on how to import from Salesforce.

The Salesforce import takes place within your Salesforce instance. When you download the SalesLoft Chrome Extension, the extension adds import buttons to Salesforce. Click the import button from the individual or list view of Leads, Contacts, Accounts, Campaigns, or Reports. For more information and a complete walkthrough of how to import from Salesforce, please check out our Imports from Salesforce article.

Things to Note:

• Imports from Salesforce Lead, Contact, or Account list views will import a maximum of 500 people at a time. If your list contains more than 500 people, the first 500 will be imported.
• Imports from Salesforce Reports list views will import a maximum of 1000 people at a time. 
• Imports from Reports only apply to Lead, Contact, and Account reports. Campaign imports may only be done on the individual Campaign level. 

Manage Your Import List

You’ve taken your list and set your import in motion. Now you need to complete the import and add all of those people to SalesLoft. Let’s walk through the features and steps to complete your import.

Complete Your Import Page

For mass imports, you will be redirected to the Complete Your Import page. On this page, you will see the following:

• Import Group Name: By default, your import name will be the date of the import. However, if you would like to rename the import for clarity you may type the preferred name in the text box.
• Import List: Complete record of all the names that were pulled from the import.
• Add Tags: Allows you to add tags to all of the people imported from the list.
• Finish Import Options: Choose from one of the two import options to complete your import.  

Your Import List

From your import list, you can quickly view people information and select specific people to include in the final import from the list. You can select people by checking the box to the left of the person’s name.

The import will show the following people details:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Account Name
• Title
• Phone Number
• Email

People in the list may be highlighted in one of three colors to notify you of whether or not they’ve been previously imported into SalesLoft. 

Import list items in white mean that person is brand new to SalesLoft. Their information will create a new record in SalesLoft

Import list items in yellow mean that person has been previously imported into SalesLoft. List items in this color will be unchecked by default, meaning they are not automatically being imported. You may choose to select the checkbox to add them to your final import. Importing these people will not create a new record in SalesLoft, however, their previous record will be updated with any additional field information.

Import list items in red mean that person is duplicated within your import list. List items in this color will be unchecked by default, meaning they are not being imported.

Tagging People Upon Import

At the bottom of the import page, use the Add Tags field to choose from existing tags or create your own. Type in the tag you want to use and hit enter. Once you complete your import, the tag will apply to all people from that import list.

Finish Your Import

Click Finish Import at the bottom of your import list to add the selected people to SalesLoft. This will create people records for each individual.

You can view the import at a later time by navigating to the people page and filtering your people list by the import name.

Finish Your Import and Add to a Cadence

Add the selected people from your import list to SalesLoft and add them directly to a Cadence by hitting Finish Your Import and Add to a Cadence.

This allows you to take immediate action on the people from the list by dropping them into day one, step one of whatever Cadence you add them to.

Finish Your Import and Add to a Cadence Specific Step

When importing a Person to a directly to a Cadence, you can select any Cadence step for that Person to begin within a cadence.

To import a person and add them to a specific cadence step, follow these instructions: 

1. Click Import and Add to Cadence. The Add People to Cadence window will appear.
2. From the Add People to Cadence window, search and select the Cadence you want to add the people to.
3. On the Cadence row, select Show Steps. This reveals all of the individual steps within that Cadence, including variants.
4. Select the step to highlight it.
5. Click Add to Cadence. If a step is selected, the customer(s) will be added to the selected cadence, at the selected step.

View Your Import History

Your import history shows you a complete list of all the previous imports you’ve completed. From the import history page, you can search for an import, undo imports, and view import information, including:

• Import date
• Import name
• Number of people imported

If you click on the specific import, you will see a filtered list view of the People from that import.

To access your import history, follow these steps:

1. Go to the People page.
2. From the People Actions tab, select View Import History.

Undo an Import in Bulk

Click on the wrong list? Don't worry, we've got your back! You can undo the list and remove all the People from SalesLoft.

To undo a bulk import, follow these steps.

1. From the people page, select People Actions.
2. Click View Import History.
3. Find the import list and select the red Undo button on the right side of the row.
4. Confirm that you would like to undo the import.