How to Import Contacts into Pipeliner

Keeping your CRM populated with high-quality contacts is the lifeblood of any sales team. But getting that data into Pipeliner can often feel like a chore. At Add to CRM, we've helped thousands of businesses streamline their sales processes, and we know that manual data entry is a major bottleneck. That's why we created this guide. We'll walk you through the traditional process of importing contacts into Pipeliner, step by step. But we'll also show you a much faster, more modern way to do it—a solution we built to eliminate the busywork and let you focus on selling.

Preparing Your Data for Import

Before you even touch the import button in Pipeliner, success starts with your data file. Proper preparation is key to a smooth import and prevents hours of cleanup later. Here are our top tips:

• Use a CSV File: Pipeliner imports data from CSV (Comma-Separated Values) files. You can easily create one by using the "Save As" option in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.
• Accounts First, Then Contacts: This is the golden rule. To correctly link contacts to their respective companies, you must import the Account (company) records first. A pro-tip is to copy your contact list, use Excel's "Remove Duplicates" feature on the company name column, and save that as your Accounts import file.
• Check for Required Fields: Pipeliner requires a Last Name for every contact. To assign records to the right people, you'll also need columns for Owner and Sales Unit. For the Owner field, always use the user's login email address to guarantee a perfect match.
• Clean Your Data: Remember: garbage in, garbage out. Before importing, scan your file for common errors. Remove extra spaces before or after data, fix invalid email formats, and ensure any values for dropdown fields (like "Industry") already exist as options inside your Pipeliner system.

Manual Import Process

Once your data is prepped, you can begin the manual import. It's a straightforward process, but as we've seen with many clients, it's filled with tedious steps that consume valuable time.

1. Navigate to the Contacts view in Pipeliner and click the Import button in the upper right.
2. Click the "Click here to upload" link and select your prepared CSV file from your computer.
3. On the next screen, review the Import Settings. The default settings usually work fine, but double-check that the "Column contains headers" box is ticked.
4. Now comes the most time-consuming part: Field Mappings. You must manually drag each column header from your file (shown on the right) and drop it onto the corresponding field in Pipeliner (on the left).
5. To link a contact to their company, drag your "Company Name" column to the "Account Name" field on the Account card. Pipeliner will then try to match it to an existing account you've already imported.
6. After mapping all your desired fields, click the Import button.
7. Pipeliner provides a final preview of your data. This is your last chance to catch errors. You can edit individual records here, but it can be slow if you have many fixes.
8. Finally, select the records you want to import and click "Accept Selected" to complete the process.

Handling Duplicates and Data Validation

During the import, Pipeliner checks for potential duplicates based on fields like email or name. When it finds a match, it will pause and ask you to choose an action: Skip, Create Duplicate, or Update existing. This requires careful manual review to prevent creating a mess in your CRM. The preview screen will also flag invalid records in red, forcing you to stop and fix them one by one.

Supported Field Types

From our experience, knowing Pipeliner's formatting requirements is crucial. Here are the common field types you'll be working with:

• Text Fields: First Name, Last Name, Job Title.
• User Fields: The Owner field, which should be mapped using the user's login email.
• Dropdowns: Sales Unit or custom fields. The values in your file must exactly match the options in Pipeliner.
• Date Fields: Must be in a consistent format, like yyyy-mm-dd.
• Contact Info: Email, Phone, and URL fields must have valid formatting to be accepted.

Import Limitations

The biggest limitation of the manual process isn't a technical one—it's the time it steals from your sales team. The tedious data preparation, the risk of human error during field mapping, and the one-by-one fixing of validation issues are common frustrations we've seen clients face. Furthermore, this process only imports data you already have; it does nothing to find or verify new contact information. This is the exact problem that led us to create a better way.

Importing Contacts using LinkLiner

We developed LinkLiner to solve the frustrations we kept seeing with manual CSV imports. Our vision was to create a tool that lets you add prospects to Pipeliner directly from where you find them—on LinkedIn. LinkLiner finds verified contact information like emails and phone numbers and adds the complete, enriched contact to Pipeliner in a single click. We built it to eliminate manual work so you can get back to building relationships and closing deals.

Benefits of using LinkLiner

LinkLiner is a Chrome extension that finds verified contact information from LinkedIn profiles and automatically adds them to Pipeliner. It's a fundamentally better approach than manual importing.

• Speed: Import a fully enriched contact in one click, versus the minutes or hours spent preparing and importing a CSV file.
• Accuracy: We provide 96% accurate, verified contact data, which drastically reduces email bounce rates and connects you with the right person.
• Efficiency: Stop the endless tab-switching between LinkedIn, spreadsheets, and Pipeliner. With LinkLiner, you work directly on a prospect's profile.
• Simplicity: Our extension handles all the field mapping automatically. No CSVs, no formatting headaches, and no tedious drag-and-drop.
• Data Enrichment: Instead of just importing a name, you're adding a complete, actionable lead with a verified email and phone number.

How to get started with LinkLiner

Getting started is incredibly easy:

1. Install the Chrome Extension: First, install LinkLiner from the Google Chrome Web Store.
2. Go to a Person's Profile: Navigate to any prospect's profile on LinkedIn.
3. Find Contact Details: Open the LinkLiner extension to instantly find the person's verified contact information.
4. Click 'Add to CRM': With a single click, add the person to your Pipeliner as a contact or lead. All the enriched data is synced automatically.

Other Import Methods

While manual import and LinkLiner are two primary methods, Pipeliner offers a couple of other tools for specific use cases:

• Pipeliner Web Clipper: Pipeliner provides its own Chrome extension that can capture information from web pages, including LinkedIn, to create new records in the CRM.
• Google Forms Integration: For capturing leads from your website, Pipeliner can integrate with Google Forms. When a user fills out your form, a new lead or contact can be created automatically in Pipeliner.

Try LinkLiner Today

While the manual import process works, it wasn't designed for modern, fast-paced sales teams who need to move quickly. We invested in building LinkLiner because we believe your time is better spent selling than wrestling with spreadsheets. Stop the tedious data entry and start building your pipeline more efficiently. Try LinkLiner today and see how easy it is to add verified contacts to Pipeliner in one click.