How to Merge Duplicates in Zendesk Sell

Duplicate contacts are a daily headache for anyone managing sales pipelines in Zendesk Sell. They clutter your data, confuse your outreach, and can even tank sales efficiency by causing your team to work the same lead twice. In this guide, we’ll walk through how to spot, merge, and—most importantly—prevent duplicates in Zendesk Sell. Along the way, we’ll share why investing in clean, verified data from the start (with tools like LinkZen) saves hours of cleanup and stress down the road.

Why Duplicates Hurt Your Sales Process

Duplicates aren’t just annoying—they’re costly. Here’s why:

• Wasted time: Reps might reach out to the same contact more than once, hurting your brand and wasting precious selling hours.
• Split intelligence: Important communications and notes can end up scattered across several profiles.
• Reporting confusion: Pipeline numbers get inflated or deflated, leading to misleading metrics.

Duplicates happen for many reasons:

• Manual entry mistakes (typos, inconsistent data)
• Multiple team members entering the same lead
• Bulk imports from different sources
• Inconsistent formatting between records

The more team members or integrations you have, the greater the risk. That’s why having a clear duplicate management strategy is critical for US-based businesses aiming for data-driven sales success.

Identifying Duplicates in Zendesk Sell

Zendesk Sell provides a straightforward way to spot duplicates:

• Smart Lists: Use Smart Lists on your Leads or Contacts tabs. Filter by fields likely to overlap (like email or phone number) and visually scan for matches.
• Table or Index Views: Scan or sort columns to detect identical or highly similar entries in your Contacts/Leads.
• Manual Search: Search for key terms, domains, or names to reveal possible overlaps.

Zendesk Sell does not automatically flag duplicates, so it’s wise to schedule regular data review sessions.

Step-by-Step Merging Process

Ready to merge? Here’s how you do it in Zendesk Sell:

1. Navigate to Leads or Contacts. Use the Index or Table view.
2. Select Duplicate Records. Click the checkboxes next to the duplicates you'd like to merge (Zendesk Sell allows merging up to 5 at a time).
3. Click the Merge Button. This shows up at the top of the screen when multiple records are selected.
4. Choose Your Primary Record. The topmost selected record becomes the master record. Other data merges into this one.
5. Resolve Conflicts: When fields differ (like two distinct phone numbers), Zendesk Sell creates additional custom fields to retain all non-identical information. Review and clean up unneeded fields after merging.
6. Confirm Merge. You’ll get a prompt—click Confirm to combine the records.

Remember: You can only merge leads with leads and contacts with contacts. Leads cannot be merged into contacts, though they can be converted if needed. Additionally, you can’t merge person contacts assigned to different companies.

Bulk Duplicate Management

Dealing with dozens (or hundreds) of duplicates? Zendesk Sell’s merge feature supports batch merging:

• Select up to 5 records at once to merge.
• Use Smart Lists to find and group similar records quickly.
• After merging, review your custom fields for redundant data.

For large data sets, repeat this process in manageable chunks to maintain accuracy.

Preventing Duplicates with LinkZen

LinkZen is a Chrome extension that finds verified contact information from LinkedIn and adds standardized data to Zendesk Sell. Here’s how LinkZen helps you stamp out duplicates before they start:

• Verified emails and phone numbers straight from LinkedIn profiles
• Clean, consistent data formatting reduces manual entry errors
• Automatic syncing—no more copy-paste mistakes or typos
• No risk of creating unwanted duplicates when adding new prospects

By starting with verified, standardized data, LinkZen greatly reduces the overhead and hassle of cleaning up records later on.

Why Clean Data Beats Cleanup

Would you rather spend hours merging messes or minutes adding high-quality leads? Duplicate cleanup is time-consuming; every merge risks data loss or confusion. Preventing bad data up-front with LinkZen means your pipeline stays accurate and your team can focus on closing, not cleaning.

Getting Started with LinkZen

Ready to see the difference?

1. Install LinkZen from addtocrm.com/zendesk-sell.
2. Navigate to LinkedIn Profiles. Find your target prospects.
3. Use the Extension to retrieve verified contact information instantly.
4. Add Clean Data Directly to Zendesk Sell—no manual steps, just clean records.

LinkedIn Integration for Zendesk Sell: Avoid Duplicates Before They Happen

Our LinkedIn Integration feature takes duplicate prevention to the next level. When browsing LinkedIn, LinkZen highlights people already present in your Zendesk Sell. Instead of accidentally adding a duplicate, you can update (enrich) the existing contact with fresh LinkedIn data. Learn more at addtocrm.com/zendesk-sell.

Enriching Existing Contacts

Why create yet another record? With LinkZen, you can choose to update existing leads or contacts with current job titles, emails, phone numbers, and more—keeping everything consolidated and current.

Real-Time Duplicate Prevention

Imagine LinkedIn showing you at a glance who’s already in your CRM. This real-time feedback stops duplicates before they exist, letting your team prospect with confidence.

Best Practices for Duplicate Prevention

Implementing a few practices will keep your Zendesk Sell data healthy:

• Standardize Naming Conventions: Agree on how data should be entered (like phone formatting, name cases, etc.) to minimize mismatches.
• Centralize Imports: Assign one team member or process to handle bulk list imports.
• Educate Your Team: Hold regular data quality reviews and training to reduce manual entry mistakes.
• Leverage Verified Tools: Use tools like LinkZen to automate prospect addition and avoid manual errors.

Conclusion: Build Clean, Not Cleanup

Maintaining clean data in Zendesk Sell is crucial, yet time-consuming if you’re always playing catch-up. The smartest teams prevent duplicates in the first place with standardized, verified data—direct from the source, with LinkZen. Our LinkedIn Integration shows you real-time who’s in your CRM, prevents unnecessary duplicates, and lets you update your records in one click.

Ready to say goodbye to duplicate headaches? Try LinkZen now and experience the Add to CRM advantage: Cleaner data, less busywork, more closed deals.