Salesforce: How to Import Your CSV.

CRM IMPORTS

9/8/20265 min read

Salesforce will not magically ingest a lead list. It will ingest a clean CSV through the Data Import Wizard — if you pick the right object and the right match key.

This is the path we send Quick Simple Leads customers down when they work in Salesforce Lightning. No Data Loader. No AppExchange package. No native QSL connector. Just Setup → Wizard → Leads → Email.

Budget 20 minutes the first time. Ten minutes every time after.

Step 1: Clean the Quick Simple Leads CSV first

We deliver a spreadsheet to your inbox. Your CRM does not care that the data is good until the file matches what its importer expects. Do this in Google Sheets or Excel before you touch Salesforce.

Save a working copy named QSL_Salesforce_YYYY-MM-DD.csv. Do not import the original attachment.
One header row. No title above it, no blank row under it, no merged cells.
Export as CSV UTF-8. Several of these importers still choke on a straight .xlsx save.
Split First Name and Last Name. Trim trailing spaces on emails.
Put Quick Simple Leads in the Lead Source column so reporting is not a mystery next month.
Export current emails out of Salesforce and flag overlaps before you upload.

Use these headers. They auto-map in most wizards:

Step 2: Import into Salesforce

You need the Import Leads permission. Most full Salesforce users have it. If the Wizard is missing from Setup, ask an admin to enable it. Then follow these screens.

Launch the Data Import Wizard
In Lightning, click the gear → Setup. In the Quick Find box type Data Import Wizard and open it. Read the welcome panel, then click Launch Wizard.
You can also reach the Wizard from the Leads home page under Tools, or from Personal Settings if you are not an admin.

Choose Leads, the action, and your file.
On the first Wizard screen pick Standard objects → Leads.
Under “What do you want to do?” choose Add new and update existing records if this territory might already have a few of these companies. Choose Add new records only if you are certain the list is net-new.
Set Match Lead by to Email. Name matching creates duplicates the moment two shops share an owner named “Mike.”
Set Lead Source to Quick Simple Leads (or type it in after import). Drag your CSV into the upload box. Encoding can stay at the default unless you see odd characters later.
Click Next.
- CSV only — not XLSX.
- Up to 50,000 rows and 100 MB, which a QSL list will never hit.
- Do not run two Wizard jobs at once.

Map every column you care about.
The Wizard auto-maps headers that look like Salesforce fields. Confirm these pairs by hand:
First Name → First Name. Last Name → Last Name. Email → Email. Phone → Phone. Company Name → Company. Job Title → Title. City → City. State → State/Province. Website → Website. Lead Source → Lead Source. Notes → Description.
Anything left Unmapped is discarded. That is fine for junk columns. It is not fine for Email.
If your org has required custom fields on Lead, add those columns to the CSV before this screen or the rows will fail.

Review, pause workflows, start the job.
The last screen shows how many rows will create versus update. If the counts look insane (2,000 updates on a 200-row file), you matched on the wrong key. Go back.
Pause any Flow, Process Builder leftover, or workflow that emails a contact the moment a Lead is created. A 200-row import should not fire 200 “welcome” messages.
Click Start Import. Salesforce emails you when the job finishes. That email is the error log. Read it.

What to do in the first 15 minutes after import
- Build a list view: Lead Source equals Quick Simple Leads AND Created Date equals TODAY.
- Open 10 random leads. Confirm title, company, and email landed.
- Search one email you know was already in Salesforce. Confirm it updated instead of duplicating.
- Enroll only that list view in your sequence — not “all new leads.”
- Turn workflows back on.

Common errors and fast fixes

Common errors and fast fixes

Salesforce is not the bottleneck. The file is. Clean the columns, match on Email, import as Leads, work the new list view the same afternoon.

If the list is the part you do not want to build, that is the only part we sell.

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