Automation Product Deduplicate Your Salesforce Data in 3 Simple Steps Kalli Ringelberg Oct 13, 2022 5 mins read Blog Automation Deduplicate Your Salesforce Data in 3 Simple Steps As long as there are large amounts of data either all in one place or merged from several different locations, there will be a need for deduplication. Human error is a big reason why duplicate data occurs and why deduplication is necessary when you have multiple team members saving contacts, profiles, and deal information in one or more locations. Many errors can also occur when merging contacts in Salesforce or another CRM of choice. Duplicates in your Salesforce data can cause delays and even inaccuracies for your Sales and Lead Generation teams. Research shows that 83% of companies encounter challenges regarding cross-channel marketing, stating that inaccurate and redundant data is the main reason for these challenges. There are ideal scenarios for implementing deduplication with Salesforce. To figure out if the Salesforce Duplicate Management tool is the best solution for your needs, use this checklist: Are you new to Salesforce? Do you have < 10,000 new records added to your Salesforce per day? Do you have several team members adding records to your lists? Do you have >100 clients and a handful of new leads each month? Do you need list clean-up, deduplication prevention, or both? You need to have several leads and records happening in short periods even to have duplications constantly happening—the more leads, the higher odds of duplicates. If you only need a one-time clean-up or you’re merging several lists to one place for better organizations, it’s better to work with an automation platform that can understand your needs and scale with your business. Pssst… That’s where Wrk comes in. Check out our Deduplication Wrkflow to get your lead lists clean and up-to-date so your team can focus on closing deals and not using outdated information. What does Salesforce do to deduplicate your redundant data? Every company’s deduplication logic is different and depends on where they are getting their data from, and which workflows and what business processes they use. So there really is no magic formula or one-size-fits-all approach. Salesforce is one of the most popular customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, with close to 20% of the global CRM market. Salesforce, of course, has its own deduplication feature built in—known as Matching Rules and Duplicate Rules. Here’s how the process works and the different options available for your needs. These are the 3 different steps that they use to deduplicate Salesforce data: Step 1. Deduplicate one contact at a time Duplicates can be detected at any point of your process and it can be done by users and by bots or APIs. You can set up a rule that will alert your team that a contact that may already exist or have a partial record has been added. You can use the Salesforce deduplication tool to find names, lead status, quotes, job titles, addresses, and so much more. If someone has kept a record of it, even in excel sheets, or another location, it can be merged and recorded in your Salesforce integration platform, either manually or automatically. Step 2. Deduplicate in bulk when merging contacts in Salesforce Salesforce has recently improved their batching process for Duplicate Management by expanding their capabilities to run deduplication periodically in order to detect duplicates in mass, in your already existing data. With Salesforce, you’ll have to make sure that you’ve found the optimal settings and process that works for you and your team before jumping to automation. Step 3. Stop duplication at the source Establish a strategy for how leads should be saved and added by your team. A one-time clean-up is only a temporary fix. Prevention and scheduled clean-ups are key to keeping your Salesforce in the best state for everyone to work effortlessly. Try to implement steps to make sure that you’re not just setting and forgetting. Put a process in place that is flexible to scale when you grow from all the new leads you’re going to gain by giving your outreach teams more time to focus on their lead generation. Pick the right tool for deduplication—that might not be Salesforce There are many situations where Salesforce might not be the best option for your company. There are important limitations to keep in mind. For example, Salesforce only updates when a duplicate is created by a manual insert, which means you might lose data if the information is imported from outside of Salesforce, or created by an API. When merging contacts in Salesforce, you can only merge three records at a time. Regardless of how many duplicates you have, you must repeat the process until you’ve merged all duplicates. Another limitation that you’ll find is if you need to process large amounts of data, and quickly. This is less than ideal for people who need results immediately. For more information on finding the best Deduplication process for you, check out the benefits of Wrk’s Deduplication Wrkflow and remove your redundant data TODAY. Share This Article Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email