Duplicate data in Salesforce (or “dupes”) are hands-down the most typical concern that we’re known as in to wash up at Iceberg.
You would possibly suppose resolving duplicate data needs to be a fast and straightforward repair.
However as we’ll see on this article, deduping your data really takes extra tactical work than you’d anticipate.
As an illustration:
- How do you outline a replica lead in case you promote to separate accounts who’re a part of the identical franchise?
- How do you retain your information clear and duplicates at bay when a replica may be created by way of an API?
- Do you must automate the method? In that case, what are the proper instruments for the job?
I’ll be overlaying these tactical gremlins on this article, in addition to providing you some sensible options to stopping and cleansing up duplicate leads in Salesforce.
Be part of the dialog: Easy methods to clear up duplicate data in Outreach.io 💬
What are duplicate leads?
Duplicate leads or data in Salesforce occur when the identical individual or firm is entered into Salesforce greater than as soon as.
…proper?
Truly, the definition of duplicate leads is dependent upon your group.
I’ll provide you with two concrete situations to indicate you that I’m not intentionally nitpicking right here.
Situation 1: You promote ERP (Enterprise Useful resource Planning) software program to Fortune 100 corporations.
There’s no cause you’ll ever deliberately create a number of accounts for an organization like GE. On this state of affairs, you might use the Account Title subject to examine for duplicates. You recognize that ‘GE’, ‘Common Electrical’, and ‘GE Inc’ are all duplicates—a simple repair. Crafting your definition of a replica can be a comparatively easy course of.
Situation 2: You promote POS (Level of Sale) methods to particular person franchises.
There have been over 13,000 McDonald’s places within the US in 2019, so discovering two accounts with McDonald’s within the identify doesn’t imply you’ve discovered a replica. On this state of affairs, your definition of a replica will must be extra complicated.
Take a look at my article: Do I Want Salesforce? Guidelines 📚
Finest practices for outlining duplicate leads in your org
It’s essential to assemble a clear, written definition of what a replica is earlier than transferring ahead.
Whereas “fuzzy” definitions could be helpful in some cases, they’ll’t be relied on. In case your definition leaves any room for interpretation or subjective judgment, you’ll battle to get rid of duplicates in a programmatic manner.
Lastly, you also needs to bear in mind that there are various levels of duplicate leads. Some are full carbon copies of each other. Others comprise solely partially copied info.
And, as time goes on, one of many data could also be up to date — and the others not.
For instance, two data would possibly comprise the identical identify, telephone quantity, electronic mail, and so forth. However as time goes on, solely a type of data is up to date with new details about the shopper.
So watch out to maintain probably the most up-to-date and correct report.
Easy methods to repair duplicate leads in Salesforce
The way in which you’ll resolve duplicates — and stop them within the first place — will rely upon a couple of elements:
- What number of data you’re coping with
- What sorts of objects you’re working with (customary or customized)
- The various methods new data could be entered into Salesforce
Keep in mind after I stated the fixing duplicate leads was extra tactical than you’d think about?
You may be high-quality simply leveraging Salesforce’s built-in Duplicate Administration. However this software is certainly not with out its limitations. In lots of instances, you’ll want a customized repair (extra on that in a minute).
I’ll stroll you thru methods for managing duplicate data in Salesforce, each natively inside Salesforce and by way of third-party apps.
Associated: Knowledge Governance: Salesforce Objects in Lead-to-Money Course of 📚
SALESFORCE NATIVE DUPLICATE MANAGEMENT
Salesforce has its personal native duplicate administration system for customers on the ‘Efficiency’ and ‘Limitless’ plans.
This might properly be sufficient for many SMBs, who use customary objects and aren’t coping with big quantities of information.
If that is you, you possibly can arrange your personal guidelines instantly inside Salesforce for Accounts, Leads, and Contacts to assist keep away from duplication of data.
Professional tip: Keep in mind, organising cross-object guidelines is essential as a result of many Leads can exist as Contacts and vice versa.
Easy methods to handle duplicates in Salesforce
Relying on the kind of report you’re making an attempt to dedupe (e.g. accounts, contacts, offers, and so forth), the you’ll more than likely need to give attention to electronic mail handle and firm area.
Precise matches
For instance, you possibly can create a normal “Account Precise Title” match that robotically blocks or alerts a consumer if an account already exists with the identical identify.
Professional: Easy and simple to arrange
Con: You probably have slight variation in your account names, you possibly can nonetheless find yourself with a replica report. For instance, one SDR enters an organization’s identify as “IBM,” however one other enters it as “Worldwide Enterprise Machines.”
Fuzzy guidelines
To keep away from the error above, strive organising a “fuzzy rule.” This rule will return matches when two fields are comparable, however not a precise match.
Professional: Fuzzy guidelines can floor duplicate accounts that “actual match” searches miss.
Con: Fuzzy logic, particularly when utilized to an object like Account Title, is much from actual. So in case you’re utilizing a fuzzy rule, pair it with further matching standards, like an handle or electronic mail actual match. This will help be certain that duplicates are returned from the server when using fuzzy logic.
Utilizing the information import wizard
One other simple strategy to keep away from creating duplicate contacts and leads is to import them by way of Salesforce’s Knowledge Import Wizard.
This characteristic robotically prevents the creation of duplicate data utilizing the report’s electronic mail handle as a novel identifier.
Avoiding cross-object duplication
Lastly, to keep away from cross-object duplication, you possibly can arrange guidelines comparable to “Lead-to-Contact electronic mail actual match” and “Contact-to-Lead match” to alert customers to a possible cross-object duplicate.
Abstract: Limitations of Salesforce’s native duplication administration:
- It solely alerts when information is entered manually. Which means if a possible duplicate is entered by way of an API, Salesforce will robotically block it. You would then doubtlessly lose vital information with no third occasion resolution that may merge the 2 data
- It solely permits you to create guidelines for normal objects so in case you use customized objects you’ll want one other resolution
- It requires handbook overview: any batch job performed with Salesforce would require a handbook overview which generally is a big time suck and drain your sources. It may be possible for small corporations, but it surely’s not scalable
Conclusion: In addition to its Knowledge Import Wizard, Salesforce doesn’t do a fantastic job of offering out-of-the field deduplication instruments. So most organizations will find yourself buying third occasion software program/extensions.
I’ll stroll you thru my two favorites:
APPEXCHANGE – TAKING THINGS A STEP FURTHER
At Iceberg, we’ve experimented with a couple of instruments from the Appexchange for duplication administration.
In the end, we’re fairly pleased with each Cloudingo (4.79 common score) & Leandata (4.93 common score).
Cloudingo
You need to use Cloudingo to wash and dedupe massive portions of information which were entered previous to any creation of duplicate guidelines. It may well additionally deal with mass dumps the dupe guidelines missed.
Professional: You’ll be able to scan your information and auto-merge duplicates each week, daily, and even each hour.
Con: A brand new duplicate can nonetheless trigger an issue throughout a small window of time earlier than the subsequent automation runs.
Think about this state of affairs:
You’ve gotten your day by day cleanup automation scheduled to run at midnight.
Earlier within the day, a decision-maker at an present account with an vital, lively alternative downloads a whitepaper as a part of their analysis.
This motion triggers the creation of a brand new lead report in Salesforce, but it surely’s a replica of the present account report.
The brand new lead is robotically routed to a Gross sales Growth Rep, who fails to examine the system for duplicates (in fact, this by no means occurs… proper?).
The SDR contacts the choice maker, which leads to an embarrassing dialog—and an indignant account govt.
What to do: If you’d like your Salesforce occasion to remain clear sufficient to keep away from awkward situations like this, you’ll have to implement a system for real-time cleansing as properly. Thankfully, there are applied sciences out there to assist with this, too.
LeanData
LeanData permits you to create a workflow in your data which could be triggered at particular occasions — like when a brand new report is created or when the information in a report is up to date.
These workflows could be configured to examine for duplicates, merge matching data, convert leads, replace fields, ship electronic mail alerts, and extra.
Professional: LeanData is tremendous sturdy, and its workflows provide complete duplicate decision and prevention.
Con: This software is so sturdy that attending to grips with among the logic could be difficult.
…however we actually suggest sticking it out as it will possibly grow to be a useful software in your group.
Which resolution is best for you?
I hope by now you possibly can see that deduping your data isn’t a easy in-and-out course of and with out taking the time to contemplate your necessities you possibly can find yourself paying large when it comes to information integrity and wasted sources.
Nobody individual, plan, or software can assure a duplicate-free Salesforce occasion. However with the suitable applied sciences and implementation plan, it’s attainable to seek out and proper nearly all of duplications.
So earlier than leaping into begin deduplicating your data bear in mind these key factors:
- Create a transparent definition of what a replica report is
- Analyze your wants, the way you’re coming into information, and what number of data you’re dealing with to grasp what resolution(s) will work finest for you
- Make use of a software that may retroactively clear present duplicates and shortly discover and repair future duplicates
Iceberg is all the time pleased to assist scaling corporations clear up their Salesforce cases and assist them construct options to help their progress.
