Duplicates Multiply When You're Not Looking
You import a trade show list. 500 contacts. Your team's excited. But 150 of those contacts are already in your CRM. Now you have 150 duplicates. Same person, two records, twice the confusion.
Sales reaches out twice. Marketing emails the same person from both records. Reports count them as two prospects. And when someone finally notices, it takes hours to figure out which record to keep.
The fix is simple: check for duplicates before you import. We compare your incoming data against your existing database and flag the matches.
"We were about to import 2,000 leads. Duplicate detection found 800 were already in Salesforce. Saved us from a massive cleanup project."— Revenue Operations Manager
Why Exact Matching Fails
Most duplicate detection uses exact matching. If the email address matches exactly, it's a duplicate. If it doesn't match exactly, it's new.
The problem: real data isn't exact.
"John Smith" and "John C. Smith" are the same person. "Acme Corp" and "Acme Corporation" are the same company. "[email protected]" and "[email protected]" might be the same person.
Exact matching misses these. You end up with duplicates that look different but represent the same entity.
We use fuzzy matching. Algorithms that understand "similar enough" means "probably the same." Combined with multiple matching fields, we catch duplicates that exact matching misses.
How We Match
- Email matching. Exact and normalized. We catch variations like firstname.lastname vs f.lastname vs first.l.
- Name matching. Fuzzy algorithms handle nicknames (Bob/Robert), initials (J. Smith/John Smith), and typos.
- Company matching. Normalized company names. "Inc" vs "Incorporated", "Corp" vs "Corporation", common abbreviations.
- Phone matching. Normalized formats. (555) 123-4567 matches 5551234567 matches +1-555-123-4567.
- Address matching. Normalized addresses. "123 Main Street" matches "123 Main St" matches "123 Main".
- Multi-field scoring. Combine multiple matches for higher confidence. Same name AND same company = likely duplicate.
Pre-Import vs In-Database
Pre-import duplicate detection compares your incoming list against your existing database. Before you import, we tell you which records already exist.
In-database duplicate detection finds duplicates already in your CRM. Records that got created over time from different sources.
We do both. Pre-import is the smart move before any list import. In-database is part of a larger data cleaning project.
What You Get
Match report. Every incoming record flagged as new, duplicate, or potential duplicate.
Existing record links. For duplicates, which existing record does it match?
Match confidence. High, medium, or low confidence. Based on how many fields matched and how closely.
Recommended action. Skip import, merge with existing, or review manually.
How It Works
Step 1: Send us both files. Your incoming list and an export of your existing database.
Step 2: We run fuzzy matching. Multiple algorithms across multiple fields.
Step 3: Duplicates flagged. Each incoming record checked against every existing record.
Step 4: Report delivered. Clear guidance on which records to import and which to skip.
Pricing
Duplicate detection runs $0.01-0.03 per record checked, depending on database size and matching complexity.
Minimum project is $500. Most detection runs complete within 24 hours.
Common Questions
What if I don't have email addresses?
We can match on name + company, name + phone, or other field combinations. Match confidence depends on available data, but we can work with what you have.
How do you handle partial matches?
Partial matches are flagged as "potential duplicates" with lower confidence scores. You decide whether to import, skip, or review manually.
Can you check against multiple systems?
Yes. If you have data in Salesforce, HubSpot, and a marketing automation platform, we can check against all of them. Duplicates across systems are just as problematic.
What about internal duplicates in the incoming list?
We check for those too. If your incoming list has duplicates within itself, we flag them before they become duplicates in your CRM.
Stop Creating Duplicates
Every duplicate you create is a problem you'll have to solve later. Check before you import, and your database stays clean.
Related: Data Deduplication | Pre-Import Validation | Cleaning Services