How to Avoid Duplicates When Importing ZoomInfo Data

Lead generation is essential to growing your business, and ZoomInfo can be a powerful tool for your sales team. With its vast database of business professionals and companies, it helps sales and marketing teams identify new business opportunities efficiently. 

However, importing data from ZoomInfo into your CRM – such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales – can present a major challenge: duplicate records. Duplicate entries disrupt data integrity, leading to inefficiencies, inaccurate reporting, and unreliable analytics. Here are key strategies to help you prevent duplicate records when importing ZoomInfo data into Dynamics 365. 

Enable Integration Features to Reduce Duplicates 

Integrating ZoomInfo with Dynamics 365 can streamline data entry and help reduce duplicate records. With integration, you can build targeted lists, save searches, and keep your CRM updated with fresh, high-quality leads. However, importing without filters or safeguards can easily result in duplicate entries. 

Use ZoomInfo's "Exclude Exported" Feature 

One of the most effective ways to avoid duplicates is using ZoomInfo's Exclude Exported option when managing lists. This ensures that previously exported contacts and companies are not re-imported. 

Steps to Prevent Duplicates:

1. Open one of your lists or tagged lists in ZoomInfo.
2. In the navigation pane on the right, scroll down to Exclude Exported.
3. Expand each section and mark the option to exclude previously exported contacts/companies.

This setting helps prevent re-importing records that already exist in your CRM, keeping your data clean and avoiding unnecessary clutter. 

ZoomInfo's 24-hour Data Refresh 

Even with the Exclude Exported feature enabled, there's an important limitation: ZoomInfo requires 24 hours to refresh and recognize newly exported contacts as "already exported." This can be an issue if multiple users – such as administrators or marketing teams – pull lists at different times, potentially overlapping their queries. To avoid duplicates, ensure your team is aware of this 24-hour refresh delay when managing lead imports. 

Stay Aligned with Expert CRM Integration 

Preventing duplicate records requires more than just filtering settings – it also involves a well-aligned CRM strategy. Our team specializes in integrating tools like ZoomInfo with Dynamics 365 to optimize data accuracy and efficiency as well as getting and keeping your sales and marketing teams aligned. 

To learn more about sales and marketing alignment check out Melanie Varin's book, Ignite TopLine Growth! 

In summary, ZoomInfo is a quick way to add new and valuable contacts to your CRM. However, one common challenge when adding new data to your CRM is how to avoid adding duplicates. Duplicate entries affect data integrity, leading to inefficiencies, inaccurate reporting, and poorer predictive analytics. The tips in this blog can help you decrease duplicate records when importing data from ZoomInfo to your Dynamics 365 database. 

If you need assistance optimizing your CRM or marketing strategies, TopLine Results is here to help! Contact us here or give us a call at 800-880-1660.