Export leads from an Excel file to Salesforce

Workflow

Revops

Intermediate

Use Template

This is a 'Workflow' template which means that it is a single standalone workflow.

Some workflow templates can be modified to work with other workflow templates - e.g. to convert a data sync between two services from uni-directional to bi-directional

Overview

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The purpose of this workflow is to capture leads from an Excel / XLSX file and use these to create and update contacts in Salesforce.

This workflow is fired every time a Excel / XLSX file is added to a Tray form:

Prerequisites

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To implement this workflow, you will need the following:

• API credentials for Salesforce

• An Excel sheet with the correct column setup. You can use this template to set up your Excel file.

Getting Live

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Click Use Template to deploy the template in your chosen Workspace.

Then take the following steps to configure the workflow and start submitting leads for processing:

The workflow will then start the process of pulling the leads into Salesforce.

End Result

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Key workflow steps

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The following diagram gives a simplified breakdown of the key steps in the workflow:

Format XLSX

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These steps convert the form data into an Excel format which is later converted into a Excel / XLSX file so that each row can be looped through and dealt with individually.

Data mapping

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The workflow uses the Data Mapper to dynamically respond to the 'Lead Source' in the Excel / XLSX file and maps it to a machine-readable format:

Organic Search --> ORGANIC_SEARCH

Paid Search --> PAID_SEARCH

Email marketing --> EMAIL_MARKETING

etc.

This can then be passed to the Salesforce 'Lead Source' (hs_analytics_source in the Salesforce API) when creating / updating contacts:

Standardization

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This Object Helpers step transforms the Excel / XLSX column headers into a standard object with fields in the following format:

First Name --> first_name

Last Name --> last_name

Lead Source --> lead_source

etc.

Note that the actual value for Lead Source ('Paid Search', 'Referrals' etc.) is mapped according to the data mapping section above.

For each lead we will then have a simple object which can be easily accessed by later Salesforce steps using jsonpaths such as $.steps.object-helpers-1.result.first_name:

Email validation

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The lead’s email address is validated for the appropriate user@domain.com format.

Create / Update contacts

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A search is made for an existing contact in Salesforce using the lead’s email address as the unique identifier.

If a Salesforce contact exists, update the contact record.

If a Salesforce contact does not exist, create a new contact record using the standard object.