Outreach: Lead Import

By Summit53 Team

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Overview

The Import page (/outreach/import) brings manual prospect lists into the Outreach lead model through CSV and spreadsheet ingestion. You upload a file, choose a preset, map your columns to Summit53 fields, generate a preview, and queue the import. A Back to Outreach link returns you to the Leads page.

Upload

In the Upload section, click Click to choose a file to select your source file. Supported formats are .csv, .tsv, .xls, and .xlsx.

Import presets

An Import preset dropdown pre-fills the column mapping for a known export shape. Selecting one shows its description, its Expected Headers, and a set of Notes. Three presets are available:

  • Generic CSV — for normalised CSV exports with straightforward field names, including spreadsheets already shaped for Summit53. Qualification and pipeline fields (Stage, Fit Rating, Tier, Next Action) are optional.
  • Apollo Contacts — maps Apollo standard contact exports. Uses the Company Name column; if Contact Owner does not match a Summit53 member, the importer falls back to the current user.
  • Apollo Contacts (Compact) — for compact Apollo exports with lowercase, snake_case headers and a combined name column. Column matching is case-insensitive, so it also works with Title Case headers.

After choosing a preset you can still adjust the mapping manually, or edit the raw mapping via the Advanced JSON toggle.

Lead list name and duplicate handling

Give the batch a Lead list name to group the imported leads. Then choose how to handle records that match an existing lead by email under Duplicate handling:

  • Skip existing email matches — leave existing leads untouched
  • Update existing email matches — overwrite existing leads with the incoming data

Column mapping

The Column mapping section lists each expected source header with a dropdown to select the Summit53 field it should map to. Unmapped columns are ignored. Each dropdown offers Ignore column plus the lead fields: Email, First name, Last name, Full name, Title, Company, Phone, Website, Industry, LinkedIn URL, Owner email, Stage, Fit rating, Tier, Next action, Next action date, Engagement signal, and Notes. The importer supports one source column per field.

Preview and import

Click Generate Preview to validate the file before committing. The preview reports row counts — total rows, preview rows, duplicate rows, and invalid rows — and lists sample rows with any per-row validation errors or warnings. Until you generate one, the panel reads "Preview rows will appear here after you upload a file and generate a preview."

When the preview looks right, click Queue Import to run the import via the async job backend. Imported leads then appear in the Leads inbox, where you can enrol them in a sequence and begin outreach.

Troubleshooting

  • "Choose a CSV or spreadsheet file first." — no file is selected; pick one in the Upload section before generating a preview or queuing the import.
  • "Mapping JSON is invalid." — the Advanced JSON mapping cannot be parsed; fix the JSON or reselect a preset to reset it.
  • Owner not assigned as expected — when an owner email does not match a Summit53 member, the lead falls back to the current user.