Add leads from a spreadsheet, check how each column was matched, and fix the ones Lead Hero could not place.
Who can do this: anyone who can open Leads. There is no separate import permission.
Lead Hero accepts .csv and .xlsx, so you can upload an Excel file directly without exporting it first.
Prepare the file
Give every column a header in the first row, and keep one kind of data per column.
Lead Hero matches your headers against a fixed list of names. Matching ignores spaces, capitals and punctuation, so Primary Phone, primary_phone and PRIMARYPHONE are all read the same way. Anything it does not recognise is left for you to place by hand.
These are the headers worth using, because they match without any work from you:
Field | Headers that match |
Primary phone | Phone, Phone Number, Primary Phone, Primary Number, Number, Mobile Number, Mobile Phone, Direct Dial, Company Phone |
Secondary phone | Secondary Phone, Secondary Number |
Reply phone | Reply Phone, Reply Number, Callback Phone, Callback Number |
Name | Name, Full Name, First Name, Last Name |
Email, Work Email, Direct Email, Personal Email | |
Company | Company, Company Name, Org Name, Organization Name |
Website | Website, Website URL, Company Website, Organization Website |
Job title | Job Title, Title |
Location | Location, City |
LinkedIn, LinkedIn URL, LinkedIn Profile | |
Industry | Industry, Industries |
Company size | Team Size, Employee Count Range |
Note | Note, Notes |
Mobile on its own does not match. Mobile Number and Mobile Phone do. A column headed just Mobile arrives set to Ignore column, and if you do not change it those leads import with no phone number and cannot be called. It is the most common reason an import looks fine and then nothing is dialable.
Phone numbers can be international (+1 212 555 0188) or national. Keep the format consistent down the column.
Upload the file
Open Leads.
Select Create lead.
Choose the Upload csv or xlsx tab.
Drop the file on the upload area, or select it to browse.
Under Lead Folders, None imports into no folder, Existing adds every row to a folder you pick, and New creates a folder and puts the import in it. Choosing a folder here saves sorting the leads afterwards.
Check the mapping
Once the file is read, Lead Hero shows Map columns with the row count it found and its best guess for each column.
Each row shows your header on the left with a sample value beneath it, and the Lead Hero field it will import into on the right. Here Mobile was not recognised and defaulted to Ignore column, so it needs changing before the import runs.
Work down the list and confirm each one. Pay attention to:
Anything set to Ignore column. That data is discarded.
The phone column. This is the one that decides whether the lead can be called at all.
Name. Use Name for a single full-name column, or First Name and Last Name for two.
Open any dropdown on the right to change the target field. A field that another column already claims is listed with the header using it, so you can see what is mapped where without scrolling back up. Add new custom field at the bottom of the list creates a field for data that has nowhere else to go, such as a lead source or an account number.
Select Back to swap the file without losing your place.
Run the import
Select Apply to N leads, where N is the row count Lead Hero detected. Check that number against your file before continuing. If it is lower than you expect, the file probably has blank rows at the end or a second header row partway down.
Lead Hero remembers this mapping for the organization, so the next file with the same headers arrives already matched.
After the import
Open Leads and search for one of the imported rows. Confirm the phone number, name and company landed in the right columns.
A lead that imported without a usable number shows n/a in the phone column. It is not flagged as a problem yet: the Phone Missing status is applied later, by the dialer, when an automated session reaches that lead and finds nothing to call. So an import can look successful and only surface the gap once you start calling.
Sort or filter on the phone column after a large import to catch those early. Fix them on the lead itself, re-import that subset with the phone column mapped correctly, or send them for enrichment.
Next steps
Troubleshoot CSV uploads and field mapping: what to do when the count or the mapping is wrong
Organize leads with folders, statuses, and columns: sorting the leads once they are in
Enrich leads with phone data: finding numbers for leads that arrived without one