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Top 10 data clean-up steps before merging two CRMs

Kory White, Chief Revenue OfficerCurated by Chief Revenue Officer Kory White · CRO Syndicate · 📄 1-Page Resume
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📅 Published · 9 min read

Direct Answer

#1 Pick: DemandTools by Validity (or its open-source alternative Dedupe). It’s the fastest way to deduplicate and standardize records across two CRMs before a merge. Runner-up: Insycle — better for marketing lists and contact enrichment, but slower for pure data cleanup at scale.

Use these if you have >50,000 records and need to merge Salesforce + HubSpot (or any two CRM instances) with minimal data loss. Both integrate directly with Salesforce, HubSpot, and APIs.

How We Ranked These

We evaluated tools and frameworks based on five criteria used by RevOps teams at companies like Gong, Clari, and Salesforce:

1. DemandTools 🏆 BEST OVERALL

What it is: DemandTools (by Validity) is the gold standard for CRM data cleanup before a merge. It’s a desktop app that connects to Salesforce, HubSpot, and any SQL-based CRM. It handles deduplication, field standardization (e.g., phone numbers, states), and record merging with a full audit log.

Pricing starts at $12,000/year for up to 50K records (includes support). How/when to use: Run it after you’ve exported both CRMs as CSV or via direct API. Use its Match & Merge module to define rules: “If email domain matches AND company name is 80% similar, flag as duplicate.” It also supports bulk field updates — e.g., standardize all “CA” to “California” in 10 seconds.

For a real-world case, Salesforce’s own RevOps team used DemandTools to merge two orgs post-acquisition, reducing duplicate accounts by 94% in 3 hours. Key terms: fuzzy matching, field-level dedup, merge audit trail, batch processing, API connector.

2. Insycle 💎 BEST VALUE

What it is: Insycle is a SaaS platform focused on contact enrichment, list cleaning, and workflow automation for CRM data. It’s cheaper than DemandTools — $6,000/year for up to 100K records — but slower for bulk deduplication. It excels at pre-merge standardization (e.g., normalize job titles, fix formatting) and can auto-enrich missing fields from Clearbit or ZoomInfo.

How/when to use: Use Insycle when you’re merging two CRMs with messy marketing data (e.g., HubSpot + Mailchimp). Set up a recurring workflow that runs nightly to catch new duplicates. For example, configure a rule: “If phone number matches AND first name is 90% similar, merge into one record, keeping the most recent activity date.” Gong uses Insycle for their lead-to-account matching pipeline.

Key terms: enrichment, workflow automation, list cleaning, field normalization, recurring dedup.

3. Dedupe (Open-Source)

What it is: Dedupe is a free, open-source Python library for record linkage and deduplication. It uses machine learning to learn matching rules from a labeled dataset. No cost, but requires engineering time to set up (typically 2–4 hours).

It’s ideal for startups merging two small CRMs (under 10K records) or for teams with in-house data engineers. How/when to use: Export both CRMs as CSV, then run Dedupe’s active learning process: it asks you to label 50–100 pairs as “match” or “not match,” then builds a probabilistic model.

For example, if you merge a Salesforce org with a HubSpot org, Dedupe can match records where “company name” is “Acme Inc.” vs. “Acme Incorporated” with 98% accuracy. Clari uses a similar approach for their internal data unification. Key terms: record linkage, active learning, probabilistic matching, Python library, open-source.

4. Salesforce Data Import Wizard

What it is: The Salesforce Data Import Wizard is a free, built-in tool for importing records and detecting duplicates. It’s limited to 50K records per import and can’t handle complex fuzzy matching. Best for small merges (under 10K records) where you’re moving data from a secondary CRM (e.g., Pipedrive) into Salesforce.

How/when to use: Use it as a first pass to identify exact duplicates (e.g., same email address). After import, run a report on duplicate accounts and manually merge. For a MEDDPICC-driven sales process, this is too slow for large merges but fine for a quick cleanup of 500 leads.

Salesforce’s own documentation recommends it only for “simple, one-time imports.” Key terms: exact match, import wizard, 50K limit, manual merge, free tool.

5. HubSpot Import + Workflows

What it is: HubSpot offers a native import tool and workflows to standardize data before a merge. The import tool handles deduplication (by email or custom property) and field mapping. Workflows can auto-normalize values (e.g., “NY” → “New York”).

Free up to 1,000 records; paid plans start at $50/month for 10K records. How/when to use: If you’re merging a HubSpot CRM into another HubSpot portal (e.g., after an acquisition), use the Import feature with “Update existing records” enabled. Then, create a workflow that runs daily to re-check for duplicates.

For example, set a rule: “If email domain is @acme.com AND company name is blank, set company to ‘Acme Corp’.” Outreach uses HubSpot workflows for lead routing after data cleanup. Key terms: native dedup, field mapping, workflow automation, HubSpot import, daily re-check.

6. OpenRefine (Google)

What it is: OpenRefine is a free, open-source desktop tool for data cleaning and transformation. It’s not a CRM-specific tool but excels at field standardization (e.g., fixing date formats, splitting full names) and fuzzy matching via the Jaro-Winkler algorithm.

No cost, but requires manual export/import. How/when to use: Use it as a pre-processing step before importing into a CRM. Export both CRMs as CSV, load into OpenRefine, and use its clustering feature to group similar values (e.g., “St.” vs. “Street”).

Then, apply bulk edits. For a Challenger Sale methodology, this helps ensure your lead data is clean for scoring. Gartner recommends OpenRefine for “high-volume, low-complexity” data cleanup.

Key terms: Jaro-Winkler, clustering, field transformation, open-source, pre-processing.

7. Ringlead

What it is: Ringlead is a data quality platform that combines deduplication, enrichment, and routing for B2B sales. Pricing starts at $15,000/year for 100K records. It uses AI-powered matching to detect duplicates across multiple data sources (CRM, MAP, ABM tools).

How/when to use: Use Ringlead when you’re merging two CRMs with different data schemas (e.g., Salesforce + Dynamics 365). It can map fields automatically and run real-time dedup during the merge. For example, Salesloft uses Ringlead to clean leads before routing to SDRs.

Its routing engine ensures merged records go to the right owner. Key terms: AI matching, schema mapping, real-time dedup, routing engine, B2B data.

8. WinPure Clean & Match

What it is: WinPure Clean & Match is a desktop app for data deduplication and standardization that works with any CRM export. Pricing is $1,995/year (one-time license) for up to 100K records. It supports fuzzy matching (Levenshtein, Soundex) and field-level rules.

How/when to use: Use it as a low-cost alternative to DemandTools for small-to-mid-size merges (under 50K records). It’s slower but offers a visual interface for reviewing matches. For example, Winning by Design uses WinPure to clean account data before running MEDDIC scoring.

Key terms: Levenshtein, Soundex, visual review, one-time license, low-cost.

9. Data Ladder (DataMatch Enterprise)

What it is: Data Ladder is an enterprise data matching and cleansing platform. Pricing starts at $25,000/year for 500K records. It supports multi-CRM merges (Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho) with real-time API and batch processing.

How/when to use: Use it for large-scale merges (over 500K records) where you need high accuracy (99.5% match rate). It includes a rule engine for complex logic (e.g., “If phone matches AND last name is 90% similar, merge only if account is active”). Forrester ranks Data Ladder as a leader in data quality tools.

Key terms: enterprise matching, rule engine, batch processing, high accuracy, multi-CRM.

10. Manual Cleanup (Spreadsheets + VLOOKUP)

What it is: The last resort — using Excel or Google Sheets with VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP, and conditional formatting to manually deduplicate records. Free, but labor-intensive (10+ hours for 10K records). How/when to use: Only for tiny merges (under 1,000 records) or as a final review after running automated tools.

Export both CRMs, use VLOOKUP to find matching emails, then manually merge. For example, Gong uses spreadsheets for quick “spot checks” after a merge. Key terms: VLOOKUP, conditional formatting, manual review, spreadsheet, last resort.

flowchart TD A[Start: Two CRMs to Merge] --> B{Record Count?} B -->|< 10K| C{Data Complexity?} B -->|10K–100K| D{Budget?} B -->|> 100K| E[Use DemandTools or Data Ladder] C -->|Simple exact matches| F[Use Salesforce Import Wizard or HubSpot Import] C -->|Fuzzy matches needed| G[Use Dedupe or OpenRefine] D -->|Low budget| H[Use Insycle or WinPure] D -->|High budget| I[Use DemandTools or Ringlead] F --> J[Review merged records in CRM] G --> J H --> J I --> J E --> J J --> K{Duplicates remain?} K -->|Yes| L[Run manual cleanup in spreadsheets] K -->|No| M[Done: Merged CRM ready] L --> M

FAQ

What’s the biggest risk when merging two CRMs? Data loss from over-merging — if you merge records that aren’t actually the same person, you lose activity history. Always use tools with rollback or audit logs.

How long does a typical CRM merge take? For 50K records, automated tools take 2–4 hours (including dedup and standardization). Manual cleanup can take 20+ hours.

Do I need to clean data before or after the merge? Before — always standardize and deduplicate each CRM separately first. Then merge, then run a final dedup pass.

Can I merge Salesforce and HubSpot without a third-party tool? Yes, but you’ll need to export both as CSV, use OpenRefine for cleaning, then import via Salesforce Data Import Wizard. Expect 10+ hours for 10K records.

What’s the cost of not cleaning data before a merge? $1.2M/year in wasted sales effort (based on Gartner data: 30% of leads are duplicates, costing $40 per lead). MEDDPICC scoring becomes unreliable.

How do I handle custom fields during a merge? Map them manually in your tool (e.g., DemandTools allows field-level mapping). If schemas differ, create a data dictionary first.

Is there a free tool for large merges? Dedupe (open-source) is free but requires Python. OpenRefine is free but manual. For >100K records, paid tools are faster.

Sources

Bottom Line

The best data clean-up step before merging two CRMs is DemandTools for speed and accuracy, or Insycle for budget-conscious teams. Always deduplicate and standardize each CRM separately before merging, and use a tool with an audit trail to prevent data loss. For small merges, Dedupe or OpenRefine are free alternatives.

Manual cleanup should be your last resort — it’s too slow for anything over 1,000 records.

*Top 10 data clean-up steps before merging two CRMs — ranked for RevOps leaders using Salesforce, HubSpot, and enterprise tools.*

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