Data Import - Leads

Sonido offers a convenient Lead import wizard, allowing you to import your Lead records and relevant information into your Sonido account quickly and easily. Due to some required fields or data structures, some formatting of your Lead list may be necessary in order to support a successful data import. 

IMPORT TEMPLATE

For your convenience, Sonido offers a Lead import template that you may download and use. This template includes all the supported Lead headers in a .csv format. You can use this template to organize your own Lead list and streamline your import process.

DOWNLOAD LEAD IMPORT TEMPLATE

IMPORT PROCESS

The following video provides a comprehensive walkthrough of the process of importing your Lead records with Sonido Software. 

The Lead import is a multi-record import process that creates a Lead Record, as well as an associated Contact record and Band/Group record for every row in your Lead import spreadsheet. As multiple records are created, there are more data points that can be collected for the import.

The following are guidelines to follow that related to the supported fields in the Lead import process. 

• First Name - REQUIRED. Your Lead import must include a First Name for every record. If you don't know the first name, you can add placeholder text, such as "(first name)" to successfully import. Every record must have something populated as the First Name field. This contact will become the Primary Contact for the Lead record.
• Last Name - REQUIRED. Your Lead import must include a Last Name for every record. If you don't know the last name, you can add placeholder text, such as "(last name)" to successfully import. Every record must have something populated as the Last Name field. 
• Contact Type - REQUIRED. Your Lead import must include a Contact Type for every record. The Contact Type option in your import spreadsheet MUST exist within Sonido under the Contact Type picklist options. If your spreadsheet import has Contact Types that do not exist as options within the Contact Type picklist field within Sonido, you will need to create each Contact Type option within the Sonido Contact Type picklist before importing to avoid an import error. You may review the PICKLIST MANAGEMENT guide to learn how to add the necessary Contact Type options within the Contact Type picklist field. The data in your Contact import list MUST be an EXACT match to what is in Sonido's Picklist Management.
• Email Address - REQUIRED. Your Lead import must include an email address for every record. The email address is a form of a unique identifier within Sonido. If you do not know the email address for the Lead, you can add placeholder text, such as "[e-mail]" to successfully import. If there are multiple Leads in your list that are missing email addresses, it is suggested to add a unique placeholder email address to each record, such as "[e-mail]1", "[e-mail]2", "[e-mail]3", and so on. 
• Phone Number - You may add a single phone number to each Lead record. 
• Street - You may add the street address to each Lead record as a part of the full address.
• City - You may add the city to each Lead record as a part of the full address.
• State - You may add the state to each Lead record as a part of the full address.
• Postal Code - You may add the postal code to each Lead record as a part of the full address.
• Country - You may add the country to each Lead record as a part of the full address
• Band/Group Name - REQUIRED. Your Lead import must include a Band/Group Name for every record. If you don't know the name, you can populate the Band/Group Name field with the First and Last Name of the Lead.
• Band/Group Website - You may add Band/Group website URL address to each Lead record.
• Genre- REQUIRED. Your Lead import must include a Genre for every record. The Genre option in your import spreadsheet MUST exist within Sonido under the Genre picklist options. If your spreadsheet import has genres that do not exist as options within the Genre picklist field within Sonido, you will need to create each Genre option within the Sonido Genre picklist before importing to avoid an import error. You may review the PICKLIST MANAGEMENT guide to learn how to add the necessary Genre options within the Genre picklist field. The data in your Lead import list MUST be an EXACT match to what is in Sonido's Picklist Management.
• Musical Influences - You may add any musical influences to each Lead record.
• Music Sounds Like - You may add any music sounds like information to each Lead record.
• Studio Experience - REQUIRED. Your Lead import must include a Studio Experience selection for every Lead record. The Studio Experience field must contain one of the following: None, Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert. If you don't know what option to add, feel free to add "None" to every record in your Lead import list to successfully import.
• Total Members - You may add the total number of Band/Group members as a number entry to each Lead record.
• Primary Instrument(s) - You may add a list of any primary instruments as it relates to the Band/Group for each Lead record.
• Favorite Snacks/Drinks - You may add any favorite snack or drink preferences to each Lead record.
• Referral Source - REQUIRED. Your Lead import must include a Referral Source for every record. 
  • The Referral Source option in your import spreadsheet MUST exist within Sonido under the Genre picklist options. If your spreadsheet import has Referral Sources that do not exist as options within the Referral Source picklist field within Sonido, you will need to create each Referral Source option within the Sonido Referral Source picklist before importing to avoid an import error. You may review the PICKLIST MANAGEMENT guide to learn how to add the necessary Referral Source options within the Referral Source picklist field. The data in your Lead import list MUST be an EXACT match to what is in Sonido's Picklist Management.
  • If you don't know what the Referral Source should be, you can populate each record with "Other".
• Lead Stage - REQUIRED. Your Lead import must include a Lead Stage selection for every Lead record. The Lead Stage field must contain one of the following: New, In Communication, Closed Lost or Booked Studio Time (Converted). If you don't know what option to add, feel free to add "New" to every record in your Lead import list to successfully import.
• Number of Songs - You may add the Number of Songs as a number to each Lead record.
• Target Start Date - REQUIRED. You will need to add a Target Start Date to each Lead record formatted as mm/dd/yyyy. You can set each record to today's date to simplify this step, if helpful. 
• Target Completion Date - REQUIRED. You will need to add the Target Completion Date to each Lead record formatted as mm/dd/yyyy. You can set each record to today's date to simplify this step, if helpful. 
• Project Revenue Estimate - REQUIRED. You will need to add the Project Revenue Estimate to each Lead record formatted as a number (no currency indicator). You can set this as 0 to simplify this step, if helpful.
• Lead Notes - You may add any Lead notes to each Lead record. Be sure there are no line separations in the notes, as the import supports a single text block without line breaks. 

IMPORTING LEADS

After formatting your Lead import list to include the supported column headers and cleaning the data as described for each field above, you are now ready to import your list into Sonido. 

You can navigate to the "Settings" menu and select "Data Import" from the options.

In the Data Import screen, select the "Select Data" button and choose the appropriate record type for your data import. In this case, we'll select "Leads."

Next, you will select the "Select File" button to browse your local computer or device for the cleaned Lead import list that you've prepared. The import supports the .csv file format, so be sure that your file has been saved in the appropriate format.

For a successful import, be sure that your Lead import file has a single row of column headers that denote what the column data contains, and the Lead data begins on the second row of the spreadsheet. If you have multiple header rows before your Lead list data begins, remove any unnecessary headers so that your list only has one row for the column headers. 

The next screen in the Lead import wizard displays your Lead list data and allows you to map the fields for the import. In the view, the top row includes the column headers from your spreadsheet, and there will be one or more samples of the data from your Lead import in the following rows.

At the bottom of this view, the final row includes mapping dropdown fields that represent Sonido Lead data fields to select from. If your column headers in your Lead import are an exact match with the names of the Sonido fields, the mapping selection will automatically be selected; otherwise, select the appropriate Sonido field that matches your data column. 

When you are ready, select the "Start Import" button to import your Lead records. You will see a confirmation message as soon as the import has completely successfully. 

MANAGING ERRORS

When importing your Lead list, you may see error messages if the import process cannot complete successfully. These error messages may be caused by incorrectly formatted data, empty required fields, etc. The error messages provide details as to any changes that need to be made within your Lead import sheet before attempting to import again. 

In this example, the error message indicates that there is an "Invalid Contact Type "Lead Band Tour Manager" in one or more rows" (this example is related to a Contact import, but the same applies to Lead records generally). What this means is that either you have options in your Contact import list under the "Contact Type" column that do not exist within the related Sonido picklist field (See PICKLIST MANAGEMENT guide to learn how to add the necessary Contact Type options within the Contact Type picklist field) or there is some other difference between these options (i.e. one or more fields in your Contact import sheet may have a space after the Contact Type name, or an additional character that would constitute a non-exact match). Once the correction(s) are made, you can then attempt the import again.

Other examples may indicate that certain required fields are missing from your Contact import list. In this case, one or more records are missing data in the "Email" field, which is required for import. You would need to go through your Contact import list and add any missing data, then attempt the import again. The same applies to any required fields on the Lead record.