So you’ve got a pile of leads sitting in Voilanorbert, and now you want to get them into your sales outreach tool—without wasting an afternoon fighting with spreadsheets or wrestling with weird file formats. This guide is for you if you’re tired of vague instructions, want things to “just work,” and don’t want to screw up your CRM with messy data.
Let’s keep it simple: I’ll walk you through each step, call out what actually matters, and flag the stuff you can skip.
Step 1: Get Your Leads Organized in Voilanorbert
Before you hit “export,” make your life easier by getting your leads sorted out.
- Check your lists: In Voilanorbert, leads are organized into lists. Find the list you want to export.
- Clean up first: Remove junk entries. Duplicates, typos, and half-completed rows will just haunt you later.
- Tagging? Optional: If you’re thinking of using tags or custom fields, only bother if your outreach tool can import them. Otherwise, you’re adding busywork.
Pro tip: Don’t export everything “just in case.” Export what you actually plan to use. The rest just clogs up your workflow.
Step 2: Export Your Leads from Voilanorbert
Exporting from Voilanorbert is straightforward, but there are a few gotchas.
- Log in to your Voilanorbert account.
- Go to the Lists page.
- Select the list you want to export.
- Look for the Download/Export option. Usually there’s a button labeled “Export” or a download icon.
- Choose CSV format. Pretty much every outreach tool will accept a CSV file. Avoid Excel/XLSX unless you have a specific reason (and even then, I wouldn’t recommend it).
Watch out for: - Weird characters: Sometimes exported files have funky formatting, especially if names have accents or odd symbols. - Column names: The exported file might use labels that don’t match your outreach tool (e.g., “First Name” vs. “Given Name”). We’ll fix this later.
Short version: Export as CSV, save it somewhere easy to find.
Step 3: Clean and Prepare Your CSV
Here’s where most people get tripped up. Outreach tools are picky about how leads are formatted. Garbage in, garbage out.
What to check:
- Open the CSV in Google Sheets or Excel. Don’t trust what’s in the file—actually look at it.
- Column headers: Make sure columns like “First Name,” “Last Name,” “Email,” and “Company” are labeled clearly.
- Remove empty rows and columns.
- Fix weird characters or encoding issues. If you see “???”, that’s a sign you need to re-export or fix the file’s encoding (CSV UTF-8 is safest).
- Duplicates: Use the “Remove duplicates” feature (in Sheets or Excel) to clean things up.
- Consistent formatting: Make sure names and companies are capitalized properly. It’s a small thing, but it looks sloppy otherwise.
Ignore:
- Any extra metadata Voilanorbert adds (like “Confidence Score” or “Source”) unless you plan to use it in your outreach. Most tools won’t import these fields by default.
Pro tip: If your outreach tool supports custom fields and you want to use them, make sure your CSV columns match what the tool expects—otherwise, they’ll get ignored.
Step 4: Import Leads Into Your Outreach Tool
This step depends on which tool you’re using, but the basics are the same whether it’s Outreach, Lemlist, Mailshake, Woodpecker, or something else.
1. Log in and find the import option
- Look for “Import,” “Add Contacts,” or “Upload CSV.” It’s usually in the Contacts or Leads section.
- Some tools hide import under “Settings” or a tiny dropdown. If you’re stuck, search their help docs for “CSV import.”
2. Upload your CSV
- Choose the file you cleaned up in Step 3.
- The tool will usually show you a preview.
3. Map your fields
- This is where you tell the tool which CSV column matches which field (e.g., “First Name” → “First Name”).
- Don’t skip: Double-check this mapping. If you mess it up, you’ll have emails in the wrong place, or worse, overwrite existing data.
4. Review and confirm
- Most tools will do a quick “validation” step. If something’s wrong (like missing emails), fix it here—not after import.
- Some tools let you tag or assign imported leads to a campaign. If that’s useful, go for it.
What to ignore: - Any “advanced” import settings unless you know exactly what you’re doing. Don’t overcomplicate things.
Pro tip: Import a small batch first (like 5 leads), check everything, then do the rest. Saves you from mass chaos if something’s off.
Step 5: Sanity Check—Did It Work?
Don’t assume your import went perfectly. Actually check.
- Look up a few leads. Are names, emails, and companies where they should be?
- Try sending a test email. Make sure merge tags (like {{First Name}}) populate correctly.
- Spot-check for duplicates. Some tools aren’t great at blocking them.
If you find issues, fix your CSV and re-import. It’s worth getting right now, so you’re not apologizing to leads later.
What to Skip, What to Sweat
- Skip: Obsessing over every single field. You don’t need “LinkedIn URL” or “Notes” unless you’ll actually use them.
- Sweat: Email addresses. One typo and your deliverability tanks.
- Skip: Fancy formatting. Outreach tools care about structure, not style.
- Sweat: Duplicates and missing info. These cause more headaches than anything else.
Troubleshooting: Common Headaches
Problem: My outreach tool says “invalid file format.”
Fix: Re-save your CSV as UTF-8. Google Sheets does this by default; Excel sometimes doesn’t.
Problem: Fields are mismatched after import.
Fix: Go back to the mapping step. Make column names in your CSV match what the tool expects exactly.
Problem: Import is painfully slow or times out.
Fix: Your CSV is probably too big. Try splitting it into smaller files.
Problem: Special characters aren’t displaying right.
Fix: Again, it’s usually an encoding problem. Re-export your CSV and pick UTF-8.
Problem: Accidentally imported the wrong list.
Fix: Most tools let you bulk delete contacts. Clean up and try again.
Wrap-Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Exporting leads from Voilanorbert and importing them into your outreach tool isn’t rocket science, but it’s easy to overthink. Just stick to the basics: clean list, tidy CSV, careful mapping, and double-check your work. Don’t try to be clever—just get your leads loaded and start reaching out. If you hit a snag, fix it and try again. It’ll get easier every time.