If you're drowning in bad leads or sick of chasing ghosts, this guide is for you. Integrating Salesforce with an email verification service can save you time and headaches. We'll walk through how to connect Verifybee with Salesforce, what actually works, and what to skip if you want clean, useful lead data without a bunch of headaches.
Why bother integrating Verifybee with Salesforce?
Salesforce is great—until your leads are full of fake emails, typos, or random junk. That's where Verifybee comes in: its job is to check if those email addresses are real before you waste time or money on them. Integrating the two means:
- Less manual cleanup
- Fewer bounced emails
- Your sales team spends more time on real prospects
You could keep exporting and importing spreadsheets, but that's tedious and error-prone. The integration automates the grunt work so you can focus on actual selling.
What you’ll need before you start
- A Salesforce account with admin access (so you can install apps and change settings)
- A Verifybee account with API access (not just a trial)
- A list of leads or contacts you want to clean up
If your company has strict IT policies, check with them before installing anything—sometimes there are hoops to jump through.
Step 1: Decide how you want the integration to work
There’s more than one way to connect Verifybee with Salesforce. The “best” way depends on your workflow and budget.
Your main options: - Direct integration via Zapier or similar tools: Easiest, but costs extra, and you’re at the mercy of third-party limits. - Custom integration using Verifybee’s API: More work upfront, but gives you more control and doesn’t rely on external services. - Manual CSV exports/imports: If you only need to clean up leads once in a while, this is fine. But it’s not seamless.
For most people, Zapier or a similar automation tool is the quickest way to get going. But if you have dev resources and want something rock-solid, go the API route.
Step 2: Set up your Verifybee account
- Log in to Verifybee.
- Find your API key. You’ll need this for Zapier or any custom integration. Usually, it’s under “Account” or “API.”
- Check your plan limits. If you’re verifying thousands of leads, make sure your plan covers it—otherwise, you’ll hit a wall mid-process.
Pro tip: Run a small batch first to make sure everything works before burning through your credits.
Step 3: Prepare Salesforce
- Back up your leads. It sounds paranoid, but weird stuff happens. Export your lead and contact lists before connecting anything.
- Clean up existing fields. Make sure you have a field in Salesforce for “email verification status” (you can call it whatever you want), so you don’t overwrite good data or lose track of what’s been checked.
- Decide on triggers. Do you want to verify every new lead automatically, or run checks in bulk? The answer will shape how you set up the automation.
Step 4: Set up the integration (Zapier route)
If you’re going with Zapier (or Make/Integromat, etc.), here’s your roadmap:
- Create a new Zap. Set Salesforce as the trigger app.
- Trigger: “New Lead” or “New Contact,” depending on your workflow.
- Add an action: Verifybee. Use the “Verify Email” action.
- You’ll need to connect your Verifybee account with your API key.
- Map the email field from Salesforce.
- Handle the result. Add another Salesforce action to update the lead with the verification status.
- Update a custom field like “Email Status” with the result from Verifybee (valid, invalid, risky, etc.).
- Test with a few records. Don’t blast your whole database on the first try.
- Turn it on and monitor. Watch for errors or weird edge cases (e.g., what happens if Verifybee can’t check an email?).
What works:
- It’s fast and doesn’t need a developer.
- You can set up filters to only check certain leads (e.g., only new ones, or only those missing a status).
What doesn’t:
- Zapier can get expensive if you’re processing a lot of leads.
- There’s a delay—it’s not always instant.
- If you have custom Salesforce setups, you might hit limits or need extra tweaking.
Step 5: (Optional) Custom API Integration
If you want more control or have a high volume of leads, you might want to integrate Verifybee directly using their API.
High-level steps:
- Read the Verifybee API docs. Get familiar with endpoints, authentication, rate limits, etc.
- Write a Salesforce Apex script or use middleware (like AWS Lambda) to call Verifybee’s API when a lead is created or updated.
- Parse the response and update your custom Salesforce field with the verification result.
- Monitor errors and rate limits. Set up alerts for failures.
Pros:
- Full control, no third-party fees.
- Can be fast and efficient for big databases.
Cons:
- You’ll need a developer.
- More moving parts means more can go wrong.
- Maintenance is on you—no handholding.
If you’re not comfortable with code, stick to Zapier or CSVs.
Step 6: Set up rules for what happens next
What happens when a lead comes back as “invalid” or “risky”? Decide now, or you’ll end up with a mess.
- Auto-delete or hide invalid leads? Dangerous—sometimes verification tools get it wrong. Better to tag them and review.
- Notify sales or marketing? Set up Salesforce workflows to alert the right people.
- Exclude bad emails from campaigns? Make sure your email tool filters out anything marked “invalid” or “catch-all.”
Pro tip: Don’t just delete leads. Mark them, review regularly, and only purge if you’re sure.
Step 7: Monitor and tweak
Integrations love to break quietly. Set reminders to check that things are working:
- Spot-check new leads weekly.
- Keep an eye on error logs (in Zapier or your custom scripts).
- Watch your Verifybee credit usage—if it spikes, find out why.
Don’t expect perfection. All email verification tools have false positives and negatives. Use the results as a guide, not gospel.
Things to ignore (mostly)
- Overcomplicating with too many fields or automations. Start simple.
- Trying to verify every single email, all the time. Prioritize new leads or high-value segments.
- Paying for fancy dashboards. You can see most of what you need with a few fields and smart filters.
Summary: Keep it simple, iterate as you go
Connecting Verifybee with Salesforce shouldn’t be a months-long project. Start with the basics: automate email checks on new leads, flag the bad ones, and review regularly. If you hit snags or outgrow your setup, adjust. Don’t get hung up on perfection—cleaner leads mean less wasted effort, and that’s the real win.