If you’re drowning in duplicate leads and accounts in Salesforce, or tired of “close enough” matches that leave your reps guessing, this guide is for you. Setting up advanced matching rules in Leandata isn’t rocket science, but it’s also easy to screw up if you just copy what everyone else does. I’ll walk you through the nuts and bolts — no fluff, no hype. Just the stuff that actually works.
Why Bother With Advanced Matching?
Basic lead-to-account mapping is fine for tiny teams or super-clean data. In the real world, you’ve got:
- Leads with typos or “creative” spellings
- Multiple brands under one parent company
- Sales reps who want to see all the context, not just a name match
Advanced matching rules let you control how Leandata links leads to accounts, so you avoid embarrassing mistakes and actually help your team. If you’re here, you probably already know the pain.
Before You Start: What You Need
Don’t waste time until you’ve got:
- Admin access to Salesforce and Leandata
- A good sense of your real-world data messiness (run a few reports, don’t just trust your gut)
- Buy-in from whoever owns your lead and account management. If you’re not the admin, get them involved early.
Step 1: Get Clear on Your Matching Goals
Before you dive into configs, get painfully specific about what you want to match and why. Ask:
- Do you want to link leads to all possible accounts, or just the best fit?
- Is it more important to avoid false positives (bad matches) or false negatives (missed matches)?
- Are there fields (like website, domain, D-U-N-S number) that are more reliable in your data than company name?
Pro tip: If your sales team cares most about territory or routing, factor that in now. It’s way easier to build your rules around the real sales process than to fix it later.
Step 2: Audit Your Data (Seriously, Don’t Skip This)
You can’t build good rules on bad data. In Salesforce, pull exports of:
- Lead and Account
Company Name - Website/domain fields
- Email addresses
- Any unique identifiers (D-U-N-S, custom IDs)
Look for:
- Common misspellings, weird punctuation, “Inc.” vs “Incorporated”
- Domains that don’t match company names
- Gaps or blanks in supposedly “required” fields
What to ignore: Don’t get hung up on every single outlier. Focus on the 80% of cases that cause 95% of the headaches.
Step 3: Review Leandata’s Out-of-the-Box Matching
Leandata comes with default matching logic — typically “fuzzy match” on company name plus domain. Run a test batch through and see what happens. Take notes:
- Where does it work?
- Where does it fail miserably (e.g., “ABC Corp” matches every “ABC” in your system)?
- Are there false positives you’d be embarrassed to show a sales manager?
Pro tip: Keep a spreadsheet of these cases. It’ll save you hours when you start tweaking rules.
Step 4: Build Your First Custom Rule
Now for the hands-on part. In Leandata:
- Go to Admin > Matching > Lead to Account Rules.
- Click “New Rule” (don’t be afraid — you can always deactivate it).
- Pick your main matching criteria. Most folks start with:
- Domain match (lead email vs. account website or domain)
- Exact company name match
- Fuzzy company name match (Looseness level matters. Too loose = mess.)
- Set the “priority order” — decide which logic runs first.
What actually works:
- Domain matches are way more reliable than company names (if you have the data).
- Adding a “starts with” or “contains” filter for company names can catch those “ABC Corporation vs ABC Corp” mismatches.
- Avoid stacking too many fuzzy rules — it’ll just slow things down and cause weird matches.
Step 5: Layer on Advanced Logic
This is where you handle your edge cases, like:
- Subsidiaries and parent accounts (should “Google Fiber” and “Google LLC” be mapped together?)
- Alternate spellings, localizations (“The Coca-Cola Company” vs “Coca Cola Co.”)
- Exclusions (like ignoring leads with free email domains: gmail, yahoo, etc.)
In Leandata:
- Use Custom Fields: Reference fields like D-U-N-S number or custom account IDs if you have them.
- Use Rule Groups: Create “if/then” logic (e.g., IF domain matches AND company name is close, THEN match; ELSE try a fuzzy name match).
- Use Exclusion Lists: Add logic to skip leads/accounts that always cause trouble (like known spam domains).
Pro tip: Overcomplicating leads to trouble. Start simple, test, and only add complexity when you see a real need.
Step 6: Test, Test, and Test Again
Don’t trust the “Preview” button alone. Create a test batch of leads and see:
- Which accounts they actually match to
- Any that fall through the cracks
- Any that map to the wrong account
Loop in a couple of sales reps for a sanity check. They’ll spot weird matches faster than you will.
What to watch out for: - Rules that match too broadly (“Acme” matches “Acme Widgets” and “Acme, Inc.” and “Acme Solutions”) - Rules that miss obvious matches due to small typos or punctuation
Step 7: Roll Out Gradually (and Monitor)
Don’t flip the switch for every lead in your CRM on day one. Instead:
- Start with “alert only” mode or run on a small segment
- Monitor match rates, false positives, and rep feedback
- Make tweaks weekly, not yearly
Ignore: The urge to automate everything right away. Manual checks now save hours of cleanup later.
Step 8: Maintain and Improve Over Time
Matching rules aren’t “set and forget.” Revisit every quarter:
- New subsidiaries or merged accounts? Update your logic.
- Reps complaining about missed matches? Dig into real cases.
- Salesforce data changes? Make sure your rules still make sense.
A little ongoing care is better than a giant annual overhaul.
Real Talk: What Works, What Doesn’t
- Works: Domain-based matching, tight fuzzy logic, regular reviews.
- Doesn’t work: Hoping fuzzy name matching will catch everything. It won’t.
- To ignore: Overbuilt, 20-step rules that only make sense on a whiteboard.
Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Don’t stress about getting every rule perfect the first time. Start with the basics, test with real data, and tweak as you go. Most teams overcomplicate matching rules and end up with more confusion than clarity. Stay practical, ask your reps for feedback, and remember — simple rules, reviewed often, beat “advanced” rules nobody understands.
If you hit a wall, strip it back and rebuild. Your future self (and your sales team) will thank you.