If you’re in sales or marketing, you know the drill: finding leads is hard, and getting them into your CRM can be even harder. If you use Zoominfo to find prospects but dread the mess of exporting and importing them into your CRM, you’re not alone. Most guides gloss over the headaches—misaligned fields, weird formatting, data limits. This is for anyone who wants the no-nonsense steps for getting leads out of Zoominfo and into your CRM, minus the pain.
I’ll walk you through the actual process, flag the spots where things get weird, and show what to do (and what to skip). No hype, no magical thinking—just what works.
Step 1: Figure Out What You Actually Need from Zoominfo
Before you start clicking around, get clear on what you want to export. Zoominfo has a ton of fields—most of which you don’t need, and many that don’t map to your CRM anyway.
Ask yourself: - Do you need full contact details, or just names and emails? - Are you looking for company-level data, or individual leads? - Which fields match up with your CRM (e.g., "Company Name" vs "Account Name")?
Why this matters:
Pulling every field means a messier export and a pain when you try to import. Decide now, and you’ll save yourself an hour of manual column matching later.
Pro tip:
Make a quick list or spreadsheet of the fields you actually want—think of this as your “minimum viable data.” It’ll make the next steps a breeze.
Step 2: Build Your Lead List in Zoominfo
Now, let’s get your list together inside Zoominfo.
- Log in to Zoominfo.
- Use Advanced Search.
Filter by job title, location, company size—whatever makes sense for your campaign. - Add filters carefully.
Don’t go too broad; the more targeted your list, the less junk you’ll have to clean out later. - Review your list.
Zoominfo sometimes pulls in outdated or weird contacts. Spot check a few entries. If you see a lot of bad data, tweak your filters. - Select contacts.
Use checkboxes to pick your leads. You can “Select All” on a page, but if you have a huge list, you’ll need to do this across multiple pages (Zoominfo has export limits—more on that in a second).
What to skip:
Ignore “Enrich” or “Intent” features unless you know exactly why you want them. They’re nice, but they add clutter if you just want a clean lead list.
Step 3: Export Your Leads from Zoominfo
Here’s where most people hit snags. Zoominfo has restrictions depending on your subscription—most users can’t just export unlimited leads in one go.
The basic export process:
- Click “Export.”
- You’ll find this at the top or bottom of your list view.
- Choose export type.
- Typically, you’ll export as a CSV file. Some plans may offer direct CRM exports (more on that below).
- Pick your fields.
- Use your “minimum viable data” list from Step 1. Deselect anything you don’t need.
- Confirm and export.
- Zoominfo may prompt you about export credits or limits. If you’re over your quota, you’ll have to export in smaller batches or wait until your credits reset.
Heads up:
- Export limits are real. Most users have a monthly or daily cap. If you hit a limit, you’ll get an error or warning. Nothing you can do except wait or ask your admin for more credits.
- Data quality varies. Zoominfo’s data is good, but not perfect. Double-check a few rows in your CSV before you get too far.
Direct CRM exports:
Some Zoominfo plans let you push leads straight into your CRM (like Salesforce or HubSpot). In theory, this sounds great. In practice, it often creates duplicates or mismatches fields unless you have the integration set up just right. If you haven’t already configured this (and tested it on a small batch), stick to CSV export for now.
Step 4: Clean Up Your CSV File
Don’t just upload the CSV straight into your CRM. Trust me.
Here’s why:
- Field names probably won’t match your CRM exactly.
- There may be weird extra columns (“Industry Code,” “Zoominfo ID,” etc.).
- You’ll get blank or duplicate rows.
What to do:
- Open the CSV in Excel or Google Sheets.
- Delete columns you don’t need.
- Refer to your CRM’s import template if you have one.
- Rename columns to match your CRM fields.
- For example, “Company Name” might need to be “Account Name.”
- Check for duplicates.
- Use a “Remove Duplicates” tool, usually based on email addresses.
- Sanity check your data.
- Scan for weird formatting (extra spaces, broken emails, phone numbers in odd formats).
- Save a backup copy.
- Always keep the original in case you need to start over.
Honest take:
This is the tedious part, but it’s where most import issues happen. If you skip this, you’ll end up with junk in your CRM, which is way harder to fix later.
Step 5: Import Leads into Your CRM
Every CRM is a little different, but the basic process is the same whether you’re using Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, or something else.
General steps:
- Find the import tool.
- Usually under “Leads,” “Contacts,” or “Data Management.”
- Upload your CSV.
- Map fields.
- The CRM will try to guess which column goes where. Double-check every field.
- If a field doesn’t match, you’ll need to map it manually or skip it.
- Set deduplication rules.
- Most CRMs let you avoid creating duplicates by matching on email or name.
- Test with a small batch.
- Import 10–20 leads first. See how they look in your CRM before doing the full list.
- Import the rest.
- If the test batch worked, go ahead and import the rest.
What can go wrong: - Field mismatches: You get weird errors or missing data if fields don’t line up. - Duplicates: If you don’t set deduplication rules, you’ll create messy records. - Bad formatting: Broken emails or phone numbers don’t import cleanly.
Pro tip:
If your CRM supports it, use their import template. Copy your cleaned data into that, and you’ll sidestep a lot of issues.
Step 6: Double-Check and Tidy Up
Don’t assume everything worked. Check your CRM to make sure leads imported correctly.
Checklist: - Spot-check a few records for missing or garbled data. - Search for duplicates—merge or delete as needed. - Tag or assign your new leads so you can find them easily.
Why bother?
It’s way easier to fix small problems now than to clean up a mess later.
Step 7: Automate (If—and Only If—It Makes Sense)
Once you’ve done a few manual imports and everything looks good, you might want to automate the process.
A few ways to do this:
- Native Zoominfo-to-CRM integrations:
These work, but only if you have admin access and are willing to spend time mapping fields and testing.
- Third-party tools (e.g., Zapier, Tray.io):
These can automate exports and imports, but setup can get complicated. Not worth it unless you’re moving a lot of leads every week.
- CRM import APIs:
If you have dev resources, you can build a custom workflow. For most teams, this is overkill.
What not to do:
Don’t automate until you’ve nailed the manual process. Automation just multiplies mistakes if something’s off.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Ignore
What works: - Exporting only the fields you actually need. - Cleaning your data before importing. - Testing with a small batch before going big. - Keeping a backup of your original export.
What doesn’t: - Relying on “one-click” direct imports unless you’ve tested them. - Skipping the cleanup step (you’ll regret it). - Assuming Zoominfo’s data is always up-to-date.
What to ignore: - Fancy enrichment features unless you truly need them. - Importing every possible field “just in case.” - Over-engineering the process with automations before you’re ready.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate as Needed
Exporting leads from Zoominfo to your CRM isn’t rocket science, but the devil’s in the details. Don’t overthink it: start with a clean, simple process, test it with a small batch, and fix what doesn’t work. Once you’ve got it down, you can always automate or scale up. Your future self (and your CRM) will thank you.