Step by step guide to importing and managing contacts in Overloop for sales teams

If you’re part of a sales team drowning in messy spreadsheets, scattered contacts, and endless manual updates, this one’s for you. Getting your contacts into a proper CRM is the first step to sanity, but most guides either gloss over the details or act like the process is foolproof. Let’s be real: importing and actually managing contacts in Overloop takes a little planning, some trial and error, and a few honest tips from someone who’s done it the hard way. Here’s how to do it right, without getting lost in the weeds.

1. Prep Your Contacts Before You Touch Overloop

Let’s start with some unglamorous truth: most import headaches come from the state of your data before you ever touch Overloop.

Why bother?
Because garbage in, garbage out. If you import dirty, inconsistent, or duplicated data, you’ll just spend more time cleaning up later.

What to do: - Consolidate your lists. Gather all your contacts—Excel files, Google Sheets, exports from email, LinkedIn, whatever. - Standardize columns. Make sure every file uses the same headers. At a minimum: First Name, Last Name, Email, Company. If you have more, great, but don’t get too granular unless you really need it. - Clean up duplicates. If you’re handy with Excel/Sheets, use the “Remove Duplicates” tool. If not, sort by email and scan for repeats. Overloop has deduping features, but don’t rely on them to fix everything. - Fix weird formatting. Watch out for trailing spaces, weird capitalization, or columns jammed together. Anything you miss here gets way harder to fix post-import.

Pro tip:
If you’re pulling data from LinkedIn or tools like Lusha or Apollo, expect lots of half-complete info. Decide what’s essential before you import—don’t fill your CRM with junk.

2. Map Out Your Fields and Tags

Overloop is flexible with custom fields and tagging, but it’s easy to overcomplicate things.

What actually matters: - Stick to the basics at first:
- Name - Email - Company - Phone (if you have it) - Job Title - Tags (for quick grouping, e.g., “Prospect,” “Customer,” “Trade Show 2024”)

  • Custom fields:
    If you have data you really need (say, “Lead Source” or “Contract Renewal Date”), set these up in Overloop before importing. Saves you headaches later.

What to ignore:
Don’t try to track every possible detail. If you’re not going to use a field in your day-to-day, leave it out. You can always add more later.

3. Importing Contacts Into Overloop

Alright, time to get those contacts in.

Step 1: Log In and Find the Import Tool

  • Go to your Overloop dashboard.
  • Navigate to the “Contacts” tab.
  • Look for the “Import” or “Add Contacts” button—it’s usually top right.
  • Select “Import from file” (usually accepts CSV or Excel).

Step 2: Upload Your File

  • Click to upload your cleaned CSV/XLS file.
  • Overloop will try to auto-detect columns. It’s not perfect—double-check every mapping.
  • Manually map any fields Overloop doesn’t recognize. If you forgot to set up a custom field, you can usually create it on the fly, but it’s easier to do this first.

Pro tip:
If you have tags or lists in your spreadsheet, make sure they’re in a single column, separated by commas. Overloop can split these into individual tags.

Step 3: Set Up De-Duplication

  • Overloop gives you options to skip, merge, or update duplicates.
  • Best bet: Use email as the unique identifier, unless your data is missing lots of emails (in which case, be very careful).
  • Choose whether new data should overwrite existing fields, or only fill in blanks.

Step 4: Start the Import

  • Hit “Import.”
  • If you’ve got a big file, it may take several minutes.
  • Overloop will usually email you when it’s done, or flag any rows it couldn’t import.

Step 5: Review and Fix Errors

  • Check the import summary for failed rows—usually missing required fields or weird formatting.
  • Download the error report, fix the issues, and re-import just those rows.

4. Organizing Contacts: Lists, Tags, and Filters

Once your contacts are in, organization is what saves you from chaos.

Lists

  • Static lists: Good for one-off segments (e.g., everyone from a specific campaign).
  • Dynamic lists: Update automatically based on filters (e.g., all contacts tagged “Prospect”).

Tags

  • Tag liberally. It’s fast and makes searching easier.
  • Use tags for source, status, product interests, or anything that helps you group contacts quickly.
  • Don’t obsess over a perfect tagging system—just be consistent.

Filters

  • Overloop’s filters are powerful for finding exactly who you need.
  • Filter by tag, company, status, last activity, etc.
  • Save filters you use often as views for your whole team.

What to ignore:
Don’t try to keep lists and tags “perfect” from day one. Let real-world use shape how you organize—just avoid letting things get totally random.

5. Keeping Contacts Updated (Without Losing Your Mind)

CRMs fall apart when nobody keeps them up to date. Here’s how to make it less painful:

  • Bulk edits: Overloop lets you select groups of contacts and update fields or tags at once. Use this for status changes or campaign tagging.
  • Import updates: You can re-import updated files to overwrite or fill in missing info. Just match on email to avoid duplicates.
  • Automations: If you’re using Overloop’s automations, set up rules to add tags or update fields when you send campaigns or get replies.
  • Assign ownership: Make sure each contact has an “owner” field so nothing falls through the cracks.

Pro tip:
Schedule a quick team review every month. Clean out stale contacts, fix obvious errors, and kill off zombie records.

6. Common Pitfalls (and How to Dodge Them)

What trips up most teams:

  • Overcomplicating everything. The more fields you add, the harder it is to keep data clean. Start simple.
  • Skipping the prep. Importing messy data is the #1 cause of CRM regret.
  • Assuming deduping is magic. No CRM solves bad data by itself—manual review is often needed.
  • Not training the team. If people don’t know how (or why) to update contacts, your CRM becomes a graveyard.
  • Ignoring ongoing cleanup. CRMs aren’t “set and forget.” Block out time to maintain things.

7. Advanced Moves (If You Need Them)

If you’re comfortable, Overloop can do more:

  • Integrations: Connect with tools like Gmail, LinkedIn, or Zapier to auto-sync contacts or trigger workflows.
  • Bulk email sequences: Use lists/tags to start campaigns right from your contact views.
  • Custom activity tracking: Log calls, meetings, or notes for each contact.

Just remember: don’t automate chaos. If your data isn’t solid, automation just spreads the mess faster.

Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often

Getting your contacts into Overloop isn’t rocket science, but it does reward a bit of upfront planning. Don’t try to design the “perfect” CRM setup on day one—just get your core data in, organize it simply, and adjust as you go. The fancier stuff can wait. If you keep things clean and easy to manage, you’ll spend less time fighting your CRM and more time actually selling.