Imports, Campaigns and existing contacts

[stevec]

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone has a solution for this?

We are using Campaigns to handle trade shows/events etc. to this end, we have attendees lists from a third party. We plan to import these either as target members of a target list - or lead members of a target list.

However, as this list is third party generated, we can't tell looking at the list in isolation whether any of those targets are existing contacts.

What we would like to do - as part of the campaign import process - is compare the attendee list against contacts using some predetermined criteria (last name and email address?) and if there is a matching contact, relate that contact to the campaign and remove the name from the targets.

Any thoughts on the best way to achieve this?

Thanks,
Steve

[jbh425]

+1

We have nearly the identical situation. Any help out there?

[galaticonsulting]

Leads and Contacts are the core of SugarCRM. Targets are "added on" without the same integration as Leads/Contacts. This is both good and bad. Targets are "throw-way"; Leads/Contacts are "keepers". The Global Search on the home page only looks through Leads/Contacts. You have to search through Targets separately.

One work-around (which may not be acceptable) is to pull all of your existing Leads and Contacts into Targets. Now every time you enter a Target, the email is immediately compared and duplicates show up to be handled. Import a few Targets at a time to get the feel of how the system handles the duplicates. Once you establish a workflow for entering Targets, it's not too bad. Don't use card scanners.

Targets are in their own "universe" and are handled separately of Leads and Contacts.