Duplicate Leads and Contacts

Duplicate records happen when the same person is entered in Salesforce more than once - and these can be a big problem.

Merge Duplicate Leads

If the duplicate records are leads, you can merge them together into a single lead.

1. Open one of the duplicate leads.
   
2. Click Find Duplicates.
   
3. Select the duplicate leads you want to merge.
4. Click Merge Leads.
   
5. Select a Master Record.

   Salesforce will pick the record that contains the most information as the "master record" to keep. You can select any record to be the master record.

6. Select the fields you want to keep for each record.
7. Click Merge to complete the merge.
   
8. Click OK to confirm.
   

The leads are merged into a single record.

The activities from all the previous leads will appear in the merged record.

Merge Leads and Contacts

Sometimes you will find that you have a duplicate contact - a lead that has been converted.

1. Open the duplicate lead.
   

   You can only merge leads with other leads, and contacts with other contacts, so you’ll need to convert this lead to contact before you can merge it.

   You can click the Merge Contact button to merge any existing duplicate contacts.

2. Click Convert.
   
3. Click the Account Name list.
4. Select the existing account that contains the duplicate contact.
5. (Optional) Click View to confirm you’re adding the lead to the right account.

   A new window appears with information about the account.

6. Click Convert.
   
7. Select the duplicate contact.

   You can also view the existing contact here.

8. Click Convert.
   

The lead is converted and merged with the existing contact.