The Pre-Import Teardown: Catching Dirty Data Before It Hits the CRM
Objective: Given a 12-row CSV export about to be imported into a new CRM, find every defect the lesson's Common Beginner Mistakes callout warns about before an automated welcome sequence goes out.
You're reviewing a CSV export of 12 contact records a Blue Bottle Coffee wholesale-side intern is about to import into a brand-new HubSpot CRM.
Find every defect before this import goes live and auto-enrolls into a welcome-email sequence.
Before you start
What you'll need
Free path (everything below is enough to finish)
Free forever plan, built-in duplicate detection
Free, easy to dedupe and flag blank fields
The process
Specimens to review
You have 15 minutes before this list gets imported and auto-enrolled into a welcome-email sequence. Which rows do you fix or pull before import, and why?
CSV export, 12 rows (synthetic) Name | Email | Company | Stage | Notes J. Rivera | jrivera@gmail | Roast&Co | (blank) | called 3x Maria Chen | maria.chen@wholesalecafe.com | Wholesale Cafe | New Lead | Maria Chen | m.chen@wholesalecafe.com | Wholesale Cafe | Proposal Sent | duplicate of above, diff email format Tom O | (blank) | | New Lead | met at trade show Sarah K. | sarah@brewhub.com | BrewHub | Won | first order placed 3/2026, date only in Notes Dave Nguyen | dave@urbanroast.com | Urban Roast | New Lead | asked NOT to be contacted again ... 6 more rows, unremarkable
Specimen: synthetic, realistic
Final deliverable
A cleaned import list with every critical defect fixed or the row pulled, plus a one-line note on why each fix mattered.
See a reference example
DRUNK ELEPHANT, wholesale contact cleanup (excerpt) PULLED: 2 rows with no email (auto-enrollment can't reach them) MERGED: 1 duplicate contact (two email formats for the same buyer) FLAGGED: 1 contact marked do-not-contact in free text -- moved to a structured opt-out field before import 9 of 12 rows imported clean; 3 required a fix first.
Success criteria
You're done when you can:
- Identifies both duplicate Maria Chen rows as one issue, not two separate defects
- Catches the missing-stage and missing-email rows
- Correctly does not flag the two distractor items as critical defects